First – do no harm: Students of medicine are often instilled with modern versions of the Hippocratic oath, which state that the basis of medical treatment is to first, do no (additional) harm to the patient on top of what he or she is initially suffering from. The same idea, with a little modification, is critical to success in fighting and jiu jitsu. In all combat sports – first – DO NO HARM TO YOURSELF FROM WHICH YOU CANNOT RECOVER AND GO ON FIGHTING. Fatigue and injuries are all part of competition, but CATASTROPHIC injury is a whole different thing. In this case the fight is over and no recovery is possible. Most accidental catastrophic injuries are the result of an athlete trying to avoid an undesirable outcome to a scramble/takedown/throw where uncontrolled moving body weight is involved. I always urge students to take the safe route of falling to their backs in a safe fashion in these cases – even if it means taking a position of disadvantage for a time or conceding points (or in judo and some forms of wrestling – the match). The risks are tough for athletes to weigh – they want to maximize their chance of victory and are natural risk takers and they know that most of the time, injury will not be the result. The problem is that when injuries DO occur under these circumstances, they are horrific and fight ending. I prefer a safety first approach where athletes always defer to safe falling and then working out of whatever position they find themselves on the ground rather than subject themselves to massive physical forces to avoid a fall. Here a famous clash between Shogun Rua and Mark Coleman shows what happens when immensely powerful athletes crash to the floor in extended positions. Mr Rua knew that falling underneath Mr Coleman was undesirable and took the (understandable) risk of posting out an arm to prevent the takedown. However, the power of Mr Coleman's takedown completely broke the extended arm and the fight was immediately over. Pandemonium broke out in the ensuing confusion, but the result was clear. The original philosophy of the fathers of Brazilian jiu jitsu was survival first – victory second. In cases like this, their wisdom is apparent.
