Health & performance
Health
Strength, conditioning, injury prevention, rehabilitation, and longevity. Grounded in evidence, with appropriate medical caveats.
Injury prevention & prehab
Protecting joints, managing load, and building resilience over a training career.
Strength & conditioning
How grapplers train for strength, explosiveness, and endurance.
Mobility & flexibility
Movement quality as both injury prevention and performance.
Injury rehabilitation
Returning from common grappling injuries — evidence-based, with medical caveats.
Weight management
Responsible guidance. No dangerous cutting content.
Mental health
Competition anxiety, training stress, and the psychological side of grappling.
Longevity
Training sustainably for decades, not just years.
Recovery & sleep
Sleep, nutrition timing, and recovery between hard sessions.
Injury guides
AC Joint Injuries in Grappling
AC joint sprain and separation from americana and shoulder pressure — distinguishing from labrum injuries, recognising the mechanism, and returning to training.
Shoulder Labrum and Rotator Cuff Injuries
Labrum tears and rotator cuff damage from kimura, americana, and omoplata — distinguishing the mechanisms, recognising the injury, and returning to training safely.
Elbow Hyperextension in Grappling
Elbow hyperextension from armbar — understanding the mechanism, the injury timeline, and the tapping culture that prevents it.
Hand and Wrist Injuries in Grappling
Jammed fingers, pulley injuries, skier's thumb, scaphoid fracture, TFCC, and the finger injuries that accumulate over a training career — with taping and return-to-training.
Rib Injuries in Grappling
Rib bruising, cartilage damage, and fracture from side control pressure, body triangle, and knee on belly — frequently undertreated, with breathing implications for training.
Neck Injuries in Grappling
Neck strain and cervical spine loading from guillotine, can opener, and throwing — recognising serious symptoms.
Lower Back Injuries in Grappling
Lumbar strain, disc injury, SI joint dysfunction, and the red flags that require emergency care — mechanisms, return-to-training, and prevention.
Hip Injuries in Grappling
Hip flexor strain, labrum tears, femoroacetabular impingement, groin strain — the hip injuries that guard-heavy grapplers are particularly exposed to.
Knee Ligament Injuries in Grappling
ACL and PCL injuries from heel hooks, kneebars, and reaping — mechanism, severity, prevention, and the honest rehabilitation timeline.
Knee MCL Injuries in Grappling
MCL sprains from inside heel hook and guard passing — mechanism, grading, and return-to-training guidance.
Ankle Injuries in Grappling
Ankle sprains and joint injuries from leg entanglements and takedowns.
Concussion and Head Injury
Concussion mechanisms in grappling, red flags requiring emergency care, and the graded return-to-training protocol.
Eye Injuries in Grappling
Corneal abrasions, subconjunctival haemorrhage, orbital fracture, retinal detachment, and hyphaema — red flags, emergency thresholds, and prevention.
Cauliflower Ear
How auricular haematoma develops, how to drain it, and how to prevent it.
Skin Infections in Grappling
Ringworm, staph, impetigo, and mat herpes — what each is, how transmission works, and the school's duty of care.
Tapping Culture and Safety
Why tapping fast is a training discipline, not a concession — and how tap culture determines injury rates in a gym.
Clinical & lifestyle guides
Female Athlete Health in Grappling
RED-S, menstrual cycle and training, iron and bone health, and the health considerations for female practitioners that most grappling resources ignore.
Eating Disorders in Weight-Class Sport
Anorexia, bulimia, BED, OSFED, ARFID, and orthorexia in the context of weight-class grappling — recognition, clinical urgency, and coach responsibilities.
Supplements and Anti-Doping for Grapplers
Which supplements have evidence, which are a waste of money, and which carry contamination or anti-doping risk — plus how strict liability works in tested grappling.
Pregnancy and Grappling
Evidence on exercise during pregnancy, trimester-by-trimester framework, when to stop, the postpartum return, and pelvic floor and diastasis considerations.
Youth Athletes in Grappling
Growth plates, apophyseal injuries, weight cutting in minors, concussion in developing brains, and what responsible youth coaching looks like.