Fighter — top_cat

What's better than finding a new gi model that you really like? When a gi model that you've already loved launches their new and improved version! That's why we're super excited to announce that the long-awaited update of the Fuji Sekai is here.

Founded in 1969, Fuji Brand has been in the martial arts kimono business for a long time... so it's safe to say that they know their stuff. And while they are principally known as a judo brand - because that's how they started - they have also been producing durable, extremely reasonably priced, and high-quality jiu jitsu gis for a good while. Their standard Fuji Victory Single Weave is still a best seller, and you'd be hard pressed to walk into any jiu jitsu academy and not see at least a few of these puppies. 

However, the Fuji Sekai was Fuji Brand's first foray into producing a high-end gi, specially designed for the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu market. It was an instant hit, particularly in the competition scene. 

Now, Fuji has gone and made it even better. The Fuji Sekai 2.0 features the same quality construction and unbeatable durability as the previous model, including: a lightweight 450 GSM Pearl Weave cotton jacket, and triple-reinforced rip-stop pants made from 50% cotton and 50% polyester. The first version featured a huge rubberized world map in the interior of the jacket, paying tribute to the "Sekai" - meaning "world" in Japanese - of jiu jitsu. They got rid of that, responding to some reviews noting that the texture could irritate the skin sometimes. Instead, with the Sekai 2.0, they limited the iconic world map to the soft shoulder lining. Fuji also gave the Sekai a fresh updated look, without straying too far from their commitment to a classic, understated aesthetic. Removing the clunky embroidered "Sekai" across both shoulders, they added a very attractive vertical Sekai patch down the collarbone (with a matching patch down the left pant leg), the iconic Fuji Kilimanjaro logo embroidered on the opposite sleeve, the traditional Fuji logo across the left pocket area, and a cool block logo embroidered on the upper right hip area and back skirt of the jacket. 

All-in-all, we give this update two hooks up. Check it out for yourself! 



In jiu jitsu, we use our heads a lot. And I don't just mean figuratively, but also literally. We use our heads to base, to help pin, to drive into our opponent's chin in a gentle encouragement to let us pass, etc. And sometimes it just simply gets in the way... of a knee or elbow or even another noggin.

So, needless to say, we put our heads and necks at risk when we practice jiu jitsu. Here's what to expect - and hopefully avoid - in regard to those kinds of injuries: 

Cauliflower Ear

Let's start with hands down the most common affliction: cauliflower ear. If you haven't noticed the gnarled, chewed-up ears on some of the guys - and gals - then you obviously have never stepped on the mat before. Also called "wrestler's ear", cauliflower ear happens when the perichondrium (the layer of connective tissue between your skin and cartilage) separates from the cartilage of your ear, creating a pocket that quickly fills with blood and other bodily fluid. Untreated, abnormal cartilage forms on top of the normal cartilage, and the cartilage may even contract into itself, resulting in a lumpy, misshapen appearance. Cauliflower ear is typically treated by draining the fluid - often repeatedly - and applying pressure in an attempt to re-adhere the perichondrium to the cartilage. I say "attempt" because it's not a guarantee... I speak from personal experience. If you're really concerned about having pretty ears, you can always seek medical assistance to have your ear professionally drained and compressed. In either case, plan to take at least a week or two off training, as fresh cauliflower is incredibly tender to the touch. Of course, you can always try training through it by wearing wrestling headgear, but prepare to live in Guillotine City while you do.  

Lacerations

Jiu jitsu is not a striking sport... but, well, shit happens. At least once - and maybe more than once - in your career, you will get an inadvertent elbow or knee to the head, resulting in a laceration (a cut, in layman's terms). The most common places for these are: around the eyebrows, on the lips, on the chin, and on the forehead or scalp. These range from "simple" lacerations, in which the cut is relatively straight and the edges of the tissue can be easily lined up, to "complicated" lacerations, in which the edges are jagged and the cut is deep, requiring more than one layer of skin to be stitched up. If the cut is small and shallow enough, you can probably get away with a few Steri-Strips to close it up and allow your body to heal itself. However, when we do get hit in in jiu jitsu, it's usually hard enough to warrant going to urgent car and getting stitches put in by a medical professional. In either case, the first thing you should do is stop rolling, get off the mat, gently clean the cut with a mild soap and water, control the bleeding with a sterile gauze, and apply ice and pressure to reduce the swelling. 

Stinger

Common in pretty much all contact sports, a stinger occurs when the "neck is forced sideways and away from the shoulder or pushed backward... This sudden force pinches—or acutely stretches—the nerves in the neck." While it's certainly not as common as in rugby or football, or even other martial arts such as boxing and kickboxing, stingers can still happen in jiu jitsu, especially when training in the gentle art becomes not-so-gentle. When the nerves are pinched, it sends an "intense, electric-like pain" shooting down the back of the neck, and sometimes down the arm and into the hand, causing some numbness and weakness in that extremity. The effects can last anywhere from a few seconds or a few minutes, to even days. Ice and anti-inflammatories are the best on-the-spot treatment for stingers, but I shouldn't have to sound like your mother when I say: if you're experiencing pain and/or numbness for more than a couple days, you obviously should seek medical attention. However, even if it's less than a day, don't mess around with head and neck injuries, especially when they involve the nerves. The goal in jiu jitsu is longevity. So don't be a tough guy and go get it checked out. 

Concussion

On that note, if you get knocked in the head hard enough, or maybe a gnarly takedown sent your braincase crashing into the mat before you had time to roll or tuck your chin - PLEASE learn how to properly breakfall, kids - you are definitely at risk of a concussion. A concussion happens when the brain is basically thrown against the wall of your skull, either from direct impact or a whiplash-type scenario. Symptoms typically include: headache and blurred vision, irritability, difficulty focusing, and fatigue. Again, you don't want to mess around with head injuries, especially when it affects the brain. If your symptoms are bad enough (and note: they may not appear until days after the event), or if the impact knocked you unconscious, you might want to go to the hospital. Otherwise, rest - both physical and mental - is really the only thing you can do for it. Yes, you read that correctly: keep your butt off the mat for a while, at least a week or two. If you're suffering from an associated headache, you can take an over-the-counter pain reliever such as acetaminophen, but don't take an anti-inflammatory such as ibuprofen and aspirin, as they can increase the risk of bleeding... you don't want that happening in your noggin.

Luckily, serious head and neck injuries are really relatively rare in the jiu jitsu community. But they do happen. The best way to prevent them is 1) taking care of your training partners, and not trying to kill them over some dumb ego trip, 2) trying your best to train in a controlled manner, and 3) avoiding any spazzy training partners, which are usually white belts, but exist at every belt level... even black.

Train on... Safely. Oss.

When you get to a certain point in your career, you tend to forget a lot about those first few, extremely awkward and uncoordinated months of your jiu jitsu journey. For good reason. But this poses interesting challenges for a coach, or really any upper belt helping out a brand-spanking-new white belt, because you just can't assume he or she knows how to do certain things. For example, shrimping (aka doing a "hip escape"). Seriously now... when do we ever do anything remotely like it in our everyday life? The closest thing is Tyra Banks' "booty tooch" method for posing in pictures... which is still a stretch.

What doesn't immediately come to mind, yet is probably the most frustrating and awkward thing for a newbie to learn, is sparring. How do you do it? How do you start? What is your goal?

Fear not, young padawan. Here are a few things to keep in mind, in order to make your first sparring sessions as smooth as they can possible be. Read on... 

Your Starting Stance

Usually, your instructor will have you start on your knees. This is mostly to reduce the chances that you might get hurt when you are taken down, because like a wobbly little baby giraffe, you really aren't very agile yet. So you're on your knees... WRONG. On your butt? NOPE, leave that for the upper belts. My best advice is to get into combat base (one knee down, toes active, the other knee up and sitting down comfortably). Why? Because when you start on both knees, the very first thing you will do in order to go somewhere is: lift one knee off the mat. So why not just eliminate that step from the start?! That way you're in a much better position to move if your opponent makes a grab for you. If you do happen to start standing, 1) find a comfortable stance and be light on your toes, 2) when you move around, don't cross your feet (that creates a prime opportunity for takedowns), and 3) for the love of Bob, don't look at your opponent's feet. This last one not only limits your vision to just your opponent's feet, but also rounds your back and puts you in a terrible position to defend any kind of takedown or standing guillotine attack (actually one of my favorite things to do to fresh meat... muahaha).  

Your Grips

Even in no-gi, I can tell two seconds into a match if I'm facing a brand-new white belt by his/her hands. Baby white belts do this distinctive fisting of their hands until they go to grab something, and when they do grab, they don't usually grab and hold; they grab and release, even if it's really a decent grip. Then when their training partners grab them in turn, they don't do diddly-squat about that grip. To my dear white belts reading this: be conscious of your and your opponent's grips. Grips are everything in a fight. So... 1) Relax your fists. Shake them out if you have to. If you ball your hands into fists, what's the first thing you do when you try to grab your opponent? You relax them. So, just as with your combat base, eliminate that step and start with relaxed hands. 2) When you grab something, don't release it right away. Grab and hold. That usually makes your opponent redirect his/her focus, for the moment, toward breaking your grip, rather than executing whatever terrible torment he/she had planned for you. And 3) BREAK their grips, first and foremost. When a more experienced practitioner makes a grip on you, he/she usually has something in mind. Take that half second to at least attempt a grip break. You'll never regret it. 

Your Space

If you haven't already noticed, jiu jitsu is a very physical, close-contact sport. If you're a freak about personal space or a little shy about touching people... well, either you have to get over that - and fast - or jiu jitsu really isn't for you. Maybe try underwater knitting. In jiu jitsu, you will be getting into really close and intimate positions with your training partners... like, face-in-the-crotch-area kind of close. That's just the way it is. Now, assuming you're okay with all that, I have one really important rule of thumb for you to follow: when you're attacking, take space away; when you're defending, create space. For example, if you've somehow - by some stroke of luck or the kind generosity of your training partner - passed the guard, "smash him/her like a pancake" (as I say to my kiddos). You're attacking, so you can't give your opponent any space to escape. On the flip side, if your partner has passed your guard - with ridiculous ease, of course - don't proceed to hug him/her to you while you're on bottom. Frame up and shrimp like your life depends on it. Try to create enough space to get your legs between you and your opponent, and then keep them there. 

Your Goal

You're not going to have enough tools in your toolbox to do any submitting just yet, so let's just put that aside for a moment. Until you've drilled your basic submissions 100 times, at the very least, you'll be in no position to properly execute them in live sparring. And don't "just survive." I've heard many a white - and even blue belt - utter that phrase, and it's like fingernails on a chalk board to me. "Just surviving" automatically puts you in the wrong mindset to learn while you are sparring. My advice to you is: 1) Focus on getting to the positions you know - guard, side control, mount - and try to stay there. 2) If you're a few weeks into your journey, go ahead and try a couple techniques you've learned and drilled. Don't be afraid to try, even if it gets you into a bad position. And 3) Focus on what your opponent is doing to you. He/she is undoubtedly leagues ahead of you in technique, so you'll be able to pick up a few things here and there while you're sparring. Then after the roll - PLEASE DON'T DO IT DURING THE ROLL, because that's really annoying - don't be afraid to ask how he/she did something you really liked. 

I hope these few pointers will help you enjoy your first sparring sessions, and allow you to use them in a constructive manner. I can't stress enough: don't be afraid to try something. Don't be afraid to move. You're going to get your butt handed to you anyway, so why not maximize your potential for growth and learning? 

Train... and spar... on. Oss. 

Knees aren't the only things that take a real beating in jiu jitsu. Considering how much you use and rely on your arms in jiu jitsu - and how many attacks there are to this particular appendage - those puppies can be pretty vulnerable to a host of different injuries and afflictions. 

Read on to learn about the most common elbow injuries you might encounter and what you can, or will, have to do about it...

Bursitis 

Bursitis is the inflammation of the fluid-filled sacs, called bursae, that act as cushions at the joints, helping to decrease friction between moving tissues, such as bone, muscle, tendons, and skin. Bursitis is often caused by repetitive minor impacts - oh so common in many sports - but can also result from more serious trauma to the area. Symptoms include rapid swelling around the joint that is also warm and tender to the touch. Bursitis will usually clear up with rest, icing, elevation, and over-the-counter inflammatories, but more serious cases can be drained, or injected with corticosteroids. Some athletes are still able to train with it, but because it is so painful to the touch and jiu jitsu involves a lot of elbow-to-ground contact, the best option is to rest until it clears up.

Tendonitis

Similar to bursitis, tendonitis can also be caused by repetitive movements, can be accompanied by swelling (though not always), and is quite painful... at least until you warm up, when it fades to a dull ache. There are two types, depending on which tendon it afflicts: lateral epicondylitis, or "tennis elbow," and medial epicondylitis, or "golfer's elbow". Aside from rest, ice and pain killers, there's not too much else you can do on your own, and may in fact be all you need to do. However, for more serious cases, you can see a medical professional for a corticosteroid shot, Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) treatment - in which they take a sample of your own blood, spin it really fast to separate the platelets and good stuff, then inject it back into the affected area - physical therapy, dry needling, or ultra-sonic treatment (to remove tendon scar tissue). If you have to resort to surgery, you probably have a more serious issue than just tendonitis. 

Pinched nerve

Pinched nerves at the elbow - also called "ulnar nerve entrapment" (oooo fancy) - are also relatively common in jiu jitsu and other sports in which the elbow moves repetitively and in unpredictable ways. In fact, the "most common place for compression of the nerve is behind the inside part of the elbow," according to WebMD. Common symptoms include: numbness and tingling in the ring finger and little finger and weakening of the grip. You can typically treat it pretty well with anti-inflammatories (corticosteroid shots are not suggested due to risk of nerve damage), bracing or splinting your elbow, and "nerve gliding exercises." 

Sprains and Strains

Oh yes... no guide on sports injuries is complete without mentioning sprains and strains. What's the difference? A sprain is the stretching or tearing of the ligaments (the bone-to-bone connectors), while a strain is the stretching or tearing of the muscles or tendons (the bone to muscle connectors). Spains and strains occur when a particular part of your body moves beyond its natural range of motion... armbars anyone? Both show very similar symptoms - pain, swelling, limited ability to move the afflicted area - but sprains are typically accompanied by a "pop" sound or feeling when the injury happens, and will include bruising, and strains are often accompanied by muscle spasms. Treatment for both is often just RICE (rest, ice, compression and elevation), but see a medical professional if it feels pretty serious. 

Dislocation

Not quite as common as sprains and strains, but dislocations of the elbow can happen. And it's not just the result of a wicked armbar - that you may or may not have had too much ego to tap to - but also if you're getting swept or taken down hard and you plant your hand into the mat, instead of taking the fall. In technical terms, a dislocation happens when the "bone is pulled or pushed out of place." It can be a "partial" dislocation, or a "complete" dislocation, and can range from simple (no major bone injury), to complex (sever accompanying bone and ligament injury) or severe (where even the blood vessels and nerves have been compromised). Treatment? Go to the emergency room. And after they're done with you, take a break from the mats for a little while. Don't mess around with dislocations, especially if you want to have a long jiu jitsu career. 

Fractures

Last, but certainly not least: fractures. I must stress that jiu jitsu is not some kind of paddy-cake sport. Even in the most careful of situations, accidents happen. Elbow fractures can "result from a fall, a direct impact to the elbow, or a twisting injury to the arm," all of which are oh-so-common in the practice of jiu jitsu. Just as with sprains, fractures are accompanied by pain, swelling, bruising and stiffness around the elbow... so it'll be hard to tell at first that it's a fracture rather than a sprain, unless it's a full-on break or "open fracture" (when the bone is protruding from the skin). The best thing you can do is go to the ER and have a professional check it out. Yeah, it will cost a pretty penny - and they might order a CT scan to be sure, which will cost even more pretty pennies - but it's a small price to pay for ease of mind and/or appropriate treatment. 

Once again, don't just rely on your - or my - WebMD skills, no matter how ninja they might be, to diagnose elbow injuries from impact or falling. If in doubt, get it checked out by a licensed medical professional. The sooner you know for sure what the problem is, the faster you'll be able to fix it, and the sooner you'll be back on the mats. 

Train on... safely. Oss.

Let's face it: most jiu jitsu gis are pretty darn boring. Yeah, that's right... I said it. But seriously, almost every brand out there offers you the standard white, blue and black color options, with their logos or other minimal branding in the typical spots on the shoulders, lapel or thighs. 

Pretty basic. Pretty boring. And even if they do go out of their comfort zone and offer you an "illustrated" gi, they usually hide all that excitement inside the gi jacket... kind of like a dirty secret. 

Not Scramble. From the brand that revolutionized the NoGi apparel game with their iconic Rainbow Spats, Scramble appears to be attempting to do the same in the gi market. Enter the Scramble Sukajan Panther Jiu Jitsu Gi and the Scramble Sukajan Dragon Jiu Jitsu Gi. Scramble breaks all the rules with these puppies. 

Scramble's Sukajan gis are inspired by the Japanese Sukajan, or "souvenir jacket", the origins of which trace back to post-World War II, when American soldiers had Japanese seamstresses embroider intricate Japanese designs on their military jackets, as a souvenir of their time spent in the country. Scramble created their own play on that fascinating fusion of Japanese and American culture, collaborating with Singapore based tattoo artist, Feroze McLeod, to create a truly unique gi series. 

Not only do these gis featuring McLeod's awesome tattoo-style designs of a panther - on the white gi - and a dragon - on the black gi - embroidered boldly across the back of the jacket, they also showcase mirrored headpieces of the artwork on the front of the gi jacket (very non-traditional in the jiu jitsu world, but super traditional in the Sukajan world). Scramble has also taken the concept a step further, by constructing the gi jacket to resemble the classic baseball jacket that's most commonly used for Sukajan, with separately-constructed sleeves (rather than the entire jacket made from a single piece of fabric). Indeed, the black Sukajan Dragon gi features a dual-color look, with dark navy blue sleeves against a black jacket body. 

If you're the type of practitioner who likes to be a little bit different, these gis are right up your alley. 

Train on... in style. Oss.