Martial Arts, Combat Sports, and Concussion Risks

“Are there any martial arts or combat sports that are safe from concussions and CTE?“

CTE means chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

This would be seen in cases of past head traumas and concussions, most often but not exclusively in repetitive traumas.

There are no 100% safe martial art, combat sport, or other sport that guarantees you won’t suffer a concussion(s).

There is also no guarantee when you get out of bed tomorrow that you won’t trip and fall striking your head on the dresser and suffering a concussion… or at any other time during the day that something won’t happen causing a concussion.

Safe versus Safer

Having said that – some activities are much more risky than others.

Outside of martial arts riding a motorcycle or playing a contact sport for example would increase possible risks.

Martial Arts and Combat Sports

Dr. Hagebusch at Hagebusch Chiropractic has decades of experience in martial arts and combat sports in addition to having evaluated and helped thousands of people injured in various sports and other traumas like car accidents.

In martial arts and combat sports, styles that involve striking the head as a technique would obviously increase risk of head trauma.

Examples of these include boxing, kickboxing, MMA (UFC style fighting and competitions), karate, and tae kwon do as examples. Of course many schools and instructors will have training policies and emphasis to reduce risks.

Other schools and instructors might have less emphasis on safety and head trauma.

Examples of combat sports and martial arts that have lower risk would be in grappling based arts/sports. Those arts that focus significantly on throwing like judo and wrestling may have a little greater risk of head trauma than those that focus on the ground like Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

BJJ (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu – this is Dr. Hagebusch’s martial arts school) would probably have the lowest risks of concussion and head trauma of the various martial arts and combat sports. This will vary though based upon school, instructors, training methods, and safety measures.

Risks of Concussion(s) and CTE

In summarizing CTE and concussion risks, you can not guarantee you won’t ever get a concussion or multiple concussions regardless of what you do or don’t do in life. As mentioned above, some activities may have greater risks than others.

If you already have a history of past concussion(s), then it certainly makes sense to take up activities that have lower risks of head trauma.

We should all place a big emphasis on our brain health. Prevention is better than treatment after a head trauma happens so reducing risk of concussions is generally a very good idea for all of us.

If you suffer a concussion, then there are things you can do to reduce your risks of developing a more serious and ongoing problem with post-concussion syndromes and ultimately CTE.