Photo by Francois Nel/Getty Images

There are plenty of people who are appalled at the violence on display in combat sports. No matter how much you explain the art of it, or point to the fact that it is a sporting bout between two consenting adults of equal weight under the supervision of a doctor, you'll never change their minds.

Obviously the effects of a sport where the athlete gets punched in the head fairly regularly are going to be more taxing on the body and brain than they would be on someone who plays soccer or tennis—but then competing four times a year is considered a tremendous work rate for a fighter. Many NFL or rugby players are out on the field, taking head trauma week in, week out. Obviously fighters train in the meantime, but provided they aren't training at an idiotic gym where they're getting hit hard every day, they can avoid the effects of becoming what the old timers called 'punchy'.

Of course, there will always be idiots out there. This week a video emerged from Brazil, wherein a coach has his students lined up, puts on gloves, and proceeds to tee off on each student's head in turn. They weren't learning to roll with punches and half of the students had their eyes closed throughout. It would be funny if it weren't so sad.

Ironically, many believe that the introduction of gloves to pugilism actually served to the detriments of fighter safety. When gloves were introduced to bouts, they distinctly reduced the number of cuts fighters experienced on their faces, and therefore gave the sport a less bloody appearance. However, when they also provided cushioning for the punching fighter.

Punching without gloves is a minefield—you don't want to hit the teeth, you don't want to hit the hard areas of the skull, or the elbows, forearms or shoulders. The fragile nature of the fist and its tendency to bruise after just a few hard blows encouraged more selective and reserved punching. With gloves, fighters were allowed to punch more often, and harder, with little concern for their hands. Even head gear, which was designed to reduce the impact of blows in sparring and amateur fights, is now thought to provide more weight to any snapping around of the head.

The truly egregious injuries in martial arts often come from the places that you would least expect. Just like any other sport, it's a matter of the feet or the knees being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Recently the IBJJF banned the jumping of closed guard at white belt. Why?

Well, here is what jumping guard looks like when it's timed well and done beautifully, even with no gi to grip.

The problem is that not everyone is Shinya Aoki. Obviously, there is great danger to the guard jumper. In competition, when adrenaline is running high, the position can easily turn into a dangerous slam. If you didn't already know, getting dropped onto the back of your head is far, far worse than taking a heavy punch. There's a reason that the back of the head is an illegal target in every combat sport, it is disproportionately effective and incredibly dangerous to strike someone there.

Now that guy was just being a poor sport and endangering his opponent. But similar things have happened when a man has been pulled off balance while his opponent is pulling guard. And that's not all, if the guard jumper misses, he can land on his head just as badly. It's a hard fight to find (though apparently the whole Pancrase library is going to be on Fight Pass soon), but Minoru Suzuki—the submission machine—attempted to jump closed guard on Guy Mezger, missed, and fell on the back of his head, knocking himself out.

But the unexpected danger is to the knees of the standing grappler. A poor jump of guard, or an evaded jump of guard, can still result in the guard jumper throwing himself onto his opponent's knee joint.

Ultimately this is a rare occurrence in BJJ, and the rule change has irked some in the community—though most feel it's a good move on the part of the IBJJF as it is only restricting the technique in the white belt class, for the inexperienced competitors. Though, it does bring us on to one of the most interesting techniques you'll encounter. Both in terms of flash and in terms of its being prohibited in a great many grappling competitions. The legendary Kani-Basami.

Kani-basami, or 'crab pincers' is the famous leg scissor takedown. One of the great joys of watching MMA is that you will occasionally see these used and they chain beautifully into heel hook attempts. Of course, you will all remember the incredible one which Ryo Chonan pulled off against Anderson Silva—unfortunately the move was so good that it got him painted into the underdog angle whenever the story was retold, even though he had been winning the fight.

And since then plenty of guys have tried it, from Joe Lauzon to Al Iaquinta.

In fact, Cung Le made something of a specialty out of it in Sanshou competition. Including the magnificently flamboyant turning scissor leg takedown. Sure, he was a guy with a wrestling pedigree taking down kickboxers with no wrestling—and often even Sanshou—experience, but damn it was entertaining.

And yet, the scissor leg takedown is banned in Judo, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and even collegiate wrestling. Why? Well, again it's to do with knees and throwing your bodyweight onto them. With that warning, watch the infamous match between Yamashita and Endo and prepare to squirm.

Yamashita was fresh off of his 1979 gold medal at the world championships. Endo's kani-basami snapped Yamashita's shin and apparently even injured Endo's foot as he was performing it. The severity of the injury to Yamashita caused the ban on Kani-basami in judo, which stands to this day.

To check out a dozen variations of kani-basami, which will make you wince having seen what it can do to a leg, check out Masahiko Tanaka's Perfecting Kumite.

And this is the conflict that slaps me in the face whenever I think about it. I adore techniques like the scissor leg takedown, and I love watching BJJ competitors and fighters pull guard like it's 1995 and then doing something creative from there. But this is what kills me, I recognize the dangers of those techniques—they have a decent chance of injuring a resisting opponent rather than a compliant training partner—but if I accept that, I also have to accept the same about the low line kicks which are coming to dominate the highest levels of MMA.

The oblique kick and the low sidekick are two of my favorite techniques, and the recent use of them by top level fighters to completely flummox their opponents (Jon Jones, Anderson Silva, Conor McGregor) and maintain distance has only added to that. My favorite heavy bag is so scuffed around the bottom that you might think I had let the cat go at it. But I love those kicks because they jam the movement of the opponent. Against a smart, disciplined opponent, the foot is just going to keep slamming into their bent knee and stopping them from stepping in. But eventually you will catch them mid step, or on a straight leg, and that is where the damage is done.

The argument for the kick is so often “show me someone who got injured by this kick”. And to be honest, continuing with that line is dishonest. Quinton Jackson had recurring knee injuries following this bout, Miguel Torres took one right on the side of his knee and, while he fought on, the damage could have easily been more severe. And of course, this Strikeforce bout from the recently retired Adlan Amagov, which has understandably not yet found its way to Fight Pass.

Fighters will always get hurt, it's a hurting business after all. And athletes will always get injured. There will always be fans offended by the use of dangerous techniques, and there will always be fans who are outraged when a technique is banned and will go straight to the classic “why don't we just ban punches, huh?!”

God forbid we get to the point where MMA experiences as much goalpost moving and as many restrictions as international judo, but realistically there will always be cause for concern and discussion in the rules of the sport. The only real advice I can offer on how to avoid these sort of injuries is that if leg attacks are in play—whatever the sport—don't stand with your lead foot side on and your knee turned in. And for goodness sake never, ever, lock your leg.

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