3 ways to protect your fingers when doing Judo and BJJ

Paulo Miyao’s fingers after years of BJJ

I just read on the BJJEE website that multiple time world BJJ champion Keenan Cornelius is struggling to keep his fingers free from injury. He says that at the ripe old age of 22 he has already lost 20% of movement in his hands. And if you check out the picture on the left you can see that both Judo and BJJ will surely damage your fingers and this is why it is critical that you look after your fingers.

In this article i am going to be sharing with you 3 ways to protect your fingers when doing judo and bjj. By doing these 3 I believe you will be able to protect your fingers and enjoy a long judo and bjj career.

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1 – Tape your fingers

This is one of the easiest ways to protect your fingers. Yeah tape is expensive¬†but it is worth it. There are a heap of ways to tape your fingers but here is a quick and easy way to tape each finger for judo and bjj.

Although if the ends of your fingers get bloodied and sore try using the method of taping that I do. Although be warned this video is when i used to compete so I am super skinny in it. (I can’t believe I used to make -60kgs)

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2 – Avoid grip fighting and spider guard as much as possible

Both grip fighting and spider guard play havoc on my fingers, so i try to avoid them as much as possible. Unfortunately they are part of judo and bjj so you cannot avoid it all together but what you can do is loosen your grip on the gi. Then if your opponent attempts to break your grip it hurts a lot less than if you were holding on with maximum effort.

If you enjoy spider guard try and hold on using a¬†¬†pistol grip opposed to a cuff¬†grip on the end of your opponent’s gi. Yes the cuff¬†grip is stronger, but the pistol grip is a lot better for your fingers.
3 – stretch your fingers
Yes, you will need to stretch your fingers as well. Your fingers have muscles, ligaments and tendons in them and this need stretching regularly.Often after practice we concentrate on the forearms but we neglect the fingers. So start doing some finger stretching. The best way to do this is to google some finger stretches used by musicians. Here is a great video I found that helps stretch your fingers.