Veteran grappler Justin Flores has just revealed a list of banned techniques that should help improve safety if employed in regular training environments. Although the idea of removing certain techniques is often a controversial one in Jiu-Jitsu, it’s impossible to argue that all of them are completely safe. Every grappling technique comes with some sort of risk and while a certain amount of risk is assumed when practicing a combat sport, some definitely raise that beyond an acceptable level. Even in the highest level training rooms in the world, coaches like John Danaher will ban certain techniques from use in order to keep everyone safe.
The difficulty is that every coach’s tolerance for risk is set at different levels and not everyone has the same list, making it tough for practitioners to know the expectations when they visit other gyms. This is only made even more difficult to navigate by the fact that many coaches also don’t explicitly outline banned techniques to their new or visiting students. Flores has now come out with something that actually helps fix the problem by dealing with both those issues at once. It’s a list of banned dangerous techniques that can be hung up in any academy, making the rules both uniform and clear.
Justin Flores’ Banned Techniques List
- Jumping Guard: This is one of the riskiest techniques that’s actually allowed at lower-level competition. It involves taking grips and leaping towards your partner from a standing position, aiming to wrap your legs around their waist and land in closed guard. It results in a lot of uncontrolled weight falling on a partner, often sending their knee the wrong way as they struggle to support that weight.
- Trapped Arm Mat Return: This is any kind of takedown where you’re trapping one of their arms to their body, most commonly seen from the rear-bodylock position. It’s dangerous because it removes your partner’s ability to breakfall or prevent their head from hitting the ground, and it’s even banned in folkstyle wrestling for this reason.
- Sitting On Partner’s Leg (Tani Otoshi): The Tani Otoshi is pretty universally regarded as one of the most dangerous Judo techniques there are, as it traps a partner’s leg right when they need it to move in a different direction. This often results in injuries to the ankle or knee, as the joints are unable to escape the pressure being put on them at awkward angles.
- Flying Scissors (Kani Basami): The Kani Basami is another technique that the majority of competitors and coaches understand as dangerous, although it is allowed in many competitions. It involves leaping at a partner’s leg from a standing position, with one leg in front and one behind in attempt to send them backwards so that you can land into the saddle. Any misstep or miscalculation will result in catastrophic knee injury, as the uncontrolled bodyweight hits the knee at an awkward angle.
- Uncontrolled Slam: This is one of the most difficult things to police in a training room, especially with newer practitioners. Regardless, it’s vital that anyone being thrown or taken down is put to the mat with control. That’s what allows them to breakfall and absorb the impact, so not having that control can result in rib injuries or concussions.
- High Footsweep (Leg Kick): This is another fairly common problem both in the training room and in competition, as many practitioners are reckless with their footsweeps. Aiming too high results in the action being more of a kick to the leg and that can either cause minor injuries to your own toes and their shins, or more serious injuries to their knee if the placement is bad enough.
Justin Flores revealed his list of banned techniques to improve safety, and demonstrations of them p, in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
