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Fedor Knows the Importance of Good Hygiene

Fight dirty on the streets, but in the ring we need to keep it clean. Grappling is a dirty game.  Hygiene is critical!  There are all types of skin born pathogens in even the cleanest gym.  The big two you’ll hear about are Staph and Ringworm, but they’re not alone.  You can also end up with herpes, pink eye, impetigo or MRSA.  Staph bacteria is found just about everywhere you can think of.  Anything from the cash in your wallet to the keyboard sitting in front of you.  The bacteria is part of many people’s normal skin fauna.  There is virtually no way to avoid contact with it.  Ringworm is less common in day to day activities, but is commonplace in the gym.  With ringworm, there are reports that someone can be contagious for two weeks before showing symptoms!  There are also reports of some who can carry the fungus without ever exhibiting symptoms.  That means that your training partner could give you the worm, even if you don’t see it.  I know this is a little doom and gloom, but there are things you can do to safeguard yourself.

Prevention: The best way to prevent infection is to always show up freshly showered, with nails trimmed and wearing clean gear.  I highly recommend purchasing gear that is used exclusively for training.  It doesn’t have to break the bank, but here is some merit to owning several pair of sturdy grappling shorts and rash guards.  If you don’t know where to start, OTM makes some great ones.  I say several only to avoid doing laundry several times a week, but hey…if lavender laundry soap and dryer sheets are your thing, what can I say?  As far as rash guards are concerned, I suggest long sleeves, because less skin-to-skin contact decreases your chances of infection.  Unfortunately long sleeves can decrease but not eliminate your chances.  This means showing up clean and getting clean afterwords are equally important.  If your gym has facilities, shower at the gym.  Wash any little scrapes and mat burns right away.  The less time a bacteria or fungus is in contact with your skin, the better.  With ringworm you have about 30 minutes before the fungus takes hold.  Showering when you get home could be too late.  Also, be sure to pack up all of your gear before you shower.  Touching all of that gear after you’ve showered defeats the purpose.  If your gym doesn’t have a shower facility, use a product like Defense Wipes or hand sanitizer to clean any scrapes or burns right away, but remember that you run the risk of possibly contaminating your car, your home, or worse, your wife or girlfriend.  Trust me when I say, giving your wife ringworm will not do anything for your sex life!

Treatment: If you do find yourself in the unfortunate situation where you have been infected, STAY HOME!  Do not.  I repeat, do not go to the gym.  It is just plain inconsiderate.  If you’re in an MMA gym there is a solid chance that at least some of the guys put bread on their table by fighting.  An infection can cost them valuable training time and ultimately money.  That being said, any of these things will have you sidelined for about two weeks IF you treat them properly.  Treat them improperly and you could end up hospitalized or worse.

Ringworm is pretty easy to treat, but you should probably warm up to the idea of that lavender laundry soap because you’ll be doing heaps of laundry.  First things first, make a run down to your local pharmacy and pick up some Lamisil ointment.  If you’re this far, I know you can read, so RTFD and follow them.  What the directions might not mention is the need to change your linen daily to avoid spreading it to other parts of your body.  There is an oral form of Lamisil available if you’re in a real hurry.  It can potentially reduce the recovery time to three days, but you’ll have to endure a liver toxicity test to get a prescription.  If you’re not heading to Abu Dhabi or Worlds, I would skip this option.

Staph and MRSA are a different story.  If you train and you think you have a “spider bite,” think again.  I have a hundred bucks that says your “spider bite” is actually a staph infection.  Hell, if I had a nickle for every time I heard someone claim they had a “spider bite” that “turned into” a staph infection I’d have a lot more than a hundred bucks.  Do not pass go.  Do not collect $200.  Go directly to the doctor.  If you can’t get a next day appointment, go to urgent care.  You need antibiotics!  It will not go away on its own.  Trust me.  Same goes for that itchy irritation from your beard.  If that lasts longer than normal, chances are you have impetigo.  This also calls for antibiotics.  Don’t think you need to go to the doctor?  Click the link below and reconsider.  After training for a while, you might feel like this stuff just comes with the territory.  It does, but it can also be deadly serious.  If you have any questions, always consult a medical professional.

I thought I would post some images of staph infections and ringworm, but they are too disgusting.  If you can stomach it, check here.

“Repetition is the mother to success” is just another cliché to all you pencil neck geeks out there.  But to surly cauliflower ear’d, muscle headed grapplers it’s the key to their martial future.

In order to be a good grappler, your body needs to be in tune with your reflexes.  One of the tools to keep this aspect in order is doing drills.  Drilling helps build up the muscle memory needed to slap on a submission, sweep, takedown or throw.  When fatigue sets in or if you’re just not feeling on your game, your body will react before you’re conscious of its movements, IF your muscle memory is tight.  The problem is finding the time to get repetitions in.  When most people go to the gym and the sparring begins, aspirations of  calm, disciplined drilling goes out the window.  If your coach doesn’t take the time to address drilling, it’s your responsibility to do so in order to sharpen your grappling ability.  If you can find a partner to drill with, you should utilize open mat time to work on the various holes in your game, but there are some worth while drills that you can do on your own with the right equipment.

Here is one drill that you can do without a partner, to help improve your takedowns.

Steps

1.  Pull cords up and towards yourself
2.  Your back leg steps in
3.  Bring your other leg to your leg that stepped in making an X

Your arm goes under the cord, continue pulling the cord and keep it griped between your for arm and bicep, bend your knees a little bit, drop your hips and twist into the throw.  Your Feet should be shoulder width apart when your finished.

I thought you were going to challenge me.  It is obviously Kurt Engle.  OK, Seriously…this a broad question.  There are countless considerations, such as, the most skilled, or the most successful in competition.  Likewise it could be the one who developed the most revolutionary techniques, or the one who has had the greatest influence on grappling.  By these standards, I’m inclined to nominate Rickson Gracie, qualified by his undefeated record in four hundred plus fights.  I might also nominate Helio Gracie for his influence on contemporary grappling.  Through careful deliberation I have not chosen Rickson or Helio despite their obvious qualifications.

Linguistic dissection of the question affords me considerable latitude in my choice.  Obviously the superlative “greatest” is meant to be applied to “grapple” plus the inflection “-er,” or one who grapples, but it does not explicitly indicate that this individual must be greatest at grappling.  Considering this convenient oversight, I choose to read this question:  Who is the greatest person who grapples or has ever grappled?  With that in mind, I cannot think of a better choice than Theodore Roosevelt.  Not only is he a bad ass, but a great American.  He was surely the greatest man I know of who was also a grappler.  Argue amongst yourselves if you must, but for me the matter is certainly decided.  Below is an excerpt from a letter he sent to his son.

In addition to training as a weightlifter, boxer, wrestler, fencer, and (of course) shooter, Roosevelt was a student of judo/jiujitsu. He lined the White House recreation room with mats to train in jiujitsu, creating what may have been the first Western dojo.

From a letter to son Kermit, dated 02/24/1905:

Yesterday afternoon we had Professor Yamashita up here to wrestle with Grant. It was very interesting, but of course jiu jitsu and our wrestling are so far apart that it is difficult to make any comparison between them. Wrestling is simply a sport with rules almost as conventional as those of tennis, while jiu jitsu is really meant for practice in killing or disabling our adversary. In consequence, Grant did not know what to do except to put Yamashita on his back, and Yamashita was perfectly content to be on his back. Inside of a minute Yamashita had choked Grant, and inside of two minutes more he got an elbow hold on him that would have enabled him to break his arm; so that there is no question but that he could have put Grant out. So far this made it evident that the jiu jitsu man could handle the ordinary wrestler. But Grant, in the actual wrestling and throwing was about as good as the Japanese, and he was so much stronger that he evidently hurt and wore out the Japanese. With a little practice in the art I am sure that one of our big wrestlers or boxers, simply because of his greatly superior strength, would be able to kill any of those Japanese, who though very good men for their inches and pounds are altogether too small to hold their own against big, powerful, quick men who are well trained.

From “Theodore Roosevelt’s Letters to His Children” edited by Joseph Bishop.