For every action, there’s a reaction. You go rough on your body and it pays you back with ailments and disfigurements of every kind. Perhaps this applies more in BJJ where combative contact with the opponent is the norm than in other sports.
So much so that the phenomenon known as the cauliflower ear in BJJ is more common than you might think. On average 30% to 40% of practitioners get it.
The one part of your body that you’d expect to be safe from the malignant treatment you get on the mat would be the ear. And you couldn’t be more wrong. While the ear doesn’t play an active role in your techniques, it still bears the brunt of many mishandling and mistreatment.
So how does an organ that is no more than a bystander in this whole process gets so crushed and reshaped into this grotesque design? More importantly, as an aspiring BJJ practitioner what can you do about it and how do you prevent it from happening to your delicate ears? We got the answers to these questions to make your BJJ journey as gentle on your ears as you’d hope it to be.
What is it?
The cauliflower ear is a symptom that many BJJ practitioners get after years in the sport. People are usually born with elegantly shaped ears with intricate shapes and grooves and curves. We tend to take them for granted but if someone goes the Van Gogh way (misses an ear) it becomes their distinguishing feature. That’s how important it is to have two symmetrical ears hanging by the sides of your head.
The ear is made up mostly of soft bones and loose skin. They are sensitive by nature and don’t respond well to rough treatment or mishandling. Now rough treatment and mishandling are the middle names of BJJ. You’re not walking onto the mat to have a friendly chat with your opponent. You want to grapple with him, apply a few headlocks and neck locks to force them to submit. And in the middle of this kerfuffle, the ears pay the price.
First, the blood vessels rupture under the ear skin giving it an unhealthy ruddy glow. Then the soft bones get crushed and realigned into clumps. They pile over each other like they’re seeking solace in each other’s company and in the process redesign your whole ear.
What started as a delicate design with smooth curves and contours morphs into a swollen and unappealing lump. Think the face of a boxer after a few grueling rounds against a tough opponent. Nothing but bruises and bunions. And of course the pain. Your ears become raw and sensitive as they take this gruesome shape.
Causes
So who’s the culprit? As it turns out not all techniques and guards in BJJ cause the cauliflower ear. And that’s the good news. The bad news is, some techniques cannot be helped. When your opponent gets you in a headlock, you’ll do your best to escape this bad situation but your ears are the ones who will carry the scars for a long time to come.
And as you can imagine, when your opponent got you in a neck lock you can’t just ask them politely to go gentle on your ears. As we all know the gi isn’t made of the gentlest material. It’s coarse and sturdy to withstand the gripping and grappling. And when your ears are locked between the pincer-like grip of a gi wearing opponent who got your head secure between his arm and rib cage, you know that your ears are as good as gone.
Many people think that cauliflower ears are the result of bad training or mistakes made by the BJJ players during class or competition. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Many BJJ champions have cauliflower ears. It’s something that happens whether you’re good or not in BJJ. In other words, it’s not you, it’s just that the sport doesn’t take kindly to your ears.
And it’s not just a matter of aesthetics. Your hearing gets impaired and you can no longer use earphones. So does that mean that this is an escapable situation? When you sign up at the academy you’re as good as sacrificing your ears on the BJJ altar? Not necessarily. There are precautions you can take to safeguard against cauliflower ears. But before we get there, let’s talk about the treatment.
Treatment
One of the common ways to treat the ear is ear draining. This is a simple process that players do themselves. See after an injury, the inner ear gets blocked with blood and secretions (what we normally call ear wax) which over time can damage your hearing and cause hearing loss. So one way to prevent that from happening is to drain the ear regularly.
To drain the ear you’ll need a needle and Polysporin cream as a protective lubricant. Wash your ears thoroughly to prevent infection and give it a good coating of the cream. Gently put the needle in and suck out all the piled up secretions. Next, target the swollen areas in your ear and suck out the blood. It’s more like bloodletting.
Now you use this method at your own risk. I haven’t met a medical doctor who recommended you operate on yourself and there are many ways this could go wrong. So it’s not an ideal treatment and I mention it here only because some practitioners use it. In my opinion, it’s better to focus on protecting your ears and preventing injury than to seek dangerous and unproven remedy methods.
Better still is if you take your injured ears to a sports doctor and let them have a look at it. Doctors with experience dealing with Judo, football, boxing, or other combative sports will have a fair amount of experience with ear injuries. But as I said, it’s better to prevent the injury than try to treat it. So how do you protect your ears and keep this dreary disease from deforming your face?
Prevention
As we have already stated, not all causes of the cauliflower ear in BJJ are avoidable. You can’t tap the opponent on the arm and ask them to go easy on your delicate ears. A headlock is a headlock. It’s rough and the pain is excruciating. So what can you do about it?
There are two ways you can go with this. When it comes to the unavoidable parts, wear ear guards. They act as a cushion that keeps your ears safe and comfy while the hammering on your head continues. The market is full of many good ear guards and they are not expensive either. You just put them on and tell your opponent to have at it. It may not look good and the optics are certainly not in your favor.
But when you think of the long term deformity that going into battle with bare ears entails, then the less than cool ear guards seem like the better option. Ear guards come in different colors and styles to match your gi so in a way you can use them as accessories to make a fashion statement. And if your vanity gets in the way, think of the pain of injured ears and how losing your hearing will feel down the line.
Using ear guards is the easiest way to deal with the cauliflower ear malady. But even those nifty accessories may not give your ear the full protection you need. During the scuffle, they might come off leaving your ears open to the relentless assault of the gi. So what is the other option?
You need to be judicious with your training. Just as you’d go easy on your hands during your grappling classes, you need to pay attention to how much mistreatment your ear gets every week.
Let’s say you go to class 5 times a week. You’re showing great progress and the stripes on your belt are a good indication of that progress. That’s all good, but now your body is showing signs of fatigue. The scars of the onslaught are showing. Remember the golden rule in BJJ, always listen to your body. If you find it common to wake up in the morning with achings and pain, then you need to take longer breaks between classes.
Or just add some variety to your training. If your neck and shoulders ache, then maybe stay away from upper body techniques for a while. Or you could limit your offensive and defensive techniques to once a week instead of 4 times a week.
The same rule applies to the ear. Not all people are susceptible to cauliflower ears. If your ears give you trouble that’s a sign you need to go easy on them. Focus on other techniques that don’t involve getting your head in the vise grip of the opponent. You might not be able to keep your ears from the path of danger, but you can certainly give them time to heal and recover between each battle.