13 months out of BJJ due to a badly executed kani basami
I am here just to give out my own experience from when a training partner, which is a black belt (in judo and bjj), blew my acl and sprained my mcl.
In my gym in Brazil, we only train nogi on the fridays. It was the last roll of the day so we were both sweaty. It crossed my mind that I wanted to test my stand up game with him (since he is a judo black belt) and we started standing. I regret this thought everyday since then.
He executed a kani basami (scissor takedown) on me, which at the time had no experience at all on avoiding or knowing how to react to it. His intention was to go for the leg lock, however he slipped his hips due to the sweatiness and all his weight basically went on my left knee, where I had most of my weight on. The injury was almost instantaneous, I remember of hearing a loud “crack” and immediately falling down to the ground with a lot of pain. This was in feb/2025.
The day later I went to the doctor, and he immediately noticed I had torn my acl, but he did not know the extent of the damage at the time. Had to wait one week to confirm via an MRI. At that moment I did not know anything about how serious was a torn ligament, I’ve heard before about these injuries but had no idea I had torn mine. Then the doctor states my situation: 3 months to recover the MCL and then do an ACL surgery, then at least 9-12 more months to recover.
During all these months I did physioterapy at least 3-4x a week. The post surgery (done in june/25) was the hardest part: had to basically learn how to walk again. I remember being emotional of when I was able sit on my heels or when I could do a basic jump. Hardest sessions were the ones that the physio had to force my knee to get back my ROM.
Even during those times. I only thought about when I would be able to go back to training. And I finally was able to do it in march of this year. However, I am still recovering from not only the physical side, but also the psychological one. I would like to ask you all to be very careful about free falling body weight positions and to avoid them if you can. Stay safe!