With modern training, the risk of concussion isn't very high, unless you opt for high-level competition (where perhaps it gets elevated a bit). With some of the "old school" methods I've heard of in some Aikido dojos (never heard of them in Judo dojos/clubs, BTW), there can be a very long time spent just doing falls. That's a lot of jangling of the brain if they aren't being done right. I've taken Judo-type falls for more than 30 years (going back to my days in actual Judo), and I've only had anything that might have been a concussion a couple of times from falls.
It's that last part that's scary. I do wonder about the repeated minor bumping around of my head.
Not necessarily...in Bjj I've taken numerous accidental knees to the head, elbows to the head, kicks to the head from guys rolling next to me. Nothing majorly hard but still you get them
I believe ive mentioned it before, but its why i stopped striking arts. People pointed out i was having some memory issues, i also started noticing some issues with word recall that i didnt have, and that at 22 (when i started noticing) i should not be experiencing. I have no idea whether its the beginning of CTE or not, but no more striking arts for me. Now just grappling and weapons. Especially since ive had somewhere between 10-20 head injuries that most people would classify as concussions(not all ma related)...
Practice within your own limits and move at your own pace.
And add the question of whether the early trauma is actually worse - does it affect future brain development? There's so much we don't know, but it does seem clear that early trauma somehow adds up to a worse problem, either because of magnified effect or longer exposure time to create more trauma, or both.
Nothing worthwhile comes without risk.
Not sure why you are worried. Our body's aren't as delicate as we sometime think it is.
The issue is that the medical community doesn't yet actually understand the full process of these injuries. There's no definitive information on healing time - especially in respect to many small bumps. Nor in respect to the difference in injury and healing between juvenile and adult brains. I've taken a lot of minor bumps over the years, without knowing the what I know now. No telling, really, whether that has any long-term effect
while that may be true. My guess a minor bump this week, a minor bump next week, another minor bump 2 weeks later wouldn't qualify as "enough healing time." If we hit a bruise with the same frequency, it wouldn't heal properly either. The bigger the bruise the more damaging the repeated impacts would be. For soft tissue like the brain I would think this would be even more so. From what they do understand about CTE, it's the repetitiveness that causes the damage.
