A lot of people doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu tape their fingers. Whether it’s a regular training day or competition, you’d see jiujitsu practitioners consume insane amounts of tape. At times, they’d not only tape their fingers but even their wrist and other joints as well. Why tape fingers BJJ in the first place? Is it simply some type of weird fashion on the mats or does it have a more practical value?
We’ll discuss everything that you need to know about taping. We’ll explain why it is so prevalent in BJJ. Also, we’ll give you some tips on how to properly tape your digits and why it matters. Plus, you will get tips on how to take care of your fingers while playing BJJ.
Why Do BJJ Players Tape Their Fingers
Finger Tape Improves Grip
One of the biggest reasons to tape your fingers is because of the gi grips. Gi-specific training can cause a lot of injuries to a person’s hands. Gi training can most likely sprain, subluxate, or worse, dislocate fingers.
Certain grips in the gi will require more from your fingers. For instance, playing spider guard or having a cuff grip by the pant results in swollen tendons on your fingers. Not only do you have to pull your opponent, by the sleeve, but imagine your opponent pulling back as well.
Then, there are the unforgiving grip breaks. At times, your fingers get stuck as your opponent breaks the grip on the gi material. And if you’re not gripping firm enough, this can cause your digits to move laterally injuring the joints.
Another good reason to tape your fingers is to improve the digits’ range of motion. If you already have a limited range of motion on your fingers, taping can partially solve this. And the better the range of motion, the better the grip.
Finger Tape Helps Prevent Injury or Reinjury
Unfortunately, a lot of practitioners end up using tape because they don’t want to rest their hands. With more people doing BJJ professionally, a lot of them also don’t get enough time to recover from injuries. Small injuries to the hands especially the fingers get worse. A sprained finger never gets 100% healed due to their jiujitsu habit and training schedule.
So what happens if you reinjure your fingers over and over again? This constant damage to the tendons leads to arthritis. This explains the gnarly hands that the Miyaos showed on social media. If you’re going to be more technical, BJJ players often experience osteoarthritis or better known as degenerative arthritis. Common signs of arthritis include stiffness in your hands when you wake up as well as swollen joints.
Aside from injuries, practitioners tape fingers when they want to avoid these types of injuries. Taping your fingers provides mechanical support to the small joints.
Does Finger Tape Help in BJJ?
Does taping your fingers help in BJJ? Yes. What tape ultimately does is prevent the finger from moving laterally during rough grip breaks from your partner or opponent.
With taping, it provides support to the joints, stabilizing your fingers whenever you grip. And also, players who tape their fingers gain more confidence with their grips.
So what if you’re already injured? Does taping help relieve the pain? Yes, but it is not exactly the best solution to your aching hands and fingers. To a certain extent, taping can be used as a means to help you train regularly. Taping your fingers help put back the swollen tendons in place allowing a better range of motion compared to not having any tape.
However, knowing the limits of taping is still something that a lot of practitioners don’t usually follow. Some would even train or even compete despite having an injured digit. In this video, Keenan Cornelius shows you how to tape your fingers and talks about how he competed in Japan with an injured finger:
If you are suffering from a dislocated finger or fracture, it is better that you see a doctor. You’re most likely going to be advised to rest and splint the injured digits.
Best Way to Protect Fingers in BJJ
Hands down, taping is a good way to protect the fingers and give you the confidence to train harder. However, it’s also a good idea if you can combine other methods of protecting your hands and fingers.
The good news is that there are different strategies that you can explore if you wish to protect your fingers from injuries. If applied well, it may help prevent the fingers from becoming sore, sprained, or worse, dislocated. It can even reduce the number of tapes that you use in your daily training.
Utilize Galaxy Guard
First, know the grips that are not as brutal on your digits. Playing spider guard is a staple for open guard players, but you can use different alternative grips or guards. For one, a good alternative is to play the galaxy guard instead. Galaxy guard makes use of the same spider guard concept. Here, the guard player grips the end of the lapel rather than the cuff of the sleeve. And instead of stepping on the bicep, the guard player steps on the lapel.
Playing galaxy guard, popularized by Braulio Estima, allows you to step on the lapel without worrying about the arm yanking back. Braulio Estima vs. Rodolfo Vieira in Metamoris is a good example of just how powerful a galaxy guard is. Another great example is how Keenan Cornelius made use of the lapel to create distance against Nicholas Meregali.
Try Using Different Grips
If you can’t abandon the spider guard, an alternative to the pocket grip is a pistol grip. As the name suggests, you’re going to grip the gi material as if you’re holding a gun. It’s a common grip by the end of the sleeve or by the end of the pant. And because it’s a powerful grip, it is even considered illegal in judo because it can promote stalling in certain positions.
Aside from knowing using the pistol grip, you could also use another alternative grip, which is the c-grip. Typically used in nogi, it is something that can have its advantages when used in the gi. For one, you have more friction compared to using it in no-gi. C-grips also prove to be pesky against guard players.
Guard players like Mickey Musumeci use the guard passer’s pant grips to gain control over the opponent’s bicep. This can be solved by using the c-grip. Here, the guard player has no other choice but to free his or her leg before creating a frame using his or her legs.
Aside from using alternative grips, you might want to balance how much time you play on top and bottom. Passing is less dependent on gi grips that are hard on your digits compared to playing guard. However, this can be a bit challenging. Modern rules push sport jiujitsu competitors to pull guard and work for a sweep than stay on top.
Alternate Between Gi and No-gi Training
Next, you might want to even out the number of days you practice in gi and no-gi. Unfortunately, it is common for many gyms to have more days playing gi than nogi. If there’s no other choice, you might want to attend MMA classes or wrestling classes instead of gi classes give your fingers a break.
Let Your Fingers Recover
Every after class, it helps if you can help soak your hands in ice-cold water. Cold water can help lessen the inflammation of your hands. Plus, you can also do some mobility exercises when you’re not on the mats. This way, you can maintain the range of motion on your fingers.
And last, you want to give your body enough time to recover. Does it mean that you should stop every time your fingers hurt? That’s not exactly the case. What you want is to know when to step on the brakes. You can still train without making it worse for your sprained digits. Perhaps, on some days you can do more reps and slow drills than just going all-out on sparring.
BJJ Finger Tape Techniques
Now that you know the reasons why people tape fingers in BJJ, it’s also important to know how to properly do it. There are a variety of taping techniques that you could use to help ease the pain on your fingers when gripping.
Helix Method
The most common way to tape your fingers in BJJ is the helix method. As the name suggests, you will get the tape to form a helix shape to prevent the digit from moving from side to side. To do this, you will need to cut a piece of tape that’s around ½-inch thick or smaller. You’d start by taping the base of your digit and then go up the digit diagonally. Next, you’ll continue and cross the tape but this time going down the digit to reach the starting point.
When doing the helix method, remember that the crossing tapes will only be visible when you get your palm up. You can also choose to increase the number of times you form helixes on your digits. Those who use thinner tapes can do two helixes on each digit.
But instead of having two bases, you’d have three bases. You’d have one on top of the finger, the one at the bottom, and the one right at the middle of the finger by the joint. For some, this type of taping method is a bit too restrictive.
Buddy Taping Method
A simpler approach to taping is to simply apply tapes above and below the joints of your digit. However, it doesn’t have the same support as the helix method. It is typically used by those who plan on buddy taping their fingers. The buddy taping method is when you tape the injured finger together with the non-injured digit. This way, the non-injured finger provides support to the injured digit when gripping.
Best BJJ Finger Tape
The number one reason why you tape fingers BJJ is because you want to support your digits. And nowadays, there are lots of brands to choose from.
However, with years of doing BJJ, we’ve tried multiple brands and realized that not all brands are the same. Some brands offer tapes that do better with larger joints such as wrists and knees. If you’re using a BJJ tape specifically for your fingers, here are a few things that make a finger tape worth investing in.
Make sure the BJJ tape is adhesive
One, the adhesive of the tape is sticky enough to hold until the end of the training session. A lot of athletic tapes don’t do well with sweat. Though the adhesive should be sticky enough to last the training session, it shouldn’t be hard to remove as well.
Pay attention to the width of the tape
If you’re planning to use the tape solely for your fingers, then, you want to have rolls of tape available in small widths. On the other hand, if you plan on using the tape in different joints such as your ankles or your wrist, then you’d want to stick with tapes available in larger widths.
Easy to cut
The tape should also be easy to cut if you have an all-purpose tape for different joints. It shouldn’t be difficult to tear the tape, to the point that you’ll need a pair of scissors.
Monkey Tape
One of the best finger tapes on the market is Monkey Tape. Monkey Tape is available in different widths. It comes in 0.2, 0.4, 0.5, 1.5, and 2-inch tapes. Plus, you can also get a set of tapes in different widths. Today, the brand also offers kinesiology tapes for those who are looking to support larger joints and muscles.
Fuji Sports Finger Tape
An alternative to Monkey Tape is the Fuji Sports finger tape. Each pack comes with 6 pieces of 0.5-inch tapes. These tapes, just like the Monkey Tape, can hold until the end of the training session. However, if you like variety in your tapes, then you should go with Monkey Tape.
Conclusion
A lot of BJJ practitioners need to tape their fingers. Finger taping is rampant across belts. As to why tape fingers in BJJ? Some do it because of past injuries while others are more confident to grip with tapes on their fingers. At the end of the day, tapes help support the joints. It can lessen the pain and get the tendon back in place improving your fingers’ overall range of motion.
However, finding the right type of tape is also important. Unfortunately, most athletic tapes are not designed for grappling sports. Some tapes can’t hold the fingers together for the entire training session. We suggest that you with either Monkey Tape or Fuji Sports if you plan on taping your fingers regularly. Both brands offer great support on the fingers plus you won’t have a difficult time cutting the tape as well.