If you wear glasses and are wondering if you can practice Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, then we have good news for you! People who wear glasses can still practice BJJ. You can wear glasses while your instructor demonstrates a new technique to you. And take off the glasses when you practice with your partner. In fact, Jiu-jitsu is one of the best martial arts to do, if you wear glasses.
Don’t think nearsighted or blind people can learn BJJ? If so, please check out Russell Redenbaugh, who is not only a blind Black-Belt in BJJ, but also a three-time world champion against well-sighted opponents.
In BJJ your opponent/partner is very close to you, and you can adjust your reaction without glasses. BJJ is feeling based and a close contact Martial-Art. It’s based on grappling, and rolling. A person with bad eyesight can do BJJ, because no high-speed kicks, punches are taken in this fighting style.
When to Remove Glasses During Practice
After the instructor’s demonstration, you are going to practice with your partner. In this practice, you will do the following techniques:
- Takedowns
- Chokeholds
- Joint Lock
- Sweeps
- Positional Grappling
- And much more include rolling
There are a lot of chances of breaking your glasses during this level of practice. And it doesn’t matter if you train at a luxurious BJJ gym or not. That means broken glasses are the cause of serious eye damage or any kind of infection at least.
Can I do BJJ Using Contact Lenses?
A great option, and one of the best bets is for you to wear contact lenses. Many companies provide quality contact lenses that are easily available in medical stores and super-markets. Here are three types of contact lenses,
Soft Contact Lenses
These are the most well-known and are used to compensate for moderate refractive errors. These lenses are made of soft hydrogel or silicone hydrogel material. These materials have vital support, by being easily breathable, comfortable, and very easy to use.
Daily Disposable Contact Lens
These are not only convenient; they are the most hygienic lenses out there. These lenses are discarded after each use, limiting bacteria and debris buildup and offering the highest standard of protection from an eye infection.
Orthokeratology Contact Lens
These are a type of rigid gas permeable (RGP) contact lens designed to temporarily reshape your cornea and improve your vision while you sleep.
These contact lenses facilitate your training, but should not be used for tournaments, unfortunately. Please do not use them during BJJ fights as we recommended, because it can cause serious collapse. Why not for tournaments? Let’s dig in…
Can’t adjust or fall out: During the fight, your lens may not adjust after starting or fall out during the fight, so do not pick and place in your eye if it falls out. Instead, wash & clean as per SOP by the manufacturer or use a disposable contact lens.
Eye infections: In BJJ, there a ton of sweat on the mats. Therefore, it is dangerous to pick up one of your lenses and replace it in your eyes and make them infected. To overcome this obstacle, you have to stop and replace the lens with a clean & dry or with a disposable lens.
Yes if you can afford it: We love never needing glasses or contact lenses. After getting surgery it is awesome how quickly you adjust.
LASIK is ideal for all types of training. After LASIK surgery, you will forget glasses or contact lenses.
If you don’t have any above: Please don’t be disappointed or feel sorry about your bad eye-sight. This is the beauty of this Martial Arts style are,
“Totally feeling, touching and reacting on the move”
We can find such students in BJJ who are completely blind, and people think of this as their disadvantage but they turn into an advantage and made the struggle to their journey to Black-Belt.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a unique martial art style in which ground fighting, submission holds are based.
What if I get hit during the fight in BJJ while using a contact lens?
People review, who do BJJ with glasses or Contact-lenses
PanzerWaffle(USA): “I wear glasses every day except for at BJJ. I’ve been training for 2 months and have used contacts at every class with no problems. Yes! At any level, lenses were give you trouble, the vision that much important than above all”
Playvind(USA): “I roll with contacts. Never had a problem with them shifts positions or anything like that. The one problem I’ve had is that they fall out sometimes, but it’s really rare (when I think about it, it’s only happened once). I use dailies and don’t have a really bad vision to start with, so losing a lens to me isn’t a big deal. My advice is to just try it out. If it doesn’t work out for you bring your glasses in the classroom and use them when the professor shows the drills and take them off during drilling/sparring.”
The newcomer with bad eyesight
Hi, I figured this was the best place to ask. At this point in my life I have a terrible vision; -12 in both eyes (glasses since first grade, 29yo now). I grew up learning karate and dropped out at brown stripe. I loved sparring, but as I got old day by day, glasses and contact lenses became an issue for me.
After some research, it seems like BJJ is something that I could learn with my visual deficiencies. I’m just wondering if anyone here is in my same boat and could point me in the right direction
“Our answer is, BJJ is about feel. Put your glasses on when they teach you and off the glasses when you roll or do training with your partner” especially if you get slammed on the mats.
