Miami — After being diagnosed with two derailed concussions in the 2022 season, Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s priority going into this offseason was learning how to better protect himself.
So he made an interesting choice.
“I’ve been falling a lot this off-season,” Tagovailoa said.
But it is by design. One day each week, Tagovailoa trains in jiu-jitsu. From learning how to fall to making contact less traumatic to his system, jiu-jitsu has become an important part of Tagovailoa’s system as it looks to reduce the potential for future head injuries.
“For guys in my position, we hardly get hit during practices, all season, even going into training camp,” Tagovailoa said. “We are not affected until the season starts.
“So I mean, with jiu-jitsu, I was thrown into the air, and put into many uncomfortable positions for me to learn how to fall and try to fight back through those situations where I was thrown.”
With the Dolphins riding to an 8-3 record last season, Tagovailoa was running one of the league’s biggest offenses. But injuries, including a concussion and an apparent head injury in Week 3 that eventually prompted the NFL to change its policy on assessing concussions, caused him to miss the better part of six games, including a playoff loss to the Buffalo Bills. It inspired an unorthodox approach to this offseason by a team with Super Bowl aspirations once again.
“It’s really hard sometimes even to remember [who came up with the idea of jiu-jitsu]said Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel. “I know [quarterbacks] trainer [Darrell] Bevil was spitting out some of the things we can do to solve the problems. [Strength and conditioning coach] Dave Pollocka [head athletic trainer] Kyle Johnston was very involved in all of these things.”
No matter what the idea was, Tagovailoa is pursuing it. This makes sense for at least one world class female fighter whose talents helped her become an MMA champion.
“When you’re in a certain sport, you’re using the same muscles over and over,” said Kayla Harrison, a two-time Olympic gold medalist in judo. “You break those [muscles] down and overwork those. So in the off-season, to train your brain and use it in a different way, to use different muscles that I think is very beneficial for athletes, and I think science shows that as well.
“MMA is a really tough choice…but I love it. I love that they want to get in there, get beaten up a little bit and learn how to fight, I think that’s cool. And I think it’s good for football for sure.”
“Why haven’t we elaborated on this before?”
Some fighters don’t watch videos of themselves getting hit, but for Tagovailoa it was important.
He rewatched the hits he took during the 2022 season, including one in Week 4 that led to him being taken off the field via stretcher and a brief stay in a Cincinnati hospital.
“It wasn’t hard to watch,” Tagovailoa said. “I want to get better at everything I can do to help the team win matches, and I know the biggest thing is my health, staying off the court. Looking at the movie, I was able to see that with a jiu-jitsu instructor, and we were able to recreate the script in how they dealt with me, And how did you fall.
“And it wasn’t just one match. I was eliminated in multiple ways and how could I have prevented that.”
The drill involved putting Tagovailoa into recreated scenarios that mirrored the situations he faced last season.
“It’s a great strategic drop similar to the things that happened to quarterbacks during the season,” McDaniel said. “Kind of recreating these things, because a jujitsu master had to study some game tapes to understand how he was falling, where the points of impact were, and what we could do to help correct him.”
Tagovailoa has strengthened his neck and core muscles through jiu-jitsu training, so much so that a source familiar with the situation told ESPN that he is “the strongest ever.”
At first, Tagovailoa told USA Today that he was training in judo, before McDaniel publicly corrected him a few weeks later. The two martial arts forms are somewhat similar—they’re “sisters,” according to Harrison.
“They both have the same movements,” she said. “In judo, you can choke, and you can use an armbar; and in jiu-jitsu, you can do chokes and armbars and heel hooks. You can also do takedowns in jiu-jitsu, but the emphasis is really different.
“Where the focus in judo is a lot on throws – big, sexy throws. In jiu-jitsu the focus is more on submission.”
Tagovailoa said his training focused on grappling and dissipating energy during a fall, while also remembering to tuck his chin on his way to the ground.
“It’s kind of bullying,” McDaniel said. “Like it’s just a guy getting attacked and going to Earth. And then how do you transfer the energy to disperse it and not have a centralizing effect. It’s something that makes you think, ‘Hey, why haven’t we broken this down before?'” “”
Excited to see his progress
With the pads on and the fighters grunting, Harrison extended an invitation to Tagovailoa to train at her gym, American Top Team, in Coconut Creek, Florida. South Florida is a hotbed of mixed martial arts, and ATT has produced some of the best MMA fighters in the world.
“If he wants to come by America’s top team and get a lesson from a two-time Olympic champion, I’m more than willing to help him,” Harrison said. “He’s always welcome here.
“I’m excited to see his progress.”
Tagovailoa should remain in the area for a while. After the Dolphins picked up his fifth-year option in March, Tagovailoa is expected to stay in Miami for at least the next two seasons. Meanwhile, McDaniel is entering his second season at Miami, which means Tagovailoa will have the same caller in consecutive years for the first time since Miami recruited him in 2020.
If he remains healthy, there is little reason to believe the Dolphins will never again possess one of the NFL’s strongest offenses. But Tagovailoa wasn’t the only player struggling with injuries last season for the Dolphins. All three quarterbacks were injured at some point in 2022, so McDaniel said the team has included jiu-jitsu training in the work of drills with quarterbacks, though he didn’t go into specifics.
“As the starting quarterback, September starts and then you’re dealt,” McDaniel said. “And then you get tackled for six months and then you don’t do it again until September. So how can we help coach our quarterbacks to stay healthy? Better prepare players for the NFL season.
“In general, you find that core strength is very important when you talk about getting the energy of the human body into the ground, and the different things you can do to reduce that strategy, but then you strengthen from the core so that when you go to the ground, your upper torso is not just a tool. pressure to the skin.”
Tagovailoa has bulked up from 217 to 225 pounds in the off-season while maintaining his mobility. The quarterback is focused on preparing for a pivotal season, after which he can sign a major contract extension.
“I’ve seen a man follow through with his words as well as any young man I’ve come across in my career,” said McDaniel. “You’re talking about going above and beyond.”