Concussions In Judo And What To Know About It
Considering the fact there are no strikes to the head in the sport of judo, one might think that the possibility of getting a brain injury is next to impossible.
But it’s not that simple.
It happens
Concussions in judo isn’t a common thing, but it does happen.
Not knowing how to land correctly when being thrown and landing head first on the mats is what can cause brain injury.
But because break falling (ukemi) is of upmost importance in judo, this rarely happens.
Per this study, a total of 101 judokas have either lost consciousness because of head trauma, or chokeholds. This is data collected from over 300,000 participants.
To add to it, this all happened during competition. During normal circumstances, like sparring in a dojo, the chances of something going wrong would be even slimmer.
But getting thrown is not the only thing that can lead to head trauma.
Freak accidents like running into an elbow, a knee, what have you, can happen during judo training sessions, especially so during randori (sparring) or tournaments, if you wish to.
Even though judo isn’t as full contact as Mixed Martial Arts, it’s still a full contact combat sport where anything can go wrong, though not to that extent.
You don’t have to get “knocked out” to get brain damage
The biggest misconception I see is that people think that if you hit your head against something, even hard, as long as you don’t black out or start feeling symptoms you’re fine.
That’s not true at all.
Any and all repetitive hits to a human head will cause some sort of damage; certainly, blacking out is as bad as it can get, but you get the point.
This all holds true to judo as well.
You really have to be sure to protect your noggin as much as you can, and when it comes to this sport, tucking your chin in, when getting thrown, is crucial.
You do pick up on this skill the more you practice as a uke, but it’s always best to keep yourself reminding that so it’ll stick quicker.
You may as well go and get a mouthguard too, as it’s proven that a properly fitted one can reduce mild traumatic brain injury (the study link). And in judo, for some odd reason, wearing one is not as popular. I’ve written a whole article about the exact same issue here.
I guess that explains why head injuries in judo are kind of looked down upon.
“Oh, it’s not a striking sport, it must be safe!”. It may be safer, but it’s definitely not safe.
You have to always keep in mind that there’s a chance for things to go wrong.
I am not here to incite paranoia into those who want to get themselves, or their kids involved in this sport.
All I’m trying to say is that this isn’t chess; it’s a full contact activity where two individuals clash together in order to find out who can throw who, that’s it.
As a matter of fact, head injuries aren’t the only ones that could occur.
Other things which you should definitely be worrying about when stepping into this martial art are finger, shoulder and knee injuries, which happen way more frequently. Read my post about this here.