Friday, December 10, 2004

Save yourself from injuries in Judo

In my relatively short Judo career I have had an opportunity to
see a great deal of pretty severe injuries.

People would think that it is a given to suffer injuries in Judo because people toss each other over their heads and shoulders. That is not a case!

Experienced and well trained Judoka can throw and be thrown with minimal
chances for injury. In that respect Judo is very safe.

So what makes those injuries come?

Few first-hand case studies:

Elbow Injuries
In of my tournaments my oponent (a junior Pan Am Champ) suffered a very severe injury, and I had a bad fortune to see and hear the injury first hand. He attempted to throw me Osoto Makekomi, I defended by thrusting my hips, he fell on his extended arm, and broke his elbow. I could hear the breaking sound, like the branch had broke.

One of my Russian Sempai from the club, who was actually trained in Sambo attempted sort of
a Osoto Makekomi against the very strong oponent. They fell - his arm got tied up and he also broke his elbow.

You know the famous Yoshida match when he tried to turn out against the Uchi Mata. He landed on extended arm and broke his elbow.


Knee Injury
One of my instructors attempted to throw this same Russian judoka with Harai Goshi. Kuzushi was probably poor, he twisted his standing leg knee and it broke.

Another one of my instructors was countered by Tani Otoshi. Tani Otoshi did not lift him off the ground and his knee snaped.

Neck/Spine Injury
My Sensei turned out against the hip throw. He landed on his neck/back and broke three of his vertbrae.

My fellow judoka was grappling. He was torqued on his neck, and his vertebrae cracked injuring the spinal nerve. His right side was almost completely uninervated for months.

I would have few more to mention, some of my own but I think few of these will help explain my point, and findings:

It seems to me that these more severe injuries come from:

1. Incomplete or poor breakfalling - turning out against the throw, and landing on the extended arm to avoid loss of a match

2. Neck torquing in grappling

3. Poor kuzushi where body has to generate a strong brute force pull against the completely static oponent

So what I am recommending :

A. Draw a balance between just losing a match, or loosing a match by breaking your elbow.
See what hurts more. I would suggest the first option.

B. Watch for your necks as you grapple. Don't rotate on it, and don't let your uke rotate you on it.

C. Always generate a strong kuzushi, and go with nice low entry when going for Tai Otoshi, Harai Goshi, Ashi Guruma, ... It is way to easy to break the knee, and knee fracture is a pretty debilitating injury.

So much for this time.

Edmon

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I would also recommend weight lifting/strength training for injury prevention. There is some medical literature indicating that this can protect joints from injury. Also, unfortunately, I think it's necessary to recommend staying away from players who are reckless and clubs with low-quality mats.