Judo

Judo was invented as a Japanese martial art in 1882 by Jigoro Kano. It began as a sparring based martial art, that distinguished itself from its jujitsu predecessors whose emphasis was on kata or warrior dancing. Judo quickly became the most popular form of jujitsu after being endorsed by the Tokyo police department in 1886 and has since only increased in popularity. In 1964 Judo was officially included in the Tokyo Olympic games with female judo competition included 24 years later in the 1988 Seoul Olympic games. The International Judo Federation (IJF) rule sets incorporated into the Olympic game style of competition are underpinned by the same ruleset used in the Judo World championships and world judo tours.  The ruleset endorses the main objective of competitive Judo which are to either throw, pin or immobilise or submit the opponent through joint locks or chokes.

The art of ‘Judo’ or ‘the way ’is performed with the philosophy of ‘Seriyoku-Zenyo’ or ‘the maximum efficient use of energy’ and ‘Jita-Kyoei’ ‘mutual welfare and benefit’. These philosophical points in the sports encourage a self-growth space within the martial arts that equip athletes with similar principles for life. As mentioned prior, the sport of Judo continues to grow in the 21^st century with current estimates exceeding 20 million judokas across more the 200 countries.  The popularity of the sport has demonstrated increased from 2.2 million in 1997 to 20 million in 2013.

That is an almost 10x increase in participation over 16years. This increasing popularity in Judo has accrued injury interest with focus placed on the athlete availability or injury prevention. The highest level of injury research was conducted in 2013 by Pocecco and colleagues.⁴ This Systematic Literature Review identified the competition injury rate in male Judokas to range from 41.3 –48.5 injuries per 1000 athlete exposures and 34.3 – 40.9 injuries per 1000 athlete exposures for females.⁴ The most reported injury types include sprains, strains and contusions cumulatively accounting between 87.7 – 27.8% of all reported injuries.⁴ Injury location favoured the extremities with the knee (up to 28%) and shoulder (up to 22%). Finally, injury severity predominantly occurred to the head (70%) in generally younger judokas.⁴

^‍Due to the work of some exceptional researchers in the Judo space, a current yet preliminary injury prevention program has been designed by von Gerhardt and colleagues that look to reduce the Judo injury burden through the IPPON injury program.⁵ This program focuses on 3 aspects of injury prevention: flexibility & agility, balance & coordination and strength & stability (see: https://bmjopensem.bmj.com/content/bmjosem/6/1/e000791.full.pdf).This program is recommended to be performed at least 2 times a week at the start of judo training.⁵

At the CombatSportsChiro the application and follow through of these injury prevention programs are paramount for athlete well-being. Shoot us a message/email or select the book now button to inquire further in person.