| dc.description.abstract | Judo is a form of budo, or martial way, developed in Japan by Professor Jigoro Kano (1860–1938) and originally called Kodokan Judo (Bennett, 2009). The three fundamental tenets of judo are described as: physical education, contest proficiency and mental training with the ultimate goal of making the individual a value to society (Sasaki, 2006). Harm can occur to participants during competition or whilst training (Pocecco et al., 2013). The most common types of judo injuries among judo athletes in Japan, United Kingdom (UK) and elsewhere are contusion / abrasions fractures, sprains and strains (Malliaropoulos et al., 2013; Pierantozzi, Muroni, & Lubisco, 2010; Pocecco et al., 2013). However, since 1988, One hundred and twenty judo athletes have been involved in catastrophic accident cases in Japan, in which the athletes have subsequently died or are in a permanent vegetative state (Kamitani, Nimura, Nagahiro, Miyazaki, & Tomatsu, 2013; Uchida, 2011). The Japanese Judo Accident Victims Association, (JJAVA, 2011) assert that a proportion of those injuries to Japanese athletes were as a result of abusive behaviours from authority figures. SportscoachUK (SportscoachUK, 2013) assert that as a result of abuse children may die, suffer pain and distress, develop behavioural difficulties, experience school related problems, develop low self-esteem, suffer depression or inflict self-harm which may lead to suicide attempts, become withdrawn or introverted or suffer temporary or permanent injury. Categories of abuse listed by the British Judo Association (BJA, 2014) are; physical, sexual, emotional, neglect and bullying. The British Judo Association define neglect within a Judo situation as occurring when “a young player is exposed to an unacceptable risk of injury” (BJA, 2014). As one hundred and twenty deaths or serious injuries to young people have occurred within Japanese Judo between 1983 and 2015 (Kamitani et al., 2013; Pocecco et al., 2013), participants could be considered to be at an unacceptable risk of injury. The judo situation in Japan could be defined as neglectful. Serious injuries considered in this study include but are not restricted to Acute Subdural Hematoma (ASDH) (Affla, Omiya, Iteya, Kamitani, & Tomatsu, 2012), and Second Impact Syndrome (SID) (Cantu, 2016), which on occasion result in permanent vegetative state, or death. These injuries are associated with Japanese Judo activity (JJAVA, 2011) but are not evident within UK Judo (BJA, 2014). This study seeks to explore possible reasons why this might be. | en |
