I get emailed almost every week from beginner or older Judoka asking me how they can avoid injury when practicing Judo. This is one reason why I started this site in the first place. Here are what I believe are the top 5 ways to avoid injury when practicing Judo.
Injury Prevention #1: Know your breakfalls
I cannot stress breakfalls enough. The more confident you are with breakfalls the less chance yo have of injury. Most Judoka I see get injured are the judoka who cannot breakfall well. They may be able to breakfall during the warm up but they stiffen up when being thrown which will hurt you a heck of a lot more than if you relax and LET your partner throw you.
LEARN your breakfalls early on in your judo career, this will save you a lot of heartache.
Injury Prevention #2: Accept throws
Nearly every injury that happens during randori happens because the individual is trying to not be thrown. They twist, bridge and stick arms out in order to not concede a score, but in doing so they risk injury. A few years ago I trained with an incredible judoka who made it his mission to never ever be thrown, he would stick his arm out and cart wheel out of every throw. And although this was great athleticism guess who was injured the most? Yep, him. I encourage you to defend at 50% but there is that point in a throw where you can either defend it with 110% of you can let your opponent have the throw. I encourage you to choose the ‘letting your opponent have the throw option’ because then you can get up and keep fighting. However if you are a competition Judoka then this will be an entirely different matter, but this site is for beginners not competition judoka.
Choose your opponents wisely
Injury Prevention #3: Choose partners wisely
This is a smart move. If you are 60kgs then donÂ’t got grabbing the 100kg rugby player to do randori with because chances are they may injure you. Yes, i they 100kg rugby guy is a black belt with sound technique then he probably wont hurt you, but i know for a fact that 100kg yellow belt rugby guy can cause some damage. So choose your partners wisely.
If you find one of the Judoka from the club throws you way way too hard and never supports you when he throws, mention it to your sensei and ask that you no longer work with that person and your sensei should be able to accommodate you.
Also if that weird dude creeps you out, make sure you let your coach know so you donÂ’t get partnered with them.
But choose your partners carefully and if your opponent is suing way too much strength, let them know to loosen up and feel judo opposed to trying to Hulk smash you over for a score.
Injury Prevention #4: Being too strong
If you are fighting with too much strength chances are you will injure someone OR injure yourself. So loosen up, feel the judo and try not to muscle people over. I find this is mainly a common problem with bigger beginner judoka who donÂ’t quite know how strong they are. Be loose and this will ensure you dont hurt yourself, or your training partners.
Injury Prevention #5 Have a rest if you need one
The tireder you get the more likely you are to get injured. When you are tired, your co-ordination drops, you get heavy on your feet and you make bad decisions, and this is when injures occur. I find when people get tired they start to rely on strength and bodyweight opposed to technique which is not what judo is about. if you are tired have a rest, watch the higher belts and learn by watching them train.
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