Nutrition in Combat Sports

260 C. White and P. Rollitt
These are high-risk exercises that must not be performed sloppily or every day.
Regaining the explosive power and confidence to leap, bound, hop, and jump in
sagittal and lateral planes on a tatami to resume fighting is the key to a successful
rehabilitation program. [36–38]
Asking the simple question ‘ do you trust your knee on the mat? ’ is a quick
way of establishing how good the rehabilitation program has been. Being able to
achieve the pre-injury 1 rep max in a squat is a marker of success, but if that athlete
cannot perform multiple single-leg hops on the injured leg, they will find it hard to
get back to the highest level of competition.
Being able to get from a close compacted position in the knee in a deep squat
to fully extended position while lifting their opponent and rotating to execute a
throw requires immense explosive power through a full range of movements in a
stable knee.
Sprinting and backward running – these are important skills for judokas
to have.
Acceleration and deceleration over short distances establish good knee/lower
limb power.
Backward running and changes of direction or tight cutting actions is good for
training hamstrings, gluteals, and gastrocnemius.
This goes together with the SAQ drills and can be done at the track or on the
tatami if the dojo is big enough.
Proprioceptive drills – disturbances in joint position sense need to be trained
from an early stage in rehabilitation in both weight-bearing and non-weight-bearing
situations. The use of balance boards and stability discs, profitters, trampets, and
resistance tubing are common in physiotherapy treatments and are helpful.
Judo requires an enormous amount of careful footwork and these patterns are
often used in warm-up techniques. By breaking these patterns down, physiotherapists
can utilize them as proprioceptive drills. Gradually building up into the full
pattern and then loading it with resistance with an Uke or resistance tubing facilitates
progression.
Throwing drills – this is one of the final stages of rehabilitation before moving
into full randori and then competition. Executing a full complement of throwing
techniques, ensuring a confidence in break falling, and being a Uke for someone in
training will tick all the right boxes of successful rehabilitation.
Within this category injuries to the infrapatella fat pad have been mentioned.
They do not create the instability that other injuries do, but they do occur often and
can be very painful. Repeated landing on the knee can cause a local swelling and
some bruising to the fat pad and on some occasions to the patella cartilage The use
of knee pads is highly recommended for training only. Fat pad bruising is treated
with the application of a cold pack ensuring not to place ice directly on the skin to
prevent ice burns. If symptoms persist, then a consultation with a sports medicine
physician may be necessary.
This chapter has briefly outlined some of the injuries that are sustained in judo.
Achieving the highest level of recovery from these injuries is often limited by a lack
of sports-specific knowledge.