Concussion injuries are a top news story, but more importantly, concussions are a very serious health issue that impacts Judo. Our coach education courses does an excellent job making our coaches, students and parents aware of the consequences of concussion accidents, however not every dojo instructor , student or parent is certified though our Coach Certificate program.
In order to bring more attention to this serious issue, we would like to point your attention to the U.S. Center of Disease Control’s (CDC) informative on line offering of concussion information. The course is called Heads Up to Youth: Online Training and it discusses the cause, detection and appropriate actions taken if a potential or actual concussion injury occurs. The CDC course is informative and is a must for anyone involved in teaching or participating in Judo.
The CDC course is free to take and leads to a certificate upon the completion. We urge all members of the USJA to take advantage of this timely and important opportunity. You can go on to the CDC website and review, sign up and take the course at the following URL:
http://www.cdc.gov/HeadsUp/youthsports/training/index.html
While the course is not mandatory at this time, it is possible that our insurance company will require every chartered club leader to become certified in the future as a condition of having the USJA charter your club.