Youngsters impress in karate’s Shoto Cup

School rugby safety concerns

Lehumo, a Grade 7 pupil from Glenstantia Primary in Pretoria and a red belt in karate, was competing in the men’s 12/13 category against martial artists from around the world.

And, just like team SA in Brazil, the country’s junior team can look back on a successful medals haul.

South African juniors aged between 10 and 17 won a total 53 medals.

The event, which took place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre last weekend, attracted more than 380 martial artists from 20 countries.

The event kicked off on Saturday with juniors performing katas, a Japanese term for a choreographed pattern of specified movements. A panel of international judges checked that each of the movements were exact and precise and awarded scores.

Then it was time for the main event – kumite, Japanese for sparring.

Here pairs of competitors, wearing gloves, battled it out in a knock-out format on large foam mats called tatami. Five judges adjudicated each bout to check who scored hits. As the event progressed, young martial artists proudly showed off their medals, which were awarded in gold, silver and bronze to the winners of both the kata and kumite events.

While the sparring was intense and medics had to be called to check on incapacitated competitors more than once, the mood remained friendly and respectful.

Competitors made a point of congratulating each other even when someone lost his or her bout of sparring.

South Africa entered the largest team at the event, with 153 members taking part, including 50 from a youth development team. ELEVEN weeks ago, Springbok flyhalf Patrick Lambie was pole-axed by a tackle from Ireland flanker CJ Stander in a Test match in the city. Lambie has not played since because of concussion concerns – following doctor’s orders will ensure his safe return to the game.

So said Dr Glen Hagemann, past president of the South African Sports Medicine Association and the head of the SharkSmart programme based at the Sharks Medical Centre at Kings Park.

Concussion is topical because of the concern over Lambie, 25, and the death of a Falcons rugby player a week before the recent Craven Week tournament.

But these are extreme cases and Hagemann said while concussion should be taken seriously, 80 percent of concussed players are playing again in three weeks.

Every four years international experts meet to debate the latest research to update the guidelines which are then adopted by most international sporting federations.

But how at risk is a schoolboy? Hagemann said about 17 percent of schoolboy players are concussed in a season, or about one in six. But Hagemann said the chance of

Sensei San Pillay, an eighth dan black belt and the president and chief instructor of the ISKF South Africa, praised the performance of the South African juniors, noting many were competing in an international competition for the first time.

“Hosting the championship locally gave students that cannot afford to attend

over in the street

a serious injury in rugby is less than getting knocked over crossing the street.

A risk study by Britain’s University of Nottingham researched just about everything in life from playing rugby to driving a car and found that an “acceptable risk” is 0.1 to two catastrophic incidents a year per 100 000 participants in an activity. Where does rugby fit in? “If you look at incidents like neck injuries, in England rugby is acceptable in that it comes in at 0.8 incidents per 100 000 players,” Hagemann said. “But Fiji is 13, which is out of the bounds of ‘acceptable’. Pedestrians have a risk of 3.7 per 100 000.”

Rugby in SA rates around two incidents per 100 000 players, which places it on the margin of acceptability. Gymnasts (8/100 000) have four times higher risk of suffering a championships abroad the chance to compete against international competitors,” he added.

Pillay was confident hosting the championship would encourage more youth to take up karate as a sport.

And the youngsters representing team SA were already looking forward to the next competition.

“Most of them have come to me and said, ‘sensei we have to work harder and do better in the next World Cup’,” said Pillay. jan.cronje@inl.co.za catastrophic injury. Schoolboy rugby has less than half of the risk of senior rugby, probably because of younger, more resilient bodies and collisions that are not as heavy as in senior rugby.

But there is concern about how these injuries are dealt with at school level. It can happen that a boy returns to the playing field still concussed, and has“second-impact syndrome” – a concussion on a concussion, that can have dire consequences.

“All school coaches need to be Boksmart accredited, and... are exposed to the concussion management guidelines. If a coach chooses not to follow these (he) places his school at medico-legal risk. Believe it or not, pressure also comes from parents to bypass the process.”

“In 90 percent of concussion cases, there is no loss of consciousness. You also do not have to take a direct knock to the head. A heavy knock to the chest can give you whiplash (resulting in possible concussion).”

Experts list 21 possible symptoms of concussion – from immediate stumbling and confusion on the field to later problems such as memory loss, sleep disturbance, irritability and an inability to concentrate. – Weekend Argus Reporter

PICTURE: BACKPAGEPIX Patrick Lambie is injured by a tackle from CJ Stander of Ireland during a match in the 2016 test series between South Africa and Ireland at Newlands Stadium on June 11.