HomeHere in Italy they have a law that to practise Judo you must present a medical certificate - a clean bill of health. I have trained in many countries but this is the first time I have come across this and initially I viewed it as an inconvenience as Im only here for a month and its not easy to get one - but now I'm beginning to think it makes sense. At first I thought it was just to make sure you didnt have a heart condition and drop down dead on the tatami - but then my wife also mentioned diseases like HIV could be spread by blood. This has never crossed my mind before - but then I think about the amount of times Ive seen a blood splattered gi - or a nail has come loose leaving a cut on the finger - the more I think about it the more it seems like a valid health concern. What do you think - should the Italian system be adopted internationally ?
+7
The_Harvest
afja_lm139
rjohnston411
finarashi
Jonesy
Steve Leadbeater
Gus
11 posters
Medical certificates required to practice Judo ?
Gus- Posts : 142
Join date : 2013-03-01
Steve Leadbeater- Posts : 205
Join date : 2013-02-26
Age : 68
Location : Sydney Australia
- Post n°2
Re: Medical certificates required to practice Judo ?
by Steve Leadbeater Sat Apr 20, 2013 7:50 pm
NO !!
Jonesy- Posts : 1070
Join date : 2013-01-02
Never seen it anywhere or experienced it anywhere - inc. Italy.
finarashi- Posts : 507
Join date : 2013-01-11
Location : Finland
- Post n°4
Re: Medical certificates required to practice Judo ?
by finarashi Sat Apr 20, 2013 11:42 pm
Bigger probolem surely are the other things these kind of certificates do not convey, like; How clean is the tatami? How clean are the fingernails? How clean is the dressing room?
Gus- Posts : 142
Join date : 2013-03-01
Jonesy wrote:Never seen it anywhere or experienced it anywhere - inc. Italy.
Thats weird - two clubs have mentioned it here in Florence - I assume its an Italy wide thing but maybe its just a Tuscan thing. They seem to be OK if you just want to do one or two practises - but if you want to stay on for a few weeks they ask for it.
rjohnston411- Posts : 109
Join date : 2013-02-12
Age : 37
Location : Ontario
- Post n°6
Re: Medical certificates required to practice Judo ?
by rjohnston411 Sun Apr 21, 2013 12:01 am
It makes sense.
Jonesy- Posts : 1070
Join date : 2013-01-02
Mine was just a one off course....Gus wrote:Jonesy wrote:Never seen it anywhere or experienced it anywhere - inc. Italy.
Thats weird - two clubs have mentioned it here in Florence - I assume its an Italy wide thing but maybe its just a Tuscan thing. They seem to be OK if you just want to do one or two practises - but if you want to stay on for a few weeks they ask for it.
afja_lm139- Posts : 152
Join date : 2012-12-30
Age : 83
- Post n°8
Re: Medical certificates required to practice Judo ?
by afja_lm139 Sun Apr 21, 2013 12:46 am
Can I take my walker out on the tatami? 
Just kidding; I gave that up over three years ago.
Just kidding; I gave that up over three years ago.
The_Harvest- Posts : 71
Join date : 2013-01-03
Location : France
- Post n°9
Re: Medical certificates required to practice Judo ?
by The_Harvest Sun Apr 21, 2013 4:08 am
This also applies in France and not only for Judo.
BillC- Posts : 806
Join date : 2012-12-28
Location : Vista, California
Gus wrote: What do you think - should the Italian system be adopted internationally ?
Hey ... if they can make the trains run on time ...
Cichorei Kano- Posts : 1948
Join date : 2013-01-16
Age : 864
Location : the Holy See
- Post n°11
Re: Medical certificates required to practice Judo ?
by Cichorei Kano Sun Apr 21, 2013 6:00 am
Gus wrote:Here in Italy they have a law that to practise Judo you must present a medical certificate - a clean bill of health. I have trained in many countries but this is the first time I have come across this and initially I viewed it as an inconvenience as Im only here for a month and its not easy to get one - but now I'm beginning to think it makes sense. At first I thought it was just to make sure you didnt have a heart condition and drop down dead on the tatami - but then my wife also mentioned diseases like HIV could be spread by blood. This has never crossed my mind before - but then I think about the amount of times Ive seen a blood splattered gi - or a nail has come loose leaving a cut on the finger - the more I think about it the more it seems like a valid health concern. What do you think - should the Italian system be adopted internationally ?
Yes, it depends on the country, but in some countries in Europe it is common. I think it started somewhere around 1981. In reality it often amounts to rubberstamping.
I am somewhat at loss with the link to HIV, which is a more health hazard than about someone's personal ability to do judo. HIV, by the way, is not a very contagious disease. I am already regretting writing this, as I just know someone will quote this out of context. Hepatitis-B is far more contagious than HIV, and this for all kinds of reasons. I know of no case where someone has attracted HIV through judo, so chances that you would be the first are not much higher than you being killed tomorrow morning when you leave your house because of a part falling off a commercial jet straight on your head.
There are, however, numerous medical reports about skin infections, such as tinea (trichophytosis) and herpes gladiatorum, and unfortunately also MRSA looking around the corner. See, for example:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16280611
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23068588
You can also get these in fitness centers, public showers, etc. Consider it a normal risk of the profession rather than become paranoid because of the risk.
Last edited by Cichorei Kano on Sun Apr 21, 2013 10:13 am; edited 1 time in total
nomoremondays- Posts : 122
Join date : 2013-01-03
Location : Looking for Stars (sort of)
- Post n°12
Re: Medical certificates required to practice Judo ?
by nomoremondays Sun Apr 21, 2013 9:02 am
wow thats quite emphatic lol!Steve Leadbeater wrote:NO !!
anyways, that sounds like a good idea to me.
of course good luck trying to get anything health care related, even if its just a sign off, for cheap in good ole USA.
Stacey- Posts : 554
Join date : 2013-01-17
Location : your worst nightmares
Health certificates are common in the US for school aged children, or at least the "sports physical" with associated form was mandatory every year. One per year no matter how many sports a kid competed in. But of course, this was school sport, not YMCA, AAU, or church league softball.
As an adult, you sign a waiver, and hope that everybody else is being honest, too. I'm talking everybody - from the people who mop the latrines with the same mop they use on the facility floors to other judoka to the doctor you saw 3 years ago for a physical.
Personally, I see the "health certificate" as a bit of a panacea. There's no guarantee that anything's really not amiss. Heart attacks can happen in the parking lot of the doctor's office right after the patient's left the doctor's office. You can get any form of communicable disease from contact with anybody, and drag it into the dojo. Granted, I know that sex workers in Amsterdam and elsewhere have regular STD screenings with a health certificate, but it happens more than once a year and they come into closer contact with their clients than judoka in the dojo anytime. Still, a person would be taking a risk with a red light worker with a valid heath certificate - there's always the possibility, and you are getting intimately close with that person's body and all the creepy crawlies on it.
The best bet is common sense when it comes to communicable conditions and a nice waiver of liability when it comes to somebody not telling the sensei that they're epileptic or something. If you feel ill, stay out of the dojo. If you have a rash or a parasite, stay out of the dojo. Expect your peers to do the same. Be prepared with decent health insurance if they don't.
As for staph - remember, my doc diagnosed my staph as a "latex allergy" even when pus was draining from my leg. It took going to a different doc and having the stuff cultured to get the definitive diagnosis. So, even a health certificate can be pretty faulty.
What would you do if the guy you've been working with for the last few months called you up and said, "you know that cough I've had for forever? yeah, well it turns out it's TB"?
As an adult, you sign a waiver, and hope that everybody else is being honest, too. I'm talking everybody - from the people who mop the latrines with the same mop they use on the facility floors to other judoka to the doctor you saw 3 years ago for a physical.
Personally, I see the "health certificate" as a bit of a panacea. There's no guarantee that anything's really not amiss. Heart attacks can happen in the parking lot of the doctor's office right after the patient's left the doctor's office. You can get any form of communicable disease from contact with anybody, and drag it into the dojo. Granted, I know that sex workers in Amsterdam and elsewhere have regular STD screenings with a health certificate, but it happens more than once a year and they come into closer contact with their clients than judoka in the dojo anytime. Still, a person would be taking a risk with a red light worker with a valid heath certificate - there's always the possibility, and you are getting intimately close with that person's body and all the creepy crawlies on it.
The best bet is common sense when it comes to communicable conditions and a nice waiver of liability when it comes to somebody not telling the sensei that they're epileptic or something. If you feel ill, stay out of the dojo. If you have a rash or a parasite, stay out of the dojo. Expect your peers to do the same. Be prepared with decent health insurance if they don't.
As for staph - remember, my doc diagnosed my staph as a "latex allergy" even when pus was draining from my leg. It took going to a different doc and having the stuff cultured to get the definitive diagnosis. So, even a health certificate can be pretty faulty.
What would you do if the guy you've been working with for the last few months called you up and said, "you know that cough I've had for forever? yeah, well it turns out it's TB"?
Steve Leadbeater- Posts : 205
Join date : 2013-02-26
Age : 68
Location : Sydney Australia
- Post n°14
Re: Medical certificates required to practice Judo ?
by Steve Leadbeater Sun Apr 21, 2013 8:04 pm
nomoremondays wrote:wow thats quite emphatic lol!Steve Leadbeater wrote:NO !!
anyways, that sounds like a good idea to me.
of course good luck trying to get anything health care related, even if its just a sign off, for cheap in good ole USA.
I'm not in the USA........I'm in Australia, we try to be a little different from the rest
Gus- Posts : 142
Join date : 2013-03-01
nomoremondays wrote:wow thats quite emphatic lol!Steve Leadbeater wrote:NO !!
anyways, that sounds like a good idea to me.
of course good luck trying to get anything health care related, even if its just a sign off, for cheap in good ole USA.
I suspect he'd never get his beer belly through a medical exam after all that xxxx and Fosters
On a more serious note I always thought I should get my heart checked out anyway - just in case.
Steve Leadbeater- Posts : 205
Join date : 2013-02-26
Age : 68
Location : Sydney Australia
- Post n°16
Re: Medical certificates required to practice Judo ?
by Steve Leadbeater Mon Apr 22, 2013 10:27 am
[quote="Gus"]
I suspect he'd never get his beer belly through a medical exam after all that xxxx and Fosters
On a more serious note I always thought I should get my heart checked out anyway - just in case.
To see if you actually have one perhaps ??
nomoremondays wrote:wow thats quite emphatic lol!Steve Leadbeater wrote:NO !!
anyways, that sounds like a good idea to me.
of course good luck trying to get anything health care related, even if its just a sign off, for cheap in good ole USA.
I suspect he'd never get his beer belly through a medical exam after all that xxxx and Fosters
On a more serious note I always thought I should get my heart checked out anyway - just in case.
To see if you actually have one perhaps ??
Gus- Posts : 142
Join date : 2013-03-01
[quote="Steve Leadbeater"]
ouch- ippon
Gus wrote:nomoremondays wrote:wow thats quite emphatic lol!Steve Leadbeater wrote:NO !!
anyways, that sounds like a good idea to me.
of course good luck trying to get anything health care related, even if its just a sign off, for cheap in good ole USA.
I suspect he'd never get his beer belly through a medical exam after all that xxxx and Fosters
On a more serious note I always thought I should get my heart checked out anyway - just in case.
To see if you actually have one perhaps ??
ouch- ippon
Sponsored content
|
|
|