Today is Rowans Law Day, a day we honour the memory of Rowan Stringer and bring awareness to concussions and concussion safety in Ontario. As judoka hit the mats for another season, and to mark #RowansLawDay on September 27th, we have complied several resources on concussion awareness. Please take the time to review and familiarize yourself with the signs and symptoms of concussions and what to do if there are any concerns about a potential concussion.
The Coaches Association of Ontario has prepared a comprehensive Concussion Toolkit (https://www.coachesontario.ca/programs-resources/concussion/). This Toolkit provides Ontario Coaches with the relevant tools and materials to support the use of consistent concussion protocols across all sport settings. It is aligned with the Canadian Guideline on Concussion in Sport and Rowan’s Law.
Judo Ontario and Judo Canada have sport-specific information in place for Removal-from-Sport and Return-to-Sport protocols, to improve concussion safety. These policies and protocols are available on the Judo Ontario webite and the Judo Canada website
https://www.judoontario.ca/rowan-s-law
https://judocanada.org/concussion-information/
More details on Rowan’s Law and the Government of Ontario resources - https://www.ontario.ca/page/rowans-law-concussion-awareness-resources
CONCUSSION INFORMATION
A CONCUSSION is a type of traumatic brain injury caused by a bump, blow or jolt to the head, face, neck or body that causes the head and brain to move rapidly back and forth and can alter the way the brain normally functions.
Example of some Signs & Symptoms
Physical (e.g., headache, dizziness),
Cognitive (e.g., difficulty concentrating or remembering),
Emotional/behavioral (e.g., depression, irritability), or
Related to sleep (e.g., drowsiness, poor quality of sleep)
Some athletes will develop symptoms immediately while others will develop delayed symptoms (beginning 24-48 hours after the injury). For a complete list of signs and symptoms please refer to the documents below.
A concussion should be suspected in any athlete who:
Sustains a significant impact to the head, face, neck, or body
Reports ANY symptoms of a concussion
Demonstrates ANY visual signs of a concussion
Or if anyone witnesses an athlete exhibiting ANY of the visual signs of concussion.
The CONCUSSION REPORTING FORM was developed to help Judo Canada monitor the occurrence of concussions during judo related activities (competition or training). This On-line form should be completed and submitted any time a concussion is suspected following an incident which occurred during a judo related activity.
