Optic Nerve Atrophy and Judo Athletes
For athletes with disabilities, there is an ever-increasing pool of sports available in which they can compete. From wheelchair basketball to murder ball, the options are expanding and many have already become Paralympic sports. One of the most fascinating Paralympic sports is judo, a martial art that derives its origins from Jujutsu (“What is Judo and Kodokan,” 2014). According to the article “What is Judo and Kodokan” (2014) Judo was created by Professor Jigoro Kano in an effort to emphasize, “the larger educational value of training in attack and defense so that it could be a path or way of life that all people could participate in and benefit from” (para. 1). A sport like judo requires excellent skills in balance, timing, strength, and others found in similar martial arts. Fortunately for an athlete like Adam, who has optic nerve atrophy and desires to play judo, there are ways for athletes with visual impairments to become involved in the sport.
Optic nerve atrophy is a debilitating condition that in almost all cases leads to blindness or near blindness. According to the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (2014), the disease is classified as “mild to severe damage to the optic nerve that can adversely affect central vision and color vision” (“Optic nerve atrophy,” para. 2). What is even more devastating is that there is no known cure for the disease – the damage caused to the eye by optic nerve atrophy cannot be undone. In order to treat the disease, the only option is “limiting further optic nerve damage (if possible),” (“Optic nerve atrophy,” para. 5). For those with optic nerve damage as a result of the disease, if vision has not been completely lost, co...
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...daptive sports. Judo is just one of many options for athletes like Adam, and the increasing presence of adaptive sports will only serve to provide these athletes with more competitive options.
References
IBSA judo rules 2009-2013. (2013). International Blind Sports Federation. Retrieved March 30, 2014 from http://www.ibsasport.org/sports/judo/rules/
Ohlenkamp, N. (2014). Visually impaired athletes in judo competition. Judoinfo.com. Retrieved April 2, 2014 from http://judoinfo.com/virules.htm
Optic nerve atrophy. (2014). American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus. Retrieved March 30, 2014 from http://www.aapos.org/terms/conditions/81
What is judo? (2013). World Judo Day. Retrieved April 2, 2014 from http://www.worldjudoday.com/en/WhatisJudo-57.html
What is judo and Kodokan? (2014). Judoinfo.com. Retrieved April 2, 2014 from http://judoinfo.com
Do you ever want to hit that triple pirouette? Or hold your arabesque for over thirty seconds? In order to do both those things, you need to have great balance. My science fair project demonstrates the effect of sight and balance. My scientific question is: How does changing dancer’s eyesight affect their balance? I will be eliminating sight completely, create tunnel vision, exclude the use of their dominant eye, lower the amount of light, distort their vision, and flash strobe lights above the dancers.
Injuries are common in most sports that have a contact component attached. Whether it’s at a professional level, or a school level, injuries are always bound to occur in contact sport. This analysis will look into the role headgear could, should and would play, and debates whether it should be made mandatory. Olympic sports such as Ice Hockey, Bicycle Riding and Baseball are just some examples that currently require athletes to wear a form of headgear. However, Australian contact sports such as AFL and Rugby give the option for players to wear headgear for protection. In 2011, 14 year old Ben Robinson was hospitalised after being treated 3 times in a game for head blows in a rugby game . In 1994, professional boxer Bradley Stone died from head injuries whilst boxing against Richie Wenton . Examples like these show the brutality of contact sports. Because of this, my paper will look at the issue of headgear in contact sport and will particularly look at this issue at junior sports level.
Optometrists have accepted vision therapy, which is a medical treatment for optical muscle disabilities, as a feasible treatment used for eye related problems; claiming the treatment can strengthen vision and give the patient the opportunity to understand visuals quicker and clearer (Press). Vision therapy originated in the 1950s and over the past 25 years, has gained popularity, mainly because of new technological innovations in the field of treatment. Generally, vision therapy is prescribed as a measure mainly for people between the ages of 3 and 18. With the results from a comprehensive series of eye tests, the optometrist can work with the patient using special instruments—prisms, filters, occluders, and eye lenses—and strengthen the eye muscles, thus improving sight. According to optometrists in favor of vision therapy, these methods of treatment using these instruments function as safer routes to repair eye disabilities. Although vision therapy can yield favorable results, the practice as a treatment for innate eye disabilities has been in hot debate lately; as it can exceed $8000 and insurance companies do not cover the treatment. For decades, insurance companies have refused to accept vision therapy as a legitimate method for repairing eyesight (Boink). Concomitant with lack of insurance, the cost for a full treatment can exceed $8000, and doctors cannot guarantee a successful outcome. Recently, parents of children with eye related disabilities, such as amblyopia (lazy eye) and strabismus (cross-eye), and doctors have attempted to cooperate with public schools to allow families access to school-funded doctors to practice vision therapy. With a tight budget, most schools cannot afford to supply vision therapy, and a...
Butryn believes, the challenge that is issued is whether an athlete 's ability has a dramatic change in his performance due to technology. I believe that technology should not give an athlete more ability than a regular athlete because at that point it becomes unfair to both competitors. Trivino states, “The sports practiced by athletes who have had organs or mechanical parts implanted and their desire to take part in regular athletic competitions puts sports authorities in an ethical and legal tight spot” (118). Trivino believes Authorities are put into an ethical and legal tight spot because there must be a line drawn. A line that clearly states what is and isn 't allowed to be able to take part in regular athletic competitions. I believe it becomes unfair and too much of an advantage for the athlete to use in competition. According to Trivino, “The cyberization of sport has occupied a role in medical and sport fields in recent years due to the fact that this issue calls into question the very foundations of contemporary sport,
Vision loss from glaucoma is permanent but can be prevented with early detection and treatment. Since the symptoms of the disease are usually unnoticeable, regular eye examination are important especially for persons over the age of 35 and those in high risk group.
Broer was the first to call attention to the similarity of movement patterns used in seemingly dissimilar activities such as the baseball pitch, the badminton clear, and the tennis serve. Objective evidence of such similarities between throwing and striking activities within each of the three major upper-extremity patterns; overarm, sidearm and underarm. The representative activities from these categories across throwing patterns also showed great similarity in the muscular action of the lower extremity. Atwater distinguished between the overarm and sidearm throwing patterns in terms of the direction in which the trunk laterally flexed. When lateral flexion occurred away from the throwing arm, and overarm pattern was used; lateral flexion toward the throwing arm indicated a sidearm pattern. The underarm patter is distinguished by motion predominantly in a sagittal plane with the hand below the waist. Each pattern involves a preparatory movement referred to as a backswing, or windup, followed by the establishment of a base of support prior to the initiation of the force phase and ending in the follow-through. The base of support in the direction of the force application; forward and backward is a distinguishing feature of skill level. It has been well documented that more highly skilled individuals have longer strides. Once the base has been established, the more proximal segments begin the force application phase while the more distal segments complete the backswing.
The Standing Overarm Throw (SOT) is a single-handed throw of an object where it is released above the shoulder. The SOT is a complex skill that involves the entire body. The SOT is an open kinetic chain, which refers to movements in which successive body joints move in combination and where the last segment of movement is free. In SOT, there are many joints or segments involved which generate the force needed to achieve a further distance. Using more joints can produce more force. Force summation also plays a part. Force is generated from the major muscle groups (legs), which is accelerated through the pelvis and the trunk, and culminates in the arm, wrists and fingers. Most of the overhead throw takes place in the limbs, which is a 3rd class lever. The lever is the whole of the moment arm – with the force arm is at the elbow joint and the resistance arm is from the elbow to the wrist/fingers. A player who can utilize this lever to the maximum potential is able to generate more force to propel the object forward. The objective for this paper is to compare the differences in the standing overarm throw between an adult and a child below 7 years old using a plastic shuttlecock. The measurements of the distance thrown are tabulated below:
There are currently around 16 clubs across the UK; the sport is still a developing hence why there is one club in Scotland, two in Wales and thirteen in England, compared to 58 wheelchair basketball clubs in the West Midlands alone. At the 1996 Athens Paralympics Wheelchair Rugby was a demonstration sport and in 2000 at the Sydney Paralympic games, wheelchair rugby was first considered a full medal sport and has been ever since. Despite the growth of the sport one of the major barriers is the cost of the chairs. Rugby wheelchairs are specifically designed to withstand collisions and cost around £3,000 (Roma Sport) and according to UK Sport, elite wheelchair rugby players have to replace their chair around every 18 months. Whereas compared to wheelchair basketball the chairs cost around £1,000 to £2,000 (Roma Sport) I have chosen to examine wheelchair rugby, specifically Great Britain Wheelchair Rugby, as I play rugby myself and I am interested in how rugby has been developed into a disability sport. As well as the development of the sport and the development programs in place for
Burfoot, Amby. "The Disabled Athlete Has an Unfair Advantage." Footloose: Amby Burfoot's Notes from the Road (24 June 2007). Rpt. in The Olympics. Ed. Tamara L. Roleff. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2009. General Onefile. Web.
Commonly referred to as football, soccer has become a revolution in many parts of the world. It is a big part of people’s lives, be it for leisure or career (Mason, Viii). Soccer has developed over the years to include many different variations of the game. According to Television Fanatic (par 2), many of the variations develop out of need while others are tailored to suit particular groups of people like the disabled.
Glaucoma is a common and important health problem. It is one of the leading causes of blindness in Western Society (Hoskins & Kass, 1989). It is responsible for ten percent of all blindness in the United States and continues to be the second or third most common cause of blindness in the world (Bunce, Fraser, & Wormald, 1999). It is estimated that two million people in the United States have been diagnosed as having glaucoma. Glaucoma is known to affect about two percent of Caucasians beginning at the age of 40 with an increasing risk for those over the age of 60. This risk is especially high if a member of the family has glaucoma or diabetes. Further, there is a higher risk of a glaucoma diagnosis for African Americans over the age of 40.
Ultimate, glaucoma can be a very serious and a chronic disorder that needs to be taken care of right away as soon as something is unusual about the a person’s vision because once vision loss there’s no way to regain eye sight. The best way to do this is to get the eyes checked every so often before something goes wrong. Without eye sight, life itself will be unrealistic and people will struggle trying to explore new opportunities. Over 2.2 million Americans have glaucoma and only half of those know it. In the United States itself, more than 120,000 people are blind from glaucoma. This eye disorder is nothing to sit around and wait for the condition to improve on it’s on because in the end a person will end up blind.
The sheer energy of a gymnast alone can be felt by audiences of all ages, but what the spectators lack the ability to feel is the pounding of the bodies that bear the impact of the athletes in action. Gymnastics consists of a mixture of acrobatic performances of four different events for females, and six different events for males (Gianoulis 1). Gymnastics is demanding in a multitude of ways, including: physically, emotionally and mentally. It requires countless hours of dedication. The concerns of most gymnasts are moving up to the next level, or getting a more advanced skill, while the concerns of the doctors, coaches, and parents revolve mostly around the athlete’s health, which is put at stake for the adored yet dangerous sport. Injuries are common among both male and female gymnast alike, but due to the fact a female gymnast’s career peaks at the same time of major growth and development, a female gymnast’s body as a whole is more likely to undergo lifelong changes or affects (Gianoulis 2). Among the injuries of the mind blowing athletes, the most common ones affect the ankles, feet, lower back, wrist, and hands of individuals (Prevention and Treatment 1). From sprains, to the breaks, the intriguing sport of gymnastics is physically demanding on a gymnast’s body.
"Mixed Martial Arts: Sport or Spectacle? : NPR." NPR : National Public Radio : News & Analysis, World, US, Music & Arts : NPR. 24 Aug. 2007. Web. 15 May 2011. .Website
Christopher Bidlack, an author of studies involving changes in the use of prosthetics in sports and contributor to sports law studies on Marquette University’s research website, feels that the reason this topic is relevant today is because the technology behind prosthetic limbs has evolved greatly, both in terms of design and materials. Because of this great jump in the quality of prosthetics, American sports entities will soon have to determine whether disabled athletes will be eligible to compete on prosthetic limbs(Bidlack). It is because of this approaching decision that many officials fear the change and outcome of either banning or allowing the use of prosthetics in the sports. Along with this “there is frustration among athletes, but also fears that a liberal approach to enhancements would prove controversial. Double amputees are increasingly running faster than single counterparts as neither leg tires and they can take longer strides, creating a potential incentive to have both removed”(Monks). Meaning that by allowing the use of prosthetic limbs in sports, a moral dilemma could arise regarding an encouraged amputation of both limbs in order to perform better in the sport. The safety of the other athlete is also a major concern for officials. With the design of these prosthetic limbs, officials find them to pose a possible safety hazard to other athletes on the field. One incident occurred when paralympic runner Blake Leeper’s prosthetic limb came off during the paralympic trials as he crossed the finish line(Rubinroit). Many saw this as dangerous to the other athletes on the track as it could possibly lead to their injury. It is clear to see that whether or not amputee athletes can participate in the sports sanctioned for able bodied athletes will pose problems for the future, but with regulations and changes to the