Important health and safety information including the dangers associated with weight cutting, understanding concussion, best practices for combat sport gyms, online safety and female athlete health considerations.
Rapid weight loss is a dangerous practice often inappropriately undertaken in combat sports during weight cutting phases.
Don't ignore it, learn about the methods used to recognise and manage concussion.
Considerations when joining a gym, choosing a trainer, best practices for gym owners and online safety advice.
Key female athlete performance and health considerations.
Weight cutting by dehydration is a dangerous practice often inappropriately undertaken in combat sports.
This is where contestants rapidly decrease their body weight before weigh-ins through excessive dehydration, for the purpose of gaining an advantage by competing in a weight class artificially below what could be achieved through diet and training.
Contestants then attempt to regain the 'lost’ weight in the time between the weigh-in and the contest (usually about 24 hours in Western Australia), with the intention of being ‘heavier’ than their opponent in the contest.
Simply being the heavier athlete does not guarantee a win. Athletic performance, coordination and rection times can be compromised by dehydration.
Many physical and mental symptoms occur as a result of weight cutting by dehydration which are harmful and research suggests there may be an association with risk of concussion and delayed (post-contest) onset for illness and injuries.
In addition, while contestants may be able to regain most or all of the rapidly lost weight, contestants may not be adequately hydrated at the time of the contest. This creates an increased risk of injury, which can prove fatal.
Appropriate body mass management practices can support performance, health, and safety, while reducing the risks associated with rapid weight loss and dehydration. Contestants and trainers should adopt evidence-based approaches to achieving and maintaining healthy competition weight, with a focus on gradual weight management, adequate nutrition, hydration, and athlete wellbeing. Refer to the CSC Body Mass Management Guidelines and be aware of the Weight Classes and Missed Weight Policy which applies to contest weigh-ins.
Concussion is an inherent risk of participation in combat sports and may occur during training, sparring or competition. The CSC encourages all those involved in combat sports to increase their awareness and understanding of brain trauma in sports, including concussion and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
Fighting Foundation and the Association of Ringside Physicians provide the following additional information:
Contestants and industry participants must familiarise themselves with and follow the CSC Concussion Management Guidelines, including Hard Bout Cards, obtaining concussion clearance where required, and following a graded return-to-sport pathway.
The CSC urges all contestants, trainers and referees to recognise the signs and symptoms of concussion by using the internationally adopted concussion recognition tool - CRT6.
In collaboration with Connectivity the CSC presents a 45 minute interactive (self-paced) online course to educate contestants and industry participants to recognise and manage concussion in combat sports. This course additionally provides guidance on the CSC Hard Bout Card, concussion clearance requirements and return to sport protocols.
Enrol into the course by first creating an account on the landing page and if you are a CSC registrant please enrol using the same name and email as your CSC registration details for recording of course completion.
The Australian Concussion in Sport website brings together the most contemporary evidence-based information on sports-related concussion and provides valuable and trusted resource specifically for:
eSafety's Sports Hub has advice to help make sure everyone in sport has a safer and more positive experiences online. The CSC Code of Conduct covers both face-to-face and online settings and registrants are encouraged to follow National eSafety Commissioner advice.
"There is no place for online abuse in sport, what you say online matters and we play by the same rules on and offline."
The Australian Institute of Sport has partnered with specialist medical practitioners, high performance athletes and high performance coaches to design a suite of online learning modules. These modules aim to increase knowledge relating to key female athlete performance and health considerations including nutrition for female athletes, low energy availability, contraception, menstrual cycle abnormalities and puberty development.
To ensure the safety of female contestants, all female contestants aged 16 years and above are required to submit a pregnancy test to the medical practitioner as part of the pre-contest medical examination. A contestant who returns a positive test or fails to or refuses to provide a sample will not be allowed to compete and will be withdrawn from the fight card immediately.