| Summary: | To establish a basis for initial diagnosis and for proposing preventive measures for the serious neck injuries occasionally experienced by judo practitioners, the biomechanical mechanisms of these injuries were analyzed. Two male judo experts repeatedly threw an anthropomorphic test device (POLAR dummy) using three throwing techniques (<i>Seoi-nage</i>, <i>Osoto-gari</i>, and <i>Ouchi-gari</i>). The dummy’s kinematic data were captured using a high-speed digital camera, and the load and moment of the neck were measured with load cells. The neck injury criterion (<i>N</i><sub>ij</sub>) and beam criterion were also calculated. In <i>Seoi-nage</i>, the anterior and parietal regions of the dummy’s head contacted the tatami (judo mat). Subsequently, most of the body weight was applied, with the neck experiencing the highest compression. However, in <i>Osoto-gari</i> and <i>Ouchi-gari</i>, the occipital region of the dummy’s head contacted the tatami. Significantly higher values of both <i>N</i><sub>ij</sub> (median 0.68) and beam criterion (median 0.90) corresponding to a 34.7% to 37.1% risk of neck injury with an abbreviated injury scale score ≥2 were shown in <i>Seoi-nage</i> than in either <i>Ouchi-gari</i> or <i>Osoto-gari</i>. In judo, when thrown by the <i>Seoi-nage</i> technique, serious neck injuries can occur as a result of neck compression that occurs when the head contacts the ground.
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