A scoping review on Para Judo.

This scoping review aimed to summarize the literature on Para judo comprehensively. A systematic search on WOS, PubMed, SPORTDiscus and Scopus was carried out up to July 2022, combining the keywords "judo" and "visual impairment", "visual disability", "visual deficiency", "visually handicapped", "low vision", "sight loss", "blind", "disability" "deficiency" and "Paralympic". The research question was focused on athletes with visual impairment (VI) who practiced judo at a competitive level. Five methodological phases were followed: (i) identifying the research question, (ii) identifying relevant studies, (iii) study selection, (iv) charting the data, and (v) collating, summarizing, and reporting the results. A total of 44 studies were analyzed. Three lines of research emerged: Physical Fitness (n = 18), Performance and/orSport Class (n = 15) and Physical and Mental Health (n = 11). Findings indicated that judokas with VI showed a similar fitness level to able-sighted judokas. Also, it was observed that Para judo shows a considerable injury incidence, which is not influenced by the degree of VI. The temporal structure of the combats, together with the studies focused on the optimal cut-off points between sports classes, confirmed the appropriateness of the recent changes in the regulations by which partially sighted judokas and functional blind judokas compete separately.