The perception of risk and incidence of injury may lead to a fear of the breakfall movement, which could be detrimental to breakfall kinematics and may even more increase the risk of head injuries when being thrown in judo. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the relationships between the fear of movement and the breakfall kinematics for osoto-gari in novice judokas. Eight experienced and ten novice judokas volunteered to participate in this study. The motion data of the break fall for osoto-gari were collected with a three-dimensional motion analysis technique. We found the similar trend of joint angle curve and peak head extension momentum between the novice judokas who felt fear of the breakfall and those who did not. The result indicates that the fear of the movement may not be associated with the skill level of breakfall motion for osoto-gari.
