Is there not a apperatus involved where to White belts competing not be able to pull off certian moves? IE, ones that are considered at a next level, or indeed higher belt level, moves?
Sure, Transk53, and it's already done to a large degree. In kids divisions, any technique that puts pressure on the spine is banned. For example, in the kids brackets, a triangle is okay, but no pulling on the head to finish. No guillotines. No ezekiels. Nothing that would exert pressure on the spine.
In adult divisions, neck cranks are illegal, and while you can use a can opener within closed guard, you have to let it go once the guard is open (in other words, that's a minor exception to the neck crank, but only because the guy on bottom can relieve the pressure on his neck by simply opening his guard.)
There is also a general principle for kids that tears equal tap. In other words, if water comes out of your eyeball and lands on your cheek, you are done, whether you tapped or not.
I don't fault that referee one bit. That technique is one I've seen countless times, and I've never seen it cause any injury to a person.
If the question on the table is how to prevent this in the future, I'd say the only thing that could have been done (or could be done in the future) is to be more mindful of putting kids into the adult brackets. But even there, I'd say it's case by case, and really provided that the parents, the coaches and the kid were all in agreement and felt he was ready, I can see it.
But the bottom line is this. I think this is a terrible thing, but I'm not convinced that anything like this could be avoided, any more than you can completely eliminate injuries in literally any activity. It's a contact sport, just like any other. Overall, I've seen fewer injuries in jiu jitsu than I've seen in much less time watching youth soccer or football games.
I was at a tournament just this last Saturday here in the Seattle/Tacoma area. It was huge for a single day event. There were over 800 gi matches and close to 450 no-gi matches. No serious injuries and only a few minor ankle twists or sore elbows. This is typical. In 8 years, I've seen two serious injuries. One was a neck injury from a guy who got stacked and rolled funny (not broken, but it was scary). Another was a guy who reached back to catch himself on a takedown, and you can guess what happened to his arm.
I wasn't refereeing on Saturday, but I've reffed in the past. I've been to many, many local referee training camps and have attended the "official" IBJJF seminar in the past as well, down in California. I've seen probably over 10,000 competitive matches in person, some as a fan, some as a referee, and many working the tournament in some other capacity (usually managing the brackets). Referees do look for dangerous situations, and they do anticipate trouble.
I've actually seen referees in local tournaments tell a guy, "Watch the slam." You can see it coming, when they pick the opponent up off the ground. The athletes are all warned about dangerous techniques before they compete, whether it's heel hooks, neck cranks, slams or reaping the knee (which is a big one).
In addition, we make the kids brackets based upon the age, belt and weight of the kids who actually apply. We discourage any child from cutting weight, and try to match the kids up with other kids who are about their same size, age and experience level. It's a pain, but it's worth it, because you don't want a 12 year old yellow belt who weighs 65 lbs grappling against a 12 year old yellow belt who weighs 130 lbs.
My point is, I agree that we should do everything we can to keep people safe, but there's a point where you would have to bubble wrap kids to do this. The only sure fire way to keep a kid from getting injured doing anything is to prevent them from doing everything.
