"So this insruance is pretty much not for us as fighters at all but cause the tournament itself needs insurance and cant afford it so they make up all pay for it for them ..... ??? "
Sort of. Everybody in say, USA Judo, for example, pays a membership fee. Part of that fee, in fact most of it, goes to pay a part of the insurance premium for all of USA Judo, so that all it's members who run Judo events, plus the SECONDARY sports accident insurance for athletes, are covered for liability.
Again, if all the tournament directors had to pay for insurance separately, it would cost a LOT. Your entry fees would actually GO UP, which would be the real bullshit.
Part of the problem with the expense of Judo insurance is that we have such a small pool of players. IN isurance, the larger the "risk pool", the less the overall risk of having to pay out insurance at any given event becomes. Thus AAU has cheap and decent primary sports accident insurance for athletes in Judo (and TKD, and Sambo, etc. and the other combative sports), because they have one policy for ALL their sports. The risk posed by the relatively small number of more dangerous sports is diluted/offest by the huge numbers of say, track and field and tennis athletes.
Anyway, Judo shiai entry fees are really pretty cheap, especially at the local/state/regional level.
In you case, being female, you probably don't get much competition in Michigan, so you pay a $30 entry fee and get to fight once or twice, so I understand why you might see a need to lower fees. You don't get much if any value for your entry fee money. Which sucks for sure!
I don't know what the solution is, guys. Basically, we need more folks doing Judo in the USA (and Canada too). That is where we have to start.
Ben R.