Coach Bobby Hosea's GTS-Science: Advancing the Science of Tackling Safety & Performance

Submitted by Bobby Hosea on Fri, 02/10/2012 - 15:25. | comments

CROWN first impact while in the act of making a tackle is the PRIMARY cause of all catastrophic injuries on every level of football competition. Remove the CROWN from the collision and eliminate avoidable injuries.

In 1997, my 12-year-old son Steven (my only son) told me that he was ready to play tackle football. In that moment, I experienced several emotions. The first was one of pride: my little man finally wanted to be like his Dad and play football. I had shown him and his older sister, Ranae, my old tapes on the VCR since they were babies.

The other emotion was one of fear. A fear of seeing my little man not getting off of the ground due to a catastrophic injury to his head, neck or spine.

Hal Tearse

Cyberbullying: A New Threat to Our Kids

Submitted by Hal Tearse on Thu, 02/09/2012 - 05:17. | comments

Recently, I learned that one of the players on my hockey team was Tweeting negative statements about another player. He claims he though that only the other player could see it. We discussed the situation with him, told him it was unacceptable, and asked him to remove the Tweets and apologize to the team. He started out by saying to his teammates, "I was told I need to apologize for Tweeting," and then promptly quit. Wow, talk about lack of sincerity or honesty. The incident offered several "teachable moments", which we will take advantage of as we work through this issue.

Cyberbullying is rampant in the teen-age culture today.

Making Sure Football Helmet Fits: A Simple, But Effective Way To Minimize Concussion Risk?

Ensuring that football helmets fit properly, and that those with air bladder linings are properly inflated, may be two of the simplest but most effective ways to minimize the risk of concussion and catastrophic brain injury, say the authors of a February 2012 study.

Kids Who Delay ACL Reconstructive Surgery At Increased Risk of Other Knee Injuries

Young athletes who delay ACL reconstructive surgery more than 150 days after injury experience higher rates of other kinds of knee injuries, including medial meniscal tears, say a 2012 study.

Concussion Laws Making Sports Safer, Says Guskiewicz

Concussion expert, Kevin Guskiewicz, PhD, ATC, says the concussion safety laws now in place in a majority of states are making sports safer by providing for more concussion education and encouraging honest self-reporting.

Consider Long-Term Effects of Concussion in Retirement Decision, Says Guskiewicz

Concussion expert, Kevin Guskiewicz, PhD, ATC, Kenan Distinguished Professor and Director of the Matthew Gfeller Sport-Related Traumatic Brain Injury Research Center at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says that, while he hesitates to say that any specific number of concussions should prompt a decision to retire from contact or collision sports, it is important for athletes and their parents to consider the long-term effects of concussion, including depression and memory impairment.

Contact and Collision Sports Okay If Emphasis on Developing Protective Skills, Says Guskiewicz

Kevin Guskiewicz, PhD, ATC., argues that, while there are trade-offs, contact and collision sports are relatively safe for younger athletes as long as the coaching emphasis is on protective skill development.

Number of Athletic Trainers Likely To Rise, Predicts Youth Sports Safety Expert Kevin Guskiewicz

Leading youth sports safety expert, Kevin Guskiewicz, PhD, ATC, explains how a certified athletic trainer (AT) is the "quarterback" of a school's sports medicine team, and why he predicts that the percentage of U.S. high schools that have an athletic trainer will increase in the coming years.

Exertional Sickling: Serious But Survivable If Prompt Action Taken

Yvette L. Coursey, DPA, talks about how sickle cell trait, ordinarily a relatively benign condition, can cause youth engaged in sustained, intense exercise to suffer a potentially life-threatening condition called exertional sickling. Coursey emphasizes that the condition is survivable if treated promptly.

Exercise-Induced Asthma: A Video Primer for Parents

Advice for parents from Amy Valasek, M.D., Clinical Associate, Johns Hopkins Pediatric Emergency Department, about exercise-induced asthma.

Health & Safety