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Sports-Related Concussions & Subconcussive Injuries

Youth and High School Football Safety

To reduce the number of serious head, neck and spine injuries in youth and high school football, experts recommend that coaches stress the teaching of proper tackling techniques that avoid helmet-to-helmet contact.

Concussion Myth #3: Concussions Only Happen In Contact Sports

Concussions occur in all sports, not just heavy contact sports like football.

Pre-Season Concussion Safety Meetings

It is important for parents and athletes to be on the same page as the coaches and medical staff on the subject of concussions in sports. The best way is for the coach to hold a concussion education and safety meeting for parents and athletes before every season.

Sport Concussion Assessment Tool 3

The SCAT3 is a standardized method of evaluating injured athletes for concussion ages 13 years and older. Although designed for use by medical and health professionals, it includes advice for athletes and parents about signs to watch for in the first 24 to 48 hours after suspected concussion and a list of other important points, including the need for rest and avoiding strenuous activity, and not training or playing sport until medically cleared.

Football: Injury Preventive Tackling Safety Education and Training

According to the Concussion Institute, tackle football players suffered more than 3,800,000 brain injuries in 2007. 

I therefore have three important questions for parents of youth & high school football players

  1. Do you know the main reasons there continues to be so many brain injuries in tackle football each year?

Soccer Helmet May Reduce Concussion Risk

Jeff Skeen of Full90 Sports talks about and the role of protective headgear in reducing the risk of concussion and the difference between concussions, which occur as a result of contact between a player's head and a hard object (another player's head, the ground or the goalpost), and the kinds of brain injuries which can occur as a result of repeated heading of a soccer ball.

Concussion Bill of Rights #5: Neuropsychological Testing for Athletes In Contact Sports

With several recent studies demonstrating the clinical value of neuropsychological (NP) testing in evaluating the cognitive effects of and recovery from sport-related concussions, such testing has become increasingly popular in recent years, with the 2008 Zurich consensus statement on sports concussions1 viewing NP testing as an "aid in the clinical decisionmaking process" and an "important component in any return to play protocol." 

Concussion Bill of Rights #3: Adoption and Enforcement of Conservative Evaluation & Return-to-Play Guidelines

The sad fact, and what makes it sometimes hard for parents to truly believe that programs are taking concussions seriously, is that many of the sports programs in which their children participate do not follow any set of return-to-play guidelines, and if they do follow guidelines, they are too liberal in terms of same-day return-to-play (RTP). When parents are kept in the dark like that, when they have no clue as to how a program treats concussions, their anxiety level naturally goes up.

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