All Articles by Brooke de Lench

Brooke de Lench
Brooke de Lench

Research Papers and Peer-Reviewed Studies: A World of Difference

Submitted by Brooke de Lench on Tue, 02/25/2014 - 13:54. | comments

Note to reader: I wrote this blog on February 25, 2014 and updated it to include new information and updates one year later February 25, 2015 about a new "helmet add-on paper.

Last week, we posted to the site a group of four articles about a peer-reviewed study in the Journal of Neurosurgery showing that football helmet design affected concussion risk among a large group (or what scientists call a "cohort") of college football players.

Last week, we reported on a peer-reviewed study showing that football helmet design affected concussion risk. At the same time, we received a press release about an abstract of a research paper on football helmets reporting that they do very little to protect kids against the rotational forces that cause concussion.  MomsTEAM decided not to report on the paper, and here's why.

 

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More Evidence That King-Devick Test May Help Identify Concussed Athletes On Sports Sideline

A simple vision test performed on the sports sidelines was able to identify nearly 8 out of 10 athletes later found to have suffered a concussion, and when test results were combined with tests for cognition and balance, allowed identification of concussed athletes with 100% accuracy, according to researchers at New York University.
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Schutt Helmets' CEO Blasts New Virginia Tech Helmet Study

A 2014 study (Rowson S, Duma S, et al 2014) reporting that football helmet design can reduce concussion risk has prompted criticism from some of the football helmet manufacturers whose helmets were not involved in the study. In the interest of accurate and complete reporting on the study, set out below is the full text of an email dated February 10, 2014 from Rob Erb, Chief Executive Officer of Schutt Helmets.
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Study Showing Football Helmet Design Reduces Concussion Rate Raises Many Questions, Says NOCSAE's Oliver

A 2014 study (Rowson S, Duma SM, et al 2014) reporting that football helmet design can reduce concussion risk raises more questions than it answers, says Mike Oliver, Executive Director of the National Operating Committee Standards and Equipment (NOCSAE), the non-profit group that sets standards for football helmets.
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Brooke de Lench
Brooke de Lench

de Lench on ESPN's "Outside the Lines" Feature On NFL's Marketing To Moms and A Little Bit of The Rest Of The Story

Submitted by Brooke de Lench on Mon, 02/10/2014 - 19:46. | comments

On Sunday morning, I appeared as a guest on a ESPN's weekly program "Outside The Lines" on a segment titled "NFL: Marketing To Moms."

ESPN deserves kudos for its "Outside The Lines" segment on the NFL's marketing to moms, but, while it did a great job of identifying the fact that football moms are looking for a source of objective information about youth football safety, it could have done more to highlight the fact that such sources already exist.
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Study Showing Helmet Design Can Reduce Concussion Risk Leaves Many Questions Unanswered

A new study provides the first good clinical evidence that helmet design can lower the risk of concussion in games and practices but leaves unanswered the practical question faced by football parents, coaches, and administrators: whether a difference in concussion risk reduction exists between currently available helmet models incorporating the latest design features.
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Brooke de Lench
Brooke de Lench

"Friday Night Tykes": Episode 5

Submitted by Brooke de Lench on Wed, 02/05/2014 - 13:35. | comments
"You can't do what you want to do on this field" 

 

These are the words assistant Outlaws' coach Tony Coley barked at 8-year-old Tamari Hayes in last night's fifth episode of "Friday Night Tykes."  Ordered to run a lap (as punishment for a mistake or rule violation so trivial that I somehow missed it), Tamari walked around the practice field instead.  "I asked you to run the lap and you walked it. Everybody has rules. You have to follow them or face the consequences," Coley scolded.

Last night's episode of "Friday Night Tykes" didn't hit a new low, thankfully. In fact, while coaches continued to scream profanity at their players and engage in what many, including Brooke de Lench, view as out-and-out child abuse, it actually had some positive moments.
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Brooke de Lench
Brooke de Lench

#C4CT UN Conference: We've Come A Long Way, But A Long Way To Go

Submitted by Brooke de Lench on Fri, 01/31/2014 - 18:34. | comments

When MomsTEAM launched its Youth Sports Concussion Safety channel back in 2001, I suspected that people at the time must have thought the time and energy a team of experts, MomsTEAM staff, and I spent on the topic of youth sports concussions bordered on the obsessive, especially as no other youth sports website, much less the mainstream media, was talking about it at all back then.

When MomsTEAM launched its Youth Sports Concussion Safety channel in 2001, Brooke de Lench suspected that people at the time must have thought the time and energy she was spending on the topic bordered on the obsessive. 14 years later, as Brooke reports from the #C4CT concussion conference at the United Nations during Super Bowl Week, it has become a national obsession.
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Brooke de Lench
Brooke de Lench

"Friday Night Tykes": Episode 4

Submitted by Brooke de Lench on Thu, 01/30/2014 - 19:52. | comments

This week's episode of "Friday Night Tykes" hit a new low.

This week's episode of "Friday Night Tykes" hit a new low. In case you missed it, be forewarned: while it is chock full of "teachable moments" which continue to show precisely how not to run a youth football program, it is really getting to the point where it is painful to watch, making it increasingly difficult for me to say that it continues to be "must-see TV" for its educational value.  It was so disgusting, that two days later, two of the coaches were hit with suspensions from the league.

 

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Brooke de Lench
Brooke de Lench

Sports Legacy Institute's Hit Count Certification Program: Hitting The Reset Button

Submitted by Brooke de Lench on Mon, 01/27/2014 - 19:48. | comments

Yesterday in New York, the Sports Legacy Institute announced a certification program for head impact sensors to track the number of hits a player sustains above 20 g's of linear force.

It wasn't exactly what I had expected, but, nevertheless, a move that I wholeheartedly support. 

The announcement by the Sports Legacy Institute of a certification program for head impact sensors to track the number of hits a player sustains above 20 g's of linear force wasn't exactly what Brooke de Lench had expected, but, nevertheless, a move that she wholeheartedly supports.
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