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Concussion Safety

Heads Up: Recent Developments in Sports Safety

Three hot topics are on my mind today: wearable technology, head impact sensors, and football helmets.

Wearable technology

During the past year, I have been invited many times to participate in conversations about wearable technology for athletes. With our headquarters close to the hotbeds of technology centers of MIT and Harvard, I am often asked to sit in on meetings to provide my insight.

What I know is that this is a rapidly-developing field in which we are going to see some amazing technological advances in the next decade.

Three hot topics are on my mind today: wearable technology, head impact sensors, and football helmets.

Head Impact Exposure in Youth Football Surprisingly High

Youth football players get hit on the helmet almost as hard as older players but not nearly as often, says researchers at Virginia Tech.

"Wide-Eye'd Blind": A Must-See Football Video

If you are an athletic director, football coach, game official or parent concerned about reducing the number of concussions and catastrophic head, neck and spinal injuries in the sport and have 25 minutes to spare, my non-profit, Train 'Em Up Academy, has produced an enlightening, empowering and powerful video, called "Wide-Eye'd Blind."

Why do I call it that? Because as a nation, we are literally standing by, with our eyes wide open but blind to the fact that our greatest resource, our young people, are suffering needless injury in the name of sport.  

Extending Concussion Safety Laws To Cover All Youth Sports Programs Essential, Says Sharon van Kooten of Indiana

A concussion suffered by her 8-year-old son playing youth football, and the way it was managed - or, in his case, mismanaged - prompts a mother to write a lengthy letter urging her state legislators to extend her state's concussion safety laws to all sports programs using public facilities.

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

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.

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.

Ivy League Football: A Trailblazer in Concussion Prevention, Says Penn's Laudano

New rules in place by the Ivy League for the 2011 football season - including a reduction in the number of full-contact practices and drills - were designed to protect student-athletes from subconcussive hits considered a possible cause of long-term brain injury,

Ivy League Football Completes First Season Under New Concussion Prevention Rules

The Ivy League adopted groundbreaking new rules for the 2011 football season intended to lower the risk of concussion and the number subconcussive hits, including reducing to two the number of full-contact, in-season practices allowed per week. New research suggests that such repeated hits may cause more brain damage than blows resulting in diagnosed concussions.  

Pop Warner Footballl Tightens Concussion Safety Rules

Pop Warner amended its football and spirit concussion safety rules effective September 30, 2010 to provide for the immediate removal of a player suspected of having suffered a head injury or concussion and no return to play without the approval of a licensed athletic trainer or medical professional who is not the parent/guardian of the player.

Concussions in High School Sports Rising at 15% Annual Rate, Study Finds

Concussion in high school sports are increasing at a 15% annual rate, finds a new study. Consistent with previous studies, football accounted for more than half of all concussions and a concussion rate nearly double the rate for girls' soccer, the sport with the next highest rate. Concussion rates increased across all 12 sports studied.  Although the degree of change varied, ranging from an average annual increase of 8% for football to 27% for wrestling, Girls had a higher rate of concussion that that of boys in those sports (soccer, basketball, baseball/softball) where the boys' and girls' games are essentially the same.

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