Brooke de Lench's blog

SmartTeams Play Safe Summit, Pilot Programs, And "The Today Show" : It Was Quite The Week!

Submitted by Brooke de Lench on Mon, 09/22/2014 - 17:55. | comments

Today, I begin my blog again after taking the full summer off from writing.

The reason for my summer hiatus, at least from blogging, wasn't that I was relaxing on the beach or by the pool (oh, if only).

No, it was because I was at my desk at MomsTEAM Institute working hard on two major initiatives: our inaugural SmartTeams Play Safe Summit at Harvard Medical School, and the launch of our six SmartTeam pilot projects. Brooke de Lench and Coach Bobby Hosea at Smart Teams Play Safe Summit

Today, Brooke de Lench begins blogging again after a summer off while she worked on two major initiatives: MomsTEAM Institute's inaugural SmartTeams Play Safe Summit at Harvard Medical School, and the launch of six SmartTeam pilot programs.

Brooke de Lench

NOCSAE Meeting: Lots Of Questions, But No Answers

Submitted by Brooke de Lench on Mon, 06/23/2014 - 15:39. | comments

Last Friday, I attended the summer meeting of the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment (NOCSAE) at the Boston Harbor Hotel. It was hard to be inside on such a spectacular summer day, but made easier by the location of the meeting: in the Atlantic Room, directly above Rowe's Wharf, with a view of a sparkling Boston harbor filled with sailboats and power boats. Boston harbor skyline with Rowes Warf

The summer meeting of the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment (NOCSAE) was held in a room overlooking Boston harbor, but the view was about the only thing that made it worth attending, says Brooke de Lench.

Brooke de Lench

More Than International, Federal and State Laws Needed To Keep Kids Safe Playing Sports

Submitted by Brooke de Lench on Sat, 06/07/2014 - 19:23. | comments

This week and last, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Child is meeting to review the progress made under provisions of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. 194 nations will participate, except for three, which have yet to ratify the CRC: Somalia, South Sudan, and the United States.* Convention on Rights of the Child @ 25 poster

With the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Child meeting to review the progress made under provisions of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), MomsTEAM's Brooke de Lench talks about the importance, not of just laws and treaties, in keeping kids safe playing sports, but of voluntary safety programs, such as the SmartTeam program being developed for introduction in Fall 2014.

Brooke de Lench

Six Years After: Concussion Risk Management Still A Work In Progress

Submitted by Brooke de Lench on Tue, 05/20/2014 - 15:52. | comments

It is hard believe that it has now been six years since I gave the keynote address at the National Sports Concussion Summit in Marina del Rey, California. Harder, yet to think we have been leading this charge since 2000.

Brooke de Lench

17th Annual Mother's Day Wish List from Brooke de Lench

Submitted by Brooke de Lench on Sat, 05/10/2014 - 17:07. | comments

It's Mothers Day once again. Time for spring sports, warmer weather, longer days, planting gardens, and, of course, watching kids play sports. Each year for the past seventeen years, MomsTEAM has published my Mother's Day Wish list. As you will see, many of the wishes on this year's list will look very familiar to long-time visitors. But a couple are brand spanking new:

Every year for the past 17 years, MomsTEAM Founder Brooke de Lench has issued a Mother's Day wish list. Here's this year's list.

Brooke de Lench

On The Road Again: A Report From The Concussion Summit Trail

Submitted by Brooke de Lench on Fri, 03/28/2014 - 20:42. | comments

For those of you wondering where I have been lately, I have been taking a break from blogging and writing because of a heavy speaking and consulting schedule, because I have been busy working on updating our documentary, "The Smartest Team: Making High School Football Safer" with new edits and information in time for broadcast in the summer and fall 2014, and because I have been preoccupied with getting our new 501(c)(3) non-profit, MomsTEAM Institute, off to a good start.

Brooke has been taking a break from blogging and writing because of a heavy speaking and consulting schedule, and to work on updating the PBS documentary, "The Smartest Team: Making High School Football Safer" with new edits and information in time for broadcast in the summer and fall 2014, and because she has been hard at work getting her new 501(c)(3) non-profit, MomsTEAM Institute, off to a good start.

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.

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.

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.

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.