In many American households, part of the weekend is devoted to watching or playing football. Boys now often enter football earlier, with Pop Warner youth programs starting at five years old. Team sports can be a great way to provide an environment for physical fitness and camaraderie, but contact sports also represent the potential for head injuries.
In August, Medical News Today reported on a study released by the American Academy of Pediatrics on the relationship between point of impact and the intensity of concussions. This research, which was presented in Pediatrics, was a response to the dearth of biomedical data on how site of impact can influence a concussion.
Player-to-player hits explored
The researchers reviewed statistical information available through the National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study, looking at the characteristics of traumatic brain injuries (TBI’s) that took place when two or more players collided.
The study authors found that the point of impact for the majority of multi-player concussions (45%) was the face, followed by the sides, with 22% of incidents. Symptoms were similar for all the various locations of impact except for one critical difference: when the impact point of concussions was the top of the head, unconsciousness became significantly likelier.
Athletes who collided with the tops of their heads became unconscious 8% of the time, more than twice the rate (3.5%) of any other impact location.
Tackling technique could prevent traumatic brain injuries
The medical scientists reported that it was most likely for players to experience impact on the tops of their heads when they entered collisions with their heads lowered. Since a simple positioning choice could help to prevent many life-threatening head injuries, Marie Ellis of Medical News Today argues that conscientious tackling education needs to be a priority in contact sports communities.
Agreeing with Ellis’ sentiment, USA Football – a kids’ football organization affiliated with the NFL, has an informational program called Heads Up Football. The centerpiece of that effort is a video that shows viewers how to tackle without making oneself vulnerable.
Gerard A. Gioia, MD, of George Washington University said that teaching children and teens the method of “effective, yet safe” tackling described in the video “can only have positive downstream benefits” for higher levels of athletics, including college football and the NFL.
Just as tackling must be safe and effective, so must sports injury rehabilitation. Randy Jones wrote in his Google+ review of our practice in March, “I maintain complete confidence in the multidisciplinary approach provided by Weston Medical Health Center.” Contact us for fast relief and lasting results: 954-888-6650.
