INTRODUCTION: CONCUSSIONS IN FOOTBALL
This paper is designed to analyze concussions in football and the impact it has on the players playing the game.
• What is a concussion and how does it affect our health?
• What research is being done on concussions and the long term affect it has on your brain?
• How is youth football implementing techniques to protect kids from concussions?
BACKGROUND: THE DEFINITION OF A CONCUSSION
A concussion is usually brought on by a blow to the head, depending on how severe the damage is depends on how long it will take for recovery. With a less severe concussion healing time should be fast and you should recover fully. Concussions can cause different symptoms which may include: fatigue, nausea, dizziness and …show more content…
There is more research being done on how to detect a concussion because most of the time symptoms from a concussion do not arise until the next day. Without knowing that a player could go back out on the field causing further damage and even long term damage.
After repeated trauma to the brain from concussions you can develop what scientist call chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Scientists did not always believe that concussions and repeated head trauma caused any kind of personality or behavioral disorders. After pro football player Junior Seau committed suicide and donated his brain to science, scientists started looking a little further into these issues and findings. Junior Seau was never officially diagnosed with a concussion during his 30 years in football, from youth to NFL. Once he committed suicide and his brain was examined scientists concluded that his brain was littered with dense clumps of protein called tau. Tau is found in dementia patients and patients with CTE proving that over his many years in football he had suffered from many blows to the head causing the protein to form and his mental state to be altered. Scientists have studied 35 NFL players’ brains after death and 34 out of the 35 brains that were studied have all had tau which proves that the effects of concussions can be life …show more content…
With coaches implementing safe ways to tackle and making sure they are followed through on the field will reduce the amount of concussions there is in youth football today. With the heads-up program and training the coaches receive to teach this way is making the game safer for our youth. The heads-up program focuses on having the child tackle without using their helmet or leading into the tackle with their head. They show the kids how to wrap up and position their head so it on the side of the body. The main goal is to get the youth to not use the crown of their head at all in tacking. In the heads up program they are very strict on how tacking is taught to be done. The coach and the youth can be penalized or reprimanded for not tackling right during the game and even during practice. With the heads-up program being so strict with how coaches are teaching to tackle hopefully this will help as the youth get older. Having the right tacking techniques instilled in them at a young age will carry over into high school and
This paper is designed to analyze concussions in football and the impact it has on the players playing the game.
• What is a concussion and how does it affect our health?
• What research is being done on concussions and the long term affect it has on your brain?
• How is youth football implementing techniques to protect kids from concussions?
BACKGROUND: THE DEFINITION OF A CONCUSSION
A concussion is usually brought on by a blow to the head, depending on how severe the damage is depends on how long it will take for recovery. With a less severe concussion healing time should be fast and you should recover fully. Concussions can cause different symptoms which may include: fatigue, nausea, dizziness and …show more content…
There is more research being done on how to detect a concussion because most of the time symptoms from a concussion do not arise until the next day. Without knowing that a player could go back out on the field causing further damage and even long term damage.
After repeated trauma to the brain from concussions you can develop what scientist call chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Scientists did not always believe that concussions and repeated head trauma caused any kind of personality or behavioral disorders. After pro football player Junior Seau committed suicide and donated his brain to science, scientists started looking a little further into these issues and findings. Junior Seau was never officially diagnosed with a concussion during his 30 years in football, from youth to NFL. Once he committed suicide and his brain was examined scientists concluded that his brain was littered with dense clumps of protein called tau. Tau is found in dementia patients and patients with CTE proving that over his many years in football he had suffered from many blows to the head causing the protein to form and his mental state to be altered. Scientists have studied 35 NFL players’ brains after death and 34 out of the 35 brains that were studied have all had tau which proves that the effects of concussions can be life …show more content…
With coaches implementing safe ways to tackle and making sure they are followed through on the field will reduce the amount of concussions there is in youth football today. With the heads-up program and training the coaches receive to teach this way is making the game safer for our youth. The heads-up program focuses on having the child tackle without using their helmet or leading into the tackle with their head. They show the kids how to wrap up and position their head so it on the side of the body. The main goal is to get the youth to not use the crown of their head at all in tacking. In the heads up program they are very strict on how tacking is taught to be done. The coach and the youth can be penalized or reprimanded for not tackling right during the game and even during practice. With the heads-up program being so strict with how coaches are teaching to tackle hopefully this will help as the youth get older. Having the right tacking techniques instilled in them at a young age will carry over into high school and