A study out of the University of Michigan, which examined the number of head impacts received by high school football players in the state before and after a new policy was instituted that limited the number of full-contact football practices schools can hold per week, shows a dramatic reduction in the number of head impacts players suffered during games and practices, according to a report published in last month’s Journal of Athletic Training.
Linemen saw the greatest reduction of head impacts during practices but suffered the most before.
Teams in Illinois have had concussions on their minds for some time, as we reported last year. But some coaches miss the boat of understanding when it comes to protecting players from traumatic brain injury.
- A new concussion course for students from the National Federation of State High School Associations, developed in partnership with the Barrow Neurological Institute, is designed to inform you about how to identify, react to, and prevent concussions.
St Viator Catholic High School in Arlington Heights will have a new coach this fall, former Wisconsin Lutheran College position coach Dave Archibald, but they’ll also be using some new equipment. Their new pads were designed by Mike Kordecki, who graduated from St Viator in 1977 and later became a sports physical therapist and worked with the Chicago Bears at the team’s training camps in the 1980s and 90s, the Daily Herald reported.
According to the paper, the new Riddell RipKord pads are the same ones worn by players from 24 NFL teams and 57 collegiate teams since 2011.
“God forbid any type of spine or neck injury happen to one of the players,” the Daily Herald quoted Mr Kordecki as saying in a statement. “But by getting these new shoulder pads, it brings St Viator in line with the new protocol by the National Athletic Trainers Association.”
But while the pads protect players from life-threatening injuries to their airways by making it easier to get to vital body parts on the field, they won’t safeguard players against head trauma. Neither will the Riddell Speed Flex helmets the team is looking into. These helmets are worn by Peyton Manning and Jay Cutler, but helmets don’t give any answers for concussions, as several medical associations have made clear.
The American Medical Society for Sports Medicine issued a position statement years ago entitled “Concussion in Sport,” available here, which says, in part:
Helmets, both hard (football, lacrosse, and hockey) and soft (soccer, rugby) are best suited to prevent impact injuries (fracture, bleeding, laceration, etc.) but have not been shown to reduce the incidence and severity of concussions.
“All our athletes take a preseason concussion test to establish a baseline measurement, which helps trainers know if there have been changes,” assistant football coach Mike Tubridy said. “We also limit hitting and contact during preseason and weekly practices. All of these actions have helped us reduce concussions on the varsity level.”
That’s the ticket: Follow guidelines that limit hitting and contact during practices, which will encourage similar tackling during games. Reductions can be dramatic, as the University of Michigan study shows, although the relationship between head impacts and brain injury during adolescent football games and dementia or other brain-related dysfunction later in life hasn’t been studied.
There simply hasn’t been enough time for students who played high school football after we started looking at permanent and chronic damage caused by brain injury to grow up into their 40s yet. Data are starting to come in now, though, so connections between high school concussions and dysfunction in early adulthood may one day be clear.
