Suspension: The Importance Of Concussions In Football

One very important way to reduce the amount of concussions in football is informing the players about factors such as the dangers of concussions, how the athlete knows if he has one, the rules of the game, and proper tackling and blocking techniques. Teaching and making sure they know the major health and life threatening risks of concussions is a crucial aspect of prevention. Information such as what a concussion is, how it occurs, and the long and short term effects are the main points that must be thoroughly explained to the players. These must be drilled into the athletes’ heads for the reason of teaching and showing them how dangerous a concussion can be and not to take it lightly. The brutal life long effects and what could happen to
Coaches play a huge role in concussion prevention as they are the ones with the authority to pull an athlete if symptoms appear. However, even though they must go through the concussion training course, many still do not know the major risks of the brain injury, especially with football providing such large collisions to the head. More thorough training is needed to show them the true risks, teaching the importance of concussion precautions and why they cannot tell a kid to shake it off and keep playing. It would be beneficial to teach the coaches the long term effects of a concussion as well, making them realize how brutal the injury actually is, and that players do not always fully recover from it. The signs are another important factor for coaches to know so they can determine whether to pull an athlete out of the game. During the training, they must be informed of the visible brain injury symptoms such as appearing dazed, losing consciousness, and must analyze the eyes for crossing, limited movement, or pupil constriction (“Symptoms”). Symptoms such as headache, confusion, dizziness, ringing ears, or blurry vision should also be known in case the athlete mentions having any after a blow to the head or body. Last, the coach must have a concussion plan, knowing what to do in a situation where
Statistics show that 33% of all football related concussions occur during practice, not during the game (“Sports”). These practice related concussions can be prevented in two ways including restricted full speed head on blocking and tackling drills, and limited contact time during practice. Currently, most coaches are allowing their athletes to undergo full tackling drills in which the athletes tackle each other running at high speeds. This is partially necessary to practice game-like situations, but if players are beginning to learn how to tackle, most will not know where and how to place their head and shoulder on the opponent. With that and the factor of sprinting full speed, the risk of a head injury is huge. To prevent this, the tackling and blocking drills should begin with the players at a maximum of three yards apart, providing the game-like feel, without giving the chance for the athletes to smash into one another as hard as possible. The second way to prevent concussions during practice is limiting contact time. Instead of having full contact drills throughout the whole length of practice, cutting it down to one half of the time will give less time for the injuries to occur. There are many football drills such as practicing against a ghost defense and passing drills which require minimal contact. Some could even take away