Pros And Cons Of Concussions

Welcome to your adult life, where you have a child that plays multiple sports and loves being active. You are currently sitting at your child’s soccer game when, all of a sudden, your daughter takes a hit to the head with a soccer ball and starts crying. What do you do? Do you go out there and tend to your child yourself or do you let the league’s on-site trainer take care of everything? You start to question yourself, asking “who should be responsible for making sure my daughter is ok?”. The correct answer is you. Athletes and their families tend to rely on the sports leagues support when it comes to injuries often. However, those families who participate in athletics should be familiar with the consequences of concussions and not depend on

For example, in Florida, the Florida High School Athletic Association, or FHSAA, adopted full contact sports limits for the first time in 2016 (Barnett). This demonstrates how sports leagues are actually making an effort to prevent concussions from happening; however, in addition, this proves that athletes should continue to be self-sufficient and be able to take care of themselves when injured. Secondly, the NFL has created a program called “Practice Like Pros” that establishes concepts used in drills to eliminate contact during the offseason (Gasper). As a result of this, many high school athletic associations have picked up on this and are engaging in this issue by going through more “no/limited contact” drills and doing everything possible to prevent younger athletes from having traumatic brain injuries. Lastly, according to USA Football, many leagues have also established different levels of contact. For example, the intensity 3 level is called “THUD”, which is when players can create contact during drills. However, it can only be above the waist and the players have to stay on their feet (USA Football). By having multiple intensity levels that restrict how much contact can be made during a certain drill and progress the amount of contact as the levels increase, these leagues are avoiding concussions in an effective manner while still allowing players to continue through drills. Overall, many sports leagues are participating in reducing the issue of concussion in athletes by the pro leagues creating rules and new regulations that the high school leagues take part in; therefore, the sports leagues are already engaging in the issue and bringing in new concepts to the best of their ability to prevent