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Causes Of Concussions In Sports

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Concussions in sports have always been the main injury for athletes, and sometimes those concussions are career ending. For years concussions were known as getting your bell rung and not much was thought about the damage that a direct head injury could have on the athlete. In the past several years, doctors and athletic trainers have come to better understand concussions and how easily they occur, even though they still do not know everything. A concussion is defined as a type of traumatic brain injury caused by a blow to the head or body, a fall, or another injury that jars or shakes the brain inside the skull. The top sports where concussions occur are men and women’s soccer, lacrosse, men’s wrestling, women’s basketball, football, and men’s ice hockey. Although football is the leading cause of concussion in children and adult athletes with 76.8 percent of athletes sustaining a concussion at some point in their career, ice hockey falls into second with 54 percent of athletes experiencing a concussion. There are many reasons why athletes who participate in ice hockey incur concussions, especially at young ages. Several factors include deliberate head shots, kids hitting their heads off the ice when they fall, getting punched or slashed in the head, and the most common reason is the improper use of mouth guards and helmets. If helmets and mouth guards are properly fitted and used, players follow league rules and regulations fully, and attend concussion prevention classes

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