Dear,
I am here to inform you about the safety of your child in competitive football. Don’t get me wrong, football is a very active, competitive sport but some concerns from parents have been asked tremendously about their child’s safety.
Parents have been worried about the safety of helmets and if they are safe enough to not damage their brain. The standard helmet is mostly designed to prevent skull fractures and cushion players against direct, linear hits. They do nothing for the hits that twist players head violently. Todays standard football helmet has two primary layers which is an outer shell and inner layer padding, usually made of foam.The foam in the helmet is suppose to absorb the the hit so no damage can be involved. No matter
Safety and equipment have come a long way in football in order to prevent brain injuries. A very important piece of equipment used to prevent brain trauma is the helmet. The helmet has evolved a lot over the years, even more in the past decade. The Helmets main purpose use to be just to stop skull fractures, then they added the facemask to prevent facial injuries. Concussions are more of a recent concern (Hand 1). Overconfidence in the helmets' protective power prompts many NFL athletes to deliver and accept hits that would have killed players of previous generations. Now the helmet is being revolutionized. Helmets aren't only being created to stop skull and face fractures but they are being created to help prevent brain damage such as concussions now. Helmets have gone through testing to see how to design a better preventative helmet. These newer helmets are being designed to reduce the amount of force that is being applied to the head by a hit that is received (Vandantam 2). Virginia Tech football has been monitoring helmet collisions since 2003, courtesy of Dr. Gunnar Brolinson. Dr. Gunnar Brolinson has outfitted the teams helmets with six sensors and a small antenna that records and transmits data to a computer on the sideline. This information collected is crucial because it will help find better ways to design a helmet that will prevent concussions(Goldman 1). Equipment isn't the only important part of football that can help prevent concussions.
The issue of multiple concussions is finally becoming recognized by major sports. The awareness has led to a variety of interventions to help protect athletes. There have been two recent interventions concerning football helmets. First off, Riddell, a company that produces football helmets, has released a new helmet that is supposed to best prevent concussions. This helmet is known as the Revolution Speed. Using advanced technology, the Speed helmets were designed around the head 's center of gravity and include an uneven outer shell to help absorb a hit. The inside of the
Helmets are a major guideline that needs to be improved because a helmet is there to protect the head and prevent concussions but it doesn't seem to be doing a good job. Now there's always that question of “why don't we just make the helmet better and more equipped to prevent concussions?”, well we've had football around for years now and if it hasn't been done yet I don't think it will ever be done. According to the North Eastern Undergraduate Writing Journal, since the 1970s, helmets have been made with a polycarbonate shell, a steel face mask, and padding which is just foam and inflatable air bladders. Even though modern helmets maybe more
On the word of Blaine Hoshizaki March 8, 2011 in the local news article entitled “Ottawa Researcher Rethinks Hockey Helmet,”” Most concussions occur when there is a hit to the head that turns the head at the same time, various design factors make current helmets ill suited to protecting players against this type of hit, including helmet shape.” As Hoshizaki stated previously, a hockey helmet’s basic shape is the shape of the player’s head. The problem primary problem with the shape is in accordance with players being directly hit by a forceful object, such as an elbow or even the hockey puck. Modern hockey helmets are designed with impact in mind; Meaning, helmets are not meant to withstand major blows from a body check, which physically move the receiving player’s head in a certain direction of which makes the brain collide with the inside of the skull. The reasoning behind Hoshizaki’s research is to maintain safety as well as effectiveness in player equipment.
On November 6th, 1869 the young American sport called football was born. In 1903, the addition of the football helmet was introduced; however, the helmet was not mandatory for all players until 1943 (“History of the”). Since the mandatory protocol for the use of helmets, the football helmet has advanced in safety. The helmet evolved from a plastic shell-shaped helmet to a more protective rounded plastic helmet with a face mask and chin strap. After those improvements, the modifications for safety increased. Today, professional football players have impact indicators on their chin straps to identify head injuries. As players have gotten bigger and stronger, head injury awareness is a major part of player’s safety and if they are not aware, it often results in a concussion. Many players and viewers of the game do not know how concussions occur, what the effects are, and how engineers and associations try to prevent the occurrence.
The NFL has changed equipment a lot over the years to protect professional football players. “Helmets protect and prevent Players from getting a concussion or head
Sports is a major part of mostly everyone’s life either you watch it or just participate in it. Though it has it benefits, everyone has the reason why they participate or enjoy watching sports. With the benefits comes with some consequence. When a football player puts on a helmet, he knows what he gets himself into. Although they have a helmet on, they are not guarantee not to get a concussion, according to Press Release “there was a new study that found out that football helmets currently used on the field does little to no protection against hits to side if the head” (AAN).
A team of researchers and engineers at the University of Michigan undertook a four-year challenge sponsored by the NFL to create a helmet with better protection from brain injuries from sports. Current helmets worn by football players, including the pros, reduce the force put on the skull during a collision. However, the current helmets do
There’s a small amount of data that current sports helmets for youth cut down the risk of brain injuries, according to a national academy of sciences published the year before. Concussions noted in the National Football League are rising dramatically, likely because of a decreased stigma in noting them. Brain injuries reported every week increased by 67 percent from 2009 to 2012.
At games there has to be a medical professional that is licensed on the side lines of the field. If they get head trauma they are checked and can not continue to play, when they get back to exercising they have to be supervised and approved by athletic trainer to return to the sport before a physician can tell them they can go back to the sport. Helmets eliminate the risk of getting a concussion.
You could have helmet padding 6 inches thick, it's not going to help(Brink). Moving at the speed it takes to tackle somebody, a hit to the head with any amount of padding, could still be life threatening. Concussion hits occur at the center of your head, hits to the side of the head are a couple times weaker. Concussion-causing hits occur at the crown of the head seven and eight times more often than the sides or frontal lobe of the brain, studies there found(Brink). To try and stop concussion causing hits to the head, the NFL has started to fine players who are targeting to hurt. They [increased] suspensions, penalties and fines for intentional hits [to the head]. They're taking very strong action, and they're considering others”(Brink).
Helmet-to-helmet collisions are occurrences in American football when two players' helmets make head-to-head contact with a high degree of force. Despite its long association with the sport, this type of contact is now considered to be dangerous play by league authorities due to the potential of causing serious injury. Major football leagues, such as the NFL and NCAA, have taken a tougher stance on helmet-to-helmet collisions after the US Congress launched an investigation into the effects repeated concussions have on football players.[1] Other possible injuries include head traumas, spinal cord injuries, and even death; nevertheless helmet manufacturers are constantly improving their designs in order to best protect their users against injuries
Football can be a very dangerous sport. And although those who play the game believe that they are being protected by the helmets that they wear, the truth is that this may not be the case. In a recent study released by the American Academy of Neurology it has been found that “protection against concussion and complications of brain injury is especially important for young players, including elementary and middle school, high school and college athletes, whose still-developing brains are more susceptible to the lasting effects of trauma”(Science Daily, 2014). The study also found that standard football helmets worn by the majority of players on the field today, only reduce the risk of traumatic brain injury by 20 percent compared to not wearing a helmet at all (Science Daily, 2014).
There has been extraordinary improvements of helmets from the old leather to the modernized-plastic football helmets along with the face mask and energy- absorbent padding. In addition, the concern over preventing concussions, have led to helmet changes, impact testing methods and reconstruction of injuries during play helping to provide insight on concussions(4). Helmets have been successful in decreasing the risk of traumatic brain injuries, but there is much concern over concussion; therefore, scholars argue the importance of technology development to address concussion(5). As the author(s), David Viano and David Halstead discusses, there is room needed for understanding the types of collisions associated in youths and the impact condition addressing collisions. There are many variables to consider addressing concussion and where they occur.
Professional football have been getting better padding and getting better helmets and a kind strap to protect there head neck and back to prevent injury from happening as shown in the passage ''Let Them Play''.In the text'' Let Them Play'' it states ''The US Army Research Laboratory in baltimore is looking at using specially designed straps that would attach the helmet to the body-similar to suspenders.The concept is to avoid sudden head motion and brain injury''. There gear is made from the same gear that NASCAR and military people wear so if it protects them it should protect the football players . In NASCAR there tires can come off the cars can flip and the cars can get hit and the driver inside will still be alive and in football it is