Protective Headgear's False Safety In Soccer

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.

Steve Almond’s story “You Knock my Brains out This Sunday and I Knock Your Brains out the Next Time we Meet” speaks to the underlying truth about America’s Sunday pastime and how concussions can be prevented not only by the industry, but by its viewers as well. Football is well known after having been brought to the public’s eye as study after study was released proving that there was a link from football to head injuries. Although in our modern society we have already subconsciously made the connection between football and concussions. The fact that this problem is not decreasing, could be surprising, as the lack of understanding about who has control and the ability to influence change. We hear that football helmets and pads, are getting better, but that does not stop concussions. We do not hear how helmets make players feel and change their play style based on the feeling of invincibility that people feel while wearing a helmet. Pads and helmets do help protect the players but false senses of security due to lack of knowledge on what

Concussions occur on a large scale in football. During a concussion, the head can experience a blow directly or can have whiplash. When the head is hit, the brain hits the inside of the skull, giving it a temporary bruise. This bruise or tearing of the brain can lead to mental impairments that can affect a person’s emotional state of being, physical problems like deteriorated mobility and sensitivity to light and sound. Doctors are quick to point out one of the major reasons that youth receive concussions, saying, “... children have big heads relative to the rest of their bodies and weak necks… that elevates the risk of concussions,” (P6). Along with a lack of education and care for the protection of athletes, youth are already at a huge risk. When children wear their football helmets, they are saving themselves from many injuries that could have occurred without them, most especially protecting the brain. But, in many cases, this is not enough.

4%-20% of all injuries in soccer are head injuries. Concussion and head injuries are a big part of soccer, many younger players should have to wear protective headgear while playing. Also, many of these head injuries that players sustained during soccer can affect them for the rest of their life with things such as CTE. Even though many people don’t want to change the game of soccer, at a certain age players should have to wear headgear if they want to head the ball because the brain damage kids can get from heading the ball can affect them for life, and it would decrease the amount of concussions the sport has per year.

Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) have always been a problem in sports and especially in contact sports like football. Since the beginning of football there has been different styles of head protection, from no helmets at all in very early stages to the modern day helmets we have today. In order to know how the evolution of the football helmet has made head injuries less common than they originally were, we have to know what is a concussion and how someone gets one.

Therefore, a group of researchers consisting of former team physicians from the NFL and NCAA as well as members of the Department of Neurosurgery at NorthShore University HealthSystem and West Virginia University have devised a piece of equipment to protect against sports-related concussions in the form of a collar. As the first form of internal protection for head injuries, compressive collars include two beads that gently compress the jugular, which increases the amount of blood in the cranium. Increased blood flow in the cranium adds a protective layer of blood between the brain and the skull, which decreases the amount of contact between the two. This minimizes the movement of the brain, or momentum resulting from a hit, which reduces the amount of torn or rotated brain fibers (Cole, 2016). Although compressive collars haven not been tested on athletes, they have been used by the military, which is increasingly more intense than any sport, to test for wearability of the collar. Also, in an experiment conducted by the inventors of the collar to test for the sufficiency of the product, an 83% reduction in the number of torn brain fibers in lab rats wearing the collar was found. Aside from the

Introduction- Specialized headgear and better concussion protocol should be utilized in high school sports to prevent serious brain injuries.

People often argue that concussions in soccer are caused by heading the ball. For example, concussion headbands were made for players to wear during soccer games to help protect them from getting concussions (Clarey). One cannot deny that concussion headbands may help reduce the impact from the ball (Clarey). According to Soccer Headgear: Does It Do Any Good? by Jere Longman, “Headgear could reduce impact forces by 10 to 30 percent” (Longman). Supposedly, players will wear concussion headgear to help reduce concussions. The headgear will help reduce some of the force from the ball when the player’s head makes contact with the ball (Longman). Not only will wearing headgear during the game help prevent concussions, but also the age at which kids can head the ball with help prevent them too. A new rule states soccer players 10 and under cannot head the ball in games or practice. Based on new rules from the U.S. Soccer and the American Youth Soccer Organization, “Children 10 years or under will no longer be allowed to head the ball in practice or games, while players ages 11 to 13 will only be allowed to do it during practice and not games” (Storrs). Having young players start heading the ball later in life will ensure that they are learning how to head the ball correctly and accurately. Heading the ball at a young age will put the young players at a higher risk to get a concussion because they most likely are doing it wrong. However, wearing

Injuries can be caused through playing sports and getting in accidents at any moment of time. Soccer is known as a contact sport from headers to player-player contact. Any type of contact while playing soccer the risk of injuries depend on how hard the compact is. Injuries from playing soccer that are common are concussions, they are a major factor that can cause brain-trauma. Soccer isn’t the only sport with the risk of concussions, any sport with any physical contact has a risk of concussions, or any other injuries. Concussions have been a large factor to brain-trauma throughout the years in many sports throughout history. Throughout the speech I will be talking about the history of concussions, secondly symptoms and causes, and lastly

Imagine that one day you woke up and could no longer do the simple things you enjoy in life. What if you couldn’t even read the paper or watch a movie with a loved one? Many current and former athletes are suffering through this every day, and the reason for this is long-term brain damage which is a direct result of concussions. Unfortunately concussions have been rising at an alarming rate. This trend has not only been occurring in big money professional sports, but also in amateur sports like youth soccer. Concussions are quickly becoming an epidemic across the entire sporting world. Each year about 300 000 amateur and professional athletes suffer head injuries (Mcphee 1). Athletics must make

Blankets are put down at 4 p.m. to reserve a seat. Streets become deserted and restaurants empty just before 7:30 p.m. kickoffs” (B. 12). While football is one of the most loved sports; it is also one of the more dangerous. Many football players will endure bone fractures, ankle sprains, and knee injuries, which are very common; but the injury high school football seems to attract the most is head injuries.Head injuries can have a lasting effect on high school players and tend to be very common. Some people consider the players at fault, while others will blame the helmet manufacturing, coaches, or even the parents. High school players are almost always overlooked and many problems can arise. Therefore coaches, players and parents need to take more responsibility and see that there are solutions to prevent concussions and eliminate such a common problem among high school players.

Understanding what head injuries in soccer are, what precautions players can take and being able to recover from the injury itself.

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.

After watching the movie “Concussion,” you will see and walk away with a kind of a important and, in all likelihood, consistent worry and also anxiety attacks about the act of playing football or any sport of the fact. Given the fact that, our brains, and the known sport football (the frequently served opportunity for an important sub-concussive and concussive hits), there is a huge yet clear debate for a plausible medical crisis in the long term it was always happening but we have only just started to realize it recently.