The topic of wearing a helmet for during women’s lacrosse games is controversial. In this sport, women only wear goggles. Recently, athletic companies have designed helmets, that are similar to bicycle helmets with attached goggles. Despite sustaining a concussion in early December, I am opposed to wearing a helmet for multiple reasons.
The first reason is the lack of visibility. Players like to have full peripheral vision and see as much of the field as possible. The design of these helmets will take away the peripheral vision of players, hence creating a slower and more injury prone game. A key to being a prolific scorer is being deceptive. To be deceptive, players need as much peripheral vision as possible. With less peripheral vision, players cannot be deceptive. Also, it will be more difficult to make quick passes because players will need to fully move their heads to locate their target. Because of the lack of visibility, the game will become slower and possibly have more injuries.
Second, the game of women’s lacrosse will become more aggressive. Last year, I played against a school from New York with my varsity team. All of their players were required to wear helmets. During the game, they were more aggressive with their sticks and could have easily injured several players. I observed the
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Over the past five seasons, the rules on the draw has changed immensely. Until the 2014 season, five players were on the circle and all players could crash in on the whistle. In 2014, US Lacrosse and the NCAA reduced the amount of players on the circle to three. Then, in 2017 US Lacrosse changed the rules preventing players on the restraining lines from crossing the line until possession is awarded. Also, opponents sticks cannot enter a player’s sphere, which is seven inches around a player’s head for any reason. Ideally, sticks should not be hitting player’s
Lacrosse dates back all the way to the 1600’s when the Indians inhabited most of the North American land. What once was referred to as “stickball” by the Native Americans has changed frequently throughout the years, and is now a popular worldwide play sport. Lacrosse was first played in St. Valley, New York by the Iroquois, who were a Native American tribe. The game was originally created to praise their creator. Also to settle arguments between other tribes and to prepare for war.
Concussions in sports have become a prominent public health problem since as early as the 19th century. Equipment worn by football players has been completely transformed within the 144-year history of the game. When football first began being played in the United States it looked a lot more similar to the game of rugby. This means that there were no players wearing headgear when the first college football game in history happened in 1869. Helmets didn’t become a mandatory piece of equipment in college football until 1939 (Daughters, 2013).
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.
Lacrosse is often referred to as the fastest sport on two feet. Deriving from Native American roots, it relies upon athleticism, commitment, and one’s ability to wield a lacrosse stick. For centuries, the sport has grown and evolved as new equipment is regulated, new rules created, and new styles developed. Recently, however, a push for more protective gear has evolved outside the lacrosse community due to rising fears of increased head trauma; it incited a debate revolving around whether or not extra protective headgear would decrease the dangers of women's lacrosse. On the other hand, those within the lacrosse community, mainly players and coaches, have recognized the dangers
I read the article called “ Women's Lacrosse Players Lost Their Collage, Not their Team.” This article is about the lacrosse team at Dowling College. The team was ranked top ten in the country and it finished 17-4. It tells you about how they handled this problem. They handled this problem because of the coach. She was offered a job opportunity and she took it. The administrator at at New York Institute of Technology wanted to start a girls lacrosse team and offered they job to the coach. She wanted to bring the whole team with her and two of her assistant coaches. She always put her players before her.
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.
Soccer, being the most popular sport across the nation, currently has millions of fans and approximately 25 million registered players in the United States alone (Niedfeldt). Since the early 2000’s and continually seventeen years later, concussions are among the highest sustained injury to soccer players. While the sport is increasing in popularity, fear of injuries is increasing as well. In response to the arising panic, several companies have come together in order to create, promote, and sell protective headgear to concerned soccer players and their parents. The creators of this gear claim that their products will reduce concussions and any negative neurocognitive effects in relation to heading balls in soccer. Although some believe that
One of the things I would like to address is that I think when It comes down to it helmets do help the impact lessen by having cushion to protect shock waves from traveling and causing more damage. The impact that causes a concussion has to be pretty hard it isn't something that can happen lightly it has to be a pretty hard hit,
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).
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.
Technology has been a big part of the game, it makes you skate faster, shoot faster, and be more protected. Skates used to be just pieces of leather with metal blades on the bottom, now there are many materials involved in make skates. Players didn't always use pads but the first pads were cheap pieces of felt and leather now we have pads that can protect you from a 100 mile per hour shot. Stick use to be just pieces of wood with barely even a curve now we have composite sticks that flex to make the puck shoot harder and have made the curve huge to
If an athlete were to receive any sort of head trauma within the recovery period, there is a significant increase in the risk of permanent brain damage. By allowing athletes the time to fully recover, it reduces the chances of any sort of permanent damage. In an excerpt from "Heads Up: Concussions in High School Sports", it states that there have been advances in technology, such as shock-reducing helmets. While these helmets can reduce the shock of impact, it doesn't completely erase the risk of a concussion. These helmets also would only be available to certain sports, such as football and
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
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.
Lacrosse is one of the oldest sports in history, and it is interesting to see how the sport has changed since it was created.