Athletes Avoid Concussions

Studies show, by law a player must sign off by a medical professional before the player can return to the field. Studies also show, concussions and or head head injuries are linked to permanent brain damage. The question frequently asked is "should injured athletes be required to sit out for periods of time to allow time for the brain to heal completely?" As an athlete, I think athletes should wait. Only because if a player gets one concussion and goes back to their sports and gets hit in the head, that could lead to permanent damage for not giving the brain time to heal from the previous injury.

In the United States alone, athletes account for about 300,000 concussions each year (11 Facts). A concussion is a traumatic brain injury that causes swelling of the brain 's soft tissue and disrupts normal brain function (Concussion). A concussion has potential to impact memory and coordination for the rest of the athlete 's life along with lead to other, more serious, brain injuries. In order for athletes to reduce the effects from concussions, they need to be educated on the symptoms, ways to avoid the injury, and the possible lifelong effects.

A concussion, which could be caused by a small head movement, is no minor issue as it could lead to brain trauma. Many people are affected by it and many more are vulnerable to it. But the impact isn't the real issue. The real issue is with the lack of healing and recovery. Healing time is crucial when it comes to head injuries and, according to the CDC, most athletes get around 7 days to recover compared to the recommended 1-2 months! Athletes sometimes don't even get time to recover and this could lead to long term effects in life. According to my personal experience, my ability to focus has been greatly reduced because of a concussion. This is a serious issue that is often overlooked my coaches and parents because of their pride and overconfidence in the child. Due to the fact that concussions could lead to permanent brain damage, discomfort, and long term illness, student athletes should be excluded from any athletics until a full recovery had been accomplished.

Repeated concussions from any trauma can cause permanent brain damage. Because of this I believe athletes should be forced to sit out longer and be examined more throughly before being cleared to return to play. Some players do not sit out long enough for their brains to fully heal, and they are left vulnerable as they return to play. If an athlete isn't properly treated it can have long term effects on their brain, or it could even result in losing simple cognitive skills such as attention and judgement. I think we should have more protection against concussions, and more protocol to protect the players at risk. Even if an athlete has to sit out one more game, or the rest of their career, it is better than the potential brain damage for the

Concussions have a huge impact on athletics and student athletes in our generation today. They effect people's lives for the worse and cause setbacks in education and athletic opportunities. Many students who get concussions from athletic activities return to play their sport too soon after getting the concussion, which can cause even more serious issues. Considering 300,000 sports related concussions occur each year, they are very relevant to our everyday lives. Returning to play a sport too soon after suffering from a concussion can result in the risk for a further injury or worse concussion, severe symptoms and healing, and the very likely chance for another concussion to occur.

The sports communities that require concussion education include the players themselves; their parents, the coaches, trainers, therapists, and referees; sports organizations/leagues; the media; teachers; and health care professionals. Several gains in recognition and management that impact upon concussion prevention can only be made through widespread of knowledge about concussions. Concussions are a serious issue in many professional sports. Concussions affect multiple sports in many ways. Many sports today are affected by the medical condition of concussions. Today, multiple leagues and professionals are learning how to prepare and prevent these career shattering injuries. With hundreds of medical advancements and a better understanding of the knowledge that the science has, we are assisting athletes to recover from these injuries. In order to understand concussions that lead the role on the games, one must look at the symptoms, injuries, and side-effects of this

Concussions can occur on any play in football, two opponents could hit each other with their helmets or an opponent could tackle the other. Effects of concussions can be long term some of the long term effect are; headache, dizziness, difficulty concentrating or completing tasks (“Long-Term”). These are just a few of the long term effects the most dangerous effect is chronic traumatic encephalopathy. CTE is a progressive degenerative disease which affects the brain of people who have suffered repeated concussions and traumatic brain injuries (“What Is CTE”). The most common effects of CTE include loss of memory, difficulty controlling erratic behavior, behavioral disturbances including aggression and depression and difficulty with

Once a concussion is gained the player then enters a period of time where they are more vulnerable to another concussion. Once an athlete gains a concussion during this time of vulnerability, the risk of permanent brain injury increases. Studies have shown that the effects of one concussion can remain prominent for 30 years or longer after the incident. Therefore, the results of repeated concussions can be very serious and long lasting. Also, if a player doesn't let their concussion heal properly this can also lead to permanent brain damage. If a player was to return to a game too early, long term affects could take place. The long term affects are memory loss, emotional distress, and increased possibility of suicide and these can last can last

Concussions in high school sports doubled from 2005 to 2012. High School’s put in a new rule called “Return to Play” this rule was put into place so players waited the right amount of time to come back after receiving a serious head injury. Coming back to quick with a concussion can get you hurt even more or possibly cause permanent brain damage. Studies show that a concussion from a high school athlete takes longer to recover from than for older athletes. Also, studies show that even teenagers are at risk for head trauma not just adults and older athletes. Between 2005 and 2012, four thousand twenty-four concussions were diagnosed in nine sports. This is a very high number for just high school sports alone. Concussions have went up in 5 sports mainly those sports are football, wrestling, baseball, basketball and softball. Therefore, concussions have not only effected football. Many people fail to realize how many athletes are truly affected by a

Athletes who experience a serious blow to the head on the field, court or ice should seek the attention of a medical professional as soon as possible. These individuals should leave the game and not be allowed to return until cleared by a medical professional. The new concussion guidelines based on the latest scientific research and endorsed by six major medical organization states if the symptoms last more than 15 minutes, athletes need to be monitored for up to a week and return to competition gradually. If their symptoms worsen, he or she should seek the closest emergency room. Just because an athlete states he or she 'feels fine' doesn't mean that he or she should be put back in the game. Concussion have already been the cause of ended

Every athlete is affected in some way of the risk of receiving a concussion during practice or in the game from the youth level up to the professional level of play. I will focus more on my topic about concussion in athletes on the football at all levels. How Center of Diseases Control of Prevention (CDC), has created a level of course training for coaches and administrators so they will be knowledgeable of what to do if a concussion occurs whether during practices or game day. How to use the return to play rules to keep the athletes from more injury. Because most sport start at the youth program, the focus has been placed heavily on prevention at the youth and high school levels. Educating youth athletes is the most

First, concussions are harmful and can have long lasting repercussions. The effects of traumatic brain injury can be lifelong or even fatal - which is why regulations are extremely important for the player’s health. “Damage to the brain caused by concussion[s] can last

Approximately 10% of athletes take longer than seven days to fully recover from a concussion (article 1), but they still go back to the playing field before reaching that point. This is very dangerous and is mostly due to the fact that athletes, especially males, do not report their symptoms in fear of being sat out for a long period of time (article 1). It is understood that often if a person isn't feeling like they are experiencing any major symptoms then they might not want to be held back from participating in their normal activities. A concussion starts out as an "invisible" injury and can become majorly serious as time goes on if not properly handled and treated. An intelligent decision would be to have the concussed athlete monitored by someone, such as their coach, before a physician can give the athlete permission to return to the playing field

I believe that athletes should be able to stay out longer because it would get them extra time to heal. In the article it states once an athlete gets a concussion they are 3 times more likely to get another one. It is important for the athlete to have a good recovery.

For the issue that I thought would be surprising to me is the issue about concussions and how the coaches had very little knowledge of the symptoms of concussions. I thought coaches would have a broader understanding on concussions and what to look for. But according to this article that there was a lack of concussion management. What also surprised me is that the coaches weren’t consist when it comes to identifying and managing concussions. Which I thought as a football coach you would want to know more about concussions so that you can prevent them and identify them to protect your players specially in football. There was also a lack of education about concussions in smaller schools which made it harder for coaches to identify concussions.