Cheerleading Concussions Report

When most people think of cheerleading, they think of the spirit squads that attempt to pump up the local crowd at high school basketball and football games. People are not aware of what these athletes are doing when they are not in front of these crowds. Strangers to cheerleaders who do not follow the sport extensively do not know the exact involvement of the athletes in this sport, at all ages. Cheerleading requires athleticism like all other sports as you must be in shape and at a great fitness level to be involved in most circumstances. Cheerleaders have to know what they’re doing at all times; while knowing what everyone else on the team is doing as well, which involves a high level of mental preparation. Cheerleading, high school or

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.

Today, one of the more common injuries in youth sports is a concussion. A concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury that occurs after a player has either taken a hit to their body that has caused both the head a brain to quickly jerk back and forth, or by a sudden shock or knock to the head. With the force and sudden movement, there is movement of the brain which can cause chemical changes that can lead to permanent or stretching the brain cells. By the above definition you can start to think of many instances in sports where a player can receive a concussion.

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.

On fall Friday nights everywhere, high schools are buzzing for one thing: football. The players have practiced all week and are excited to get on the field. Students, parents, and fans alike are all counting down the minutes until kickoff. However, in one play all that excitement can be taken away. One helmet-to-helmet hit is sometimes all it takes for a player to sustain a concussion. Concussions happen frequently in football. Many people do not realize the risks associated with this type of injury. High school coaches need to be better trained on how to recognize potential concussions, athletes need to be better educated on concussions, and stricter concussion

The purpose of this study was to determine the association between having a previous concussion and then experiencing concussive signs and symptoms following head impacts. It was hypothesized that previously concussed athletes would have more severe and frequent signs and symptoms of a concussion following a head impact compared to athletes with no previous concussion. To test this hypothesis, 201 college athletes participated in a questionnaire. They were asked about previous concussions and if they experience concussive signs and symptoms when they had head impacts. After the results were all collected, it showed that nearly 60% of athletes who had zero previous concussions reports experiences signs and symptoms following head impacts! compared to nearly 80% of athletes who have had a concussion. These results show a significant correspondence between previous history of concussion and the reoccurrence of concussive signs and symptoms following a head

Multiple studies have shown that concussions can lead to severe, debilitating, and permanent brain damage. With these consequences in mind, athletes should be required to be evaluated by a physician and sit out longer after receiving any sort of head trauma. Studies have also shown that concussions are cumulative. After someone receives one, their brain is more susceptible to further injury.

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

From an outsiders perspective one may see brainless and beautiful robots, which scream and perform neat tricks. This is not the case from the inside; cheerleading is so much more than that. Many people are under the impression that cheerleading is not a sport. I am the voice of reasoning that will let you in, and I will show you that cheerleading, in fact, is a sport. Cheerleading requires much physical demand from the body just as any other sport would. Cheerleading, in general, is a team effort. There are many sides to cheerleading, which make it a versatile sport. When it comes to cheerleading there’s more to it than what meets the eye.

Cheerleading is one of the most demanding and dangerous sport there is. When you look up the definition of a sport in the dictionary, it says “physical activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively”. Cheerleaders compete at the Cheerleading World every year that is

Furthermore, competitive cheerleading encompasses a high injury risk because of the immense amount of contact activity, which involves being tossed and flipped through the air. As a result of the amount of contact activity involved with cheerleading,

Waters stated that “cheerleaders are particularly at risk for head and spinal injuries because personal protective equipment like helmets, mouth guards, etc. is not given out as in other contact sport.” Athletes who play in other contact sports will argue and say that cheerleaders do not do anything to be considered contact. In reality though the sport is known for having one of the dangerous injuries out there which is a concussion. In the Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners said that “A cheerleader may hit her head on a gym floor and that can cause skull fractures in addition to concussions. Traumatic head injuries can happen from falls related to failure to catch a flyer properly.” If you would go around a room full of cheerleaders and ask why do you do this so called sport i promise they will say, because of what you said how it is so called a sport we all use that as motivation to prove to everyone who says we are not athletes that we are. From the way we jump high, clean tight, spin fast, throw hard, and sticking our tumbling and in the midst of doing all of that we make it look easy because they have practiced year round for this exact moment. Also in other sports they have four quarters during a whole game and if one gets hurt you have a whole bench full of players ready to get out on the field for cheer it is the complete opposite they have two minutes and thirty seconds and if they get hurt during those minutes they

However, since all-star cheerleading is run out of privately owned and operated gyms, the staff is typically more qualified to deal with injuries, specifically those pertaining to cheer, since many coaches have cheered before and all are insured, trained and educated on the topic of coaching cheerleading. However, school cheer not being recognized as a sport means that many schools lack educated coaches, the proper equipment (such as mats), on site trainers, proper conditioning, technique and safety measures (Labella et al.). Schools that have limited resources for their cheerleading team are more likely to see injuries. Depending on the coach’s experience and knowledge, the floor the team practices on (wood, rubber, spring mats ect.) and technique taught, injuries could range from sprains to concussions and broken bones. Since cheerleading isn’t recognized as a sport in many schools, many injuries are not taken seriously enough, especially concussions.

A lot of people say cheerleading isn’t a sport but I could tell you cheerleaders do a lot of Tumbling ,Stunts , dances and screaming it isn’t like us girls sit and look pretty we have to work on our strength we literally have to throw people in the air and catch you could get injuries I experienced this a lot one time in cheer camp I was the back spot but my stunt group threw the flyer in the air as she was coming down my two bases didn’t catch her so she ended up landing on chest sounds bad I know but when you dedicated to something you love you would go through war.

Every day high school cheerleaders are being thrown in the face of danger on the sidelines under the Friday night lights. But at what cost? The sideline heroes experience the same head traumas and lifelong disabilities as those who are playing on the gridiron. The recent skyrocketing trend of cheerleading head injuries is alarming and leads into the discussion question that every athletic director in every school in America should be asking, how can we protect our athletes. High school cheerleaders should have access to high-quality equipment. A concussion is commonly known as a traumatic brain injury or the moving of the brain inside the skull. The injury usually occurs from an athlete hitting their head on a surface or falling causing a jerking motion enough to move the brain inside the cranium. The concussion rate in high school cheerleading is about 25%, which ties into the problem of should high school cheerleaders have better equipment access to reduce concussion rates?