Are you still willing to allow your child to play football? (method, animation)
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My husband and my father both played rugby . My husband had 2 concussions, and my father had permanent damage to his vertebrae.
The joys of physical contact sports. My youngest son broke his tibia and his wrist, i've broken my nose (lots), dislocated both shoulders and my jaw and my eldest broke 4 ribs under a collapsed maul but i still wouldn't have stopped them. They enjoyed it and those injuries aren't uncommon in Rugby.
You just take it and get on with it. You want to play or not. They could have stopped if they wanted but they chose not to.
The joys of physical contact sports. My youngest son broke his tibia and his wrist, i've broken my nose (lots), dislocated both shoulders and my jaw and my eldest broke 4 ribs under a collapsed maul but i still wouldn't have stopped them. They enjoyed it and those injuries aren't uncommon in Rugby.
You just take it and get on with it. You want to play or not. They could have stopped if they wanted but they chose not to.
One of my sons got a major concussion while surfing. The board hit him in the head and knocked him unconscious. Thankfully he was with friends who saw it happen and pulled him out of the water.
They grew up surfing.
And I seriously thought about asking them to stop. It took me a VERY long time to be able to watch him in the water after that. (It also took him a very long time to get back in the water. And, thankfully, no one was egging him on because it scared the holy heck out of his friends too. He did it when he was ready.)
Macho is nice until a good bit of the Pacific is in your lungs.
They also played football. Had we known about the damage of repeated hits I'm not honestly sure if I'd have been OK with it. (Football family too. So I'm not the wimpy mom.)
One of my sons got a major concussion while surfing. The board hit him in the head and knocked him unconscious. Thankfully he was with friends who saw it happen and pulled him out of the water.
They grew up surfing.
And I seriously thought about asking them to stop. It took me a VERY long time to be able to watch him in the water after that. (It also took him a very long time to get back in the water. And, thankfully, no one was egging him on because it scared the holy heck out of his friends too. He did it when he was ready.)
Macho is nice until a good bit of the Pacific is in your lungs.
They also played football. Had we known about the damage of repeated hits I'm not honestly sure if I'd have been OK with it. (Football family too. So I'm not the wimpy mom.)
I know what you mean but i suppose if they look at it and think "I've done it a hundred times and loved it and had very few accidents (if any) ......."
My sons had played for the same teams for years, they loved it, had friends there, had been on tours and it was a big part of both of their social lives.
In the end, like with your son, it's their choice.
One of my sons got a major concussion while surfing. The board hit him in the head and knocked him unconscious. Thankfully he was with friends who saw it happen and pulled him out of the water.
They grew up surfing.
And I seriously thought about asking them to stop. It took me a VERY long time to be able to watch him in the water after that. (It also took him a very long time to get back in the water. And, thankfully, no one was egging him on because it scared the holy heck out of his friends too. He did it when he was ready.)
Macho is nice until a good bit of the Pacific is in your lungs.
They also played football. Had we known about the damage of repeated hits I'm not honestly sure if I'd have been OK with it. (Football family too. So I'm not the wimpy mom.)
You can get injured and concussed doing anything as your example and others show, the overall point though is the general risk associated.
The first thing I get concerned about in youth football is people even recognizing that kids have had a concussion. There are no real trainers and medical staffs and coaches are quick to write off non-visible injuries as nothing major. The ubiquitous "you got your bell rung" or "tape it up" is something everyone who has ever played is familiar with.
After that, are the parents going to pull the kid out of something they love or risk or another concussion to let them play? I venture that many, many parents put their kids back in after a concussion. The old logic was that after awhile when symptoms died down, you were fine. Now, it is obvious that it's the repeated hits that cause the damage and one concussion is all it takes to start down the road to major damage.
How many kids these days are covering up when something doesn't feel "right" so they can keep playing? The movie is cliche, but the whole bit with the lineman in Varsity Blues who got his "cat scanned" is far from an odd occurrence. Sometimes it's the coaches covering it up because they "need" the player; sometimes it's the players who don't want to let their team down or miss their shot.
I don't know what the solution is, but I can't help but think that contact in really young kids should be extremely limited. There is a lot of conversation about equipment and what can be done to improve it. The irony is that we may actually need to scale the equipment back in order to make the situation better. Obviously keep helmet advances intact (though some studies say they actually hurt as well), but the other padding (and this applies to both football and hockey) has made players very reckless with hitting since it really doesn't hurt and in the case of football, players are taught to lead with their heads when tackling.
I know what you mean but i suppose if they look at it and think "I've done it a hundred times and loved it and had very few accidents (if any) ......."
My sons had played for the same teams for years, they loved it, had friends there, had been on tours and it was a big part of both of their social lives.
In the end, like with your son, it's their choice.
I think "their choice" comes into it at some point. How old were your sons when they started playing? Did any of them suffer concussions and then return to play?
I hesitate to let my son play youth football, meaning 5 to say 12 years old. However, I would not have an issue with him choosing to play in middle or high school if he wants to. However, if he suffered a concussion I would be VERY hesitant to ever let him back on that field again. There are plenty of other sports to enjoy that don't have the risk of permanent mental damage and once you've had a concussion your susceptibility to another is far greater.
I think "their choice" comes into it at some point. How old were your sons when they started playing? Did any of them suffer concussions and then return to play?
They both started at 9 with Youth Rugby, less contact and no scrums. More like the 'tag' rugby you see now. Then at 11 they played the game exactly as adults would, except with 2x 30min halves rather than 2x 40min halves. Then at 13 it's exactly the same with no changes.
My eldest got concussion from rugby at about 13 (he and another kid just ran into each other with their heads down). I took him up to the hospital where he was x-rayed. After he was allowed to play again he was straight at it, hated having to miss any matches. He had to be off for 4 weeks and have another x-ray at the end of it
I'm not sure i'd have been happy with them playing full contact before 11 but over here they wouldn't have been able to anyway. No leagues or school rugby at that age and technically illegal for them to play 'proper' rugby.
I think a lack of skill, co-ordination and in fairness the size differences at that age make full contact a bit dodgy. One 9 year old can easily be twice the size of another one and the forces involved in being run over by someone physically 3 years older makes the idea of a ban on playing at that age a good one. I know the British Medical Institute (BMI) is against the idea and to be honest, they're the experts.
...players are taught to lead with their heads when tackling.
I have never heard of coaches teaching players to lead with their heads. Our kids are taught that leading with the head is dangerous. It is a penalty in our league.
I think that in communities that are heavily involved in youth football programs, its going to be very hard for most parents to go against the trend and pull their kid from the sport. In places like that, it will take something like a kid getting paralyzed from the neck down to cause some of the families to reconsider.
In regions of the country where its not as popular, I think you're more likely to find more parents who question it.
I have never heard of coaches teaching players to lead with their heads. Our kids are taught that leading with the head is dangerous. It is a penalty in our league.
It's impossible not to lead with your head and perform a proper tackle. The biggest criticism of NFL players is that they tackle high, going for shoulders or making chest-to-chest contact, this is completely opposite of how you are supposed to do it.
Here is the kind of routine tackle done in the NFL that doesn't follow proper form...
This is an illustration of proper tackle form...
Notice where the players head is in relation to the other player in the first frame. Now, while you do not lead with your head as a spear, speed this whole process up to game speed and following proper tackle technique...the tackler will come in low with his body, head leading and then ATTEMPT to place his head to the side of the other players motion. What that means is that if the other player is running to his left, you place your head to the right and vice versa. This means that by momentum, you are placing your head in the path of the other guys movement, this is done to prevent them from gaining another yard on the fall.
Plain and simple, while you don't use your head like the tip of a spear and lunge forward into the other player, it is impossible to NOT lead with your head following proper technique and the chance of your head contacting the other player at full speed is very high.
Another shot of proper technique, this from a NFL game...
A picture of a "nutcracker" drill to teach technique, see where the heads are when one player is crouched and running...
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