Head Trauma In Sports

Lately, injuries are starting to become more common as the sports start their seasons. A big topic on injuries that has come up a lot more recently is concussions. As little as five years ago society was not as informed on concussions as we are today. there are still much we don 't know on head injuries. Studies are being held to help improve our knowledge so this injury can be taken care of properly and efficiently.

The documentary Head Games directed by Steve James follows former football player and ex-wrestler, Chris Nowinski, on his mission to uncover the truth about the consequences of playing sports related to concussions. A concussion is a brain injury that you cannot see and where the brain moves around in the skull. More than 3.8 million concussions occur a year due to a sport. The documentary raises the question of whether protective head-gear should be worn in all contact sports. I believe a head is more likely to sustain more damage to the brain without a helmet than a head with a helmet.

In many of today's most popular sports, head injuries are quite common and are starting to occur more frequently in children. These injuries can bring upon brain damage, nerve damage, loss of memory, CTE, and much more. In the article “Hard Hit” by Kirsten Weir, and the video “Hard hits and head trauma, the dangers of team sports” by AFP News Agency, they both talk about head injuries in football, and the new safety measures put in place to help decrease them. In the video, they also talk about hockey, and how they are also putting in place rules to help decrease the amount of head injuries occurring in childrens hockey. Gwen Moran’s article, “We should all care about concussions in women’s soccer.

More now than ever athletes are being watched out for when there is trauma to the brain. After multiple cases of poor treatment to concussions parents and doctors are cracking down on letting concussions not be a big deal. As more studies advance, it is discovered that every case is different. The range is created by severity, past experience with trauma, and how the patient heals. Concussions in sports can range in severity, and how they affect each individual over time depending on times of impact.

Imagine that one of the greatest baseball players ever had to retire due to a life threatening condition, later to be named after him. That was what happened to the legendary Lou Gehrig. Lou Gehrig was a renowned baseball player for the New York Yankees in the early 1920’s. The “Iron Horse” as he was known, was forced to retire at a young age due to a life threatening disease called ALS and often known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Gehrig was a slugger and was loved by fans for not only for his ability to hit the ball out of the park, but also for his social influence in baseball.

Contact sports involve touching, hitting, or banging other children, which is often why children get hurt in these sports. Among teens, concussions and death have happened. While these sports increase the strength of teenagers as they partake in a school activity, the risk of injury and death is great. The health benefits of contact sports do not outweigh the risks of playing them.   The leading causes of death and accidents in sports are caused by concussions.

Some people are great athletes; others are great humanitarians, but Roberto Clemente combined both characteristics in one, dynamic package. From his early years as a poor child in Puerto Rico to dizzying heights as a pro baseball player for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Clemente’s life is one of inspiration and admiration. “If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don 't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth”. (Roberto Clemente) Roberto Clemente came from a very humble beginning.

This article talks about how coaches could better recognize concussions as they went through an education program that helped them recognize the symptoms of a concussion. Some sports teams may not have certified athletic trainers or doctors on the sideline to take care of a concussion and that leaves the coach to be the first person to try and recognize a concussion. Also, to help coaches recognize concussions, the Center for Disease Control started a program called Heads Up!, which was used at the youth and high school levels. The big issue with the concussion knowledge is that some of these coaches today have misconceptions of concussions because of the magazines and newspapers they read instead of going through coaching education programs to properly get their information on a concussion. For this study, they had to get people who were enrolled in classes related to coaching education majors and minors.

Every person in the world loves football! Football has the highest rates of catastrophic head injuries (16).The long term health effects of high impact sport injures can be super dangerous. “Medical researchers at Boston University recently confirmed that 88 of 92 former NFL players donated their brains for research…”(15). “... NFL players who donate their brains for research suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy( C.T.E.), a brain disease induced by repetitive head trauma and linked to depression,aggression,impulse-control problems,memory loss, and dementia”(15).

Competitive sports should Not be Played “I've been all too familiar with accounts of N.F.L veterans exhibiting Alzheimers-like symptoms in their 40s,” says Adam Buckley Cohen of the New York Times. Many people playing sports are experiencing severe injuries. Competitive sports are sports that include physical contact. The sports include football, lacrosse, soccer and baseball are some.

Ken Stabler and Earl Morrall, were latest of dozens of players to have found to have had a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head hits. Should sports leagues do more to prevent concussions and other sports injuries, yes they should. Less practices means less chances of injury. Head-to-head contact carries a greater risk of concussion in football than head-to-ground contact. There is risk in life.

Concussions have always been an issue in sports. Many sports can cause a concussion. However, the main sports are either football or soccer. Most of the coach's in these sports trey to help with the issue but do not fully understand the process of helping. "