Because the most-commonly used return-to-play guidelines recommend that an athlete suffering multiple concussions be held out of sports for increasingly longer periods of time, up to and including the rest of the season, preventing another concussion may be the difference in the athlete being able to continue playing that season.
While athletes sustaining a concussion are at a 3-fold increased risk for future concussions, a risk that increases with each subsequent injury, unlike musculoskelatal injuries, few strength and conditioning methods will help prevent further concussions. This does not mean that no preventative methods can be taken to minimize recurrence of concussions and other head injuries.
In an article by three certified athletic trainers in the July-September 2001 special issue of the Journal of Athletic Training devoted to concussions in athletes, the authors suggest that reviewing game or practice films may "help reveal poor techniques, such as leading with the head to tackle or block or heading a soccer ball incorrectly," and that "reviewing the tape with the athlete and the coach may be
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useful in improving the athlete's technique or changing the coach's teaching methods."
In an 1999 article in The Physician and Sportsmedicine, Frederick Meuller, PhD, the director of the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and I recommended the following sports-specific preventative measures to reduce the number of fatalities and catastrophic injuries in scholastic sports:
Football
Continued enforcement of the ban on initial contact with the head in blocking and tackling, along with coaching in the proper skills of blocking and tackling;
Soccer
Anchoring soccer goals warning players to avoid climbing on them, and using proper moving, maintenance, and storage techniques
Ice Hockey
Enforce current rules and consider new rules against pushing or checking from behind
Develop conditioning programs to help players strengthen their neck muscles
Teach players about the risk of neck injury
Swimming
Enforce rules on racing dives in the shallow end of pools that require swimmers to start in the water if there is less than 3 1/2 feet of water, allow starts from platforms no higher than 18 inches for water 3 1/2 to 4 feet deep, and starts from platforms up to 30 inches above the water where it is 4 feet or more deep
Baseball
Either ban head first slides or, if allowed, require that coaches teach players the safest ways to execute this maneuver
Require vaulters to wear helmets, as mandated by several states and state high school athletic federations in the wake of the 2002 deaths of Penn State pole vaulter Kevin Dare and two other young vaulters. A pole vaulting helmet standard was issued by ASTM (formerly the American Society for Testing and Materials) in May 2006.
Require batting practice pitchers to wear helmets
Track and Field
Require compliance with rules on the size of pole vault landing pits, stabilizing the pole vault standards, padding the standards, removing all hazards from the pit area, and controlling traffic along the approach
Require vaulters to wear helmets, as mandated by several states and state high school athletic federations in the wake of the 2002 deaths of Penn State pole vaulter Kevin Dare and two other young vaulters. A pole vaulting helmet standard was issued by ASTM (formerly the American Society for Testing and Materials) in May 2006.
Enforce safety precautions during discus, shot put and javelin practice and competition, including the fencing off of the back and sides of the discus circle
Cheerleading
Limit stunts; e.g. pyramids should be limited to two levels and performed on mats
Require that coaches supervise all practices and be safety certified
Require that cheerleaders have a preparticipation exam, be trained in gymnastics, spotting and conditioning, and participate only in stunts that they have mastered
Permit cheerleaders who have signs of head trauma to return to cheering only with permission from a physician.
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