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Concussion Checklist for Parents

MomsTeam Founder and long-time concussion safety advocate, Brooke de Lench, provides a concussion safety checklist for parents to know their child's sports program is taking concussions seriously.

Making Youth Sports Safer: Moms Have The Power!

Another high school football player dies after a head on head collision. A young ilfe cut short way to soon. A tragedy for sure. Education, better coaching, and impact devices in helmets can only do so much. Officials can only do so much, but in many cases not enough.  Moms cheering at football game

One of our three high school hockey goalies has already gotten a concussion during "Captains Practice." The official season starts in November. Hope he recovers in time.

Unless those with all the power in youth sports intervene to demand changes, the status quo will continue, and more and more kids will be seriously injured, some lasting for a lifetime. Who has the power to make youth sports safer? Moms, says longtime hockey and lacrosse coach, Hal Tearse.

Why Tougher Rules for Dangerous Hits in High School Hockey Will Not Work

 

As I watch the Stanley Cup playoffs I am reminded each spring about the ever-changing rules in hockey: One set for the regular season, and one set for playoffs. Or should I say one rule book and two or more interpretations of the enforcement of the rules in the book. Clearly there is much more leeway from the rule book during the playoffs. Players tripped on breakaways do not draw a penalty. Obvious rule violations are ignored. But lets be clear about the NHL: the league is an entertainment business that happens to play hockey. Fans like the brutality and violence. It sells tickets so it is allowed to happen. 

Tougher rules against checking from behind and blind-side hits in hockey won't make the sport safer. The problem is a lack of training, certification, education and compensation for on-ice officials, argues one longtime Minnesota hockey official and coach.

MomsTEAM's 2012 Year In Review: Another Year For Finding Solutions, Not Just Identifying Problems


Yesterday, the last day of what has been a very long, yet rewarding year as the publisher of MomsTEAM, I took some time to read many of the blog entries that I and our other bloggers contributed during the past year, and reviewing 365 days of Facebook and Twitter posts.

First, a confession: I began 2012 vowing to write a blog every day. Like many who make New Year's resolutions, I started out with the best of intentions, and kept up a pretty good pace in the first month or so of the year, but then a major opportunity presented itself - a plea for help from a football mom in Oklahoma - that made a daily blog no longer possible. (More about that in a moment)

In reviewing the past twelve months and looking forward to 2013, MomsTEAM's Founder and Publisher has a renewed sense of purpose to meet the challenge of making youth sports saner, safer, less stressful and more inclusive.

Pop Warner Concussion Scandal: Lessons Learned

The Pop Warner concussion scandal - one that, sadly, occurred right in my backyard here in Massachusetts - has put youth football under the microscope once again.

The Pop Warner concussion scandal has put youth football under the microscope once again. But is what happened in that single game reason enough to pull a kid out of football, or never sign him (or her) up in the first place? I don't think so.

Boys, Girls and Locker Rooms

As more girls are earning spots on squirt and pee wee teams the issue of locker room protocols is starting to rise to the surface. USA Hockey has recommended protocols, Minnesota Hockey has a slightly different take on the issue and one District Director in Minnesota has issued a different approach. The major sticking points are the definition of "undress" and when both genders can be in the locker room together.

As more girls are earning spots on squirt and pee wee teams the issue of locker room protocols is starting to rise to the surface. USA Hockey has recommended protocols, Minnesota Hockey has a slightly different take on the issue and one District Director in Minnesota has issued a different approach. The major sticking points are the definition of “undress” and when both genders can be in the locker room together.

Parents Rethinking Contact Sports

Local youth football organizers in Minnesota say they are experiencing a 20 percent decline in registrations this year, citing increased awareness of the potential of serious injury and parents who are apparently picking other sports for their 3rd and 4th grade children.

NHL Commissioner Pleased with Increased Hitting in the Playoffs

The Stanley Cup playoffs bring out the best and worst in professional hockey. The quest for the Cup and the bragging rights that go along with it intensify the game and bring it to a higher level each year after the regular season. There have been some really exciting games and, as a fan, former player and coach of the game, it is a thrill to watch, most of the time.

But I also wonder why we have to wait until the conclusion of an 80-game season before we get to see the good stuff? I think something is wrong here.

And then there is the bad stuff, and plenty of it. 

The Stanley Cup playoffs bring out the best and worst in professional hockey.

Jabs #13: Making Youth Hockey Safer In Wake of Jablonski Tragedy

 

While Jablonski's injury was, of course, his parent's worst nightmare, and will change his life forever, such injuries are fortunately quite rare in ice hockey but the publicity, in this instance, has prompted calls for the leaders of youth and high school hockey in Minnesota to demand stricter rule enforcement, better coaching, and more severe penalties for dangerous and illegal "hits" that lead to hockey being a sport with one of the highest rates of concussion.

Longtime Minnesota ice hockey coach Hal Tearse talks about how the catastrophic injury suffered by high school hockey player Jack "Jabs" Jablonski and suggests ways to make the sport safer.

Helmets Significantly Reduce Head Injuries Among Skiers and Snowboarders

Ever wonder if media exposure can have a positive effect on sports safety? One has to look no further than to what happened after the deaths of two celebrities in skiing accidents in Europe and North America during the winter of 2008-9, the first, a German politician, wearing a ski helmet, who suffered a traumatic brain injury but survived a collision with a helmet-less mother of four on a ski slope in Austria on New Year's Day 2009 in which the woman died; the second, involving actress Natasha Richardson, who died after a traumatic head injury while skiing without a helmet on a beginner's slope in Quebec in March 2009.
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