The Effect Blows to the Head Have on Athletes

Contact sports are a popular form of entertainment, and are participated in by 2 million kids and teens nationwide every year. Sports provide enjoyment, fun, and healthy habits for many people everywhere.  

With sports like football, basketball, soccer, MMA, boxing, hockey, wrestling, rugby and lacrosse, people recognize which they prefer to play, to watch and to invest their time in.

There is one unfortunately common predicament throughout each of these sports, one that can disable players and set back teams. It can hospitalize many and create long-lasting effects that can alter the life of the athlete. 

Head injuries are one of the most common injuries in sports, especially these contact sports. According to Michigan Medicine, 3.8 million athletes per year suffer from concussions and other head-related injuries. These injuries can cause permanent changes to the health of these athletes that can be detrimental to their lives and lives around them.

Declan Walsh, a senior at Abington Heights High School, has a particularly interesting story. Declan has suffered from five different concussions in his sports career. Walsh has played football for almost his entire span of high school, taking a break junior year due to this common harmful occurrence. Football has a higher concussion rate than any sport, usually featuring pretty intense symptoms. 

“They definitely are not fun,” says the athlete. “Every concussion is pretty similar. At first, you almost feel like you can see stars. Your vision is blurry, you just feel like garbage. Then for the next week you just feel out of it, you feel sick and weak and you don’t want to get out of bed.” 

Walsh was getting over his 5th concussion at the time of the interview. 

When asked in hindsight the things to do to prevent them, he explained, “It is kind of different for every sport, but a universal rule is to keep your head up, stay aware, try not to use your head when tackling or hitting.” 

These are all important things to be aware of. When a person gets a concussion, the head is jolted in such a way that the brain shifts rapidly inside the skull, and this can disrupt the brain from functioning properly. 

The days, or even weeks, following often include painful and agonizing symptoms, and school can be difficult for suffering athletes. The Abington Heights concussion protocol,  according to our school nurse, Ms. Stone, is useful and caters to injured athletes. 

In order to qualify, the student must be diagnosed with a concussion. If diagnosed, you must have 48-72 hours of rest. When returning to school, the student is allowed 50% of homework in all classes, time and a half for tests and quizzes, and no gym or sports are permitted until symptoms are gone and the athlete feels better. Students may wear sunglasses as well, due to light sensitivity.

Even more than treating concussions, prevention is key. But preventing concussions can be an extremely difficult thing. It is impossible to prevent them entirely, but there are steps that coaches, athletes, and even parents can take to try to limit and educate players when it comes to head injuries. Prevention varies from sport to sport, but can ultimately save lives. 

It is extremely important that all athletes have well fitted equipment in protective and working condition, tackling should be taught and practiced correctly with the heads-up technique, all players should be good sports and respect each other on the field, helmet to helmet contact should be avoided when unnecessary, and players should be taken off the field when they suspect a concussion.

If every team and player sticks to these rules and makes them a habit, concussions and head injuries in general can be limited and prevented much better. Though football exhibits a large number of concussions, soccer, basketball, wrestling, and most other physical sports have high concussion rates. 

After anyone gets a concussion, they are only more likely to face another one. After a second concussion, symptoms worsen and take longer to recover, as well as an increase in vulnerability to another one. It is evident that frequent head injuries cause long-term effects that should not be taken lightly. Michigan Medicine   says, “Researchers have also discovered microscopic brain changes in people exposed to repetitive mild head trauma. This condition is called CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy.” CTE is permanent brain damage that does not go away, and it is clear to have occurred and currently occurs in many athletes. 

It is clear that concussions and head injuries of all sorts are both dangerous and detrimental to athletes around the world. It is important to take proper measures to prevent and try to avoid such trauma, for the good of the health of many.