Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Salem, Virginia Tech team up for youth football 'Concussion Summit'
BLACKSBURG — With concussions a growing concern among parents wondering whether or not their children should continue to play football, Salem parks and recreation director John Shaner thought it would be wise to spread as much positive information about the subject as possible.
He could think of no better resource than just down the road at Virginia Tech.
Shaner and Hokies head athletic trainer Mike Goforth helped organize a “Concussion Summit” at Virginia Tech’s Merryman Center on Tuesday for about 100 youth, rec league and high school coaches from across the state.
The two-hour program featured presentations by Dr. Del Bolin, director of the Center for Sports Medicine in Salem; Dr. Stefan Duma, head of the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences and the project director of a research team studying helmet safety; Salem High School athletic trainer Chris Tucker; Goforth; and others.
All spoke about recognizing, treating and preventing concussions and their lasting effects.
“I know as a parks and rec director that we need to try to educate as much as we can and put good information out,” Shaner said. “And this is more of us being ahead of the curve and trying to educate and be willing to make sure people in our region, our parents have the best information they can have.”
Bolin’s presentation focused on identifying the symptoms of players who have suffered a concussion, such as confusion, disorientation, nausea, headaches and emotional changes.
He said the key to recovery is to recognize the concussion early and allow players to rest, adding that athletes who sustain a second concussion before the symptoms from the first are completely cleared open themselves up to worse consequences.
The group distributed a lanyard to be worn by coaches with common symptoms for concussions and tests parents and athletes can conduct on players they believe might have suffered one.
Tucker, a long-time Salem trainer, shared his own rule: When in doubt, keep them out.
“Sixty percent of the concussions are reported 10 percent of the time,” Tucker said. “These players want to play. These parents want their kids to play. Be very careful.”
He stressed that coaches make immediate contact with parents and medical professionals in the case of concussions, urging them to document their dealings to avoid future legal troubles.
Tucker said rest is the best remedy for a concussion, which means removing stimuli such as computers, TVs, cellphones, iPods and other devices teenagers often use.
“This brain wants to reboot,” he said. “And it needs to reboot.”
He said athletes should begin easing into exercising again only if they have been symptom-free for 24 hours, adding that Salem mandates players sit out five days minimum after a concussion. He said the average recovery time is two weeks but noted that concussions affect people differently.
Duma explained some of the research being done on helmet safety and the STAR rating system for both youths and adults. The system, called the Summation of Tests for the Analysis of Risk, is designed to assess a helmet’s ability to reduce the risk of concussion. Duma said while most of the research has been done with adult helmets, 3.5 million of the 5 million people who play football in the country are between 6 and 13 years old.
Future research will focus on those youth groups, with three teams near Virginia Tech and three near Wake Forest set to have their helmet impacts measured this fall.
Jarrett Ferguson, Virginia Tech’s director of strength and conditioning for football, spoke about putting an emphasis on strengthening the often-neglected neck muscles, demonstrating several exercises. Hokies equipment manager Lester Karlin added that having properly fitting helmets and shoulder pads can help reduce problems as well.
Goforth wrapped up the presentation by going over prevention strategies. He noted that the majority of concussions occur during practices, not games, and urged coaches to change how they schedule things accordingly.
That means fewer drills that involve live hitting — particularly outdated ones that require two players to run at each other and collide from a great distance, an instance that rarely happens in a game — and more time devoted to instruction, demos and walkthroughs.
Despite the risks associated with playing football, though, Goforth said the research being done will help make the game safer going forward.
“The good news is the human body is tougher than we thought it was, the helmets are better than we thought they were, we’ve got better coaching techniques now than ever before, and we’ve got better strength and conditioning,” he said. “If you put those four together, we think we’ve got a great activity for your son, and it’s called football.”
He could think of no better resource than just down the road at Virginia Tech.
Shaner and Hokies head athletic trainer Mike Goforth helped organize a “Concussion Summit” at Virginia Tech’s Merryman Center on Tuesday for about 100 youth, rec league and high school coaches from across the state.
The two-hour program featured presentations by Dr. Del Bolin, director of the Center for Sports Medicine in Salem; Dr. Stefan Duma, head of the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences and the project director of a research team studying helmet safety; Salem High School athletic trainer Chris Tucker; Goforth; and others.
All spoke about recognizing, treating and preventing concussions and their lasting effects.
“I know as a parks and rec director that we need to try to educate as much as we can and put good information out,” Shaner said. “And this is more of us being ahead of the curve and trying to educate and be willing to make sure people in our region, our parents have the best information they can have.”
Bolin’s presentation focused on identifying the symptoms of players who have suffered a concussion, such as confusion, disorientation, nausea, headaches and emotional changes.
He said the key to recovery is to recognize the concussion early and allow players to rest, adding that athletes who sustain a second concussion before the symptoms from the first are completely cleared open themselves up to worse consequences.
The group distributed a lanyard to be worn by coaches with common symptoms for concussions and tests parents and athletes can conduct on players they believe might have suffered one.
Tucker, a long-time Salem trainer, shared his own rule: When in doubt, keep them out.
“Sixty percent of the concussions are reported 10 percent of the time,” Tucker said. “These players want to play. These parents want their kids to play. Be very careful.”
He stressed that coaches make immediate contact with parents and medical professionals in the case of concussions, urging them to document their dealings to avoid future legal troubles.
Tucker said rest is the best remedy for a concussion, which means removing stimuli such as computers, TVs, cellphones, iPods and other devices teenagers often use.
“This brain wants to reboot,” he said. “And it needs to reboot.”
He said athletes should begin easing into exercising again only if they have been symptom-free for 24 hours, adding that Salem mandates players sit out five days minimum after a concussion. He said the average recovery time is two weeks but noted that concussions affect people differently.
Duma explained some of the research being done on helmet safety and the STAR rating system for both youths and adults. The system, called the Summation of Tests for the Analysis of Risk, is designed to assess a helmet’s ability to reduce the risk of concussion. Duma said while most of the research has been done with adult helmets, 3.5 million of the 5 million people who play football in the country are between 6 and 13 years old.
Future research will focus on those youth groups, with three teams near Virginia Tech and three near Wake Forest set to have their helmet impacts measured this fall.
Jarrett Ferguson, Virginia Tech’s director of strength and conditioning for football, spoke about putting an emphasis on strengthening the often-neglected neck muscles, demonstrating several exercises. Hokies equipment manager Lester Karlin added that having properly fitting helmets and shoulder pads can help reduce problems as well.
Goforth wrapped up the presentation by going over prevention strategies. He noted that the majority of concussions occur during practices, not games, and urged coaches to change how they schedule things accordingly.
That means fewer drills that involve live hitting — particularly outdated ones that require two players to run at each other and collide from a great distance, an instance that rarely happens in a game — and more time devoted to instruction, demos and walkthroughs.
Despite the risks associated with playing football, though, Goforth said the research being done will help make the game safer going forward.
“The good news is the human body is tougher than we thought it was, the helmets are better than we thought they were, we’ve got better coaching techniques now than ever before, and we’ve got better strength and conditioning,” he said. “If you put those four together, we think we’ve got a great activity for your son, and it’s called football.”
