<http://ajs.sagepub.com/content/39/5/958.full>
The article above talks about concussions in high school sports. The study found that over a ten year period of study concussions increased substantially in high school sports. This has also been the case in the National Football League, where concussion safety has been a topic of debate for the past 5 years. The question is: are our games more violent or is the awareness greater?
In my opinion, the reason concussions are reportedly up is just because of the amount of awareness we have when it comes to concussions. Our medical knowledge has advanced greatly in the past twenty years or so. Concussions in sports were not closely monitored for a very long time. As our awareness increases and medical professionals are able to not only accurately assess concussions but know the long term effects about them, we will continue to take precautions that try to limit the damage. We have already seen this evolution in the NFL, for example, with strict rules on the way defenders can hit wide receivers.
High school officials are trained to be as careful as possible with concussion-like symptoms. The damage a concussion can cause varies by the magnitude of the concussion, but the more we see them the more likely it is parents are going to try and limit activities their kids can partake in with the risk being out there.
It is also important to observe the impact that professional athletes can have on youth. First and foremost, being strong and violent is what people see and ultimately try and imitate. People involved in sport are stronger than ever and this can help increase the severity that each hit imposes. With the amount of concussions that we are observing increasing, will this dramatically change the way we look and play football in the future? Why would parents want their children playing a sport that has the greatest chance of severe damage to the body? I would certainly hate to see this happen, but it is possible.
Hopefully we can figure something out to limit concussions in some way to make the sport safer for all the participants involved. I would hate to see leisure impacted in such a dramatic way.
