A concussion is a quite serious injury widespread in different sports. Sportsmen involved in contact sports often receive concussions and suffer from their effects for a long time. The main danger of concussion is that it increases the chances of the next concussion and may cause different brain problems. The main task of every coach and athletic trainer is to do everything to prevent sports injuries, and every injury requires a specific approach. Therefore, coaches use different strategies and methods to make sportsmen avoid this serious injury.
How to avoid and prevent concussions in sports?
Firstly, it is important to note that prevention is the most effective method. Thus, coaches must focus on providing sportsmen with enough practical skills and theoretical information to avoid this injury. Coaches emphasize that athletes hurt themselves when they fail to follow the rules (Bickerstaff, p. 51). The main factor contributing to concussions is breaking the rules during sporting events. Undisciplined and aggressive sportsmen are more likely to get concussions because they don’t follow the rules and show unsportsmanlike conduct. Therefore, coaches should make sportsmen stick to the rules and discipline them. Every sportsman should remember that breaking the rules might lead to serious problems and even destroy their career. According to recent studies, a concussion may even result in mental illnesses (Roush, p. 86).
It is also important to mention that concussion is the most underreported serious injury. Unfortunately, most sportsmen don’t report this injury because of the culture of athletics (Roush, p. 105). In some cases, they don’t think this injury is quite serious, so they don’t talk about it to doctors. Sportsmen don’t want to take time to recover because they will miss games. They consider participating in a game more important than spending it for recovery. The only way to make sportsmen share information about this injury is to change their attitude toward it. Coaches and health care providers must encourage parents to influence their children so they would report this injury. Sportsmen underestimate the threat this injury poses; therefore, they don’t pay much attention to it.
In addition, in some professional teams, team trainers and physicians track information acquired by special accelerometers located in the helmets of each player. These accelerometers detect serious impacts and hits caused and record them. If the accelerometer detects that the player has suffered a hit of great power, then his health condition is checked by physicians. (Bickerstaff, p.49). Therefore, even if a sportsman wants to hide information about concussions, he won’t be able to because of tracking devices inside his helmet. Moreover, this information is used to improve helmet designs to minimize the chances of getting a concussion.
Another way of preventing concussions is spreading information about the danger of this injury. Healthcare providers spread information via special literature and brochures. These brochures are provided to different sports-related organizations. In addition, healthcare providers take an active part in developing sports equipment, helping prevent concussions. Tight cooperation between healthcare providers and coaches can significantly minimize concussions among sportsmen.
All these methods of preventing concussions clearly show that coaches, health providers, and athletic trainers are focused on using different approaches to preventing concussions. Some approaches focus on educating sportsmen and making them more disciplined, while others focus on improving equipment protection. Anyway, sportsmen should remember that they are responsible for their own safety more than others and should do everything to avoid injuries.
References
Roush, K. J. (2012). Sports Concussion and Neck Trauma: Preventing Injury for Future Generations: AuthorHouse.
Bickerstaff, L. (2010). Frequently Asked Questions about Concussions: Rosen Publishing Group.
