Source: consumer.healthday.com | Repost Duerson Fund 10/17/1022 –
Tackling drills are typically a staple of high school football practices, but new research suggests dropping them from training might cut the risk of head hits.
Using mouth guards with sensors that recorded every head hit, researchers found players who spent 5,144 minutes in non-contact practice had just 310 head hits, while those who had nearly 7,000 minutes in high-speed training with contact only above the waist had more than 3,300 head hits.
Head hits in football that lead to concussions and permanent brain damage conditions like chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) have prompted experts to find ways to reduce head trauma.
“This study was fueled by some of the failures in the past by NCAA [National Collegiate Athletic Association], and other organizational changes to limit head impacts,” said lead researcher Keisuke Kawata, an associate professor of kinesiology at Indiana University in Bloomington.
Cutting practice days, as the NCAA has tried to do in college football, hasn’t reduced head impacts — it actually increased them as coaches just pushed their players harder on the days they did practice, he said.