Day 3: Preventing Head Injury

Sports today can be very dangerous but what are some ways to prevent head injuries from happening, or decrease the risk of an injury. There are many ways to decrease the risk while playing sports like choosing the safest equipment, having monthly TBI tests and, learning proper technique.

Equipment is a big part of avoiding a traumatic bran injury. With many contact sports it is very important to have a helmet that will protect you from skull fractures and concussions. For sports like football hockey and lacrosse hits to the head are inevitable. Players are required to wear helmets for these sports, but players must make sure their helmets are in the best condition to be the safest possible for the user. Players have to always check their helmets to make sure they are not cracked, rusted, or have the safest technology.












A proper football helmet

It is also important for players to learn proper hitting technique so they do not cause their-self or others to get injured in the sport. Many players when they first start playing a contact sport don't get the right instruction on hitting so many people are being injured in higher more dangerous levels because they didn't learn the fundamentals correctly. If players learn proper fundamentals they are at a much lower risk of injury in the sport.

Day 2: Different Sports With Risk

There are many different types of head injuries in sports, many sports with the risk of a are Cycling, Football, Baseball, Basketball, Boxing, Winter Sports, Hockey, and Lacrosse. Every year there are 3.8 million concussions in recreation, amateur and and professional sports. Many of the sports listed before are contact sports. Contact sports are any sports that emphasize physical contact between players in the sport. Unfortunately the risk with contact sports is that there can be blows to the head causing different types TBI's (Traumatic Brain Injury). Many contacts sports like hockey, lacrosse, football, boxing, etc, involve lots of rough contact between the players. Sometimes the players do get hit in the head which may cause a head injury.

Ricky Hatton suffers a concussion after a punch from
Floyd Mayweather

What are some sports that have a high risk of head injury but aren't contact sports? There are plenty, sports like ski racing, motorcross, cycling, and driving sports. There are still many head injuries that happen in these sports mainly because in a lot of them there is very fast paced action during the sport. In many of these sports it is possible to fall or crash while moving at a fast pace and to get injured.

A Ski racer crashes during the race.


Sources:
"AANS." - Home Page. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2014.
"Contact Sport." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 03 Feb. 2014. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.
"Traumatic Brain Injury." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 03 Aug. 2014. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.

Day 1:Types of Head Injuries

Today there are many sports that played by people on a professional level, high school, and recreation. Many people enjoy playing contact sports like football, boxing, and Hockey but the main concern is the head injuries that the players run the risk of getting. My name is Jack and I can say first hand from playing three contact sports, football, lacrosse, and hockey, that I am taking a huge risk of head injury playing these sports. Through the years of splaying these sports I have had 2 concussions, one from Football and one in Hockey. Concussions aren't the only injury many athletes face, there are also Hematomas, Contussions, Skull Fractures, and Whiplash. A Hematoma is a rupture in the blood vessels between the head and the brain. A Contusion is the bruising of the brain tissue. Skull fracture is an injury were the bones that make up the skull are broken. The most common sports injury; the Concussion, is a brain injury that causes the brain to alter brain function.

A head to head hit in football on Aaron Rodgers

Around the U.S. there are an estimated 3.8 million concussion as a result of recreational and professional sports. Some injuries like concussions are minor, and eventually heal over time. But there are many injuries like Hematomas, contusions, etc. that are very serious. Many injuries have permanent effects on the human mind. If the injury is serious enough it can cause paralysis,  dementia, insomnia, etc. It is very important to stay protected in sports so none of these injuries happen.

Sidney Crosby after being hit in the head

Work Cited
http://www.uni.edu/walsh/HeadInjury.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_contusion#Causes
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/concussion/basics/definition/con-20019272
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concussions_in_sport