Concussions In Sports Essay

Athletes all around the world are affected by injuries every single day. One of the most common injuries would be a concussion. No matter how serious the injury could be, the same procedure to diagnose them should all be the same. Players are not being taken care of the way that they deserve to be. Concussions play a disturbing role in our sports communities and need to be analyzed and taken care of as soon as it occurs. Concussions add a dangerous aspect of play to the games that many people enjoy to watch and participate in.

To begin with, concussions can never truly be 100% avoidable. However, being taught the proper form and technique can help concussions from happening. When you first sign up to play a sport, you must sign a contract that states that you are completely aware of the risks that come along with playing it. So, when you are playing a sport, you also have to deal with the added risks and consequences that come along with it. In “Sports Medical Conditions”, it is stated that “However, the degree of risk to a particular participant is not limited to the degree of physical contact created in the sport. An equally important consideration

is the level of physical intensity with which the participant is expected to perform in the sport. […]” (Lerner 679). This excerpt is explaining that even though the initial contact of a sport may not be very violent, the athlete his or her self may be expected to react or approach a play a specific way that the player may have been coached to do.
In addition, it is also extremely important that coaches do not over train their players.

Over training is the effect of forcing the body to work too hard without the rest to compensate for it. This is very important because if an athlete is being over trained, they may be putting too much stress on a certain area of the body. Over training may also force the athlete to completely forget about proper form and risk further injury. In “Overtraining and Burnout in Sports”, it is stated that athletes will perform the best when they can quickly recover during competition and can handle stress, recovery, and future stress (Kellmann). After every practice or game, a cooldown stretch should be done to help relax muscles and keep them at ease. Doing these stretches very often will help decrease the risk of any injury

greatly.
If a player appears to possibly have a concussion with obvious symptoms, the correct precautions to diagnose it need to be taken immediately. In “Concussion”, Halstead states that “If an athlete is conscious, assessment of his or her cognition, including details of the current game, amnesia before or after the injury, and confusion must be assessed. The athlete should be asked about the symptoms related to his or her concussion” (Halstead). As soon as a hard hit occurs, the athlete should automatically be taken out of the game and a certified athletic trainer should give the player an On-field assessment. The assessment shall be focused on behavioral features such as inability to balance, personality changes, vomiting, laughing, or crying (Halstead). In high school, a football teammate of mine was hit very hard to the ground and suffered a minor concussion. As soon as he was hit and got up, I immediately knew something was wrong. He got up from the ground slowly and asked a few of my other teammates whether we were on offense or defense. Before he was hit, he was alert and knew exactly what the conditions of the game where. However, as soon as he was hit, he had major confusion about the game and what the current situation was. It amazed me how one hard hit could potentially force someone to forget details that were just currently fully aware of. This just shows how serious of an injury concussions can be if they are not treated right away.
The brain is the most complex part of the human body. If it is damaged, there could be terrible long-term effects that may never fully heal. In “Brain Injuries”, it states “Unfortunately, in the course of an impact injury to the head, the brain can shift, and tissue damage can occur, especially from rapidly speeding up or slowing down-much like what happens to Jell-O in a container that is dropped or suddenly yanked” (Ferrara 262). A higher emphasis needs to be put on athletes recovering from a past hit or concussion. There should be more of a time scale of when athletes are allowed to return to play. In some cases, athletes may not start showing symptoms of a brain injury until hours, days, or even longer than the exact time of the accident (Ferrara 263). This makes judging the injury very difficult to determine if a player needs to be evaluated or not. That’s why it would be best if after every hit that makes an athlete get up a little slow or look a little unusual, they should be taken out of the game immediately and asked simple questions about the current condition of the game. If they answer the questions correctly and see completely stable, they should be able to reenter the game without any further examinations. Even if the athlete looks fine physically, these short examinations on the field while prove to the trainers and coaches that the player can continue to compete without any injury.
Concussions impact athletes all around the world in great numbers every day. With the lack of evaluations being made for these athletes after big hits, their safety only deteriorates with time. The fun and enjoyment that many people get out of sports also come with its set risks. These risks are very easy to minimize however, it is extremely important to understand the probability of getting injured. More time needs to be taken to ensure that every athlete that appears to have a concussion, is truly ready to continue playing the game they enjoy.