Informative Speech On Concussions

Intro: What is a concussion? A concussion is a traumatic injury to the brain which includes a brutal blow to the head and or the shaking very aggressively to the body. The effects of a concussion include the following:

1. Cognitive

2. Headache

3. Whole body ache

4. Amnesia

5. Disorientation

Concussions can be life threatening, even the smallest injury to the brain can cause a whole world full of problems. Sports in America are becoming more and more risky, football is a dangerous sport because one is more likely to endure a serious traumatic experience to the head and body it weighs on you physically and mentally.

Soccer:

At every level, players are elbowed, tripped, kicked and head-butted sometimes by their team members and other players

on the opposing team, but one common injury is a concussion. Which is mostly caused by a lot of pressure to the head; however, in today’s society it is very popular in our sports and in our everyday lives we are always prone to get a concussion. But in soccer the most common causes of a concussion are from the following:
1. Slide tackling
2. ball being kicked at someone’s face
3. Heading the ball improperly
4. Players being pushed into the goal posts
“Studies on American football players found concussion impact magnitudes to be 70 to 120 times the force of gravity or G’s. Research shows that G-forces of soccer headers are often low accelerations – about 15 to 25 G’s”.
With adult soccer players it would take a lot more than a ball to the head to give them a concussion, usually with adults it takes a fall straight on the head in order for them to get a concussion. A child’s brain is organized differently than an adults brain and by that I mean the neural connections are measured by the proximity of another. “A recent study found that less than 10% of concussions in high school soccer were caused by ball contact with the head. The most common cause of concussion in soccer? Colliding with another player. Studies show that head size is fully grown at the age of 4. At the age of 4 kids should learn how to use their heads in soccer and learn to protect their heads when playing”.
The dimensions of a soccer goal post are 7.32m (8yds) by 2.44m (8ft) the soccer goal posts need to be padded with a 3.5 in – 4.5 in. and 4 in. pad so players don’t run into the post and get injured also soccer balls should have strict padding the recommended pressure for a soccer ball is 8.7 (PSI) instead of over inflation. Players should start wearing protective helmets that weigh less than the average body weight, when it comes to heading the soccer ball kids should go through a soccer class that teaches them how to head the ball more properly in order to prevent concussions from heading the ball.
Teams should start fundraisers in order to get the money to buy lightweight manageable overprotective gear that doesn’t affect the performance of the player but the safety of the player.

Football:

“A person is far more likely to actually protect their head if they go into a brutal collision without the false security of a helmet”. Football is a sport where you will always get hit in places you do not want to be hit also your body will be somehow manipulated into harsh positions, some of these positions are deadly and some are just harmful. But the worse is your head. Why? Because you could possibly get “Trucked” which means: To run ruthlessly through a tackler as if they're not even there.

Hockey:
They are very different sports, and the patterns of injury are different,” explains consultant neurosurgeon Peter Hamlyn, who works closely with both the NFL and the rugby union.

“A guy in the front row of the scrum in rugby will get neck problems. When you have a pack that big, and that aggressive, the front row has to do so much work to build up their neck muscles that they’ve worn out their necks before they even get to the game. So we see young guys with lots of neck problems and spine problems. There is a problem with chronic arthritis in the neck and to some degree the lumbar spine in these guys. McDonald said the ceremony was not the right time for the inductees to talk about concussions Though hockey players’ brains have not been studied as much as football players’, several hockey players have been found to have had C.T.E. after their deaths. More than 200 former N.H.L. players have sued the league, saying it should have done more to protect them from the dangers of head trauma. Kariya’s position is that targeted head shots should have no part in the game and that punishment should be harsher. The N.H.L. introduced a rule dealing with illegal checks to the head in 2010, but that has not eliminated

them.

1. But the continued increase in concussion rates we found suggests that multiple other factors may be at play, too. For example, concussion rates are higher on grass than they are on artificial turf, so surface and match tactics may be a cause.
2. Tackling a player at shoulder height or above (a high tackle) leads to greater risk of a player having a HIA. Yet tackling high is often a tactic used to prevent the opposition from being able to offload the ball – though yellow cards have been introduced for high tackles in an attempt to reduce this specific risk.
3. Rugby union currently operates a return to play protocol that outlines the mental and physical activities which must be undertaken by a player before they return to full contact rugby. The players are supervised by medical PR actioners and must be symptom free during each 24-hour stage of the protocol to be able to move onto the next step.
Cricket:
While concussion is not as common in cricket as in contact sports such as rugby, our research has shown an average of around 15-20 incidents in first and second team cricket during each of the last few seasons. A player who has been struck on the head will undergo a five-minute on-field assessment and, if there are concerns, they will leave the pitch and the cricket liaison officer can make a decision on a replacement. The MCC made other new additions to the laws in October, with a clamp-down on player conduct, limitation on bat size and a banning of mock fielding among the introductions. This season umpires will have the ability to send players off the field for poor conduct and give five-run penalties. Levels of offence range from one to four, whereby one is a warning, two is a five-run deduction and three and four will see a player sent off, either temporarily or permanently.
However, regardless of the extent or nature of the concussion there is a need for immediate cognitive and physical rest. Understanding of concussion is evolving but neurophysiology suggests that the brain does not begin to recover for some days after the initial insult and that there is an increased risk for some time after the initial injury. A healthcare professional trained in the management of return to play and head injuries must supervise the graded return to play.
1. All symptoms need to be absent for 24 hours before simple cognitive and physical activities can be undertaken. Graded steps of gradual increase in activity must be accompanied by a 24-hour window to check for further symptoms or signs. To achieve the last two levels as identified in the below table, the player needs a 24-hour window for each level and this therefore means no further return to a full training situation for six days.
2. Cricket is a sport which sees the use of a range of equipment that is designed to protect players from injury. Batsmen at all levels of the sport wear protective gloves, pads, arm guards, boxes and helmets, while wicket-keepers and certain fielders also make use of such equipment. Yet accidents do still happen, as is evident from the tragic death of Australian international cricket player Phillip Hughes, who passed away in 2014 after being hit on the neck by a bouncer.
3. Each concussion is assessed on a case-by-case basis. However, regardless of the extent or nature of the concussion there is a need for immediate cognitive and physical rest. Understanding of concussion if evolving but neurophysiology suggests that the brain does not begin to recover for some days after the initial injury. A healthcare professional trained in the management of return to play and head injuries must supervise the graded return to play.