IU researchers suggest limiting contact drills in football practice
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Researchers from Indiana University suggest that youth and high school football teams limit contact drills in practice to prevent head injuries.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 63% of concussions happen during tackling.
Research just published in the journal Pediatrics suggests that taking contact drills out of practice could lower head impact numbers, according to CNN.
The researchers studied games and practices for three high school teams in the Midwest in the 2021 season and had the players wear mouthguards with sensors in them.
They found there were 7,312 head impacts among the 74 players in the study, for an average of about 66.5 hits per student.
Linemen caught the brunt of the head hits, according to the study, and players experienced the fewest head hits when they practiced drills without contact.
In 5,144 minutes of noncontact drills, there were about 310 head impacts overall, the researchers said. In comparison, in 6,901 minutes of “thud” drills, in which players train at high speeds and restrict contact to above the waist, there were 3,360 head impacts.
But it’s not just at the youth and high school levels that head injuries are being taken more seriously.
Just recently, Indianapolis Colts running back Nyhiem Hines took a scary hit on a Thursday night football game against the Denver Broncos, after which he could hardly walk off the field. The team later confirmed he had a concussion.
NFL Chief Medical Officer Dr. Allen Sills says there needs to be a more cautious approach taken.
“We want to become even more conservative, and if we think that ataxia is present, let’s just go ahead and assume it is coming from the brain and we will hold someone out. Because if we are going to be wrong, we would rather hold someone out who doesn’t have a brain injury but we are being cautious, than to put someone out who might have a brain injury and we weren’t able to diagnose it,” Sills said.
Football is the most popular sport among boys ages 13 to 17; more than 1.46 million play, according to The Aspen Institute Project Play.