A study has found that ending football drills for high school students could make the sport safer for all. Sports carry a lot of benefits for youth, and this starts in childhood and continues until they are teenagers. Playing a sport gives them exercise, teaches them how to play as part of a team, and it helps them explore their interests.
However, there may be some parents out there who are concerned about their teenager playing football. Football is arguably the most popular sport in the US, and this means that a lot of children grow up dreaming of playing the sport. With some parents concerned about their child’s safety, work is always being done to see what can make it safer.
According to Medical Xpress, a study has shown that what can make high school football safer is ending the drills component. This study was published in the journal, Pediatrics, and it can be read in full here.
Drills are seen as an essential part of high school sports, but this work has shown that by cutting them out, they can drastically reduce the number of head injuries that occur. To complete this study, the researchers used mouthguards that had sensors to look at every head hit a kid took.
They found that those who spent 5,144 minutes playing had only 310 head hits. This may seem like a lot, but when they took into account added time for drills, the number was worse. They found that those who had 7,000 minutes, had nearly 3,300 head hits. This is dramatically increased, and by cutting out the drills, children would see a decrease in the number of times they receive a head injury. While some head hits are mild, and likely most of them are, there is always the chance a child could get a concussion.
Concussions can be serious injuries that can impair the lives of children, and they could impact their long-term health. Previous work has already found that football can lead to concussions that end in permanent brain damage and this has encouraged experts to look at what can decrease the odds of this happening. If drills cannot be cut completely, experts are recommending that the number of drills that are focused on tackling should be eliminated. Teenagers are still developing, and head injuries need to be avoided at all costs.
Sources: Medical Xpress, AAP