USA Football and Steelers' staff had a host of recommendations for increasing concussion safety for area youth football players at Saturday's coaches clinic at the UPMC Sports Complex in Pittsburgh. Know the signs and symptoms. Teach proper tackling technique. Limit full-contact padded practices.
"The whole idea is to help our kids play the game of football the right way," Steelers president Art Rooney II said to nearly 100 youth coaches, according to the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates there are 3.8 million sports and recreation-related concussion annually. Most injuries are sustained while bicycling, followed by organized contact sports such as football and ice hockey and playground mishaps.
Last month, data were released on the forces incurred over the course of a full football season by 7- and 8-year-old football players in northern Virginia. The magnitude of the hits were measured using accelerometers placed inside several players' helmets. Many were comparable to forces felt in a pillow fight, but some were on par with those sustained by high school or collegiate players. The higher magnitude forces typically occurred during practices, not games.
Ed Passino, Northeast regional manager for USA Football urged coaches to limit full-contact practices.
"One thing that we're teaching throughttps://e country is that you don't have to hit every day in practice," Passino said. "It's not 1950 anymore. Update the way you handle practice.
"Maybe you only hit one day a week, you can still conduct form tackling without full-on collisions."
The eight Ivy League presidents, two of whom are medical doctors, limited contact practices for their football teams last summer, allowing fewer than the NCAA.
USA Football concussion safety information
Source: Concussions at head of youth coaches camp -- Pittsburgh-Post Gazette -- May 20, 2012
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