S/O football and concussion risk

[MEmama]

In the thread about football, the overwhelming majority said they wouldn't allow the teen to play. I admit that's my immediate thought as well, but it got me to thinking about where we draw the line.

 

My son played hockey for 10 years. Now he's a competitive cyclist. Neither of those sports are without risk, but of course neither is anything in life.

 

Are there activities you expressly forbid your children from participating in, and if so do you research the actual vs perceived risks?

 

Just curious.

[Guest]

I messed up my ankle and hips figure skating and playing soccer. It's a lifelong issue I'm going to deal with. Football or hockey related injuries just don't bother me any more than horseback riding falls or rotator cuff tears in baseball.

 

A kid playing sports incurs risk. And the more competitively they play the higher the risk of physical damage will be. It is what it is and no sport I can think of that involves movement is without some possibility of injury. Brain injuries stink, but I think people underestimate the damage a good dancer or basketball player can see and overestimate what your average varsity football player might incur based on what the press is focusing on at the moment.

[Guest]

We did let our son to play football in middle school and high school. No head injuries, but he did require knee surgery. No regrets; he loved it and thrived in it.

 

I've actually heard that soccer has more head injuries than football.

 

The only thing we've been adament about is saying no to a son who wants a motorcycle.

[Arcadia]

My husband does not allow contact sports. It is due to foul (bullying) tactics that we saw growing up. Get a weak player to bring down the opposing team strongest player, the red card/suspension is worth it for the other team. My kids have saw rough housing that cross the line into bullying in contact sports even among the same team because of envy or other reasons. So they rather do sports that are stay in your own space like tennis, swimming, golf, bowling, snooker.

[MysteryJen]

Contact sports have risk of injury. Most sports do. And everyone makes different calculations based on their kids, experiences, and personal knowledge.

For example, I see the life altering effects of concussion in people whose kids have done gymnastics, basketball, and cycling. Those sports seem riskier *to me* because of my personal experience.

 

That said we have never forbidden a sport.

[JudoMom]

No street motorcycles. Ever. Even if they're 50. I've had two people close to me hit by cars while riding and they terrify me. Dirt bikes I can deal with.

 

I've heard the same thing about soccer having more head injuries, and I do think football is kind of getting a bad wrap because of all the press.

 

Injuries stink, but my experience has been they are just as likely to happen out of sports as during sports (eldest got a concussion earlier this year while being a youth leader at a weekend middle school church camp--it was just one of those things).

[Carrie12345]

I never would have okayed football (not an issue in our house) but I would have okay ed hockey (if it were closer.)

 

In hockey, hits happen. In football, you HAVE to hit. Hard. Always. Not nudge over, not throw off track. You must take entire humans all the way down to win.

 

I accept that there may be stats that say I'm silly. I don't care.

[sassenach]

I would prefer ds not to play football, but I don't feel strongly enough about it to forbid it.

[JumpyTheFrog]

https://www.medstarsportsmedicine.org/research/which-youth-sports-cause-the-most-concussions/#q={}

 

The rate of concussions per 1000 exposures for various sports was:

 

0.6 for football - The highest by far for any high school sport (I don't think hockey was studied).

0.35 for girls' soccer - The second highest of all 12 sports. 

 

Basketball, softball, and baseball were all lower. Boys' lacrosse was the second highest for boys.

 

There was a note that for similar sports (basketball for each, baseball/softball), girls had twice the concussion rate of boys.

 

 

Conclusion: Although the collision sports of football and boys' lacrosse had the highest number of concussions and football the highest concussion rate, concussion occurred in all other sports and was observed in girls' sports at rates similar to or higher than those of boys' sports.

 

So yes, there is a concussion risk in soccer, but it is much higher in football. For boys, lacrosse is also riskier than soccer. I suspect much of the risk in soccer could be eliminated by discouraging heading the ball. As a soccer player, I think it would be easier to change soccer to make it safer than football.

 

We have told our boys no football, boxing, or hockey. Soccer and competitive gymnastics are fine.

[Caroline]

https://www.medstarsportsmedicine.org/research/which-youth-sports-cause-the-most-concussions/#q={}

 

The rate of concussions per 1000 exposures for various sports was:

 

0.6 for football - The highest by far for any high school sport (I don't think hockey was studied).

0.35 for girls' soccer - The second highest of all 12 sports.

 

Basketball, softball, and baseball were all lower. Boys' lacrosse was the second highest for boys.

 

There was a note that for similar sports (basketball for each, baseball/softball), girls had twice the concussion rate of boys.

 

 

So yes, there is a concussion risk in soccer, but it is much higher in football. For boys, lacrosse is also riskier than soccer. I suspect much of the risk in soccer could be eliminated by discouraging heading the ball. As a soccer player, I think it would be easier to change soccer to make it safer than football.

 

We have told our boys no football, boxing, or hockey. Soccer and competitive gymnastics are fine.

US Youth Soccer now forbids heading in any age group below U13.

 

I think most concussions in soccer occur from head hitting the ground, the goalpost, or another head. If they over practice heading, there is a repeated head hit phenomenon which has the same outcome as a hard hit concussion. But I do think head to head contact comes from two people trying to head the ball.

 

That said, I am the mom of a former high school goal keeper who never got a concussion. His coach always said his head was more important than saving any goal. And he meant it. And he still says it to his club team keeper. I was so afraid of a head injury when he played. In fact, at the time i taught at the rival high school. When my students asked if they should score on my son I said score on him all you want, but no head injuries! Luckily, we had a coach with the same attitude towards heads as I do.

 

I do have one child who has had a concussion from skateboarding with a helmet on. When we were at the emergency room, no one asked if he was wearing a helmet. I finally said to the doctor that he was wearing a helmet. She said she knew because the injury wasn't worse.

 

Head injuries scare the crap out of me. I wonder if car accidents cause more head injuries than sports. As a teacher, I have seen head injuries from both cars and sports. I don't know the answer.

[mamaraby]

My kids play soccer, but the family rule is no headers. Headers happen to be against the rules of the game for 2 of my 3. My oldest was U12 this year, will be U14 this fall and has managed to avoid headers so far. I told him to tell his coach to talk to dh and I if there was an issue. The coach has never said anything.

 

I don't know that there's much more you can do about football to decrease concussion risk, but I suspect there are things that can be done in soccer so for me, I'm comfortable with okaying soccer. I would not be ok with football.

[ktgrok]

The issue with football is that the brain damage is not just from concussions. It is also an issue with repeated smaller head hits. The kind that happen every single practice/game. There is no way to avoid those. There are some who say pads and helmets made it worse, because they hit harder now. 

 

Other sports you might have a freak accident and get a concussion, but you aren't smacking heads every time. 

[Caroline]

The issue with football is that the brain damage is not just from concussions. It is also an issue with repeated smaller head hits. The kind that happen every single practice/game. There is no way to avoid those. There are some who say pads and helmets made it worse, because they hit harder now.

 

Other sports you might have a freak accident and get a concussion, but you aren't smacking heads every time.

Yes. And there is some research that repeatedly practicing heading the ball in soccer has a similar effect, although not as fast.

[sassenach]

The issue with football is that the brain damage is not just from concussions. It is also an issue with repeated smaller head hits. The kind that happen every single practice/game. There is no way to avoid those. There are some who say pads and helmets made it worse, because they hit harder now. 

 

Other sports you might have a freak accident and get a concussion, but you aren't smacking heads every time. 

I would be very interested if you could point me toward this research.

[Pen]

I guess I am most concerned (or would be if my ds were interested in them) about the sports where smashing into each other or throwing each other down or hitting each other etc. is part of the goal of the sport. So, ones I believe to be in this category include: football, boxing, wrestling, rugby           Wrestling at least has weight categories to help some, but I gather also has a lot of injuries per number of kids involved in it, possibly alleviated some if certain types of throws are not allowed.

 

 

I played soccer at a time when heading was a big deal, and think it would have been better if heading had been against the rules. I would suggest to a dc not to head the ball if playing soccer, but would not say a dc cannot play soccer. Though it also has a lot of groin and hand injuries in my experience--don't know statistically.

 

I think bicycling has even higher level of injuries than football, or so I have heard, and that includes serious head injuries.  But bicycling feels to me like something where to some degree, care and caution can help alleviate injuries. Crashing can happen, and I personally know several people who have had bad bike crashes with serious head injuries--but crashing is not part of the basics of the activity intentionally and deliberately.  Also evaluating it in the case of my own ds, I don't think he is any more likely to be clobbered while biking than anyone else is.

 

 In something like football, because of his smaller size and weight, I think whatever the statistics are, my ds would be likely to be in the part of the statistics that are the people who got hurt, rather than having an even chance with every other boy of being fine..  OTOH if he were pole vaulting, he'd be personally more likely to be fine than whatever the average statistic for that is, because he has a right body type and athleticism for it.  Similarly, ice skating, many can be badly injured while figure skating, and my ds could be, but I think my ds is relatively less likely than average to be so (at least at this stage, no triple jumps or anything like that), because he is agile, fit,  and also because he has a careful coach who tends to not have students have serious injuries.

 

 

[Anne in CA]

When my son was in scouts there were no dads with football injuries that could not participate in activities. Several dads had knees that were blown from soccer who never got to go on one hike. I never encouraged my son to continue with soccer after I saw how many grown men were permanently damaged. If I had more kids I wouldn't allow soccer.

[whitestavern]

Football is the only one I would forbid. But both my kids play hockey, lol. DD is a girl--no checking--so I feel safe there. DS is somewhat small and fast and knows how to avoid hits. If he did get a concussion I'd reevaluate his place on the team for sure.

[Bluegoat]

I don't know that I would forbid football.  Really, with any activity a lot would depend on the level of play.  My kids did horseback riding when they were young which can be very dangerous.

 

One thing I didn't persue that seriously with my kids was gymnastics - they did a little rec stuff as young kids, but I didn't encouradge more.  My middle daughter has the right body type for it, but I wouldn't want her to get into it at that level for health reasons.

[Bluegoat]

The issue with football is that the brain damage is not just from concussions. It is also an issue with repeated smaller head hits. The kind that happen every single practice/game. There is no way to avoid those. There are some who say pads and helmets made it worse, because they hit harder now. 

 

Other sports you might have a freak accident and get a concussion, but you aren't smacking heads every time. 

 

Yes, this.  There are some very strong arguments that new safety equipment doesn't necessary make things safer, because it can really change the play.  In football, tackles are taught differently than they are in, say, rugby.  There have been some experiments with teaching football players to tackle in different ways, and without helmets on, that seem to create fewer problems.

[wintermom]

The intensity, frequency and size of players has a big impact in the number and severity of injuries within a sport.  All hockey is not the same. All equestrian is not the same. All soccer is not the same.  

 

My youngest ds plays homeschool recreational hockey once a week with girls and boys aged 7 - 11. They aren't getting the speed on their skates to do much damage to anyone, even themselves, if they fall or collide with the boards. There is also no intentional contact with players - though some unintentional contact if they accidentally collide.  They are all wearing the maximum safety gear, which also prevents them from gaining too much speed. It's a pretty safe activity, and my ds loves it. We have no intention of venturing into more serious hockey.

 

All my dc have played homeschool recreational soccer, and my boys are trying out recreational basketball. At this intensity, and with sufficient officiating keeping the play in control, they are both pretty safe of injuries. 

 

My dc have never expressed an interest in football, but I wouldn't support them playing tackle football if they did. They'd be free to try flag football if they wished. 

 

 

[Insertcreativenamehere]

Our boys have played flag football, basketball and soccer. Youth soccer rules here don't allow headers or other physical contact and so far, we have had zero injuries. We won't allow tackle football or hockey because of the risk of head injury. My 12 yo son has done his own research on the risks and while he'd like to play, he understands why we won't allow it. 

Edited June 10, 2017 by insertcreativenamehere

[ktgrok]

I would be very interested if you could point me toward this research.

 

The term is Chronic Traumatic Encepalopathy. There was an excellent and interesting Frontline episode about it on PBS. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/league-of-denial/

 

The problem isn't a single concussion. It's repeated brain injury. You might get a concussion playing baseball, but not over and over again, most likely. 

[ktgrok]

Also, although knee injuries or what not can be painful, they can be lived with. Brain injury changes who you are as a person, and is linked to suicide, violent behavior, etc. If my kid ends up with a bum knee as an adult that sucks, but it's different than them ending up in jail for domestic violence, or losing the ability to work, etc.