hoops902
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Post by hoops902 on Nov 29, 2016 11:39:31 GMT -5
On the subject of better helmets...that may end up being a mixed result. There's been a bit of research to suggest that the more sturdy the helmet, and the more the helmet protects the players, the more players smash into things with their heads even more because of the additional protection offered. Basically the more that equipment does to protect a player, the less care the players themselves take to protect themselves and each other. Players weren't primarily leading with their heads smashing into each other when they were wearing padded leather.
Same is true in boxing. Boxing didn't go to big padded boxing gloves to protect competitors from head injuries.. It went to big padded gloves because that meant people would swing with wild abandon. You could land a ton more punches and throw those punches a lot harder without worrying that you were going to break your hand.
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Ryan
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Post by Ryan on Nov 29, 2016 12:15:30 GMT -5
I am probably overly cautious, but I would never let my kids play any kind of high impact sport like Football or Hockey (probably others too). Even if they have a strong desire to play, I don't think the reward is anywhere near worth risk.
Even beyond the head injuries, I just know so many people that have knee problems because of football. I mean, I'd actually be really pissed at myself if I'm struggling with a bad knee when I'm 40 all because I played football in HS.
If the parents aren't teaching the kids about staying active and eating healthy, the kids will just be gaining weight after sports ends anyways.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Nov 29, 2016 12:35:43 GMT -5
I am probably overly cautious, but I would never let my kids play any kind of high impact sport like Football or Hockey (probably others too). Even if they have a strong desire to play, I don't think the reward is anywhere near worth risk. Even beyond the head injuries, I just know so many people that have knee problems because of football. I mean, I'd actually be really pissed at myself if I'm struggling with a bad knee when I'm 40 all because I played football in HS. If the parents aren't teaching the kids about staying active and eating healthy, the kids will just be gaining weight after sports ends anyways. So where do you draw the line? Just about every sport carries risk. I know a lot of runners who now have knee replacements. I have friends with shoulder issues from playing tennis. Hell, my CAD instructor screwed up his knee and shoulder hiking. He spent 6 months in a cast on his leg and it is always going to give him problems. Hell, my attempts to control my BP and weight at the gym contributed to my early hip replacements, and I wasn't doing anything dangerous.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 29, 2016 12:49:01 GMT -5
Honestly, I wish my kid was into ANY kind of sport and I probably wouldn't discourage football. Of course, I can say this because there is no chance in hell my son would ever do that. I wasn't in school sports, but I barrel raced horses through high school. That's not exactly without risk either.
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Ryan
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Post by Ryan on Nov 29, 2016 12:57:12 GMT -5
I am probably overly cautious, but I would never let my kids play any kind of high impact sport like Football or Hockey (probably others too). Even if they have a strong desire to play, I don't think the reward is anywhere near worth risk. Even beyond the head injuries, I just know so many people that have knee problems because of football. I mean, I'd actually be really pissed at myself if I'm struggling with a bad knee when I'm 40 all because I played football in HS. If the parents aren't teaching the kids about staying active and eating healthy, the kids will just be gaining weight after sports ends anyways. So where do you draw the line? Just about every sport carries risk. I know a lot of runners who now have knee replacements. I have friends with shoulder issues from playing tennis. Hell, my CAD instructor screwed up his knee and shoulder hiking. He spent 6 months in a cast on his leg and it is always going to give him problems. Hell, my attempts to control my BP and weight at the gym contributed to my early hip replacements, and I wasn't doing anything dangerous. Well not just every sport, but everything carries risk but it doesn't mean that it's equal risk. There was a study that showed the rate of injury per 100 participants in HS sports. In order, it's football, hockey, soccer, basketball, and then baseball. Running, Tennis, Swimming (swimming the lowest), were all on the lower end of injuries for High School students. So just because everything carries risk, doesn't mean they carry the same risk. These are also just visits that require an immediate visit to the doctor, when you factor in head injuries (that can have long lasting effects), some of those sports are VERY dangerous. Also, a lot of injuries are caused by people not listening to warning signs and resting. Unlike football, where you’re perfectly healthy one minute and then have some huge hit that causes you to blow out your knee.
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Shooby
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Post by Shooby on Nov 29, 2016 20:46:32 GMT -5
Soccer should be banned immediately. Hitting a ball off of your cranium is pure idiocy. Or you could just ban heading the ball which has already been done in junior leagues and they are moving towards in adult leagues. The rules were posted a couple pages back if you were interested in reading rather than hyperbole. Or they could invent soccer helmets?
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justme
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Post by justme on Nov 29, 2016 21:06:33 GMT -5
Helmets wouldn't really help you'd still be bashing your skull into something so your brain cab rattle around.
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Shooby
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Post by Shooby on Nov 29, 2016 22:11:10 GMT -5
OK, then just ban soccer then. I am trying to offer some solutions.
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justme
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Post by justme on Nov 29, 2016 22:28:15 GMT -5
The easiest solution is to just ban heading...as mentioned.
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Shooby
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Post by Shooby on Nov 30, 2016 7:10:01 GMT -5
Yes, if you want to fundamentally change the sport. Why not just allow them to use their hands then? Until they change it, get helmets.
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Shooby
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Post by Shooby on Nov 30, 2016 7:11:20 GMT -5
My son got a concussion playing basketball. He went for a layup and a boy slammed his arm down on the top of my son's head. So, you can get a concussion doing any sport.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Nov 30, 2016 12:06:49 GMT -5
Yes you can get a concussion from every sport. The difference is basketball does not require regular consistent slamming into others as part of the game. Football is built around tackling, it's currently a key component of the game.
There is no reason why football couldn't be modified to make it so you're not regularly at risk of a concussion.
Again Roosevelt changed the rules over a century ago to protect football players from the serious injury and death that was occurring on a regular basis. Football survived. There is no reason to think that football could not survive being modified to reduce the risk of CTE now that we are aware of it.
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hoops902
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Post by hoops902 on Nov 30, 2016 12:28:48 GMT -5
Yes you can get a concussion from every sport. The difference is basketball does not require regular consistent slamming into others as part of the game. Football is built around tackling, it's currently a key component of the game. There is no reason why football couldn't be modified to make it so you're not regularly at risk of a concussion. Again Roosevelt changed the rules over a century ago to protect football players from the serious injury and death that was occurring on a regular basis. Football survived. There is no reason to think that football could not survive being modified to reduce the risk of CTE now that we are aware of it. Speaking to the Roosevelt change...I'll point out that it's a lot easier to make changes to an unprofitable and moderately-followed sport than it is to a multi-billion dollar juggernaut (though they have made changes...they've modified things like kickoffs to try to reduce the most violent collisions). It's also difficult to say how we can "reduce the risk of CTE"...we don't really know still how to do that. If you take 5 hits a day, will you get CTE? If you take 10? Is it cumulative over your lifetime? If so, how many hits does it take?
Since Roosevelt's days, we've added the forward pass, people found it exciting. You could argue that what we really have today is not the same game...it's just called the same thing. That doesn't mean we can't make big changes...but it's a lot more risky, and you've got to come up with something to make the game better...that's why change works...you make a change to make the entire thing better...even a completely different game...and as a result you fix the problem you were working on.
Before you can reduce the risk of CTE though, you have to understand it better (I mean we could eliminate tackling/blocking/physical contact altogether, but that probably doesn't keep the game popular).
They've done a lot already frankly (outlawed hits to the head in most cases, the previously mentioned kickoff changes, concussion protocols, etc). The information on CTE is slow though...just think...to truly understand the changes you have to wait until you have players who played only under the new rules die, donate their brains, then study them.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Nov 30, 2016 12:32:30 GMT -5
I'm not saying that it wouldn't come with risks to change the game or that it could happen overnight. I am just saying that with technology and the knowledge we have today it's not IMPOSSIBLE. It may not be super popular right away but eventually it'd be one of those things people look back on and say "We used to allow that?"
I don't accept the notion that anyone who doesn't throw up their hands and say "big deal my other kid blew out a knee running track last month" is being whiny/PC/whatever.
It's worth having a serious discussion about. I don't care if adults want to make the decision to turn their brains into scrambled eggs in exchange for millions of dollars but I feel we owe it to our kids as adults to be having the conversation.
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hoops902
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Post by hoops902 on Nov 30, 2016 13:05:12 GMT -5
I'm not saying that it wouldn't come with risks to change the game or that it could happen overnight. I am just saying that with technology and the knowledge we have today it's not IMPOSSIBLE. It may not be super popular right away but eventually it'd be one of those things people look back on and say "We used to allow that?" I don't accept the notion that anyone who doesn't throw up their hands and say "big deal my other kid blew out a knee running track last month" is being whiny/PC/whatever. It's worth having a serious discussion about. I don't care if adults want to make the decision to turn their brains into scrambled eggs in exchange for millions of dollars but I feel we owe it to our kids as adults to be having the conversation. Here's the problem with adults having the conversation. Conversations are only as relevant as the knowledge that the people involved in the conversation have. You have a problem with kids being put at risk, but seem ok with adults making the decision for themselves (which I think is reasonable). How many documented cases of CTE do we have attributable to kids who only had hits to the head playing high school football? I'm pretty sure the answer is zero.
That's the issue. Maybe the answer is "just stop having them hit their heads together a billion times when they practice during the week and the risk is minimal", maybe the answer is "turn it into flag football", maybe the answer is we start tracking hits to the head with some software and pull them from the game when the software says they've had enough. How do we have a meaningful conversation about something nobody really knows about? Particularly where folks may be ok with adults choosing to take the risk (it's a much easier conversation if you have an ethical issue with allowing adults to make that decision, then just ban the whole thing). Even if we come up with what we think is the perfect solution, we don't even have a way to track whether it's working or making things worse at this point.
I'm not against having the conversation, I just have doubts about how many people on the planet even know enough to have a meaningful conversation about it (and the answer is probably zero at this point as it relates solely to those under 18 participating in football).
Ultimately, conversations among those who don't understand an issue tend to not have meaningful results, and often have significant negative unintended consequences.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Nov 30, 2016 14:22:15 GMT -5
The thing is with research that dollars are limited and the lion's share tends to go to the disease that is getting the most attention. HIV was hot in the 1980s and 1990s. Then it was cancer. Then it was Ebola.
Now it's Zika, everyone in the department is trying to get on the Zika bandwagon because that's what NIH is offering the most money towards.
It shouldn't work that way in an ideal world but it does. The lions share goes to popular diseases and the pool gets smaller and smaller the further down the popularity list you go.
So conversations about CTE are not bad, the are important if we do indeed want more research done on it.
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NastyWoman
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Post by NastyWoman on Nov 30, 2016 16:12:58 GMT -5
Yes, if you want to fundamentally change the sport. Why not just allow them to use their hands then? Until they change it, get helmets. In the rest of the world they call soccer football for obvious reasons. I have no clue why the sport they call football in the US ccame by its name
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