Concussion rates vary widely across youth sports, with the greatest injury risk in higher-contact games like rugby, hockey and football, a new research review finds (Rapaport, 2015). Concussions are said to be life threatening, but with do parents stake it as serious as they should? Statistical data shows that the concussion rate was about 18 times higher than average for rugby, five times greater for hockey, and roughly double for American football (Rapaport, 2015). Even though concussions aren’t as common in youth sports than in collegiate or professional sports it is important that parents know the severity concussions in children. Concussions are more life threatening to children because depending on their age the brain may not be fully developed, and the child may be at risk of having a long-term brain injury.

 I’ve had my own individual experiences with this issue. In high school, I suffered from three concussions playing varsity basketball. Each concussion affected me in an unusual way. My main reason for writing this paper is to express to parents of pop warner football how important it is to make some decisions for your child when it comes to their health. Concussions are taking very lightly when it comes to the youth. One day during practice my youngest cousin who played pop-warner football was in an incident where he got head butted during a play. He didn’t have a concussion, but it was scary and painful for him. The long term affects a concussion can have on a person and I worry about his safety and the safety of others his age. This paper is for parents and coaches like my uncle who thinks injuries like this are not that detrimental to their child.

 Author and editor of First Opinion Patrick Skerrett wrote an article entitled, “How Many Concussions Are Too Many for an Active Athletic?” He worked with three different experts in this article to get opinions on how many concussions they thought were too many for an athlete? The experts were Micky Collins who is the clinical director of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Sports Medicine Concussions Program. William Meehan directs the Micheli Center for sports injury prevention in Waltham, Massachusetts, and Chris Koutures who is a pediatrician and sports medicine specialist and the team physician for the US Men’s and Women’s National Volleyball Teams. The article gives all symptoms and signs of concussions and gives great insight on when it’s time for a player to call it quits. 

They expressed how concussions were dismissed in the old days and thought to have short term affects. Then gives insight on the present and how severe they are, and the long term affects it has on the brain. Micky Collins believes that the pre-existing conditions affecting concussion severity and rehab determines whether an athlete who has sustained more than one concussion should continue in sports. Micky believed that the cutoff point for concussions shouldn’t be based on the number of concussions a player receives because not every situation is the same. William Meehan believes the athletes goals must be considered in the decisions of determining whether the player should keep playing. The difference between he and Collins is that Meehan believes in the numbers. Chris Koutures believes in healing time and that athletes should go through an individualized process to determine if the athlete should return to play. Weill Cornell Medicine Concussion and Brain Injury Clinic believes in the numbers they talked about how almost 500,000 children visit an emergency room for traumatic brain injuries a year. Argues how children are easily led to concussions more than adults are because their brains are not fully developed. They talked about They also express why three concussions should be the cut off time for sports, but makes it clear that there is no evidence to support this suggestion it’s just what most doctors recommend for the sake of the athlete. 

Sports policy director and author of How can we save sports: A Game Plan Ken Reed wrote an article entitled “Game over for Concussion Debate Column.” was more related to the subject of this paper. He talks about how parents and coaches avoid the questions. Reed believes that parents should ask the question Am I voluntarily putting my child at risk by allowing him to play football or any other type of sport?  Being that football has the highest concussion rate out of all youth and high school sports. Also, 42% of high schools in the United States have athletic trainers and most times they cannot attend all of the games or practices which is very dangerous because there is no professional help around to assess certain injuries. Parents and coaches need understand that the brains of the youth and high school players are still developing which means they are more likely to suffer from a brain injury. Robert Cantu a neurosurgeon and leading expert on concussions recommends that parents hold their children out of contact sports until their at least 16-18.

On the other hand, cognitive neurologist Harry Kerasidis believes that parents and coaches should ask when is a hit to the head, one too many? He discussed two different arguments One side argued that contact is just a part of the game and another side argued that head injuries aren’t worth the life changing affects. He also, gives us the concussion repercussion risks that parent should consider. For example, since youth and collegiate athlete’s brains are still developing a concussion can lead to greater damage and risk to cognitive impairment. Player who receive more than three concussions are more likely to have long term effects and emotional struggles. Senior writer of Stat News Bob Tedeschi also believes that trauma in kids who play football before the age of twelve are more likely to suffer from depression and other behavioral problems later in life. He argues that if children play sports before their brain is developed they will suffer from behavioral issues in their adult life. An estimated 50 million Americans suffer from disorders of the brain or nervous system, which is a pretty good-sized chunk of the 317 million population. Some brain disorders are influenced by genetics, some are environmental, others from spinal cord or brain injury; and some result from a combination of any or all of these factors (Kerasidis,2014). Parents and coaches should take these few things into consideration before putting their child at risk or after the child has already sustained a head injury.

Author of the book Concussions and Our Kids: America's Leading Expert on How to Protect Young Athletes and Keep Sports Safe. Robert Cantu agrees with the questions Harry Kerasidis believed parents should take into consideration. He talks about the symptoms specific to concussions in collision sports and recommends that children be tested before they begin a sport. Also, Cantu talks about how coaches should look for signs and know how to treat the athlete. He is not as biased as the rest. He preaches that parents should be more involved in having a say so in what goes on with their child’s health. 

 There has yet to be a conclusion as to which it should be the parent’s decision or the doctor’s decision. The experts in the first article did help me to understand why they can’t conclude right now. Until they can prove why three concussions should end the career, parents and coaches will think whatever. A lot of these experts believe that the number of concussion do matter, not the recovery time. Three concussions should be the limit because the fourth could lead to death or permanent damage. The brain is very sensitive and should be treated and cared for carefully
