Concussions have never been a hotter topic in sports than they are right now. Multiple players in the NFL went down with concussions just this past weekend and Will Smith’s Concussion movie is being released on Christmas day where the NFL is not portrayed in a kind light, to say the least.
While the NFL is most prominently thought of when discussing concussions in sports, almost all sports deal with this type of injury to athletes.
Concussions are a very complex issue. As advanced as modern medicine is, we still don’t fully understand all that there is to know about concussions, let alone know how to prevent or treat them (outside of not playing contact sports that is).
Major entities in sports, including the NFL, are trying to solve the concussion issues that athletes are facing today by investing in new technologies that are trying to use innovation to solve the problem.
But while the main focus of concussions in sports happens at the pro level, where the athletes who are being injured are getting paid large salaries to play a game professionally, perhaps the most serious ramification is happening at the youth level.
Concussions in youth sports are a major issue and over time will impact the pro levels as parents decide to steer their young athletes towards safer sports.
The following infographic put together by Lurie Children’s Hospital demonstrates how widespread concussions are in many popular youth sports and how to perform best practices from a parent and young athlete perspective.
