Playing football as a teen can be a great experience. It helps you stay physically active; you make friends and you learn all about hard work. Unfortunately, football is a sport that requires you to be very physical with players on the opposite team. Because of this, there are many injuries that can occur during practice or a game. According to Bisnar Chase Personal Injury Attorneys, head injuries are particularly common in football, and these injuries can cause permanent damage if you aren’t careful. Fortunately there are a number of ways that football players can reduce their risk of head injuries.
Practice Protecting Your Head
It’s important to learn how to play football the right way. An experienced coach will be able to teach a player the proper way to tackle, block and play the game. Rugby style tackling utilizes shoulder drives into the opposite player to take them down. This is much safer than using your head.
Use a Quality Helmet
When you’re purchasing equipment for football, the prices can really start to add up. But one item that you should never skimp on is your helmet. Alan Varela suggests that this is an important piece of equipment that will help keep your head safe if you are knocked on the head while playing, to lessen the chance of brain injury. The helmet that you choose should be properly padded. It also needs to fit perfectly. Don’t buy a helmet that is a little bit big in hopes of growing into it. It should be snug, but not too tight. A recent study resulted in the ban of 10 different helmet models by the NFL, which proved insufficient at providing adequate head protection.
Seek Medical Attention
If you do get hit on the head during a game or incur some sort of injury to the neck or head, make sure that you alert your coach. You should get checked out to make sure that you don’t require any kind of further medical attention. If you leave a concussion untreated, this could lead to long term health problems. Your brain isn’t something that you want to mess around with.
Any kind of brain injury or head injury is a serious issue. Make sure that you take appropriate precautions to stay safe whether you are at practice with your own teammates or you are playing another team in a game. Always have your proper equipment with you. Show good sportsmanship. This will be an example to other players that will encourage everyone to play a safe and proper way.