Sports Concussion: Guidelines for Parents and Coaches

In 2004, Jake Snakenberg was a 15 year-old freshman football player at Grandview High School in Aurora, Colorado when he died after suffering a concussion too soon after a previous concussion. This second concussion followed a mild head trauma (concussion) that recently occurred. For Jake and many other teenage athletes in the past have lost their life to “Second Impact Syndrome” due to consecutive head trauma injury before the brain had fully healed from the initial injury. of concussions do not involve loss of consciousness Disturbance in brain fu

  

A concussion is defined as a disturbance in brain function that occurs following a blow or violent shaking of the head. Less than 10% of people with concussions actually demonstrate a loss of consciousness. Persons sustaining a sports concussion will typically demonstrate amnesia, confusion, feeling foggy and a headache. Commonly reported symptoms following a concussion include the following:

Headache

Dizziness

Blurred Vision

Feeling Slowed Down

Nausea

Vomiting

Balance Problems

Sensitivity to Light or Noise

Change in Emotional Behavior

Irritability

Fogginess

Attention/Concentration Difficulties

Memory Problems

Sleep Disturbance

Drowsiness

 Fatigue

To take action to prevent death and chronic post-concussive symptoms, concussion awareness is on the rise with 31 states passing concussion legislature since 2010. The State of Kansas passed the Kansas School Sports Head Injury Prevention Act in 2011. This law requires any athlete with suspected signs or symptoms of a concussion be removed from athletic participation and be cleared by a physician (M.D. or D.O.) before returning to play. Once a concussed athlete’s brain or cognitive function has returned to baseline and symptoms of a concussion are resolved, athletes can begin a supervised return to exertion protocol to prepare the body to return to contact. Taking these appropriate steps to ensure the brain is ready for activity decreases the incidence of chronic headaches, sleeplessness, poor academic performance and possible death that have plagued many youth athletes by returning to the field or court too soon.

Affiliated physicians of Lawrence Memorial Hospital are medically managing patients who are diagnosed with a concussion by implementing neuro-cognitive testing. Physicians at Mt. Oread Family Practice and Eudora Family Care are utilizing ImPACT™, a computer test program, which measure how the brain is functioning. Utilizing this tool as part of a comprehensive examination provides physicians with important information to determine if an athlete is safe to return to sports participation. 

ImPACT™ is a computerized battery of neurocognitive tests that can be used as a baseline prior to a concussion and post-concussion testing. Following a concussion and medical examination, the post-concussion test can track the recovery of the brain compared to the baseline test taken when brain function was not altered.  This testing is an important part of the medical decision to return the player back to sport participation safely.

It is important for parents, coaches and the athletes to be aware of concussions and its impact it has in the health of an individual. Early recognition of a possible concussion to prevent further head trauma is imperative. Education by parents and coaches to the athletes in regards to the symptoms and signs of a concussion should be explained at the beginning of each sport season to athletes in all sports. For more information regarding signs/symptoms of concussions can be found at the Center for Disease Control.

  www.cdc.gov/Concussioninyouthsports

Sports Concussion Services

LMH affiliated physicians at Mt. Oread Family Practice (Lawrence, KS) and Eudora Family Care (Eudora, KS) provide concussion management services to patients following a sports related concussion utilizing ImPACT™ testing. LMH Therapy Services in partnership with these physicians provide concussion prevention and education geared toward youth athletes, parents and coaches. Pre-season baseline testing is available at the affiliated practices for a $25 charge.  Post-concussion evaluation and management are available for athletes with sports-related concussions to consult in return to play decisions. Parents who are interested in individual baseline testing or post-concussion evaluations for their child/adolescent athlete may contact the practices directly.

Mt. Oread Family Practice: (785) 842-5070

Eudora Family Care: (785) 542-2345

Cheerleading Injury Prevention: Cardio, Core, and Plyometrics

Written by:
Nami Stone
Physical Therapist at Lawrence Memorial Hospital, and
Asst. Cheerleading Coach at the University of Kansas


My prior blog post gave a background on injury prevention in cheerleading, including how to improve the safety of you or your child while participating in cheerleading. As previously mentioned, there is no way to completely ensure the lack of injuries. However, with the proper conditioning, you can decrease the likelihood of injuries.

In my 9 years of collegiate coaching, I have discovered 3 important areas of physical conditioning as they pertain to cheerleading.

Cardiovascular conditioning

Collegiate football games can last up to 4 hours. Although they may not be doing skills the entire 4 hours, cheerleaders are expected to stay on their feet and keep the crowd energy up via chants, skills, and fight songs that can all be quite taxing. I find that as the cheerleaders fatigue, their technique gets worse thus increasing the risk of injury. I recommend at least 30 minutes of cardio 3-5 times per week at the very least.

Core fitness

This was covered earlier in a great post on Core Stability Training. In cheerleading, the tighter the core of the girl in the air, the less the stunt will move, thus minimizing the risk of falling. For bases, the better the core strength, the less likely the cheerleader is of getting back injuries while putting up and holding stunts.

Plyometrics

Plyometrics develop leg power and explosiveness, which helps with a wide range of cheerleading skills. For bases, leg power allows bases to get stunts up smoother and faster with proper technique. For flyers, the quicker a girl can “step and lock” or “jump and flick”, the easier the stunt will go up. For standing tumbling, most of the power and speed comes from the legs. With the lack of a nice strong jump, cheerleaders’ standing tumbling will be lower, which increases the risk of injury by “landing short.”

Shown below are several plyometric exercises you can do at home three to five times per week. Try working up to doing one continuous minute of each exercise with one minute of rest between exercises.

Lunge Jumps

10 reps of each lunge should take about one minute.

Frog Jumps

Box Jumps

Fall Sports Performance Group Sessions

     

Starting September 17th, LMH Therapy Services will be offering Sports Performance training to athletes to help prepare for the upcoming winter and spring sport season.  Participants can choose to join a group or train as an individual to enhance speed, strength, agility, conditioning and jumping skills. The fall training session will be available for athletes age 10-18 and will train in the newly updated 3^rd floor suite in the LMH 4^thStreet Health Plaza building.

The primary goal is for athletes to develop their athletic skills by training with modern strength and conditioning principles for their age. Performance Coaches utilize drills and equipment to train athletes on a padded turf surface. Athletes are trained by qualified performance coaches that are Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialists (CSCS) recognized by the National Strength and Conditioning Association. 

The training program is the foundation to an athlete's entire game. A solid strength and conditioning base provides the ability to take skills to a higher level and reduce injuries. Train with professionals that will push you to reach your potential by becoming more explosive and coordinated. Train at LMH and feel the difference in our approach to training you to be a better player in your sport, not a better "weight lifter."

Fall session registration opens September 4th. Please call LMH Therapy Services at 785.505.5975 or email adam.rolf@lmh.org to enroll or request more information.

Fall session begins September 17th and ends November 15th

High School (Ages 14-18)
Strength, Speed and Agility Training Group
4-5:30 pm Monday, Wednesday, Thursday
$18 per class

Speed and Agility Training Group

5:30-6:30 pm Tuesday & Thursday

$15 per class

Middle School (Ages 12,13,14)

Speed and Agility Training Group

5:30-6:30 pm Monday & Wednesday

$15 per class

Youth Development (Ages 10,11)
Learning to Train Group

6:30-7:20 pm Tuesday & Thursday

$12 per class