Education about and awareness of concussions has become a huge deal when it comes to the athletic world. The National Football League (NFL) has taken many steps with their new rules to help prevent concussions. They have also made new rules on how a player can be cleared in order to return to the field. This has had a ripple effect from high school athletics all the way down to youth athletics. On sportsconcussions.org, it explains how the state of Virginia has passed a sports concussion law, the Student-Athlete Protection Act (SB 652). The law was unanimously voted on by the General Assembly and on April 11, 2010 Governor Bob McDonnell officially signed it into a law.
According to sportsconcussions.org, the law has three main provisions. First, the student-athletes and parents have to educate themselves on concussions yearly and sign a statement to show they have actually read and learnt the information. Second, if there are any signs that a student-athlete has received a concussion, he must be taken out of play immediately and may not return the same day. They also can't return to practice until an appropriated licensed health care provider has properly evaluated them. Third, all local school divisions must help other organizations that have youth athletic activity on the guidelines of concussions. With that said, the school divisions do not have to enforce agreement with these policies. Athletes and student-athletes are bigger, stronger, and faster than they have ever been and that could be the reason for the increase in concussions in athletics.
Laws like SB 652 are helping to counter the increase in concussions. This law mainly targets high school athletics, so what is the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) doing about concussions with their athletic programs? On the NCAA's website, they explain their own policy and planning with concussions. Their policy is making every institution come up with their own way of educating players and coaches on concussions. Longwood University has a student-athletic concussion reporting contract that the players must sign. The contract can be found on Longwood's athletic website and says, "I, (insert name here), hereby acknowledge it is my duty to report all head injuries, pain, and/or concussive symptoms to the Athletic Training Staff prior to and during athletic participation in order to be assessed for a concussion. I have read the literature provided by the NCAA and Longwood University's Athletics Department and I understand that I am responsible for reporting possible head trauma to be evaluated by the Athletic Training Staff and Sports Medicine Providers."
Teams that are not covered by the NCAA policies are club sports at universities. I recently went to a Virginia Recreational Sports Association (VRSA) conference at Virginia Tech. The conference had a section where the University of Mary Washington gave a presentation on their new club sports concussion policy. They spoke about working with the local hospital on not just educating but taking preliminary tests on club athletes' cognitive activity. This test is called the ImPACT test and according to impacttest.com, was "developed in the early 1990's by Dr. Mark Lovell and Dr. Joseph Maroon. ImPACT is a 20-minute test that has become a standard tool used in comprehensive clinical management of concussions for athletes of all ages. ImPACT Applications, Inc. was co-founded by Mark Lovell, PhD, Joseph Maroon, MD, and Michael (Micky) Collins, PhD." The results of the test after a concussion must be equal to the preliminary test results before the athlete can return to playing that club sport.
Unfortunately, Longwood University does not have a policy like this, but I'm sure that after attending this conference they are working to keep our club athletes safe. It just isn't like the old days when players used to shake it off and try to jump back into the competition; Which is for the best because concussions are a serious head injury that have devastating side effects if not taken care of properly.
