Is your child a football player? This article may be useful if you're thinking about your child's safety when playing football. Previously, risks in playing football that included concussions and brain related injuries have increased over the years.
There were some in the medical community that wanted to prohibit certain practices in football especially tackling. However, it is now publicized and widely accepted that children including high school students will be allowed to tackle as long as safety precautions are being practiced and monitored.
Accidents on the football field can be life-threatening, catastrophic, psychologically traumatic and difficult. What the APP thought of instead is to postpone tackling to a certain age and ban tackling in the high school levels.
It's difficult to dissuade millions of American football fans as young as five years old not to participate in the sport. Taking this into consideration, the American Academy of Pediatrics has ruled that young football players can tackle as long as they are right on the gridiron (the parallel lines in the football field) and proper allowable techniques are enforced. If such technique is re-inforced, there will be minimal to zero damages on the neck and head, sustained from the field.
However, there's another end of the AAP conclusion. The AAP recommends as well that while removing tackling reduces risk and decreases incidents of injuries from severe to minimal, they did acknowledge that removing tackling would change the essence of how football is played.
In their recommendations, they stated and acknowledged that although the youth is saved from potential catastrophic brain and neck injuries during the early stage of his training, this also means he has lesser experience on the field and may put him more at risk in the future. They emphasized that proper technique in tackling is vital when playing on the field, no matter what the age. The proper technique starts with the shoulder initiating contact. Tackling should not be engaged head first.
Robert Stern, Professor of Neurology at the Boston University School of Medicine felt confused at the recommendation. He feels that the statement the AAP made does not sound like it is for the good of young children's health. He questions as to why a statement about removing tackling and resulting to a decrease in incidents was made but reasoned later that removing tackling would mean it won't feel like football. For Stern, it doesn't make rational sense.
AAP publicly announced that both parents and players have to be responsible enough to weigh the health risks associated with tackling versus the recreation of football, as stated by Dr. William Meehan III (a member of the AAP Council of Sports Medicine & Fitness).
