#head hits

[talahui]

Eric Lindros is worried about everyone's concussions but his own

Ten years after repeated concussions brought his star-crossed career to a close, the former Flyers phenom is, in his words, doing better.

this article is required reading to me, but I always think about this bit:

[sciencenewsforstudents]

Even without concussions, just one football season may damage players’ brains

A group of college football players underwent brain scans after a season of play. The results suggest the sport could impact neural signaling.

A season of head hits left its mark on college football players’ brains, even when those hits didn’t cause concussions. Routine head bumps over the course of a season were linked to abnormal brain tissue in part of players’ brain stems, researchers report August 7 in Science Advances. It’s unclear if these brain stem changes affect mental performance, or whether the changes are permanent. But the study suggests that in addition to the big hits that cause concussions, these smaller knocks could cause trouble.

During the 2011, 2012 and 2013 football seasons, a team led by researchers at the University of Rochester in New York recruited players from the university to participate in a study looking at head impacts and brain health. Each player wore an accelerometer in his helmet to capture the forces at play during all practices and games during a single season. The players also underwent pre- and post-season brain scans. A measure called fractional anisotropy let researchers estimate how well stretches of white matter brain tissue can carry neural signals, a key job of healthy brain tissue.

The 38 players included in the study collectively took 19,128 hits. And by the end of their season, the players on average had lower measures of fractional anisotropy in their right midbrains — a part of the brain stem. These declines were more tightly linked to the number of hits that twisted heads, as opposed to direct head-on hits. Those rotational forces might be particularly damaging to brain tissue, a finding that fits with results from earlier studies, the researchers write.

[cricrisa]

[dearskinnylovee]

He didn't really say that obviously, because Lemieux is a classy guy, but he did say that Matt Cooke won't be playing for the Penguins anymore. That's right Cooke, shame on you and your tendency to hit other players on their heads.

[burnourhistory]

I love rough and tumble hockey, but...

...this hitting guys in the head business really does needs to stop.

People say, "But the hit was clean/legal/etc." I say, "Then the NHL needs to change the standards for what is legal. Because it's not like a cross check. Or a charge. It's a hit...to someone's head. And it can be a life changer."

Don't get me wrong, I love a good hit. Few things are more satisfying than watching a guy complete an amazing hit that sends another guy flying, leaving him a little dazed (but no worse for wear). That's part of what makes hockey so exciting.

But no amount of entertainment is worth someone's well-being being compromised.

[nealersegs918]

My angry facebook message from yesterday...1 friend "liked" it

Dear NHL...make up your mind on head hits. Mike Brown gets suspended for the same kind of hit that Dave Steckel did to Sidney and Steckel isn't suspended?!?!