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Cal Davis Uses Interesting Approach to Cut Down on Concussions

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grizpack

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Cal Davis is using a new "Guardian Cap" during practice to cut down on concussions. Interesting...... Very California...

[tweet]https://twitter.com/BigSkyFBWarZone/status/606648432493658112[/tweet]
 
I thought you were going to say "stop playing football" because they've been trying that approach to no avail.
 
Those caps have become ubiquitous all across the football landscape, not just a California thing. If you want to have full contact during practice, then great, but many won't wear those caps during games.

What is more and more the recognition is that a lot of college and high school programs that full contact in practice, where the vast majority of concussions would occur, is being emphasized less and less. A lot of states (Texas/California included) have reduced the amount of full contact during the week to less than two hours in a four day practice week (about 30 minutes or so of live during practice). If you want to reduce concussions in games then you need to see those caps in games. The knock is they are bulky, a bit heavy and at least locally there is anecdotal evidence to leading to neck strains. Kids don't like to wear them in games because they look ridiculous. I have seen a few here and there but not as many as you would want to reduce the in game concussions.

They are worth while but really the helmet advancements in the last three or four years are going to do more to help in the reduction of concussions as much as the guardian caps will. More than anything else though the changing philosophies about how to manage contact in practice, tackling, and head care is going to help football combat the real threat of concussions.
 
Grizfan-24 said:
Those caps have become ubiquitous all across the football landscape, not just a California thing. If you want to have full contact during practice, then great, but many won't wear those caps during games.

What is more and more the recognition is that a lot of college and high school programs that full contact in practice, where the vast majority of concussions would occur, is being emphasized less and less. A lot of states (Texas/California included) have reduced the amount of full contact during the week to less than two hours in a four day practice week (about 30 minutes or so of live during practice). If you want to reduce concussions in games then you need to see those caps in games. The knock is they are bulky, a bit heavy and at least locally there is anecdotal evidence to leading to neck strains. Kids don't like to wear them in games because they look ridiculous. I have seen a few here and there but not as many as you would want to reduce the in game concussions.

They are worth while but really the helmet advancements in the last three or four years are going to do more to help in the reduction of concussions as much as the guardian caps will. More than anything else though the changing philosophies about how to manage contact in practice, tackling, and head care is going to help football combat the real threat of concussions.
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Good post 24, but I thought it's the sub-concussive blows that are now the area of concern? That is the milder brain rattling that occurs in simple engagements between OL/DL for instance.....Will this padding stop that? Sub-concussive blows over time is where the BSE focus is now I believe.
 
Another reason to stop excessive tackling practice. I have never ever thought that improved ability. A few years ago while our team could not take a 150lb ball carrier down Ty began practicing it over and over to no avail. I mentioned to him my feelings but he was under Mick's charge so they kept it up. Many techniques can be obtained via class room style. Of course I don't advocate stopping practice but simply the over and over types that not only cause head injury but knee-shoulder etc. Old school repeat and repeat contact until you get it is over in my book. Course I don't coach so....
 
The improvement in headgear technology has been a double-edged sword. It is what has enabled the use of the helmet as weapon in spearing-type contact. Back in the days of the old Riddell Kra-lite suspension helmets it would ring your bell to the point you focused on shoulder and chest contact, which incidentally, better enabled lifting and wrapping up the victim.
 
I think the most difficult thing re: concussions is that it has put the focus on the result versus the procedures that caused them in the first place. A lot of the research is going away from blunt severe trauma to the head that causes the concussion and more toward the systemic jarring of the brain in contact activities.

So we create all of these things (guardian caps) when prudence dictates that those caps will no doubt reduce concussions but the procedures won't change. We still stress kids to return quicker than they should and encourage kids to ignore their own body because there is a difference between being "hurt" versus "injured."

As a football coach, I can't tell you how important this movement has been because it might finally excise the old school mentalities in regards to football that made it a gladiator sport. In this modern era, if football is to survive it, coaches have to recognize the importance of embracing new philosophies that will reduce risk but also garner the results that you want. I could go on for hours about the types of techniques and philosophies in this regard.

Smarter and safer is the way to go.
 
Grizfan-24 said:
I think the most difficult thing re: concussions is that it has put the focus on the result versus the procedures that caused them in the first place. A lot of the research is going away from blunt severe trauma to the head that causes the concussion and more toward the systemic jarring of the brain in contact activities.

So we create all of these things (guardian caps) when prudence dictates that those caps will no doubt reduce concussions but the procedures won't change. We still stress kids to return quicker than they should and encourage kids to ignore their own body because there is a difference between being "hurt" versus "injured."

As a football coach, I can't tell you how important this movement has been because it might finally excise the old school mentalities in regards to football that made it a gladiator sport. In this modern era, if football is to survive it, coaches have to recognize the importance of embracing new philosophies that will reduce risk but also garner the results that you want. I could go on for hours about the types of techniques and philosophies in this regard.

Smarter and safer is the way to go.
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You said a mouthful. I agree with you. Removing the Gladiator aspect of football? Good luck on that one.......
 
Maybe I am wrong, but I thought the issue was more about the continual shots to the head being the problem; more so than concussions.
 
SaskGriz said:
They look a lot like the scrum caps that some players wear in rugby.
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And though rugby is more violent per se, statistically, they have far fewer injuries than football. So I guess helmets in football protect and can cause injuries
 
farawaygriz said:
SaskGriz said:
They look a lot like the scrum caps that some players wear in rugby.
Click to expand...

And though rugby is more violent per se, statistically, they have far fewer injuries than football. So I guess helmets in football protect and can cause injuries
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Rugby certainly has it's share of big hits but the lack of protective equipment does alter the tackling style slightly. Plus, rugby is more about getting ball possession than stopping a ball carrier short of a yard marker like in football. The runner must release the ball when tackled. This makes the tackling strategy different in rugby. Rugby has also changed the rules to control dangerous tackles.
 
Don't want to turn this into a rugby forum but another difference is that in rugby there are very few blindside shots, generally you see the man who is going to hit you and so are better prepared, which may help. There are very few shots like you would see on a crossing receiver or a QB standing in the pocket. There is no blocking so no crack backs, and the two front rows of forwards are brought together in a controlled scrum so the constant bashing and smashing of o-line and d-line play just isn't there.

Maybe best said "Rugby is a contact sport and football is a collision sport."
 
SaskGriz said:
Don't want to turn this into a rugby forum but another difference is that in rugby there are very few blindside shots, generally you see the man who is going to hit you and so are better prepared, which may help. There are very few shots like you would see on a crossing receiver or a QB standing in the pocket. There is no blocking so no crack backs, and the two front rows of forwards are brought together in a controlled scrum so the constant bashing and smashing of o-line and d-line play just isn't there.

Maybe best said "Rugby is a contact sport and football is a collision sport."
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The loose play(rucks and mauls) are not for the faint of heart. You'll see blood shed in those situations.....
 
This was a very informative article. The helmet will change dramatically in the future, as technology and investment dollars are increasingly devoted.
Even if doctors could reliably diagnose concussions, identifying the injury does little to protect against it; for that, scientists need an accurate picture of what's happening inside the head. For generations, doctors believed that concussions were a sort of bruising of the brain's gray matter at the site of impact and on the opposite side, where the brain presumably bounced off the skull. The reality is not nearly that simple: Concussions happen deep in the brain's white matter when forces transmitted from a big blow strain nerve cells and their connections, the axons.

To understand how that happens, it's important to recognize that different types of forces—linear and rotational acceleration—act on the brain in any physical trauma. Linear acceleration is exactly what it sounds like, a straight-line force that begins at the point of impact. It causes skull fracture, which makes perfect sense: You hit the bone hard enough, it breaks.

Rotational acceleration is less intuitive. It occurs most acutely during angular impacts, or those in which force is not directed at the brain's center of gravity. You don't have to know much about football or hockey to realize that rotation is a factor in a whole lot of hits. "Think about it," says Robert Cantu, a neurosurgeon at Boston University School of Medicine and the author of 29 books on neurology and sports medicine. "Because most hits are off-center and because our heads are not square, most of the accelerations in the head are going to be rotational."

Further complicating matters, the human brain is basically an irregularly shaped blob of Jell-O sitting inside a hard shell lined with ridges and cliffs. After a football tackle or a hockey check, that blob moves, and does so in irregular ways. "Rotational forces strain nerve cells and axons more than linear forces do," Cantu says. "They're not only stretching, but they're twisting at the same time. So they have a potential for causing greater nerve injury."
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http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-08/helmet-wars-and-new-helmet-could-protect-us-all
 
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