Concussion injuries to high school and college football players occur more frequently during practice than during games, a study indicates.
The reason is a simple matter of numbers, the researchers say; for every game played, players will have participated in numerous practices.
The researchers gathered data on concussions among nonprofessional football players ages 5 to 23 during two consecutive seasons, a total of 1,2000 concussions reported by the teams involved.
Researchers at the Datalys Center for Sports Injury Research and Prevention in Indianapolis, Ind., conducted the study, which analyzed data from more than 115 youth football teams, 96 high school programs and from 24 colleges.
For the youngest players, concussions occurred more frequently during games, but for both high school and college players 57 percent of reported concussions were suffered during practice, the study published in JAMA Pediatrics said.
One reason may be that older players simply practice more often, and are larger than younger players and capable of hitting an opponent harder, the researchers suggest.
It appears to be more of a problem at the high school level than in college, says study leader Thomas P. Dompier.
"From my experience working as an athletic trainer, college coaches rarely schedule full-contact drills during practice, focusing more on strategy and tactics," he says. "At the youth and high school levels, coaches still teach tackling, and in my opinion, most still mistakenly believe the only way they can teach tackling is through player-to-player contact."
Other experts agreed that limiting such contact during practice would reduce the rate of concussions.
"You can't eliminate all player-to-player contact in practice," says Dr. John Kuluz, concussion director at Nicklaus Children's Hospital in Miami. "But there are alternatives - like hitting dummies or using sleds - rather than hitting each other."
Around 3 million youth athletes, 1.1 million high school athletes and 100,000 college athletes play football each year, the researchers noted.
"Across all levels of football, policy makers, coaches, researchers and sports medicine officials should continue to seek ways to reduce concussion incidence," says Dompier.
They, and parents, are beginning to treat the concussion issue with the seriousness it deserves, experts note.
"People are more aware that concussions are occurring," says Dr. Frederick P. Rivara, the editor of JAMA Pediatrics.
"The majority are occurring in practices, so we need to figure out what we can do to try to prevent those."
