DURHAM, NH – The support continues to pour in for the Sharon High School sophomore Rohan Shulka after suffering a traumatic brain injury during a Thanksgiving Day football game. He is currently receiving treatment at MGH.
“Those who focus on this area are trying to prevent these types of catastrophic outcomes and tragic outcomes for this reason,” said Erik Swartz, vice dean and professor at Adelphi University. Swartz spent much of his career at UNH.
Most of Swartz’s research over the past decade has focused on the treatment of acute head and neck injuries in football players. “That’s when I literally took my research into the field to try to prevent those injuries in the first place,” he said.
Helmetless tackle training
He calls it HUTT. Helmetless tackling training aimed at teaching football players proper tackling techniques and keeping their heads out of the way. Swartz says the more players practiced without helmets helped them keep their heads out of the way during live contact.
“And we saw in the players who did these exercises regularly, their head loads decreased over the course of the season,” he said.
Swartz says that to make the game safer and reduce the rate of traumatic brain injuries, it will take a combination of rule changes, practice structure and good tackling techniques.
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Meanwhile, the NFL has approved the use of padded helmet accessories known as Guardian Caps, but many players don’t use them. “Regardless of what this (helmet) is made of, it doesn’t change the biology of the brain in the skull and the anatomy,” Swartz said. “And if there is movement and deceleration, the brain will still move.”
He also says flag football is a good option for parents to consider before allowing their child to participate in full-contact football. “Get used to that, but before they get into a situation where it’s a full-blown, uncontrolled play situation, they need to go through the right kind of training,” he said.
Paul Burton
