There is some good news regarding the safety of youth football: coaches that have completed the ‘Heads up football’ training have decreased concussions on their teams than untrained coaches.
Since concussions, and especially concussions in football, are such a big concern right now, it is great to see that there is some training being done to address the issue.
From my personal observation of covering football the last 8 years I have noticed that there is a lack in a systematic approach to training athletes how to tackle properly. When athletes have a helmet and shoulder pads on they tend to use them as a way to initiate their tackle, instead of getting themselves into a proper tackling position. This contrast is very evident when I watch rugby, who do not wear pads and are therefore forced to tackle differently.
I hope that more research is performed evaluating the effectiveness of this type of training for football coaches and that it becomes a part of the mandatory curriculum in order to be eligible to coach at any level.
I will make sure that any coaches who work with my boys, when they are older and if they choose to play football, have had this training.
http://www.athleticbusiness.com/more-news/study-tackle-training-tied-to-safer-football-play.html?topic=2,200&eid=277204494&bid=1014894
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