Showing posts with label Concussion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Concussion. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

NCAA settles concussion lawsuit that includes former UMaine hockey player



Earlier today, I posted a blog post on the NCAA concussion lawsuit and whether this lawsuit would have any effect on NCAA Division I Hockey. Apparently, it does.
Mary Wisniewski, Reuters --- Former University of Maine ice hockey player Kyle Solomon joined the lawsuit in 2013.

Solomon, who suffered four concussions while at UMaine, said in February 2013 that Berman’s law firm told him it wanted to “change the NCAA’s return-to-play policy and thought my situation at UMaine would be a good example. It wasn’t that [my concussions] weren’t treated. But they weren’t treated as seriously as they should have been because the NCAA didn’t have a [strong enough] rule in place.”

“This is nothing against … Maine hockey,” he said. “It was an honor to play for Maine. I loved playing for them. It was a shame it had to stop.”

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

New York Times, Spartan Hockey Helmets Going Under Microscope

Casque de hockey
Casque de hockey (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This is an interesting read about hockey helmets.
Jeff Z. Klein, New York TimesHockey helmets may be on the verge of a radical makeover, as scientists and engineers at Virginia Tech prepare a rating system that measures each brand’s and model’s ability to reduce the risk of concussion.

“After football, hockey is the sport that produces the highest rate of concussion,” said Dr. Stefan M. Duma, a Virginia Tech professor and the head of the university’s biomedical engineering department. “We want to produce a mechanism to try and reduce that risk of concussion.”

That mechanism is a five-point rating scale called the STAR system, which the Virginia Tech football team began applying to its helmets in 2011. While there is still disagreement on whether concussions can be reduced by improving helmets, the football rating system quickly became influential, leading manufacturers to substantially increase internal padding. Sales for five-star football helmets have soared, and those for low-rated helmets plunged.
As a former football player, I have always often wondered about difference between football helmets and hockey helmets. It's obvious that hockey helmets are a lot thinner and lighter than football helmets. Both sports (hockey and football) are extremely physical and both sports have a lot of high impact collisions. It will be interesting to see how the various hockey helmets are ranked.
Virginia Tech engineers cut a hockey helmet and a five-star football helmet in half to show the contrast. The hockey helmet contained two thin layers of relatively rigid padding, but the football helmet had three thick layers of soft padding. The greater cushioning inside the football helmet is designed to slow the acceleration of the brain after a strong impact, thus lessening the risk of concussion.

Monday, December 30, 2013

Sid Crosby: Impressive Numbers.


Like him or hate him, Penguins Star Sidney Crosby is an elite hockey player, that has put up some crazy numbers in his short hockey career. Think about this,  (25g-461a—720pts) in 520 games evens out to 1.41 PPG for the All-Star forward. Imagine if he hadn't suffered all of those concussions? If my math is right, Crosby missed  over 100-games due to post concussion syndrome issues. Also, he missed about 20-games due to a ankle injury during the 2008 hockey season.
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Thursday, November 15, 2012

Jonathan Toews finally back to 100 percent

English: Chicago Blackhawks captain Jonathan T...
English: Chicago Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews during warm up prior to a National Hockey League playoff game against the Calgary Flames, in Calgary. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Here is one person the lockout probably helped. Former Fighting Sioux forward Jonathan Toews suffered a concussion during the 2011-12 season and is now just finally getting back to normal.
Chris Kuc, Chicago Tribune --- The Blackhawks captain wasn't 100 percent healed in July. Or October. In fact, it wasn't until late last week that Toews was convinced he's completely over the concussion that caused him to miss the final two months of the 2011-12 regular season before he returned in the postseason against the Coyotes.

While Toews was symptom-free and had cleared all the NHL-imposed concussion protocols before returning to the Hawks' lineup, there were lingering effects from the injury that even the 24-year-old center didn't realize were affecting him. They included balance and eyesight issues that were discovered and solved during a five-day stint at an Atlanta-area chiropractic neurology facility last week.

"Even if you don't feel something and you think you're symptom-free, there's probably still something there that's kind of hindering you and affecting the way your brain works," Toews told the Tribune on Wednesday. "It was just a lot of eye-movement things. My eyes didn't track very well. They didn't look from one target to the next very well. My balance with my eyes closed and my head turned a certain way was terrible. (There were) little things that I would think were normal because I didn't feel something in my head.
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Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Sidney Crosby on headshots

Sidney CrosbyImage via WikipediaThis is what Sidney Crosby the face of the NHL had to say about headshots. Unfortunately the face of the NHL hasn't played a game since January 5th of this year.
Bill Beacon; Globe and Mail--- (Sidney) Crosby has been out of action with concussion symptoms since early January after taking shots to the head in consecutive games. While the Pittsburgh Penguins centre is optimistic he will be able to play again, no date has been set for his return.

The 24-year-old urged the league to take action on shots to the head when he met with the media Sept. 7 in Pittsburgh.

“As a league, as a union, I think we've all educated ourselves a lot in the last six or seven months,” Crosby said. “I think it can go further. At the end of the day, I don't think there's a reason not to take (headshots) out.”
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