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Rates of Concussion in Various Sports

Rates of Concussion in Various Sports

What would you say is the most important ability in sports? Regardless of which sport comes to mind the answer is the same. And this ability is availability. Because unless you are healthy and able to play nothing else matters much. And that's why our number one goal for our athletes is to make them resilient to injury. All of their athletic gifts and hard work are wasted if an athlete is on the sidelines. Until recently we looked at the injury status of an athlete in terms of their physical abilities. Did they have an ankle spain? Shoulder impingement? Back spasms? Or something else related to the moving parts of the body. I know when I was young no one was talking about concussions. That's not entirely true. My mom is an OT (occupational therapist) and told me repeatedly how dangerous a motorcycle could be due to the head injuries that could happen. In adult sports concussions happen at higher rates in some sports compared with others. The highest rates for a concussion in competition are in: Men’s rugby match play (3.00/1,000 AE) Men’s American football (2.5/1,000 AE) Women’s ice hockey (2.27/1,000 AE) Men’s Ice hockey (1.63/1,000 AE) Women’s soccer (1.48/1,000 AE) Men’s football (or soccer) (1.07/1,000 AE) For younger athletes (under 18) here's what the numbers look like: Rugby (4.18/1,000 AE) Ice hockey (1.20/1,000 AE) American football (0.53/1,000 AE) Lacrosse (0.24/1,000 AE) Football (or soccer) (0.23/1,000 AE) Wrestling (0.17/1,000 AE) AE stands for Athlete Exposures and means one athlete playing in one game or practice. So if 20 soccer players play another team of 20 players in a game there would be 40 Athlete Exposures. Or if a football team of 50 players goes through one practice than there are 50 AE. As sports can be divided up into...

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