Concussions

What is a concussion?

A concussion is a brain injury that occurs when a great amount of force is applied to the head. The head moves rapidly causing the brain to continue moving after the head has stopped.  This continual movement is called inertia.

Concussions can have long term consequences such as memory loss, sensitivity to light, and not being able to focus.

Concussions can happen during football, soccer, volleyball, cheer, and field and track.  Concussions can occur anytime the head receives an impact.  

A concussion's severity depends upon the impact; Force and/or mass. The more mass or acceleration, the more force; and the more force the more serious the concussion; this is also known as Newton's second law of motion.

Most sports related concussions can be prevented easily with changes in rules or the addtion or change of a helmet. 

              

Volleyball

Vollyball Helmets

• Many concussions occur during the game of volleyball. 

• Most players don't wear a helmet of any sort.

• In order to keep volleyball players safe, the rules need to be changed.

• The current rules do not require players to wear a helmet, even though they can.

• To keep the game of volleyball safe, the rules should be altered to require all volleyball players to wear a volleyball helmet. 

  Robin Rostratter (the girl in the picture) wears a helment by choice, she says,“It allows me to play aggressive and not worry about hitting my head again, If I dive or collide with someone else, it gives that extra cushion that will help protect my head. It doesn’t affect the way I play other than mentally. I know hitting my head is something I don’t have to worry about." 

• This rule would be applied to all players because accidents can happen as the players rotate postions.

The cost of an indiviual helmet is around $80.00; and for the total team about $960.00, depending on how many extra players a team has.

GAMEBREAKER helmets are our the best option for the safest helmet. www.gamebreakerhelmets.com/

These helmets are made with blue paded foam to protect the head from impact that may cause brain injury.

About 800 million people in 130 contries play volleyball and about 8.6% of players get a concussion.

   

How does Volleyball relate to Newton's Laws of Motion?

First Law:

When you are hit by an unbalanced force your head and brain move, but when your head stops your brain continues to move because of inertia, wich ultimatley cause the concussion. For example: when you are driving in a car and the car suddenly stops you are julted forward.

Second Law:

During a game, when someone with more mass collides with you, more focre is applied than when a person of less mass hits you. 

The concussion damage is dependent on the mass/force of the person or object that comes into contact with you. What if someone pitched a ping pong ball at you compared to someone pitching a softball at you; which one would hurt worse?

Third Law:

After the head is impacted by an outside force it will eventually stop (but the brain won't). Think about dropping a ball on the ground the action is it hitting the ground and the reaction is the ball bouncing back up.