Five Sports to Avoid to Limit CTE in Youth

Youth sports has been a popular way of getting children involved with outdoor activities and the beginning of a healthy lifestyle. However, some sports can put a child in danger of a degenerative brain disease known as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) There are several sports that are available in the city of Fort Collins to get a child involved in athletics. This article is going to go over five of those sports that can present a higher risk of CTE.

5) Softball

While softball appears to be a relatively tame sport in the sense that there is little to no contact, the percent of receiving a concussion while playing is between 16–16.3 percent. The probability of getting a concussion doesn’t come from getting ran over while attempting to turn a double play, but from the fact that bad hops happen in the infield. There is also the possibility that the pitcher loses their grip on the pitch, and the ball could collide with the players head.

4) Soccer

As many know, hands and arms are off limits when it comes to soccer. Everything else is fair game, including using the head. With the ball flying around the field, being kicked as hard as possible at times, there is an opportunity that a player can sustain a concussion by taking the ball to the face, or using their head to send the ball in a different direction. Not every player is going to head the ball every single time it comes their way, but that doesn’t mean a player won’t get a concussion on the first attempt. For boys soccer the percentage of getting a concussion is 19–19.2 percent and a staggering 33 percent for girls.

3) Basketball

Like the other two sports on this list, basketball isn’t a contact sport. That doesn’t mean that the game doesn’t get physical at times. Due to players hitting their heads on the court when the opposing player goes up to block a lay-up or dunk is the main cause of players getting a concussion. During a 10 year span, the amount of traumatic brain injuries has increased by 70 percent. The overall chance of a player getting a concussion for boys basketball is 16–21.2 percent. Like soccer, the girls side of the sport has a better chance of getting a concussion with their percentage being between 18–21.

2) Wrestling

The contact sports have finally made their way to the list with wrestling coming in at number two. The chance of opponents colliding heads with one another on the mat isn’t very high. The chance of a participant hitting their head on the mat is. Wrestling is a contact sport with the purpose of driving the opponent to the ground. Hitting their head on the mat, when forced to the ground, is likely to happen. In fact, wrestling has the highest percentage of concussions at the collegiate level. This is important because most kids who get good at a sport want to make it on a college roster. The overall percentage of getting a concussion in wresting is between 22–23.9.

1) Football

The sport that started off the conversation about CTE tops this list. The majority of cases involving CTE were from football players. A study has shown that football can lower a person’s resilience by 13 years. Professional football players are even beginning to say that tackle football shouldn’t be available to children until they are at least 13 years old as well. The overall chances of getting a concussion from playing football is at an astounding 64–76.8 percent.