It is an ever-growing presence in sport & rugby in particularly. The talk of concussion in rugby is nothing that is new to the sport but the debate and worldwide perspective of it has certainly changed over the last few years. It is something that is taken far more seriously, especially in rugby where the size of players and the impact they have in the tackle or ruck seems to be increasing every year.
This is why Lions Sports Academy are so fascinated and determined to improve and become knowledgeable in such a field. The impact of concussion on a player is something that can happen anywhere, including on the pitch, and therefore is something that can easily happen at one of our camps. This is another reason why we are determined to be constantly improving in this area as we want the participants on our camps & courses to be the safest hands, if it were to ever occur.
Two of our staff, Katie Mason (Ex England 7s player and Lions Schools Lead) and James Corbishley (Lions Marketing Executive) attended a Head Injury Symposium at St Edwards School, Oxford, last week to find out more about concussion and how we can better spot the symptoms of it and to implement a strategy to help guard against it. The symposium was lead by some of the leading doctors, lecturers and school staff in this field and featured talks from 5 of them that related to different aspects of head injuries.
Mr Prem Chana & Gemma Ferrier (St Edwards School Sports Doctor & Nurse) lead a talk on how they manage head injuries at St Edwards and the process they take to get the kids onto their Return To Play process. Dr Nikhal Patel followed up by talking about the science behind a head injury and the damage it can have on someone both in the short-term and long term. Dr Sam Blake (Return2Play Doctor) spoke about Return2Plays process of helping schools and clubs with helping their players get back from a head injury using the correct procedures and showed off results from studies using over 1000 players who had head injuries. Tracey Russell (WASPS Academy) and James Hanks (Director of Sport at Dulwich College) spoke about how they go about the process in their institutions and James spoke from previous experience about head injuries having had a few whilst he was a player with Exeter Chiefs before having to retire early. Finally, Dr Adam White from University of Oxford Brookes spoke about the dangers of rugby and what could be done to prevent more head injuries occuring.
It was fantastic to hear from all these people on their experiences with dealing with head injuries and it certainly opened our eyes to the dangers that can occur and we are very eager to make strides with our camps and courses to ensure we have the best process possible in order to deal with any if they were to occur.
We are already partnered with Return2Play and are looking forward to building on our relationship with them after this to possibily involve more upskilling sessions or workshops to educate our staff and coaches on how to spot concussion and what to do if it were to occur during a match or training session at Lions.
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