Wednesday, February 22, 2012 Call for End to High-Impact Youth
Football Drills The study, published in the Annals of Biomedical
Engineering, used helmets embedded with sensors to track hits
among a team of 7- and 8-year-old players and found that some of
the hits were as strong as those experienced by college players.
Unlike college and high school players, however, the frequency
of severe hits was higher during practice than during games. The
results of a study of youth football players conducted by
Virginia Tech in conjunction with Wake Forest are drawing
attention to how practice drills are conducted. | Directed by
Stefan Duma of Virginia Tech (pictured), the study used sensor-
embedded helmets to collect data among youth players. Photo
Courtesy Jim Stroup / Virginia Tech The practice drills,
researchers say, go beyond what a player would realistically
experience during a game situation. Moreover, younger players
lack the same neck strength as older players and thus are more
susceptible to injury from hard