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According to this article[0], concussions are just about about prevalent in rugby as in professional football. [0] http://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/16029747

by bmj 9y ago

According to this article[0], concussions are just about about prevalent in rugby as in professional football. [0] http://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/16029747/rugby-nfl-concussion-issue-figured-out http://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/16029747/rugby-nfl-concu...

amoorthy 9y ago
I played rugby for a few years in high school (not exactly stellar credentials but bear with me). The first thing we were all taught to do was tackle. The technique was to wrap your arms around the opponents legs, particularly below the knee as that would guarantee their stoppage. This was a simple but very effective technique. We never tried to go for the head, or lower our heads and hit them. I never played football so I can't say if this technique would work there but it's at least one reason no one on my team suffered a concussion in two seasons.
- jessriedel 9y ago
  The single biggest difference between rugby and American football tackles is that (typically) in rugby you put your head behind the the runner while in American football you put it in front, i.e., across the body of the runner. The latter technique is only really possible without frequent facial injury when you're wearing a helmet and is used because it is more reliable (harder for the runner to run through). It also leads to more head, and especially head-to-head, contact.
oh_sigh 9y ago
Modern research is showing that sub-concussive hits play a bigger role in CTE than we expected, so it isn't enough to just show that Rugby concussions are as prevalent as football concussions if Rugby has far fewer(or maybe far more) sub-concussive hits.
c3534l 9y ago
I'm getting sick of telling people this: CTE is not correlated with the number of concussive injuries.
- fhood 9y ago
  source?
  - c3534l 9y ago
    This is recent, but this has been the belief/data for years: https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/18/health/cte-concussion-repeated-hits-study/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/18/health/cte-concussion-repeate... CTE is almost by definition not concussion-related. The effects of concussions are part of the concussion.

by bmj 9y ago

amoorthy 9y ago

I played rugby for a few years in high school (not exactly stellar credentials but bear with me). The first thing we were all taught to do was tackle. The technique was to wrap your arms around the opponents legs, particularly below the knee as that would guarantee their stoppage. This was a simple but very effective technique. We never tried to go for the head, or lower our heads and hit them. I never played football so I can't say if this technique would work there but it's at least one reason no one on my team suffered a concussion in two seasons.

jessriedel 9y ago
The single biggest difference between rugby and American football tackles is that (typically) in rugby you put your head behind the the runner while in American football you put it in front, i.e., across the body of the runner. The latter technique is only really possible without frequent facial injury when you're wearing a helmet and is used because it is more reliable (harder for the runner to run through). It also leads to more head, and especially head-to-head, contact.

oh_sigh 9y ago

Modern research is showing that sub-concussive hits play a bigger role in CTE than we expected, so it isn't enough to just show that Rugby concussions are as prevalent as football concussions if Rugby has far fewer(or maybe far more) sub-concussive hits.

c3534l 9y ago

I'm getting sick of telling people this: CTE is not correlated with the number of concussive injuries.

fhood 9y ago
source?
- c3534l 9y ago
  This is recent, but this has been the belief/data for years: https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/18/health/cte-concussion-repeated-hits-study/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/18/health/cte-concussion-repeate... CTE is almost by definition not concussion-related. The effects of concussions are part of the concussion.