High School Impact Testing?

[srt418]

We have this at the high school I coach at. I hardly ever need to send girls to the trainer to use it though. We have the "water fountain standard". It works like this: you get hit, you walk over to the water fountain and cry it out if you need to, take a couple deep breaths, if it still hurts when you walk back from the fountain to the mat, you go to the trainer. Usually they are fine and just get back to practice. I always have at least 2 alternates on the team though so if someone does get hurt I have a very eager lady to step up.

I use the "water fountain standard" too! Most of the time the girls just got scared from falling or just a small pain and they work it out at the water station. Usually a teammate talks to them too and gets them back to normal emotionally. I know there's something wrong when they come back and let me know that they still feel it.

 

[cheersafety]

I use the "water fountain standard" too! Most of the time the girls just got scared from falling or just a small pain and they work it out at the water station. Usually a teammate talks to them too and gets them back to normal emotionally. I know there's something wrong when they come back and let me know that they still feel it.

If you know an athlete has taken a hit to the head, it is NOT your call, you don't get to decide if they go to the trainer. Unless you are a qualified health care professional you are not qualified to call injuries. There is no gray area. If you do your water fountain technique and the athlete has a head injury and you let them back in serious injuries can happen. If they did you would be responsible. It is a coaches legal duty to send an athlete to the trainer if they have hit their head or it is reckless misconduct and negligence.

Times have changed coaches, there are trained cheer safety experts recognized by the courts that know the standard of care based on child protection laws. Laws trump rules made by companies or the "water technique".

Check out www.sportsconcussions.org for more information on preventing and treating concussions.
See www.nationalcheersafety.com/concussionsr2pguidelines.pdf to protect your athletes

 

[srt418]

If you know an athlete has taken a hit to the head, it is NOT your call, you don't get to decide if they go to the trainer. Unless you are a qualified health care professional you are not qualified to call injuries. There is no gray area. If you do your water fountain technique and the athlete has a head injury and you let them back in serious injuries can happen. If they did you would be responsible. It is a coaches legal duty to send an athlete to the trainer if they have hit their head or it is reckless misconduct and negligence.

Times have changed coaches, there are trained cheer safety experts recognized by the courts that know the standard of care based on child protection laws. Laws trump rules made by companies or the "water technique".

Check out www.sportsconcussions.org for more information on preventing and treating concussions.
See www.nationalcheersafety.com/concussionsr2pguidelines.pdf to protect your athletes

I wasn't talking about head injuries.

 

[srt418]

Actually, I wasn't even really talking about injuries. I was talking about times when let's say a base gets hit in the shoulder from an incorrect cradle. As in, the base has a bruise, not a dislocated shoulder or anything serious, but she is still crying because it hurts. That's what the "water technique" is for.
I coach tumbling and would NEVER just send a girl to the water fountain if they fell on their head. The woman that works at the front desk is also an RN at a local hospital. If a girl just fell on her head, I send another girl to get her to check the injured girl out.

 

[coach.elle]

If you know an athlete has taken a hit to the head, it is NOT your call, you don't get to decide if they go to the trainer. Unless you are a qualified health care professional you are not qualified to call injuries. There is no gray area. If you do your water fountain technique and the athlete has a head injury and you let them back in serious injuries can happen. If they did you would be responsible. It is a coaches legal duty to send an athlete to the trainer if they have hit their head or it is reckless misconduct and negligence.

Times have changed coaches, there are trained cheer safety experts recognized by the courts that know the standard of care based on child protection laws. Laws trump rules made by companies or the "water technique".

Check out www.sportsconcussions.org for more information on preventing and treating concussions.
See www.nationalcheersafety.com/concussionsr2pguidelines.pdf to protect your athletes

No need for name calling. There is a big difference between getting slapped in the face or poked in the eye and taking an blow to the head. Get off your high horse, I am not talking about neglecting athletes. Thanks.

 

[cheersafety]

I'm not sure where I was name calling or on a high horse. The bottom line is a coach is not qualified to make a call for injuries unless they are a qualified health professional. You may think it is only a poke but it is not your call.

I had a case once where the coach said the same thing that is was no big deal and she didn't feel the athlete really got hit and now the athlete is paralyzed from a brain injury that the doctors didn't even catch until it was too late because again the coach told EMS that it wasn't even a hit. Meanwhile the athletes brain is hemorrhaging leaving her paralyzed on the right and with major brain damaged. They were doing a half on astroturf.

As a court recognized cheer safety and child athlete abuse expert in state and federal court, I disagree that you are not talking about neglect. The fact that you think you can make the call is a problem. If your athletes are doing acrobatics or tumbling the forces sustained can be substantial. If you have a licensed athletic trainer, it is in your best interest and the athlete to let them make the call. If you don't have access to a trainer or other qualified health care professional and your athletes are doing acrobatics and tumbling they are at risk.

Cheerleading is the number one cause of catastrophic head injury to female athletes in high school and college.

Lastly, I think you are confusing my passion for preventing injuries for being judgmental. If you would have met all the cheerleaders that I have who are paralyzed and disabled from injuries that their coach often thought was no big deal, maybe you would understand. I'm sorry you feel offended. I hope you will take step back and think more about how I am trying to help not only the athlete but coaches as well. When I speak to groups of coaches in other sports, it is rare to get this response because they understand mechanism of injury in sport.

I am here to educate and prevent injuries, not offend.

 

[coach.elle]

I'm not sure where I was name calling or on a high horse. The bottom line is a coach is not qualified to make a call for injuries unless they are a qualified health professional. You may think it is only a poke but it is not your call.

I had a case once where the coach said the same thing that is was no big deal and she didn't feel the athlete really got hit and now the athlete is paralyzed from a brain injury that the doctors didn't even catch until it was too late because again the coach told EMS that it wasn't even a hit. Meanwhile the athletes brain is hemorrhaging leaving her paralyzed on the right and with major brain damaged. They were doing a half on astroturf.

As a court recognized cheer safety and child athlete abuse expert in state and federal court, I disagree that you are not talking about neglect. The fact that you think you can make the call is a problem. If your athletes are doing acrobatics or tumbling the forces sustained can be substantial. If you have a licensed athletic trainer, it is in your best interest and the athlete to let them make the call. If you don't have access to a trainer or other qualified health care professional and your athletes are doing acrobatics and tumbling they are at risk.

Cheerleading is the number one cause of catastrophic head injury to female athletes in high school and college.

Lastly, I think you are confusing my passion for preventing injuries for being judgmental. If you would have met all the cheerleaders that I have who are paralyzed and disabled from injuries that their coach often thought was no big deal, maybe you would understand. I'm sorry you feel offended. I hope you will take step back and think more about how I am trying to help not only the athlete but coaches as well. When I speak to groups of coaches in other sports, it is rare to get this response because they understand mechanism of injury in sport.

I am here to educate and prevent injuries, not offend.

I just think you are overreacting to what I originally wrote. When I tell girls to shake it off, I am talking about a girl crying because she got scratched, her knuckles hurt from basing baskets, or a near-fall was scary for the flier. These kinds of things happen all the time. And they do need to shake it off instead of go stand in line for the trainer for 40 min. If you have ever heard of a serious brain injury happening form a scratch on a ankle, please inform me. Calm down, we have an qualified trainer 4 steps away from our practices and I have every certification possible as well as first aid training. I am done talking about this now.

 

[cheersafety]

We have this at the high school I coach at. I hardly ever need to send girls to the trainer to use it though. We have the "water fountain standard".

It was this part of the quote that I understood you saying you don't send the girls to the trainer to use "it" because we have the "water fountain technique". "It", I thought was the impact test ie. the topic so I did not think you were referring to scratches.

 

[CoachJessNHS]

I want to speak for all coaches, and say that we know when a girl gets hit in the head to send them to the trainer. No one that I have ever cheered with/coached with has ever just "shook it off". Head injuries are way to terrifying to ever even think that. So yes, the water technique is very successful in those "minor instances". Which is why we have the Impact Testing for the "major instances". I totally understand what the coaches are saying here.

 

[ellie]

we have to take it for high school cheer

 

[coach.elle]

I want to speak for all coaches, and say that we know when a girl gets hit in the head to send them to the trainer. No one that I have ever cheered with/coached with has ever just "shook it off". Head injuries are way to terrifying to ever even think that. So yes, the water technique is very successful in those "minor instances". Which is why we have the Impact Testing for the "major instances". I totally understand what the coaches are saying here.

Thank you!

 

[CoachJessNHS]

Youre welcome!!

 

[MissBee]

No need for name calling. There is a big difference between getting slapped in the face or poked in the eye and taking an blow to the head. Get off your high horse, I am not talking about neglecting athletes. Thanks.

I didn't see any name calling there. What I am seeing, in schools everywhere-in all sports, is coaches who think they are qualified to make medical decisions for children. I don't care how long you've been coaching, unless you're certified as a physical trainer, an EMT, a nurse or a doctor-it's not your call to make. When My girls get injured-it's off to the trainer they go. I'm not having the neglect of an injury on my hands.

 

[MissBee]

No need for name calling. There is a big difference between getting slapped in the face or poked in the eye and taking an blow to the head. Get off your high horse, I am not talking about neglecting athletes. Thanks.

A poke in the eye can result in a scratched cornea. Even a simple "poke in the eye" can become just as serious as a blow to the head.

 

[coach.elle]

I didn't see any name calling there. What I am seeing, in schools everywhere-in all sports, is coaches who think they are qualified to make medical decisions for children. I don't care how long you've been coaching, unless you're certified as a physical trainer, an EMT, a nurse or a doctor-it's not your call to make. When My girls get injured-it's off to the trainer they go. I'm not having the neglect of an injury on my hands.

Unless you are going to come to one of my practices, stop critiquing my coaching skills. I've never had a serious injury, and am very safety conscious. There is a difference in taking a hit and getting injured. If every football player went to see the trainer after every tackle, there wouldn't be a game. A hard catch is the same thing, as long as the head and neck is not involved.