With just three syllables an athletic trainer or team doctor can devastate the players, coaches, and overall team for weeks. A concussion occurs when the brain accelerates or decelerates too quickly. Concussion prevention and recovery is now one of the most discussed topics of the NFL, along with anyone involved in contact sports. Players have now chosen to retire at an extremely early age. That was unheard of just a few years ago. The reason some chose to opt out early now is due to the fact that concussions cause serious health problems later on in life. Former players are now even suing the NFL for their current health complications that were caused from multiple concussions. There is a ton of research showing how bad concussions are for people; so what can we do to prevent ourselves from obtaining one as an athlete who participates in contact sports? One answer for concussion prevention is to constantly develop newer and safer helmets. That is great, but one could ask is that leading to a false sense of security so players lead with their heads more than ever in hopes of making it on Sports Centers' top 10 with a ridiculously hard hit?
Ryan Cidzik came up with a more practical and more effective solution. He joined the Stanford Football Sports Performance program in February of 2014. Prior to that he spent over a decade in the strength and conditioning field at both the collegiate and professional levels. He is known as "one of the nation's most sought after coaches on the topic of concussion prevention for contact sport athletes." (Stanford Sports Performance).
The answer that Ryan came up with is to develop athletes' strength in their neck and upper back regions. The focus being on increasing the hypertrophy and strength of the cervical region and traps. First off, this is way cheaper than buying a new helmet every year. Through his years of research he has implemented a concussion prevention training regime for the Stanford football team and has produced incredible results. Stanford's concussions occurrence has been decreased by 380%. Their football program experienced zero concussions during both spring practices and fall training camp!
Ryan's three part DVD set is a must own for all strength coaches, athletic trainers, or anyone involved in educating athletes. In part one he discusses the neck testing methods he uses and also gives other effective testing variations. He highlights that it is essential for athletes to be exceptionally strong in the eccentric phase in order to effectively absorb the force of a blow to the head. He also teaches proper technique and protocol for the testing environment. Part two demonstrates a nearly one hundred different neck exercises and variations. There is absolutely no excuse for not implementing neck workouts into your training regime, no matter how ill equipped you think you are. To highlight a few, there are: manual resistance, band resistance, against a stability ball, bridging, weighted resistance, partner holds, and maybe most important--perturbations/proprioceptive training. Part three shows how Ryan implements neck workouts into Stanford's year round training schedule. It is not the end all be all implementation, but it is used by a very successful Division I football program who leads the division in the fewest concussions. This is an all inclusive three part DVD set that will better prepare your athletes for their sport and keep them on the field.
Ultimate Neck Testing and Training Methods for Football
Another great way to incorporate neck exercises is to wear a neck harness. elitefts™ has a neck harness that has a chinstrap, this allows for more secure movements especially rotational and lateral flexion.
Another article by Ryan Cidzik: General Preparatory Classifications for Division 1 Football
Director of Education, Mark Watts, wrote an extremely informational article on the same subject that's worth a read. Head Games: Training the Neck to Reduce Concussions