NCAA Concussion Protocol (Blog 3)

One of the worst things about concussions is that you may never know how someone will respond to it because a concussion effects people in so many different ways. Every concussion must be taken seriously, regardless of how serious the concussion may be. The NCAA has established a return to sport protocol to make sure every concussion is taken care of properly.

The NCAA protocol gets updated as more research is done, but according to the latest protocol there are a few steps each NCAA affiliated athletic department must follow. Prior to starting any form of competition every athlete must receive concussion education and take a pre-participation assessment (Concussion Safety Protocol Template, 2020). The assessment is then used to help test if an athlete has suffered from a concussion after a blow to the head.

If an athlete is diagnosed with a concussion they must stay out of play until no symptoms are present. After symptoms diminish they have to follow the return to sport protocol set by the NCAA. The return-to-sport steps include: symptom-limited activity, light aerobic training without resistance training, sport-specific exercise without head impact, non-contact practice with progressive resistance training, unrestricted training, and finally unrestricted return-to-sport (Concussion Safety Protocol Template, 2020). Each task is completed every 24 hours and if an athlete experiences any symptoms during this progression then adjustments may be made by the acting team physician (Concussion Safety Protocol Template, 2020).

As you can tell the protocol can seem like a long process because there are many steps but it keeps every athlete safe. I personally went through this protocol and I wasn’t thrilled about it the whole time because it seemed like overkill once I no longer was experiencing symptoms. I am thankful the protocol is in place because all athletes are more aware of concussions now and understand that they must be taken care of properly.

Concussion safety protocol template. (2020, August 14). Retrieved February 24, 2021, from https://www.ncaa.org/sport-science-institute/topics/concussion-safety-protocol-template