Concussions among University of Cincinnati football players have dropped 80 percent since the introduction of an experimental peripheral-vision training program started five years ago.
According to an article in the Cincinnati Business Courier:
“UC athletes are trained on a hand-eye coordination device called Dynavision D2, which is similar to the arcade game Whack-a-Mole. A computer gauges how fast and accurately athletes slap at one of 64 lights that flash randomly on a grid.”
The innovative training program has already left a positive footprint on the program. Since it’s inception, concussions in UC football players has reduced from 9.2 per 100 games played to 1.4.
“So far, improved helmets and concussion-mitigation strategies have been ineffective,” UC neurology professor Joe Clark told the Cincinnati Business Courier. “We hypothesized that vision training would significantly reduce both practice and competition concussion incidence in football. What this vision training did was train our athletes to improve their peripheral vision.”
Concussions have stirred up the game of football exponentially in the last 10 years. With increased education on the negative longterm effects of brain injuries, more and more parents are hesitant to let their sons play the violent sport. If more parents steer their sons away from the gridiron, then the sport’s growth will decline significantly, and the product on the field will suffer: meaning the football fans will suffer, too.
Hopefully more unique studies will be conducted to reduce the risk of concussions for football players at all levels.
Cincinnati went beyond the X’s and O’s, and the misinformed notion that it’s all in the helmet, to reach concussions where they begin: in the player’s brain.
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