Mentioning concussions and head trauma to fans of contact sports is bad form, akin to discussing the dangers of weight cutting to a room full of wrestlers. Nobody wants to talk about the prevalence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy among deceased NFL players while drinking non-Paleo beer and watching the game.

And it makes sense—athletes go into a sport aware of the dangers, and it’s a risk they choose to take. Viewers shouldn’t feel responsible for all of the possible repercussions of that decision—not only would taking on this burden be exhausting, it’s also more than a little absurd. Still, it seems that fans’ willingness to gloss over the long-term health impact of sports they enjoy watching feeds into sports organizations’ PR spin, even when safety precautions appear to be overstated.

But most of us aren’t pro football players and most of us don’t have to worry about head injuries. The chances of dropping a ball on your head are slim to none, right? But if you’ve got kids who like to play contact sports and/or you find yourself coaching a team, it’s time to start paying attention. And it’s not just football, either—even girl’s soccer players are at risk, for example, though the risks in that sport are often understated.

Although the science isn’t widely understood, research indicates that the repetition of hits in absence of concussions can create brain abnormalities, especially physical changes to the brain’s white matter. So even if there’s no specific incident, contact sports could still be causing damage.

“We talk about the damage from concussions in terms of memory problems, or depression, or dementia, but, what we don’t often talk about is just changes to that person—personality changes,” explained concussion expert and Sports Legacy Institute president Chris Nowinski, who serves as a co-director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy. “It’s amazing how parents are aware that after the child suffers a concussion or plays a few years of contact sport, where they take thousands of hits, parents will say there’s just a difference. They’re not as happy, they’re not as excited about things, they’re not as interested—they can’t think as quickly, they can’t write as well,” he added. Nowinski, a former pro wrestler who has suffered from more than his fair share of concussions, compares shaking a brain to shaking an Etch a Sketch, and is quick to point out that head trauma disconnects axons that will never get reconnected. “It’s changing the actual person,” he says.

So what should be done? Pack up the gear and switch to Jazzercise? Perhaps the reluctance to take precautions for the health and safety of children has to do with a fear of these extreme alternatives. But there are some pretty sane measures that can be taken without skipping a beat. Here are a few things Nowinski encourages:


Delay your kids’ getting hit in the head for a few years

More and more programs (and parents) are making sure their children don’t play tackle football until they reach a certain age, in order to let their brain develop first. As I briefly touched upon above, there are risks in sports like soccer as well. In fact, the Sports Legacy Institute seeks to eliminate heading in soccer before high school.

Some kids start playing soccer when they’re only seven or eight years old, and according to Nowinski, there’s really no good reason for kids to start heading except for coaches telling them that’s what they should be doing. Nowinski says elite coaches know better, but are, at times, hesitant to speak out. “There’s no messaging around it because there’s this irrational fear in the soccer leadership that if you admit heading is dangerous, you’ll be sued,” Nowinski says.

Making decisions based on science (and ethics) is usually a better idea than letting the potential of lawsuits dictate behavior.


Get coaches trained

Well-intentioned volunteer coaches may be unaware of pertinent issues or have limited understanding of them, so making all coaches go through a training program is always a good idea. Although more schools are requiring some training from their coaches, Nowinski estimates that only 25 percent of coaches have training in concussions. But coaches who understand the risks are more likely to limit or eliminate kick-offs, and restrict full-contact time. They’re also far less likely to bring kids who have suffered from concussions out to the field too soon, which increases the risk of second impact syndrome—something that can have drastic long-term consequences and is even potentially life-threatening in some circumstances.


Bring in the athletic trainers

Athletic trainers are far more likely to diagnose concussions. Having them around for youth football seems like a no-brainer. New York City recently had a hearing on requiring medical professionals at every contact practice for youth football, which could end up being a framework for the future. As it stands, some entire districts have only one athletic trainer for multiple schools and teams.


Focus on hit counts

When we’re talking about youth football, there’s still no published data on whether new forms of tackling or blocking can improve outcomes, although one could intuit that it should improve a bit. Still, the fact that you’re going after a moving target makes it impossible to remove the risk completely. To this end, Nowinski’s organization is encouraging the use of sensors—not to help coaches determine whether a player’s had a concussion, but to count the number of hits. Eventually, it hopes to determine a universal threshold for hit counts and build a database to teach coaches norms relative to age, position, and gender. Coaches can use this feedback to understand where their team fits compared to other players and try to be the safest team.

Don’t worry. We’re not trying to take your kids’ ball away. Training hard and smart is always a good idea, though.

For more information on the Sports Legacy Institute, check out http://www.sportslegacy.org/.