Symposium - Concussion in sport: what do we know and what’s next?
While there is evidence that points to concussion and other traumatic and chronic brain injuries as having a long association with various sports, the last decade has seen a sharp increase in the attention directed at the topic by the media, players, fans, sports officials and governing bodies.
This has led to educational programmes and awareness campaigns, various changes in practice and policy, and the proliferation of research in various scholarly disciplines.
Nottingham, with its two universities, various professional sporting clubs, numerous sporting venues and central location in The Midlands is something of a hotbed for such work. And specifically at Nottingham Trent University, within our Sport, Health, Activity, Performance and Exercise (SHAPE) research centre, we have several academics and doctoral students undertaking research on concussion and associated brain injuries.
Given all of this, it seemed timely to bring people together on our Clifton Campus to discuss what we know about this topic and, perhaps more importantly, what comes next?
So I organised a symposium with two broad aims. Firstly, to help inform people who would like to know more about the risks of concussion and what is currently being done to support athletes, coaches and medical personnel to reduce the damaging effects of brain injuries. Secondly, to consider what problems still need further understanding and to develop ideas to shape the future directions of work in the area.
In this regard, I invited a diverse set of speakers, and we advertised the event widely with a view to attracting attendees with a variety of interests and from various background in relation to sport and brain health. This included sports persons, coaches, physiotherapists, trainee sports practitioners in various fields, teachers, representatives from sport’s governing bodies and scholars working across all levels of academia.
This group enabled the day’s aims to be achieved in that there was a great opportunity for those from sporting communities to enhance their knowledge of concussion. And, importantly, there was time for discussions and feedback around what problems and issues sporting communities now face given the recent focus on brain health in sport.
Below are some timestamps if you’d like to jump to relevant points after the seminar introduction:
Tom Dening (06:53)
Penny Watson (25:21)
Angus Hunter (41:04)
Reem Al-Hashmi (01:00:55)
Debi Forbes (01:11:11)
Dominic Malcolm (01:16:47)