Concussions in sports can’t be eliminated entirely, but a combination of better equipment, smarter technique, rule changes, and a culture that takes head injuries seriously can significantly reduce the risk. The most effective approach layers multiple strategies together rather than relying on any single fix.
Helmets Help, but Fit and Design Matter
No helmet can make a sport concussion-proof, but newer designs and aftermarket add-ons do make a measurable difference. Testing at the Virginia Tech Helmet Lab found that external padding add-ons reduced concussion risk by 15 to 34% on a single helmeted player. When both the person delivering and receiving a hit wore helmets with add-ons, the reduction jumped dramatically, reaching as high as 63% for the best-performing product. The key mechanisms are reductions in both linear acceleration (the straight-line jolt to the brain) and rotational acceleration (the twisting force that tends to cause more damage).
What this means practically: if you or your child plays a helmeted sport, invest in a helmet that scores well on independent safety ratings, make sure it fits snugly without shifting, and consider shell add-ons if they’re allowed by your league. Replace helmets according to the manufacturer’s timeline, since the internal padding degrades with repeated impacts even if the shell looks fine.
Mouthguards Protect Teeth, Not the Brain
This is one of the most persistent myths in sports safety. Multiple meta-analyses and systematic reviews have found no significant evidence that mouthguards reduce concussion risk. One large meta-analysis found a non-significant increase in concussion risk among mouthguard users, while another found a non-significant decrease. The results in rugby were equally inconclusive. Mouthguards are excellent at preventing dental and facial injuries, and you should still wear one in contact sports. Just don’t count on it to protect against concussions.
Technique Changes Make a Big Difference
How athletes make contact matters more than most people realize. A study comparing university football and rugby players during spring practices found striking differences. Football players accumulated 3,921 head impacts over 12 practices, while rugby players recorded 1,868 impacts over nine practices. After adjusting for sample size and practice time, rugby players experienced both fewer impacts and far lower forces per impact. The average hit registered 21 g-force for rugby players compared to 63 g-force for football players.
The core difference is tackling style. Rugby players are taught to lead with the shoulder, keep the head to the side, and drive through with the body. Football players historically lead with the crown of the helmet. Programs that have adopted rugby-style tackling drills in football, sometimes called “Heads Up” tackling, aim to retrain this instinct. Teaching athletes at a young age to tackle with their heads out of the contact zone is one of the most effective prevention strategies available, because it reduces both the number and severity of head impacts in every practice and game.
Rule Changes and Heading Restrictions in Youth Soccer
Policy changes at the league level can move the needle across entire populations of athletes. In 2016, U.S. Soccer banned heading for players under age 10 and limited athletes aged 11 to 13 to practicing headers for no more than 30 minutes per week. Research presented by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons found a 25.6% relative risk reduction in soccer-related concussions presenting to emergency departments when comparing the period after the policy (2020 to 2023) with the period before it (2012 to 2015). The proportion of concussions among all soccer injuries dropped from 8% to 6%.
If your child plays youth soccer, check whether your league enforces these heading restrictions. Some recreational leagues have been slower to adopt them. For older athletes, practicing proper heading technique (using the forehead, bracing the neck, and timing the contact) reduces the forces transmitted to the brain compared to mistimed or glancing headers.
Not all rule changes have delivered the expected results, though. The NFL’s redesigned kickoff format introduced in 2024 was intended to reduce high-speed collisions. A comparative analysis of injury data found no statistically significant decrease in concussions or overall injuries compared to the two prior seasons. Rule changes work best when they directly limit the specific type of contact that causes head injuries, rather than just restructuring play in general.
Limiting Contact in Practice
Most head impacts in football and other contact sports happen during practice, not games, simply because athletes practice far more often than they compete. Reducing full-contact practice sessions is one of the simplest and most effective prevention tools. Many youth and high school leagues now cap the number of full-contact practices per week. The 6th International Conference on Concussion in Sport, held in Amsterdam in 2022, identified training strategy modifications as one of the key evidence-based prevention approaches alongside rule changes and protective equipment.
If you’re a coach or parent, advocate for practice plans that emphasize skill development, conditioning, and situational drills over repetitive full-contact hitting. The cumulative effect of subconcussive impacts (hits that don’t cause obvious symptoms but still stress the brain) is an increasing area of concern, and reducing total head impact exposure across an entire season matters.
Neck Strength and Physical Preparation
A stronger neck helps stabilize the head during impact, reducing how much the brain accelerates inside the skull. This is particularly relevant for younger athletes and female athletes, who tend to have less neck strength relative to head size and experience higher concussion rates in comparable sports. Neck strengthening exercises, including resistance training for the muscles at the front, back, and sides of the neck, can be incorporated into regular conditioning routines starting in early adolescence. This won’t prevent concussions on its own, but it adds another layer of protection alongside equipment and technique.
Reporting Culture Is a Bigger Problem Than You Think
Prevention isn’t only about stopping the first concussion. It’s also about making sure a concussed athlete doesn’t return too soon and suffer a second injury. A survey of high school athletic directors in Massachusetts found that an estimated 12% of concussions go unreported at their schools. Meanwhile, 55% of high schools lack access to a full-time athletic trainer, and 50% don’t have a team physician. Five percent of athletic directors reported that not all of their coaches had undergone any concussion training at all.
Athletes hide symptoms for obvious reasons: they want to stay in the game, they don’t want to let teammates down, or they genuinely don’t recognize that what they’re experiencing is a concussion. Headache, fogginess, feeling “off,” sensitivity to light, and difficulty concentrating are all concussion symptoms that athletes frequently dismiss or downplay.
If you’re a parent, talk to your child before the season starts about what concussion symptoms feel like and why reporting them matters. If you’re a coach, build a team culture where reporting a head injury is treated as smart and responsible rather than weak. Having a trained athletic trainer on the sideline dramatically increases the chance that concussions are caught in real time.
Why the Second Hit Is So Dangerous
Second impact syndrome is rare but potentially catastrophic. It occurs when an athlete sustains another concussion before symptoms from the first one have fully resolved. The brain enters a state of metabolic vulnerability after a concussion, and a second blow during this window can trigger rapid, severe brain swelling. In documented cases, the gap between the first and second concussion ranged from one hour to four weeks, and in many cases at least one of the two hits appeared minor.
This is why return-to-play protocols exist. Most follow a graduated process: complete rest until symptoms resolve, then light aerobic activity, then sport-specific drills, then non-contact practice, then full-contact practice, and finally game play. Each stage typically requires at least 24 hours without symptom return before advancing. Rushing this timeline, especially in young athletes whose brains are still developing, carries serious risk.
Wearable Sensors Are Promising but Imperfect
Head impact sensors worn in helmets or mouthguards can track the number and force of hits an athlete receives. In theory, they could trigger a sideline evaluation when a dangerous threshold is reached. In practice, the technology still has significant accuracy problems. A study of sensor-equipped Australian football players found that peak linear acceleration readings were 17% higher than reference values, while the Head Injury Criterion measurement was overestimated by 101%. When researchers reviewed video of flagged impacts, only 31% were confirmed direct head hits. Another 44% were unclear, and 15% weren’t head impacts at all.
These tools can still be useful for tracking overall impact load across a season or comparing positions, but they aren’t reliable enough to serve as a standalone concussion detection system. A trained observer on the sideline remains more dependable for catching the signs of a concussion in real time.