“The lesson I learned from this was, doing your ‘RFU Head Case’ isn't enough.”
This article was written by Progressive Rugby
A youth rugby coach wrote to Progressive Rugby to share how a concussion scare led to a radical new approach.
Posted anonymously with permission.
I took on the role of head coach for my son's age group at my local community club when the previous one stepped down.
I was aware of the responsibility this entailed but with a few years coaching experience, a good coaching team and excellent club Safeguarding officer I felt confident we had all aspects of the welfare of our players under control.
I had also completed the online RFU Head Case course as part of the training the RFU require you to undertake and was a signed-up member of the "if in doubt sit them out" club. You may be thinking...."sounds like he had it all under control"? Well not quite.
A few seasons ago we were playing a game towards the end of the season so the ground was already pretty hard and it was a local rival so we knew it would be a tough physical game.
One of our bigger players got hit with a hard but legal tackle right in front of the coaching team. He went down, but we expected him to bounce straight back up. He didn't.
Obviously being concerned, I went on to the pitch expecting to find him winded. Instead he looked at me with an almost blank stare and seemed completely vacant.
He was holding his head, but I was perplexed as he hadn’t hit his head in the tackle or on the ground. I told the ref I was removing him and after a quick chat with his dad we agreed he should get checked out at A&E.
Later I leant he was in hospital for observation and had also developed some issues with his vision in one eye. It would take a few weeks for his vision to return completely to normal and for his headaches to go. He had obviously suffered a significant concussion (i.e. brain injury).
A neurologist recommended he give up rugby, but he was adamant he wanted to continue and, while he did return the following season, he was definitely a changed player and it took a long time for his confidence to fully return.
'He looked at me with an almost blank stare and seemed completely vacant.'
I was still confused as to how a seemingly innocuous tackle had developed into something quite so serious.
However, during a conversation with parents I was made aware that a few minutes prior to the tackle we witnessed he had taken a heavy blow to the head at a ruck on the far side of the pitch. He had apparently got up quite slowly, but this had been missed by me and the other coaches.
This really shook me up. As any Rugby coach should know 2nd impact syndrome can have devastating consequences. But how had we got into a situation where one of our players had been put in harm's way like this?
On reflection I realised the way we requested parents to stand on the opposite side of the pitch to the coaches and players had possibly been a contributing factor.
The lesson I learned from this was doing your "RFU Head Case" isn't enough. As a coach you can’t see everything, mainly because you will be dealing with other injuries, planning substitutions, and because you're human and just plain miss things!
Therefore, my advice is to do at least these three things to assist:
- EDUCATE your parents and players about the risks of concussion.
- SURVEILLANCE - use parents as an Early Warning system to communicate concerns about a player they suspect is behaving differently due to a suspected heavy knock, nominating one person each game to communicate directly with the coaches.
- PROCEDURE - get procedures in place in the event of withdrawing a player because of a suspected concussion ensuring parents and Safeguarding officers are informed with required information.
As a coach you are in a position of responsibility for the safety of young players. If you have done any research into concussion in sport you will have heard the story of Ben Robinson, a young player from Northern Ireland who tragically died after being allowed to play on in a youth game after having received at least one heavy blow to the head.
In addition, there are a whole spectrum of other potential issues, both short and long term, that can arise if you don't take potential concussive and even sub-concussive blows seriously. This is why it makes sense to always err on the side of caution.
Our coaching team was lucky, our player made a full recovery after a few months out of the game but really luck shouldn't ever come into it. The RFU Head Case training should make you aware of the risks, however this alone isn't enough. Don't rely on luck, because as some people can unfortunately testify, sometimes luck just isn't enough.
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