Transcripts For CSPAN Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20160515

The amount of data generated seems to be at the nominal. Is this useful for phenomenal. Is this useful for anyone else in the sport . Is a general manager interested in these performance statistics . It just seems like this has the potential for changing the way competition is handled by the how well youre able to manage these large data flows. Would you meant on it . Mr. Eggert i think general managers have an increasingly great interest in Data Acquisition and management and i think the sport is moving in that direction to be more databased and less just see how a person swings the bat. Its gotten so far i think theres espn Fantasy Sports analyst who is good at this you may continue to watch this hearing online at cspan. Org. Did you want to add to that . There are many that actually employee members of their look atstaff that will players and see how they play in certain environments and decide how they select. The entire concept of the movie money ball and how he was selecting teams for the oakland as was based on the analytics. Studying we have been doing the disruptors series. Its the way that date is now throughand managed every status of every strata of our ecosystem heard mr. Pallone made the observation driven becauses you might have players who are on a raster roster that is now interested in. While he was describing that, i couldnt help but think am i fast if this had been around it is purely speculation at this point. Purely speculative, mr. Chairman. I want to thank our panel. Yes, the young lady is recognized. Last night, i was one of 5 Million People who checked out john olivers explanation of , regardlessy sports of ones position on it, you might get a kick out of it. Im not his agent. I get no kickbacks from john oliver. It is humorous, but also informative. Seeing no further members wishing to ask questions, i do want to thank our witnesses for being here today. Before we conclude, i would like to submit the following records. Americanfrom the gaming association. A letter from the mellman group. Remember from the stop predatory gaveling group. A letter from the state legislators. Letter from the office it office of the attorney general from the state of texas. I remind members that have 10 Business Days to submit questions for the director and i asked him to submit their responses within 10 Business Days upon receipt of those questions. Without further objection, this meeting stands adjourned. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] announcer rob bishop, chair of the Natural Resources Committee Discusses what congress is doing to help puerto rico address is challenges in drafting the bill. In this portion, he talks about the impact of delaying legislation. Date by which action becomes too late . In my mind, i think that happened about three weeks ago. Now, yes and no. Theyve had three defaults on their payments. May 1 was a huge default. Another one is coming on july 1, which is an even bigger potential problem. But the answer is, no. Because the problem does not go away. It only exacerbates. So whenever you do it, it is good. It isoner you do it, better. What do you say to taxpayers who are maybe hearing from their representative in their district that this is a bay offer puerto rico. There is no reason why anyone should say that. I dont care how you want to define the word bailout, this is not a bailout. There is no minute no money going down there. There is no taxpayer money that is going to be put in jeopardy. This is a structural reorganization of their Economic Situation so that people and be paid and Property Rights can be restrict respected. However, if this thing fails and we dont do it, there will be a large, huge, u. N. Cry for taxpayer going directly to puerto rico to help the situation. And even i cannot support that. But this is the appropriate approach. This is the best approach. And if you dont do this, then you have a good chance of ending up at the end of the day with a bailout and that is a worst scenario your that is what the speaker and everyone else involved took off the table in the beginning. That would not be one of the criterias. Lacks there are ads out there saying it is a bailout. We do not know whos behind them because they didnt have to disclose their donors. That runink those ads every few minutes on new channels here in washington and other places around the country, do you think that has hurt your efforts . Ironically, no. Andas was so overthetop unbelievable, once people were told what we were really doing with the bill, they were, like a mao, i get that. In my district, the nicest thing they did was put a phone number for them to call and say i dont want a bailout and staff was able to say this is what it is actually doing during people were saying, oh, will that make sense. So i am appreciative of them putting the number on there. If they had not put the number on there, no one had no one would have had taken the time to look it out. Announcer today at 10 00 a. M. And 6 00 p. M. On cspan. Announcer now a house and onrgy and commerce hearing youth sports. Medical and Sports Professionals were among those who testified. Efforts to protect Young Athletes from injury. This portion of the hearing is one hour and 15 minutes. Thank you. We will move in right away. We would like to give you all an opportunity to testify. I would like to introduce the witnesses of our second cow. We have mr. Eugene betty t vince to lead up our second panel. I believe you were a former teammate of tim murphy. Dr. Gregorys here as an advisor for usa football. Margaruchi serves as the manager of player safety. We welcome mr. Steve stennis and, executive director and coo of usa lacrosse since 1998. Mr. Oneill is a founder and ceo of High School Coaches on alternative practice regimens. Next, dr. Don comstock, who is in highiate Professor School injury surveillance. And finally, dr. Thomas told watch. School. R at the weldon he is also the founding mrirector of perdues facility. Thanks to all the witnesses for being here today. Aware. All objections tony testifying under oath . You are entitled to be advised of counsel. In that case, would you all please rise, raise your hand and i will swear u. N. Do you swear the testimonies the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. Thank you. Both answered affirmatively and you are now under oath. Your subject to the penalties set forth in title 18 of the United States code. I will ask you to give a five minute summary of your statement therell be a light in front of you that will turn red when your time is up. Turn your microphone on and bring it close. Chairman murphy, and Ranking Members and members of the subcommittee, good morning and thank you for this opportunity to provide testimony on the important issue regarding youth and youth related sports concussion. I work with all age groups, peewee through high school aged kids. Game. Ll is a very special the life lessons, with all the team sports, things people learn, the friendships they make, the experiences they have. I love the game of football. But i love my players more. Looking at the concussion head injuries through time, five years ago, i made the decision that we would eliminate tackling from our practices. And the guarantee i make to parents is there son comes to harm of, there they will not tackle or the tackled for four years. I wasnt 100 sure i was doing the right thing. I worried about my players. Was i putting them at a competitive disadvantage . Themare was i preparing fully for games . I was convinced i did a lot of research on it. The way that we teach tackling is the is not the way that we tackle in games. I looked at the defensive tape. Then we tried to replicate what we saw in games against pads, pitting them against other players, tackling sleds. A mobile tackling device which has been quite beneficial in terms of actually replicating a moving target. With that, we actually tackle more than anybody else in the country. Each of my players annually, 800 , 500 to 800 tackles per year oneonone against another human being. What has happened is our injury injury reduction has been phenomenal. Me why. Sk quite simply, the skill of thaning, we practice more we did when we were tackling life. In our sport, tackling is practiced the least because of the fear of injury. By putting guys in a position to tactical to tackle with regularity, we have been much more proficient. You hear a lot about rugby tackling. Sport. L is a different shoulder tackling something we do preach. We take the head completely out of context or in spirit it is like riding a bike. You dont let you dont put someone on a bike and let them try to figure out. You use training wheels and support from parents. I do the same thing. Can you do that at Different Levels . Absolutely. Concussion results in practice are probably some of the best. A footballe from team that struggled at times to be a Championship Team in the last two years. This year. Nship and we had zero defensive concussion injuries. It is all how you present it to your players. It has been wonderful from a recruiting standpoint. I speak nationally with this. They all say, how do you teach someone who has never tackled a human being . Start with pads and progress forward. I would like to kick on a video right now if i could. This will demonstrate how we practice tackling. We tackle literally every day when we practice. We put people in a position to execute on game day. A defensive lineman will not execute the same skills [indiscernible] we have broken down levels of tackling. The end result is playing at a very high level. Thank you very much. Now we recognize dr. Get dr. Gregory for five minutes. Dr. Gregory chairman murphy, and Ranking Members and members of the subcommittee, good morning and thank you for this opportunity to provide testimony insured, usa football is the National Governing body, an independent Nonprofit Organization. We created resources and direct programs and standards using the best available science educating parents and athletes. We are endorsed by 40 organizations, including American College of sports organization. I would like to highlight three elements about you say football that addresses player safety. The first of that is education. We train more youth in High School Coaches can buy than other organization in the u. S. Education is the core of our heads up Football Program. We are going to highlight that. This is is delivered through online courses and imprison clinics. There are six educational components to this program which you can see listed on the sly. Concussion concussion recognition response, fairness and hydration, sudden cardiac arrest, proper equipment fitting and then tackling a blocking techniques. More than 6300 youth leagues in 1100 high school Hundred High School nationwides represented about 1 million Young Athletes in rolled in heads up football in 2015. The second element is research. Usa football football advances player safety by commissioning independent research. According to a 2014 youth football study encompassing more than 2000 players, leaks that participated in the heads up program showed a 76 reduction of injuries during practice, 38 of injuries during games, ready for fewer concussions during practice and 29 decline in concussions during games. A subset of this group showed the players in the leagues had enrolled in heads up football had fewer impact during practice which made quite to more than 100 fewer impacts in the season. On the High School Level, Fairfax County Public Schools have have reported 43 decline in Football League concussions since 2013 for 3000 players since implementing heads up football. A 24 decline in overall football injuries. Finally well highlight innovation. Usa football provides practice guidelines, practice planning tools and defined levels of contact. You can see the levels of contact listed on the side including air, bag, control, which is a noncontact or nontaking down rule, flood which is a control drill what you are not taken to the ground but there is contact and then finally live action where you are taking down to the ground. More young football are in the fundamentals of advancing to full contact. Where usa Football Program is in place, todays youth football is not the same as it used to be for your children or what you may have watched. Will conclude with a video showing the difference that usa football has and the difference were making. [video clip] the Pilot Program for heads up football may be the first player safety coaches it completely changed everything. Were looking around going why are we not all doing this. There is nothing here that fundamentally changes the game of football. Theres nothing here that were not currently teaching. Were just were just teaching a 25 different ways. Ultimately there is a sena return that were making the game safer. Everything evolves. Everything grows. As a League Administration or administrator, i can i i cant even imagine a program that doesnt do it. Heads up football has changed the way we play, the way we act its how we are teaching our athletes to play the game. Is part of the fabric of what we do. We have seen a sound decrease in concussion, in collision injury. Data are able to show with. Thats a big deal. Now thatking tackles we may not have made a few years ago just because we constantly hammer in the basics. Our generation is getting taught a different way to tackle like this is the right way, do this. Do it yesterday, both from the youth core level and then from the High School Level. This is only making this a better game. Better, safer game. Thank you. I will now hear the testimony for 5 minutes. Thank you chairman murphy, Ranking Member and distinguish members of the subcommittee. It is a privilege to be here today on behalf of usa hockey to discuss the issue of player safety. Usa hockey takes safety as a top priority, it always has and has been a leader in safety among youth sports. Safety starts with our leadership and goes on down to the rest of our organization, from our president jim smith, our executive director, executive director, our chief medical and safety officer, who its from the mayo clinic in rochester, minnesota. The chairman chairman from our safety and protective equipment from Saint Elizabeth Medical Center in boston, he chairs a committee that is been around for 40 years which guides our board and making Safety Policies for sport. The usa Hockey Foundation yearly awards grants in the areas of injury prevention and research with ice hockey injuries. Recently i was hired as manager of player safety, Fulltime Position that usa hockey. Which further shows a commitment to safety in our sport. Finally, we have had hockey equipment and certification counsel which was urged to be formed by usa hockey in 1978. This is an independent body which studies equipment that manufactures and meets the standards of protection in ice hockey. When we look at prevention, we start with our rules and enforcement. We have a very strict officiating Education Program which involves online modules for rest at every level. Classroom work and on ice clinics. At every level i officials are working, they are supervised, mentored and given feedback and shown videos of proper rule enforcement to make the game safer. We have implemented stricter penalties with emphasis on boarding, charging, checking from behind and had contact. In 2009 and 2010 a rulebook focused on the standards of a rulebook focused on the standards of play and emphasis on body checking. In 2011 our executive board rolled to make a rule change which increase the legal age of body checking in our sport from 12 and under level to the 14 and under level. This decision was based on Scientific Research, not only on player Skill Development but also safety and injury risk between those age groups. In 2009, usa hockey created the American Development model. This model is an ageappropriate Skill Development and training based off of research of longterm athlete development. Our coaching Education Program has been a Gold Standard in youth sports for years. In 2011 in 2011 and 2012, there became online required modules for coaches which include concussion awareness and recognition for all the ageappropriate levels. Within the structure we have published a check in the right way for youth hockey which is an ageappropriate for skills to properly body check in the game of hockey. It starts with skating and is always focused on attitudes, ethics, and respect for the sports and components. Opponents. It goes from skating positioning angling, stick positioning in angling, stick position coming body contact and body checking. Heads up dont duck was a program initiated in 1995, this was followed in 2010 buyer heads up Hockey Program. Both programs emphasis both programs emphasis is playing the game with your head up, specially when coming in contact with the words, go poster opponents, keeping your heads out of taking a body body check. Do not check from behind, and a library of skills and drills to teach these tour players. We educate our members constantly through Information Available on our website. Electronic communications through newsletters for parents, players and officials. Which often have concussion awareness and education materials in them. Usa hockey will Start Publishing and electronic newsletter specific to safety in the fall of 2016. Currently the mayo clinic Sports Medicine is doing research to identify objective testing to identify those athletes with the potential concussion using blood biomarkers, sideline eegs in the king david test. The studies funded by our usa Hockey Foundation. Finally on the treatment side, we have we have a comprehensive Concussion Management Program Available to all of our associations which is a minimum standard for any usa Hockey Program to follow. The biggest message and this is when in doubt, sit them out. Thank you for allowing me to speak here today on this important topic of player safety and concussion. Thank you. You are not recognized for 5 minutes. Morning chairman murphy, Ranking Members and distinguish members of the House Oversight and investigations subcommittee of the energy and commerce committee. My name is steve, name is steve, i serve as ceo of u. S. Lacrosse. Our Nonprofit Organization has proactively led and funded many sports specific prevention and Research Initiatives that have resulted in a number of interventions in the areas of rules, equipment, and education. We have all supposed to dissipate actively in the efforts of numerous collaborations focused on reducing injury risk which i have referenced in my written testimony. Lacrosse is the oldest sport native to the north american continent. Native american players were stocking men by jesuit missionaries in the 1600s. Modern rules for lacrosse were first adopted in the late 19th century but to distinctly different versions of the sport evolve for men and women. Lacrosse has experienced an unprecedented surge of popularity in recent years. In part due to the formation of u. S. Lacrosse is a sports first National Governing body in 1998. U. S. Lacrosse established a sport science and Safety Committee when the organization was formed. That committee is comprised of prominent medical and Research Professionals representing a variety of specialties as well as representatives from a number of sport organizations. We have been described as one of the proactive sports organizations in the country relative to our commitment to injury prevention. We are recognized for our efforts in that regard last may through the introduction of kendra hr 267. Our committee prioritize and recommends interventions and leaves that of element of Educational Initiatives intended to reduce injury risk and directed to coaches, officials, players and their parents. My written testimony includes references to the published research and safety interventions u. S. Lacrosse has led. We also have invested sneakily in the development and deployment of the sports first standardized coaching officiating curriculum. Unfortunately public school, public focuses too often directed at equipment interventions which are less effective in preventing injury then assuring players are properly taught and games are properly officiated. Among the Biggest Challenges we face is convincing youth leagues of State High School associations that require our standards for lacrosse specific coach and education is fundamental to a safer and more enjoyable playing experience. The prevention of lacrosse related concussion is a particular area of focus her u. S. Lacrosse. We are committed considerable time and resources for research and prevention. The benefits of play and sports are well documented. While it crosses considered safe compared to other sports and activities serious injury such as concussions occur. As much as we have learned about concussion in recent years, particularly the critical importance of recognizing symptoms and removing children from play until clear by medical professional Trained Medical professional management. We also learned learned that no piece of protective equipment on the market today can prevent a concussion. The mechanism of injury is different from sport to sport, and in the case of lacrosse it is different in boys lacrosse and Girls Lacrosse. We have learned that the injury and its recovery can be very different experience for girls and boys. This demands further focus and study. We have learned that increased sports specialization at younger ages is increasing the number of injury exposures of Young Athletes in contributing to increases of overuse injuries on developing bodies. Perhaps most important lay we have learned that the vast majority of children who express a concurrent caution can recover fully if there injury is recognized quickly and the receive proper care. Concussion remains a Significant Health concerning youth sports. It will remain a priority for youth lacrosse. Accordingly, we will continue to invest in research that helps us learn more about the mechanism and frequency of the injury and both boys and Girls Lacrosse in order to advance educational, role, and equipment interventions both effective in reducing risk. Thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts on this important issue as well as your efforts to increase health and wellbeing of our nations Young Athletes. Thank you. Mr. Oneill, you are recognized for five minutes. Oneill chairman, thank you. 30 seconds from doctor n mckee which follows on many comments heard earlier this morning. Doctor mckay is one of our colleagues, these were her comments two months ago. [video clip] it is not about concussion, its about limiting head injury. Head injury that occurs on every single play of the game at every single level of this game we have to eliminate somehow the cumulative head had impact. To me, what our job is as american citizens is to maintain the health of these Young Athletes for the entirety of their life. If there something we can do to limit this risk it needs to be done immediately. Immediately mr. Chairman. The word chairman. The word we heard this morning as well that his arm meet middle name. Immediately. Let me begin by saying heres where we started with our chase for immediate results. The national Football League, 32 teens, 2000 players as you know, practicing for 5 months in regular and postseason. There were 271 total concussions in the nfl this last year, 271. The question not in games but in practice. How many concussions on practice fields last season . Answer, eight because they learn how to practice. Those a concussions a concussions in the universe of 271 represents 3 . Now the big question, what is that number in High School Football do you think . What percentage of High School Football head trauma occurs on the practice field . 60 75 . The worst, most shameful statistic than all of football. This is the reason we are in business. This is the reason why a number of hall of famers, at no appearance fee chase around the country with us, among them warren moon, tony dorsett, mike ditka, showing High School Coaches on video how to practice with less contact. These men do this generously because they believe this is the future of football. So lets quantify our recommendations. We are going to show you how they practice in the pros. This is called full speed to contact practice which means they run the playful speed to get the timing, the pacing, the choreography of the play. At the last moment, the woman of imminent contact, rather than tackle, they break away from each other. It is a football ballet as you see it here. Heres dartmouth college, you will see a pass down the middle, a safety in practice here could light up this receiver with a perfectly legal hits. It is his teammate so at the last minute he veers away from it. He will say that tackle for saturday, ok. In the nfl, cleveland browns, watch number 22 and white here. He will track this playful speed, everybody stays on their feet because only bad things on their feet because only bad things happen when you go to the ground. He tracks the ball, but at the moment he might tackle, he stops. And lets the ball carrier continue. 48 and brown, lead black here, one of the most vicious hits in football. What hits and football. What does he do . Fortyeight in brown, he identifies the player to be blocked, he comes to his, six is hit and just lisas hands on it. What about this defensive back in the shadow . Is he going to tackle on a wednesday or thursday . No. He did everything to put himself into position etc. Except make the tackle. Seattle seahawks, same thing. And they going to tackle a teammate in the going to tackle a teammate in the middle of the week, or save it for sunday . They save it for sunday. Contrast that now with High School Football. Heres a high school scrimmage, quarterback has 4 teammates with their hands on them. I they going to hold him up, rather than taken to the ground . This has been a Good Practice exercise for everybody involved. We have learned a Little Something from it. Lets go back to the quarterback. We take them to the ground or wrap them up and hold them . We took them to the ground and broke his wrist. Totally needless. At at the same high school in connecticut, a young man named cody gifford played. Son of frank and kathy lee gifford. Frank was a colleague of mine and abc sports, he actually made the team as a walk on. He cant believe how proud his father was. My son liam also played on the same high school and is a backup quarterback. Frank gifford and i used to talk about this frequently. One day we said and put together the composite injuries between her two sons. Concussions, the fractures, the new ligaments. How many of those occurred in games and how many practice . Two in games, eight in practice. Utter madness mr. Chairman. So, what what we recommend to rectify the problem question we are the only organization of the 5 National Organizations who operate in the space that is committed to immediate abolition of contact football below the age of 14, and ninth ray. Below the age of 14 and ninth grade. We want to convert those leaks to flight. No contact until ninth grade. Once in high school, no full contact in spring, summer, offseason, three hours total in preseason, 30 minutes per week during the season. We have to wrap up so we can continue on. How does this compare to the other major organizations operating in the space question National Federation of high school and usa football which operate in concert will allow three times as much contact is we do, pop warner is much as four times as we recommend. The ncaa, six times as much as we recommend. Thank you. During questions if theres other comments you want to make, were way over time. Thank you. It is an honor to be asked to testify for this committee, particularly representing Colorado School of Public Health at the university of colorado. Under congresswoman and her state. Im here today because i run the National High School Sports related injuries study. Have done so for 11 years. In effect ive dedicated my entire career to trying to improve High School Athlete safety, not because im a policymaker clinician, but because i collect the data that is needed to drive to informed evidencebased decisions. I want i want to share just a few examples today and describe why those are so important. This first slide shows High School Data just simple concussion rates over time. You can see concussion rates were stable for a few years before dramatically increasing, in fact doubling between 2,082,012. Between 2008 and 2012. They leveled off in recent years. Understanding trends over time like this is crucially important post so we can evaluate the magnitude of the problem and also so we can determine which intervention may be effective and which may not. Only longterm surveillance information can provide this data. The next slide shows some of the information i heard earlier that we do not want to wait to try to do intervention work because we dont want to wait for the years and years to collect the data. We dont have to wait. I intentionally put just one year worth of High School Data appear to show you that even with one year of surveillance we can look at patterns and trends across sports, across genders, across types of activity. This is just the tip of the iceberg. I capture up to 300 variables on every concussion that is reported to make system. I can tell you when, why, how, and to whom the concussion occurred. This data can drive evidencebased intervention efforts. I, and many other researchers in the United States, have the drive, desire, resources, technological and methodological, and experience to be able to do this work at the youth level just as it is currently is being done at the collegiate and High School Level. What we we do not have is the funding. Injury surveillance can also demonstrate positive outcomes as well. Very important. This slide shows that we actually had a big success when it comes to managing High School Athlete concussions. In 20072008 academic year, 30 of athletes diagnosed with a concussion return to play in less than 7 days which is a violation of return to play guidelines and disturbingly 8 return to play the same day they were injured, that is unacceptable. Look at how things have improved. Last year in 20142015, less than 2 return to the same day they were injured. This is a result of prevention. Not equipment prevention, but education and regulation prevention. Effective prevention in Public Health, we talk about three legs of a stool, equipment is one piece in terms of concussion, but educating individuals and providing good, strong policy policy based on evidence are the other two legs. I would love to come away from the efforts of this committee, incredibly important efforts, with the ability to do this work at the youth level. Currently, no one can give you this type of data for children playing sports who are younger than high school age. That is a travesty. We have got to protect our children who are sports because we want them to play sports. Im not against sports, not even against contact sports, despite my appearance i played rugby for 13 years, yes, i am only am only 4foot 11 inches and i played rugby. I appreciate the fact that participating in sports is a very important way that children can incorporate physical activity as part of a daily, healthy lifestyle. We need everyone sitting at the table and our policy representatives like the distinguished members of this panel to Work Together to drive evidencebased, prevention practices now. We do not want to wait for 30 years to learn about longterm consequences of concussion. That that is secondary prevention. We need primary prevention. I already know that concussions are bad for us. I want to keep kids from being injured in the first place. Thank you. Thank you very much. Now doctor you recommend for 5minute. Thank you. I am thomas am thomas and professor of electrical Computer Engineering up to university. Ive been a member of recent years at the ncaa task force on concussion emma member of the Scientific Advisory board to the ncaa care consortium. Im about a member of the Concussion Consortium which is a multiinstitutional effort to bring together researchers who have a history of publishing and doing research in the area of concussion and traumatic brain injury together to so many problems. I served with a Neurotrauma Group, im also the lead pi for the Purdue College of engineering preeminent team in Engineering Health your brains. As our rabid sports fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers and expert pirates and father of four active Young Children this is an issue near and dear to my heart has been for a long time. As a part of the Neurotrauma Group i want to summarize really quickly that our goal and our proposal to the future is to achieve saver participation in you sports. Our goal is to make sure more children can participate in sports more frequently. Without risking injury or reduced risk of injury to something that is acceptable to us such as riding a bicycle or playing baseball or basketball. Our goal is to achieve this in the education of applets, parents, coaches, and Healthcare Providers regarding risks of concussive and sub concussive injuries. Through engineering engineering based improvements in protective equipment, through modeling and appropriate preventative methodologies that allow us to monitor exposure to head injuries and the risk of pager injuries. Finally techniques that have already been described to improve training of athletes. For the past 7 years are pioneering study has been engineering based following the model illustrated on the slide. Were a technique from basing material and structures in our everyday world could be planes, bridges, automobiles, automobiles, where you essentially do non instructive documentation and document a material is in good health before you continue board with its use. Is that material starts to exhibit some sort ofs change you either repair or in the case of some materials you allow them to rest and recover. This methodology has been applied now is a for 7 years in the study of High School Girls playing soccer and poison play football. And boys playing football. In our study though, of applying the methodology began like many other studies in this domain were real initial effort was to understand why some kids got a concussion a concussion and some didnt. What we discovered rapidly and has driven our research is that in truth, many of the children who we think are not injured are in fact showing changes in their physiology, changes in their brain that are strongly suggestive of underlying brain injury. What is critical is that not only are athletes who are supposedly healthy who do not have signs of a concussion, who are not diagnosed or examined by their athletic trainer or physician is having a concussion, will look abnormal in this manner for up to five months after the season. This means they may be spending eight 10 months of the year in 8 to 10 months of the year in an abnormal state. What we already know ahead of time that is never a good idea idea to hit your head, the question now becomes how long is it that these athletes are injured and what can we do to prevent that entry in the first place. Our study has been going first seven years and up were able to find funding sometime in the future will continue the study, ideally later this year. I i only wish to be working from this methodology with the goal being that if we understand how input in this case mechanical input of heads being hit, whiplash from the body being hit and the head snapping to the side, four, rotate and abruptly will allow us to understand how each of those events affect the brain. Then we can go back and correctly have helmets that prevent concussion. We can do about appropriate methodologies for identify when an athlete should skip a practice because clearly we want kids to miss practice and not the games and thats with the kids want. Well well also then be able to evaluate whether or not we are recovery has been truly complete. Can we actually document that an athlete who has been pulled and ready to put a is healthy enough, that it makes sense for them to go back into play. So, with that we really feel as a pretty group and as myself as a researcher that most of these changes can be made to no cost of the enjoyment of the game. Theyre very likely to the freedom or comfort to engage in these activities without any substantial consequences beyond those associated with other noncollision sports such as basil, bicycling, whatever. We really feel that the science is far enough along that these changes should be made now rather than delay any more time especially since 30,000,000 kids kids every year are exposed to potential injury. Theres no reason not to act. Thank you dr, i do want to recognize i will start up with questions and let members know that we are trying to continue this, therell be one vote at some point. We will try to continue to hold that boat. Vote. I do want to recognize in our audience we have nick lowery, nick the kick, you played for the patriots, jets, and cheese, its good to have you here today. Also sean and redskins and patriots and seahawks both replay pro bowl, thank you for your interest in concussions. And former colleague phil, the dock is here as well. We appreciate you coming back. I want to say do not make the Georgia Tech Team but i understand that you drove the mask mascot car. Its nice to know your skill sets. Now recognize myself or five minutes. This goes to doctor gregory, mr. Gucci and mr. Sanderson, from the perspective youth sport organization, what are the greatest needs in terms of Research Related to concussion and player safety . Any comments on this . For clarification, the greatest needs. Yes. So my First Response would be to agree with don that we have a databases in college and high school we dont have them in youth sports. So establishing a database for youth sports injury is imperative. I would act of those statements that we do need to have a database of injuries that are occurring in our youth sports that we can make these decisions. It is hard, hard, we dont want to wait for the future. We need to start gathering this information right now. I would agree. Each of us in sports is trying to do our best to Fund Research to a non profit. But we need greater resources to drive the resource into the youth play area. Along the lines of research to encourage coaches, as their way to help coaches and teams also keep track of their own database . Do coaches keep track of their data to see what happens for their own coaching style comparison question. I would say and doctor comstock will have a word here, but the challenge with that is the quality of the data that is collected. Unless unless it is collected well and consistently, which coaches generally speaking do not want to do, then we are concerned about having flawed data. Mr. Comstock, do you have a comment on that. I agree, we are concerned about the quality of the data and that is directly correlated to was reporting the data. At the high school and collegiate level we rely upon athletic trainers to report this data to us. However, i, i and others have been investigating ways in which we could modify our Surveillance System to enable a parent or a coach who is trained appropriately and appropriately motivated to be able to report, perhaps not 300 variables per injury but at least enough variables that we could drive forward a lot of these discussion. Coach stevens, you did record and look for specific dated. In general overseas. And thats helpful to give the feedback along those lines. It is. Use you or you stack up to the teams in the league. So let me ask, how significant is the issue of athletes not reporting concussions . They themselves have symptoms but are not giving that input information. I can tell you that on all levels that is an issue. The problem is knowing what the symptoms of concussion are, if if you report to someone, that person knowing what the symptoms of concussion are. I do think that what don showed with that data that concussion rates are going back down as a result of education, of coaches, athletes, players of what the signs and symptoms of concussion are. Having said that, id dont think we can stop there. We have to to continue the efforts for everybody. Anyone else want to . That same graph that showed the doubling of concussion rates between 2008 2012, High School Athletes do not High School Athletes did not suddenly become twice as fast, strong, vicious. The years preceding that, there concussions occurring that just went undiagnosed and unrecognized. The increase the increase in the concussion rates truly reflect the great deal of education that has been done by individuals on this panel as well as group as cdc and national association, to make sure that when, so it may not of been prior to that increase it means when they were reported. Yes, sir. And the parents and families. The parents of these Young Athletes its important to educate them as well. Do you see this as an ongoing problem in regard to injuries, that this is working are we still have ways to go . I think the fact that that curve has seem to have peaked and leveled off i think it is an indication coupled with the less light i showed that showed how much better we are doing at managing concussions. I think both of those speak highly to the success that we have had today to in educating parents, coaches, athletes, policymakers about concussion. We still have further to go particularly in the younger groups. Thank you. I will yield now to for 5 minutes. Thank you so much mr. Chairman. I want to take a look at some of the sciences out there. By the way, it was really an excellent panel with everyone giving a great perspective. Your work examines High School Football players as well as High School Soccer players, can you tell us from your research about the head impact from head Impact Sports and how it impacts head injuries . So what we have observed is that when the athletes take large amounts of blows per week , whether it be a 10 g or above, 10g is a reference, if, if you just stand up and drop down to your chair youll generate 10 10 times the force of gravity on your head. When players are taking numbers of 60, 70 blows per week in football for example, those male athletes tend to show alterations in the brain physiology that are suggestive of either damage to neurons or at least some sort of impairment in the way information passes from your brain and ultimately result in you being able to respond to a question or answer a task or achieve a target on a game or particular activity. For the females in our study, that severityke and blows, but they do get hit every day. Not only are there changes from the wrong number of blows, how frequently they are getting hit, but there is a consequence of how much time they are time off. I believe, when we have these reduced contact cases, we are in fact benefiting our athletes. We had a Forum Committee in march and at that forum there were researches that suggested we dont have enough science to act on issues and they said we should wait until there is more research. What is your response to this . I dont believe that. And that is because you actually have Scientific Research . Inwe have now 15 papers publication. We are working with several other institutions ohio state university, michigan state, university of the nebraska Shows Published work there are changes in the brain. If you would not mind getting that to this committee that would be helpful in our investigation. Thank you. I want to ask you a couple questions, dr. Comstock, about gender differences in cushion and head trauma. Girls soccer has the highest rate of reported concussion. Are girls more likely than boys to get concussion . That is a Million Dollar question if you will. We reported in 2007 in gender compareable sports, so both sports play and same equipment and sports, girls have higher concussion rates than boys. What we dont know at this point, people are working on the question, is it a bio problem . Or is a socialcultural issue because we dont have a test for concussion and we rely on reports and young female athletes may be likely to report it more. Do we need more data . We rely on selfreport. We have the data showing the consistent change. What to we need to prove it . This is one case where Surveillance Data is not enough. We need more Detailed Research to determine if there are differences or social and culture. This is the intent of our study. They can understand the brains changing and we can understand if it takes less. You are girls and boys . Yes, girls and boys. Dr. Comstock, i want to ask one more question. You say there is no surveillance for under high school ages. Do you think this is something that should be instituted so that people like you can get that data to see exactly what is going on . Yes, i would love to give it to you and can give you the name of 10 other researchers. Who should set it up . My work hasnt been federal funded. The ncaa funds their own system. I think it should be a federal effort but i dont care if it is joint but somehow someone has to do it. Thank you very much. Thank you for coming. Just to remind member, votes are called and we will continue to roll through. Dr. Burgess you are recognized for 5 minutes. Thank you, chairman. I thank the panel for being here. Coach stevens, your testimony was revelation and it seemed so obvious when i read through it and once you understand this is a repeatative injury. That must have been a hard decision to make, repetitive, when i was growing up it was practice, practice, practice. When i announced this to my coach staff they thought i was kidding. But i took enough time to make sure we got the appropriate response. And 5 years into this you feel you have made a it made a difference in the way we practice safety. The front line guys practice through the course of the season, defensively i had two players miss and one had a high ankle sprain and the other had a lacerated kidney and he missed five games. That was it. So the regularity and the players. I tell them the rules of the guy are get the guy on the ground, not injure. You can teach that skill set. We practice it extensively. There is a risk playing the game but we can minimize the risk. Let me ask you this but when you go back and look at your record prior to instituting this program and in the year since is there a marked difference . We were 010, 28 and 82 and 91 the last season. So you became a remarkable coach in that time. Appreciate that. A fascinating story. It seems so obvious. Repetative injury so we will reduce the risk by stopping that practice. Quite simply, the more you hit, the more you heard. I dont know i was aware of that. I dont know how i would have been aware of it. Mr. Oneill, i wanted to ask you because when i started reading your testimony and practice like the pros i thought that would be dangerous because those are the guys that really, the dreadful stories of people trying to hurt each other in a game. But you had the observation of watching the practice and it was almost like a ballet. Yes, sir, it is. As we pointed out with the video, the players execute every aspect of the play in rehearsal for sunday until the moment of imminent contact and then they break away and pat each other on the back. In the High School Level, the proof of the efficacy of this is in the state of wisconsin, they put the standards in two years ago for the 2014 system and the university of Wisconsin Medical School did a study and showed they count the concussion by half by adhering to our standards. That is a breathtaking reduction. The quality of wisconsin football has never been better. The players are fresh and ready to play. It is the High School Model of what mr. Teevans is describing. Has there been widespread acceptance of that in the High School Level . University of wisconsin clinic in madison and because of the revictions and the coaches need to know how to practice with less contact we had enormous attendance, more than 125 coaches and the greatest followup we have had in 30 clinics around the country. More than half of the coaches asked for our videos so they could show them to the staff and players and teach their players in the 30 minutes, just 30 minute of contact per week in practice, how to practice like pros or the dartmouth victory. I cannot help but observe emmitt smith won dancing with the stars a few years ago and based on that concept. Were there proplayers using dance and ballet moves to improve their performance . They were. This approach dates back to bill walsh with the 49ers in the 1980s and been refined by his disciples along the way to a point where so many College Players look forward to entering the pros in order to avoid the carnage of 90 minutes full on contact during the week and practice the way the Dallas Cowboys have for years. Thank you. I yield back. Thank you. Ms. Schakowsky. I want to thank the moms here. Mr. Oneil, you showed the video of dr. Ann mckey answering my questions at that round table. I want to focus on cte because i think little focus has been on the subconcussion brain injuries injuries. It is about limiting every head injury that occurs on every level. I followed up with that question to jeff miller of the nfl, the chief person for health and safety, and said what do you think . Is tte linked to football and he is cte linked to football and he said yes, certainly. Little did i know this was an explosion that happened outside that room and even has started some conversation about what is the future of football. Is there a future for the kind of football that we play . There has been a lot of talk about concussion but i wanted to ask more about cte. So what does the research indicate about the effect that routine hits sustained by High School Football players and younger have on brain function even though they dont rise to the level of concussion . What about cte . So at this point the linkage is not sure coming from our end. On anns end, you can see individuals who have larger number of hits over their career have more deficits. There is good evidence there is a link between the total exposure and brain stress that is accumulated from getting hit day after day, year after year. Within our own athletes, what we can at least identify is athletes spend 58 months a year in the state of chronic inflam inflammatt inflammattion and cells cant renew and you cannot get nutrients. If this is true, we are putting our athletes at risk for the types of biochemical processes that will lead to cte. Is there any test for cte before an autopsy . Imaging methodologies that look for the presence inside the body. But there is nothing that is yet been confirmed. My understanding is the kind of sub concussive effects have to do with the brain inside the skull. It is virtually nothing to do with a helmet can come and fact absorb head energy. Companies arent terribly interested in that of this point. Their goal is to meet the standards. Theyre very effective, but do nothing to prevent concussions. Energy absorption will reduce the amount of energy that reaches the brain. If you that you reduce the amount of contortion. Do that, you will come in fact start to see a reduction. You should see a reduction in the observation of a concussion. Kidsu dont think that under what age should be playing tackle football . I have never made any recommendation. I am aware other researchers that have been given exact cutpoints. Did someone say that . I did. Our organization is the one in five National Organizations operating in this space that believe strongly that gradeschool boys and girls should play flag football in that context football should start a ninth grade with a traditional phase and seven and eighthgrade where in shorts and tshirts, boys who intend to play a ninth grade begin to learn how to tackle, and how to block using the stateoftheart in tackling technique called seahawks tackling. They are some of our leading supporters. Has been a good deal of pushback after josh miller made his comment, jerry jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys has absolutely disregarded that. There has been some mocking of that. The conduction between manliness and football, i think that is really concerning. Ask, i had a to couple of other questions. I am particularly if once all of the let me ask you before my time runs out usa football guidelines limit full contact practices to four times of the close to this represents more contact practices in the current higher levels of football such as at the College Level and even in the nfl. Evidence, buthis repeated hits to the head, why hasnt usa football taken steps to for Young Children . Good one. Stion is a we recognize that tackling causes injuries. If you look at the data we do have an youth football why havent you . What we have institutions ways of trying to decrease the number of hits that there are. The concern is what about four times a week . You still have to learn the skill. At the youth level dont of the resources that you have. That is what we are to do is teach the skill to learn how to tackle appropriately. That is the goal to do it well, and protect your head. At this time ill recognize myself for five minutes to ask questions. Mr. Oneill, thank you for the work you do. You advocate that children under tackle. D not how do we assure that Young Athletes learn proper tackling techniques . That they wont revert to dangerous tackling, head down, whatever the case may be. If they dont get that practice when the contact is not as hard as it is later, is there concern of them internalizing those techniques . Staff could possibly allow me to queue up a 17 second jay is numberich 24. Coach knows he is the guru of tackling. He and pete carroll devised the system that has become the standard in just two years, introduced to just two years ago. They put out three videos, and other coach towards with us. No, it is not that. 23. Say, number toking in shorts, this, answer your question, is what recommended seven and eighthgrade. Other than hitting each other, they need to learn in shorts and tshirts. They need an introduction to weight training, they need some strengthening of their next. Penny to another where the pads and be ready with this gradual runup to ninth grade to be prepared without the many collisions involved in use contact football. Dr. Soeard from eloquently two months ago, it is the cumulative head trauma that causes brain injury. You dont want to start that at age five. Boys at five years old playing contact football is come and our minds, quite surprising. Any luck . We will look at the video after. Other examples of cases were young kids have not had contact until they Reach High School age . Are there than successful . Thank you for asking, tom brady coming in i manning, peyton manning. I have heard of those. Has waxedmanning eloquently his phrase was god, what a great game flag football is. My son would not be playing College Football if he had not played flag instead of contact. He taught him everything he do you know he needed to know about making teamwork and the cap to building. Those who suggest those qualities can only be developed in contact football have not heard my younger son and his teammates in the back seat of the car as a drive them around recounting their victories and inght football victories flag football. They were already made football fans for the lifetime. They came out of it healthy with experience that has made them the young when that they are. Thank you for that. Coach, do you have any thoughts on that . It will still catch up will quickly. We all played football in high school. There is a litany that is gone on. But i think it is absolute. If they will lay at a young age, start slowly. Problem is much contact as possible. Dr. Gregory, df and the want to share on this . Do you have anything you want to share on this . How toeducation piece on tackle is imperative. That is a challenge for us without the resources. The u. S. Football administers the largest flight Football League in the country. Flage are proponents of football. Wehink it is important that promote flight football flag football. Organization is trying to change the culture of High School Foot will and getting this limited contact, is your testimony, is a highlight the fact that only one state has adopted your standard so far . In light of success in that state, have others adopted it . Is more pereed dissipation from the state governing bodies around the country. The word is traveling. The stateat when governing body gets behind it, as in california, there is a piece of legislation passed in there for the first time in any state limiting contact on the practice field. They invited us out for a tour, the coach of the seahawks, we hit four cities in two days and had enriched dissipation because which governs athletics in california, made it mandatory for every coach in the state. We saw 1200 coaches. We are going to alabama in july and the same things occurred there. And executive director who understands and is made have a clinic after seeing this, mandatory for every coach in the state. A ballroom full of 1000 coaches in alabama on july the 20th. And the opposition you have received . Absolutely. Stevens tohe coach places with a 50 coaches and by the end of our session 20 showed up in the other 430 were sending out in the hallway same knitted to hear it right now. It is not like we are a raging success. It will be mixed until the state governing bodies at least give us a hearing and mandate that all of the stakeholders, not just the coaches, he will we have to say. When they see it on video, and almost never failed to convert. Like it, thank you. Earlier this year the received press for removing tackling during their practice. District rules but the mud of contact in practice during the spring and preseason. You implementk, it these changes at dartmouth several years before they were adopted by the ivy league. What one of beta you to reduce the amount of contacting a practices . What was the initial reaction when you propose those changes . The injury rate was the stimulus was a bit too many guys going down. Concussions come all the step of things. It struck me as we can do this in a better way, watching what we did with the research on tackling. It was not well received. It is still overseen by an awful lot people. Amid a recommendation and it was a five minute discussion. All of the coaches that predicate start with, they know how effectively we tackle. The vote was unanimous. How have the rate of head injuries changed since you implemented the nocontact policy . Have you seen of the benefits . Five years ago it was 1520 during the course of the year. This past season we had two. Two preexisting situations. Both young men that can no longer participate. Our defense was nationally ranked and had zero concussions. Spring practice, we have had zero and that is somewhat concussion season in College Football. In your opinion of full contact practice necessary to ensure success on game day . No, i dont know so. Dont believe so. You can replicate tackling on bags. I believe, and try to convince High School Coaches, you can do it at any level. I have a three year old grandson and i have him tackle things off the couch. And he gets it. Again, crawl, walk, run mindset introduces skill sets that are helpful down the road not but dont need to be practice. Given the research, do you think engaging in full contact four to six times a week increases the risk . Without question. The more you hit the more likely injury occurs. We have seen that in all aspects of our game. It is made us a better Football Program. Mr. Oneill, we see many different rule changes being implemented across the state and league and there has been some criticism these rule changes upset the integrity of the game. What do you think about pop warner eliminating kick offs and returns . Will that prevent brain injuries . Good question, mr. Pallone. This is my reaction to them saying Grade School Boys are not capable of playing the game the way it is designed. They are making our argument and that is these boys should be converted to flag football until they reach a physical maturity of 1415. To play the game the way into structured. We advocate no basic changes in the game. We say there will not be further rule changes that will make the game less dangerous. The game is the game. We dont advocate major changes. But we say strongly boys in grade school are not nearly prepared to play it the way it is designed. Adults play it and therefore boys and girls ought to be playing flag football until boys make a transition, if they chose, to play contact in ninth grade. Just so i understand, you dont think any other changes would better protect the kids other than if they continue with the present it will not be football if we strip away the kick return, the punt return, the three point stance. We are opposed to all of those proposals. Likewise, heads up tackling, which is an attempt to somehow