My experience with the Newcastle football team
in Oklahoma leads me to believe that, as long as impact sensors are strictly used for the limited purpose
of providing real - time impact data to qualified sideline personnel, not to diagnose concussions, not as the sole determining factor
in making remove - from - play decisions, and not to replace the necessity for observers on the sports sideline trained
in recognizing the signs
of concussion and
in conducting a sideline screening for concussion using one or more sideline assessment tests for concussion (e.g. SCAT3, balance, King - Devick, Maddocks questions, SAC)(preferably by a certified athletic trainer and / or team physician), and long as data on the
number, force, and
direction of impacts is only made available for use by coaches and athletic trainers
in a position to use such information to adjust an athlete's
blocking or tackling tec hnique (and not for indiscriminate use by those, such as parents, who are not
in a position to make intelligent use
of the data), they represent a valuable addition to a program's concussion toolbox and as a tool to minimize repetitive head impacts.