Pop Warner, the nation’s biggest youth football organization, released new guidelines designed to prevent concussions on the gridiron.
The new rules will affect thousands of players and coaches across the ubiquitous youth football league. They focus on what happens in a typical week with nine hours of practice.
Only a third of that practice time can be spent in contact with another player, head-to-head hits aren’t allowed and tackles must be initiated within a 3-foot zone.
Darryl Ruffin of southeast D.C.'s Barry Farm Beavers said it’s important to teach players how to tackle properly at a young age.
Neurologist Michael Yochelson, who treats patients with concussions and brain injuries at Medstar National Rehabilitation Hospital in northwest D.C., said it's especially important to prevent concussions in younger athletes, whose brains are still developing.
