I watched the piece last night, and while I don't disagree that there is no way that the Full 90 headgear can completely eliminate concussions (and they don't market it as such), I found the concussion doctor's argument against the Full 90 to be somewhat specious. For example, when he squeezed the headgear between his finger and thumb and said it "completely bottomed out" I found myself thinking 2 things - first of all no kidding, you are applying direct force onto the headgear in a much smaller surface area than head to head or head to ball contact will across the surface of the headgear, and secondly, just because the headgear is able to "bottom out" doesn't mean that some amount of force being applied hasn't been absorbed by the material of the headgear in the process of bottoming out.

What would be interesting would be for Rock Center, or a news agency in general, to conduct a lab demonstration of the Full 90 to actually test it against the lab results that Full 90 paid for and uses in the marketing of the product on the back of the package. When the correspondent went on the attack about how the owner of Full 90 paid for the testing that is used to substantiate the claims of the product I felt like she just came off as attacking for the sake of attacking as opposed to holding up actual facts that run counter to what is purported on the back of the package. It would have been much better, or at least a more cohesive argument, to have been able to say that Rock Center ran an independent study and found that the headgear actually only would reduce concussion risk by x% as opposed to 50% as they claim. Instead the owner guy was saying "test it anywhere you want, go ahead", and unless refuted with counter evidence you can't just say that because he paid to test his product (which is actually a good sign of trying to validate a products veracity if you ask me) that he is definitely lying about the results of the testing simply because he paid to have it done.

In any case concussions certainly are troubling, and the rate for girls is so much higher than for boys it truly is a near epidemic. As a youth soccer coach I wholeheartedly agree with the points made about neck exercises being essential for soccer players. I have been drilled several times on the soccer field, and while I do not think I have ever suffered a serious concussion I am certain that neck strength has helped minimize or prevent several incidents on the field from being much much worse.

I watched your special on soccer concussions. I agree that much more tested must be done on the Full 90 Headgear before their claims should be printed on the box. But what disturbed me was NBC made it appear as if this is only a female issue in soccer. Boys and men have the same risks as females as far as head injuries. What I did notice in all your soccer game footage was the poor heading technique that almost every player exhibited. I teach my players to frame their body with their arms to protect themselves. My guess is most players are not being taught correct heading technique. It still remains one of the unique skills of the game of soccer.

NBC also needs to make a special on how to recover from concussions correctly so kids can return to the way their life used to be! I've heard to many stories like Natasha's and I think people need to also focus on how to restore kid's back to normal after their concussions. It's terrible that so many kids continue their lives with visual, cognitive, and or vestibular issues for the rest of their lives and are never able to restore their brains back to their original self. But, there are ways to get it back to normal! And I just wanted to share my story to possibly help Natasha and all the other kids who still struggle daily with the effects from their brain trauma.

I am an 18 year old who has suffered 3-4 concussions in playing boy's basketball and one very serious concussion. The most serious one happened two years ago, and I was unable to read and everything in my life changed much like Natasha. I couldn't do things like reading, watching tv, sitting in cars, or even just walking around grocery store because everything made me dizzy and nauseated. As a result from my concussions, my eyes were always disoriented looking, and sometimes my left eye would get droopy. It was hard to look people in the eye because it took a lot of energy to focus on a specific target. However, I was very fortunate to have many resources around me in the Pittsburgh, PA area. I saw one of the top concussion doctors in the country and there was a place I could also go to for vestibular therapy to regain my balance and orientation. I did therapy for 2-3 months and had to miss my team's state championship run in basketball. I regained most of my balance, but much like Natasha, I still struggled with school and reading was extremely hard for me.

Then, I was told of a place north of Pittsburgh which helped kids with visual issues. It was a place for vision therapy. I went there and they helped train my eyes to converge to read again, focus like they used to, and decrease my fatigue in my eyes when I reading (among other things). They also trained my cognitive abilities. My memory, attention, and visual speed were all trained to become back to normal and even a little better than before. This is an example of the power of Neuroplasticity, my brain rebuilt the muscles and neurons which were damaged by the head trauma I sustanied and through vestibular, visual, and cognitive training, it was able to get back to its normal self again. After 3 months of vision and cognitive therapy, I was able to read again, and resumed back to school normally, and was able to play basketball again without any issues. But more importantly was the fact that I could still perform like I used to academically now that my vision was restored. I had struggled visually, vestibularly, and cognitively for 6 months, and when I was able to see, think, balance, and read normally again, it was like I was born again. It was the greatest feeling of my life.

I understand the struggle of kids who suffer terrible concussions, and just hope that my story can maybe point them in the right direction so they can get back to their normal life again. It is possible. I hope Natasha can hear about my story and maybe even benefit from this! I do not know how I could contact her, but I really think with visual, vestibular, and cognitive therapy she could restore her vision and brain completely and return back to her normal life again!

I agree - a lot of injuries are prevented through better training and technique. Here's the other thing I have noticed: Girls soccer has been allowed to become almost violent on a regular basis. Players substitute aggressive play for poor technique and they are allowed to continue to play. Coaches don't pull players off the field for committing nasty fouls, refs are reluctant to pull cards. Show some leadership, set standards and stick by them - these are kids. It's their job to test boundaries and its the adults jobs to enforce those boundaries. Accidents will happen with our without padding. Give the kids the tools to make good decisions and hold the KIDS accountable for the decisions they make during play.

My daughter has a concussion now. She did the baseline last year before her freshman season. She is a sophomore now. She did not mean to head the ball. It hit her in the jaw. She didn't have symptoms until the next day. She did not play anymore this year. It has been about 5 weeks and she is still having visual problems. She is in vestibular therapy now and her school has been very good at keeping her classwork to a minimum. I just want to know what I can do to protect her if she wants to play again next year.

I had two concussions while wearing my headband within a month of each other. I sat 16 games because it was so early in the season. This is my fourth concussion and I still have, at the very least, 4 symptoms every now and then, even though it's been over 2 months since my incident. Headgear doesn't prevent concussions what so ever, it only reduces the force that happens when an athlete is it. However, the brain is still "spinning" essentially, so it's not going to prevent it.

Yes athletes probably should wear them to reduce the amount of force that comes from a hit, however I don't agree only because I received two concussions without a headband and two with one. I don't think it'll do much, but what ever makes people feel better. It's just a risk all athletes have to take and they need to know how to take care of themselves when and/or if they receive one.

No helmet can prevent the movement of the brain against the skull. Unless they develop something that can be implanted into the skull to hold the brain still, concussions will continue.