#SaferSoccer Priority for Parlow Cone

Knowing Cindy Parlow Cone as we do (she's a spokesperson for Dragonwing), it's hard to imagine a time when this former soccer superstar and tireless advocate for sports safety and girls empowerment had no desire to play and "basically went to sleep every chance had."

Cindy Parlow Cone: As adults we have a responsibility to make soccer safer."But that's the impact concussions, sustained during practices and games, had on her -- injuries that led to her retirement. And that's why she speaks regularly and passionately about the importance of concussion education and prevention, especially in youth sports.

Along with former US Women's National Team teammates Brandi Chastain and Joy Fawcett, Cindy is part of a campaign (#SaferSoccer) to educate parents and coaches on the risks of headers in soccer for girls and boys younger than 14.

Most recently, Cindy offered her story at a medical seminar organized by U.S. Soccer and Major League Soccer as part of a coaches' conference on player health and safety.

According to an Associated Press story on the seminar, "Parlow Cone still deals with the symptoms of what she estimates were dozens of concussions she suffered through during her career….

'I went from a kid that just loved training, loved everything about soccer…to someone who kind of went into a shell…' "

As a girls' soccer coach today, Cindy doesn't even teach heading to her players. Instead she teaches them to bring the ball to the ground with other parts of their bodies. "As adults, we have a responsibility to ."

Concussions important issue for girl athletes-updated info here

There have been many articles and efforts to improve safety on the soccer field for women and girls. As an update to our posts of six years ago, I provide new information on prevention and training alternatives from Cindy Parlow Cone and Excelle.com

Our original articles are here:

https://www.sideline-chatter.com/dont-be-fooled-by-common-misconceptions-about-concussions/

https://www.sideline-chatter.com/a-great-article-on-concussions-from-taylor-twellman/

https://www.sideline-chatter.com/recovering-from-a-climbing-concussion/

and new information can be found here:

http://www.excellesports.com/news/womens-soccer-concussion-protocol-nwsl/

Check out these excellent video on the what Cindy Parlow Cone's experience learning to head the ball at 18 -and still being a World Cup Champ and Olympian!

http://bit.ly/2t0FV3P

http://bit.ly/2u5o9MP

Recovering from a Climbing Concussion

I celebrated my 14th birthday in December by doing a mock regionals and our gym's first ever lock-in. Those were great, but, hands down, this has been one of the hardest months for me. On December 7th, I went to climbing class with a great attitude considering it was the last push before regionals. Our coaches decided to have us on ropes. My friend Iza and I were partners, and she was leading a tricky route. When she was at the third clip going for a small crimp, she fell. The heel of her foot whammed into my head, but fortunately I was still able to catch her.
Rock climbing teammates Not being able to compete because of a concussion was tough, but my teammates and coaches were awesome!
At first we laughed and giggled, after five minutes, I found myself sitting on the bench, feeling very lethargic and sleepy and holding an ice pack on my head. My coach Tim made a great call and recommended my mother pick me up and take me to the emergency room. I was dizzy and very slow walking on our way in to the ER. As soon as we explained my injury was from rock climbing, the medical team took it a bit more seriously and ran me through some tests, balancing and remembering numbers. As soon as they said I had a mild concussion, tears started pouring down my face. I knew what was going to happen - that I'd have to miss regionals. I knew in the back of my mind I wouldn't be able to compete, but I didn't want to let it come true. I stayed home from school for three days. I needed the rest, but I was very sad even thinking about climbing. I'd spent the whole season working up to this one competition, and now it was all wasted. On Wednesday, I went to climbing class because it's a team sport. It was hard being in the background watching everybody else climb. Again my amazing coaches helped me get through this hard time and put positive thoughts in my head. By Friday, I was sadly still having headaches and made the call to not compete on Saturday. I attended the event and watched my teammates compete. They did an amazing job! I was back to normal the next week and was cleared by my doctor to start lightly climbing again. Now it is winter break, and it feels great to relax and enjoy winter here in Colorado. I wish all Dragonwing girls happy holidays and a wonderful start to the New Year.