Stop Hitting Kids in the Head
Repetitive head impacts children receive playing contact sports can cause CTE and derail their future.
Education & Advocacy
Repetitive head impacts children receive playing contact sports can cause CTE and derail their future.
John Gaal Jr. suffered multiple concussions throughout his youth sports career playing football and soccer. He developed depression and died by suicide in March 2017 at age 24. His family hopes you take a moment to read his story and agree we need to Stop Hitting Kids in the Head.
DuQuan Myers started playing tackle football in 6th grade and continued dominating in the sport he loved throughout high school. He did not go on to play in college, but in his 20s he started struggling with behavioral symptoms of CTE. He died by suicide at age 26 and was later diagnosed with stage 1 CTE. His mom wants all parents to know the risks of youth contact sports, and hopes her son's story will help convince everyone to Stop Hitting Kids in the Head.
Research using Hit Counting devices has shown that in many sports, the majority of head impacts occur during practice. By altering drills and practice structure to eliminate contact when it is not completely necessary, we can chip away at the lion’s share of nonconcussive hits in sports without changing gameplay at all.
Our goal is to convince every sport to eliminate repetitive head impacts under the age of 14 by 2026 so we can eradicate new cases of CTE. We’ve already made progress. But we still have work to do. Here’s a look at the global landscape of youth sports regulations:
Existing regulations
No guidance
Existing regulations
No guidance
Existing regulations
Existing regulations
No guidance
