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. 2019 Oct 9;7(10):2325967119874065.
doi: 10.1177/2325967119874065. eCollection 2019 Oct.

Injury Rate in TackleBar Football

Joseph Toninato  1 , Tim Healy  2 , Uzma Samadani  3   4   5   6 , Eric Christianson  7
Affiliations

Injury Rate in TackleBar Football

Joseph Toninato et al. Orthop J Sports Med. .

Abstract

Background: As football comes under greater scrutiny because of concussions and other injuries, many people are searching for safer alternatives, especially for youth athletes. The injury rate in TackleBar football, one such alternative, is not currently known.

Purpose: To describe TackleBar football and calculate its injury rate over a single season to compare it with both traditional tackle and flag football.

Study design: Descriptive epidemiology study.

Methods: TackleBar football was described, and injuries of male athletes (age range, 9-14 years) participating in TackleBar football were tracked over the course of a season (August 5 through October 27, 2018) and compared with published injury rates for traditional tackle and flag football.

Results: The overall injury rate of TackleBar football was found to be 0.31 per 1000 athlete-exposures (AEs), which is lower than youth tackle (2.25-2.60/1000 AEs) and flag (5.77/1000 AEs) football.

Conclusion: TackleBar football may represent a reasonable alternative to tackle and flag football with regard to injuries.

Keywords: concussion; football; injury; youth.

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Conflict of interest statement

One or more of the authors has declared the following potential conflict of interest or source of funding: T.H. is the chief executive officer of TackleBar as well as a shareholder in the company. TackleBar itself holds a number of patents covering its intellectual property. U.S. has received research support from Integra LifeSciences; consulting fees from Medtronic; speaking fees from Integra LifeSciences, Medtronic, and Abbott Laboratories; and hospitality payments from Globus Medical, Mazor Robotics, Medtronic, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, DePuy Synthes, St Jude Medical, Surgical Theater, NuVasive, and LDR Spine USA. AOSSM checks author disclosures against the Open Payments Database (OPD). AOSSM has not conducted an independent investigation on the OPD and disclaims any liability or responsibility relating thereto.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Participants demonstrating the “wrap and rip” technique used to down the ball carrier in TackleBar football. Courtesy of TackleBar.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Histogram of the number of reports submitted over the course of the season. The x-axis is the date of submission, with the beginning of August on the left and the end of October on the right.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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