Justin Palmer

Sports medicine

Analysis

3. The neurological responses from athletes who have competed in contact sports
tend to have lower scores than the athletes who participated in non-contact sports.
For example the average amount of errors for the football players in stroop color of
time is .83 errors while tennis averages were .33 errors. In Trial A hockey players had
a time of 78 seconds while swimmers had a time of 62 seconds. This is most likely
because of the athletes in contact sports such as football and hockey have used their
head very often while participating in the sport.

4. From the neurological responses gathered, football players and the soccer players
had the took the same amount of time on trial A with 68 seconds and stroop color
time with 43. Although the stroop color error was significantly dierent with the
football players errors being .83 while the soccer players was .16. The times probably
were the same because just like football, soccer has a lot of head butting going on so
there is a lot of head to ball contact. Both of these sports eect the head but football
is much more intense which probably caused them to have a weaker score in the
stroop color test.

5. The neurological responses from the non-athletes and the swimmers were nearly
the same. In the WDT test swimmers got 6.7 while non- contact sports got 7. In the
Scat test swimmers got 26.2 while non contact got 28.35. Swimming is not much of
a contact sport so I don't think it caused any damage to the head keeping which is
probably the reason why the scores are so similar.

6. See charts below

Data Chart

Sports # of athletes Trial A time (secs) Trial B time (secs) WDT Stroop Color Time Stroop Color Error Stroop word Time Stroop word error Scat

Football 68 152.8 6.2 68.37 0.83 43 4 24.3

X-C 78.3 217 5 99 0.33 0 28.3

VB 57 178.2 6.5 70.5 0.76 43 0 27.9

Tennis
Water Polo
76
71
151.3
199.2
7.6
6.7
59
86.66
0.33
0.66
30
35
0
0
28.6
28

Basketball 80 171.4 5.8 66.47 1.24 40 0 27

Soccer
Baseball softball
68
90
168.5
128
5.4
8
74.75
83
0.16
0
43
43
0
0
28

Track 83 257.8 5.4 76.3 1.1 46 4 27.8

Swimming
Lacrosse
62
62
185.8
137.6
6.7
6.8
70.2
62.2
0.31
1.33
37
33
0
0
26.2
28.6

Golf 65 136 7 64 0.33 0 29

Cheer 0 277 0 0 0 0 0
Hockey 78 0 7 71 0.33 56 0 29

Non participating 54 123.2 7.3 68.44 1.15 42 5 28.35

Football X-C VB Tennis Water Polo

Basketball
Lacrosse
Soccer
Golf
Baseball softball
Cheer
Track
Hockey
Swimming
Non participating

90

67.5

45

22.5

0
Trial A time (secs)

Football X-C VB Tennis Water Polo

Basketball Soccer Baseball softball Track Swimming
Lacrosse Golf Cheer Hockey Non participating

300

225

150

75

Trial B time (secs)

Football X-C VB Tennis Water Polo

Basketball Soccer Baseball softball Track Swimming

8
Lacrosse Golf Cheer Hockey Non participating

0 WDT

Football X-C VB Tennis Water Polo

100
Basketball Soccer Baseball softball Track Swimming
Lacrosse Golf Cheer Hockey Non participating

75

50

25

0 Stroop Color Time

Football X-C VB Tennis Water Polo

Basketball
Lacrosse
Soccer
Golf
Baseball softball
Cheer
Track
Hockey
Swimming
Non participating

1.4

1.05

0.7

0.35

0 Stroop Color Error

Football
Basketball
X-C
Soccer
VB
Baseball softball
Tennis
Track
Water Polo
Swimming

60
Lacrosse Golf Cheer Hockey Non participating

45

30

15

0

Stroop word Time

Football
Baseball softball
X-C
Track
VB
Swimming
Tennis
Lacrosse
Water Polo
Golf
Basketball
Cheer
Soccer
Hockey

Non participating
5

.75

2.5

.25

0

Stroop word error

Football X-C VB Tennis Water Polo Basketball Soccer

Baseball softball
Non participating
Track Swimming Lacrosse Golf Cheer Hockey

30

22.5

15

7.5

Scat

Conclusion

My hypothesis stated how football players would most likely have weaker
performance scores than the students who have not participated in such high
contact sports. My hypothesis was correct because according to the data, the
football players took more time and made more errors than most of the other
sports. Neurological test are very important for many reasons. When you
acquire all of the information from these baseline test we could possibly save
someone's life. If someone was to get a head injury or concussion with or
without sports, we are able to refer to their baseline test that they took. These
would come in handy in many situations. I think that every high school students
should have to take these test because of those reasons. Anyone could obtain
a head injury anytime or anywhere so it's important to to know their results from
their test. This is for the students safety and protection so I 100% think that
students should have to take these test.