It’s no longer just worried parents who create attention about the importance of minimizing head injuries for athletic events and hobbies. Authorities across many types of full contact and extreme sports have begun to gear up for concussions and create preventative measures, such as the NFL’s new policy on moving kickoffs up to the 35-yard line. No matter what type of bike you ride or path you take in your motocross hobby, you can reduce the risk of head injuries with some basic preventative measures.
What’s In A Name
Any time the brain takes a bit of force, whether by your head hitting the bed rail at night or when you take a turn too hard and eat dirt, you can suffer from a concussion. A concussion need not knock you out: you can be conscious even if you have forgotten the events of the last minute. Dizziness, nausea and inability to think quickly are all possibilities afterhead trauma. Recovery varies with the severity of an injury: some people who experience only a minor case will return to normal in the span of a few hours, others with a harder or faster head impact can take weeks to be back at 100 percent. With each concussion sustained, however, the next head injury becomes more serious and can take more time to recover.
Rule One: Wear A Helmet
No single piece of equipment or precaution will pay greater dividends than putting on a helmet. The design of motocross helmets cushions the head from all angles, so that the full 360 degrees of your head’s rotation will be padded whenever it encounters a hard surface. These helmets have a different construction than motorcycle and bicycle helmets, so you need to specifically choose a dirt bike’s design like those of BikeBandit’s motocross helmets. Using a motorcycle helmet instead of a motocross helmet may leave you having difficulty breathing in addition to raising the risk of concussions.
Stay At Your Own Speed
New racers who pick up a dirt bike and believe they can get it up to full throttle pose a safety risk to themselves and anyone else on the track. Whenever you bring a friend along to try motocross for the first time, limit them to a 450cc bike or slower, and never let them on the track at the same time as A- and B-level riders. Participate even if you do not plan to ride on a track by acting as a flagger or helping others to get their bikes unstuck.
Don’t Be Macho
Whenever you believe you have sustained any type injury, to the head or to your limbs, get off the track immediately and contact a medical professional. Never return back onto the track whenever you have an injury, and never pick up a bike if you have any difficulty standing on your own two feet. A concussion impairs judgment and reaction time, making it potentially fatal for someone affected by a brain injury.
