For the first time, researchers looked at head impacts of football players in the first and second grade, and found troubling results: These young children experience hits hard enough to cause a concussion.
Researchers at Wake Forest University and Virginia Tech outfitted seven youth football players with helmets designed to measure the impact of a direct hit.
They found each player recorded over one hundred hits during the season, ranging from something you'd experience in a pillow fight, to a hit similar in force to those seen in college athletes.
Most of the hard hits occurred during practice, which experts say is encouraging because practice plans can be changed.
