Headed Impact is officially out! I hope everyone who has watched enjoyed. Again the whole point of the documentary was to educate those about the risk of concussion, I felt that has been achieved. Has progress been  made ? I would personally say so, sporting bodies (especially the FA) have made good progress, especially with limiting heading at youth level in training.

I thought I'd just quickly jump on for a minute or so and just give you a production update really of where the Headed Impact documentary is at the minute because it's been a while. So, all the interviews are now done. 

Cliff Butler is an experienced osteopath and the director at Williamstown Health. He sat down with me to talk about his journey so far and why concussions are becoming much more common in sports. On how he started his job: "About 10 years ago, I had a young man come in with a concussion, and I had absolutely no idea how to help this guy. “I didn’t know where to turn; there weren’t too many clinics out here in Australia, and it would take about three months to get help. “We have just done a lot of research and work with this gentleman and saw how much of a difference we could make.”   Cliff doesn’t just see sporting injuries; he has individuals who may have been involved in car accidents or just day-to-day life, but he reckons that AFL is the sport with the most concussions at the moment. “We are seeing a lot of AFl athletes from junior all the way to senior as well, meaning it’s not just an elite level issue; we are seeing more Lacrosse players as the game changes.” Many people don’t know what happens to the brain after a concussion. Cliff believes people need more education. “I think the misnomer here and people get a little scared about, your brain hitting your skull, or is it a brain bleed, it is a brain injury, it’s more of a functional issue where you have an accelerating and slowing down of the brain. “You have two different tissues in your brain, white and grey matter, they have different densities and weights, so they accelerate and brake at different speeds, which results in the stretching of the nerves in your brain.” Cliff found it difficult to answer with one piece of advice for anyone suffering a concussion, as he believes plenty should be done to help, but if he had to pick something, it would be to take your time. “I have seen so many people and sports players shake it off, or don’t acknowledge, and be out for longer. “I love all sports, and I want to see people playing them for years to come. Athletes need to learn to take themselves out of situations for now, or they’ll be out for longer.”

I thought I would just jump back on and just give you more of an update of where we're currently at the minute in terms of production of the documentary, what I've done over the last couple of weeks and what's coming on the pages soon really. So, two very insightful interviews last week. Obviously, first, I met up with Cliff Butler, which you will see content on the pages already. Speaking about what you can do to prevent concussion, the main topics of concussion, what our governing bodies are doing now in Australia to help concussion. And seriously, just really how serious a head injury can be really. And then on Friday, I travelled down to Dorking to meet Barney Davis. Now, Barney was a semi-pro rugby player who unfortunately had to retire due to 20 plus concussions throughout his career. He speaks about the lows after his concussion, the depression what hit him, how he couldn't even go to the gym and what he does now. So now obviously he helps people with post-concussion syndrome. If he can't help them, he will step them in the right direction. So, it's a very insightful interview. Personal to him, he opened a lot. So, you will see that on the page over the next couple of days and obviously the main bits in the documentary coming in April. A few more interviews coming over the next couple of weeks. I've got one this afternoon with a mindful coach based in Vancouver. She had a car accident so it's not obviously a sporting injury but now she has written a book about brain health and mindfulness so that would be on the page in the next couple of weeks as well. There's more coming up, a lot of next couple of weeks are more looking at the younger generation really, to be fair. Looking at what the younger generation can do, what can be done to help them, and are sporting bodies doing enough? I have approached sporting bodies for a comment. They haven't replied yet, so we will see what they come back with. So yeah, just stay tuned on all the pages, plenty more coming soon. The website is now live, so you can see all the content on there as well. And yeah, catch you soon.