Best of Luck to Buddy Teevens, Dartmouth Football Head Coach and TeachAids Advisor
Photo Credit: dartmouthsports.com
TeachAids sends the best of luck to Buddy Teevens, head coach of the Dartmouth Football team, pioneer in player safety, and one of our beloved advisors, on his first game of the season!
Teevens and the Dartmouth football team are truly at the leading edge of concussion safety. In 2011, Teevens declared that players would not tackle one another during practices. Football is unique with regards to concussion epidemiology in that a majority of injuries are incurred in practice instead of games. While practices traditionally include repeated collisions between teammates, Teevens realized that something must be done to decrease the number of hits that players suffered over their lifetimes.
“I love football,” Teevens said, “but I love my players more.”
He continued to perfect the no tackle practice regimen. In spring 2013, Teevens collaborated with a group of engineers from Dartmouth’s Thayer School of Engineering to develop the world’s first robotic tackling dummy. The Mobile Virtual Player – MVP for short – can move up to 18 mph and weighs 190 lbs, making it a fantastic practice tool. Using the MVP, players can practice hitting without hitting their teammates. When Teevens cut tackles from practice, everyone thought he was crazy. However, his results exceeded anyone’s expectations – with no tackle practices, the team saw an 80% reduction in injury across the team AND a great reduction in missed tackles during gametime. As a result, they experienced an incredible winning record that the team hadn’t seen in years.
Buddy’s vision for football has served the community and changed the way organizations like the NCAA view policy and game changes. After Teevens’ success, the NCAA proposed a change in the kickoff start and end points, moving the return location closer to the end zone to decrease the number of active returns during play (kickoff returns accounted for 6% of plays but 21% of concussions according to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania).
TeachAids is ecstatic to have such an influential advisor whose values are so closely aligned with ours. We look forward to working together to further help youth and collegiate athletes. Good luck and go Big Green!