BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — There's growing concern when it comes to football related concussions for players of all ages which is why teaching the proper technique is important.
On Friday and Saturday at Canisius High School, retired NFL lineman Scott Peters brought his program called "Tip of the Spear" and with the help of current and former NFL players, Peters helped instruct youth and taugh them important skills when it comes to taking the head out of the contact.
"It's not a concussion problem, it's an information problem," Peters said. "Our goal with Tip of the Spear is to give the best information to let players play at their optimal best, deliver the most force with the greatest degree of control and to extract the helmet from contact, that's it."
Peters along with players like Ryan Hunter (Kansas City Chiefs) and John Urschel (former Baltimore Raven) went through training for blocking, defeating blocks and tackling.
"Our coaches started using different terminology in the classroom to get away from using your head and more hands and shoulder work like Scott is trying to do," Hunter said. "I think to start kids as early as 5th-7th grade with technique and understanding that yes football is a physical sport but when done properly, you can be safe."
Peters has been visiting hundreds of camps and clinics across the country and thinks it's important to start instilling these techniques at a young age.
"It's about changing the culture of the game and making it safer because the safest techniques we teach are actually the best for performance, that's what the NFL adopts," Peters said. "But for us to see true transformative change in football to where it's sustainable, we gotta do it here at the middle and high school level so we love doing it here, love helping kids and teaching them the how-to and how to actually take the information and employ it and develop into the best players they can be."
