Wrestling Concussion Rule Protocols
After reviewing the NFHS rules pertaining to Head and Neck including the cervical column and/or nervous system timeouts and receiving guidance from the GHSA Sports Medicine Advisory Committee, we have assembled a standard protocol for the handling of the concussion procedures.
1. Timeouts for injuries to the Head (Concussion), and neck including the cervical column and/or nervous system timeouts shall not be started until an appropriate health-care professional has arrived to the mat. Officials should not call an official’s timeout until an appropriate health-care professional arrives to evaluate for a possible head and neck injury (concussion).
2. The concussion timeout will count as 1 of the 2 injury timeouts allowed in a match.
3. If a non-concussion timeout has been used prior the concussion timeout, the trainer will still be allowed the full five (5) minutes to allow for proper diagnosis.
4. If a second concussion injury occurs during the same match, the match is ended due to injury default. The official should not hesitate to end the match if there is any indication of a possible concussion.
5. In the case that the first injury timeout was a five (5) minute concussion timeout, the wrestler is still allowed a 2nd non-concussion injury time and has his full 1-1/2 minutes available.
