"Practice makes perfect" is an oft-used adage for just about every application of human endeavor and learning. When it comes to contact sports involving the potential for brain injury, though, at least one neurology expert advocates dialing back on practice time and drills where even a remote possibility of head contact is involved.

Most specifically, Christopher Randolph -- professor of neurology at Loyola University Medical Center and head of a new study focused on dementia -- is referring to football, and his views on the subject are well formed by a study that he recently led of former National Football League ("NFL") players, which concludes this: Compared to men of similar age who never played football, retired NFL players much more clearly demonstrate, and at a much higher percent, mild cognitive impairment ("MCI"), which is a type of dementia closely linked with Alzheimer's disease at a later age.

What is highly significant from Randolph's study is that the impairment examined can be caused by relatively low-impact hits, i.e., those that are far less violent than often required to cause concussions.

Study researchers say that even repetitive head trauma of a minor nature -- such as that which occurs from even the simple blocking that NFL players do on virtually every play, resulting in softer brain tissue colliding against the inside of a skull and then "sloshing" back -- can cumulatively work to erode mental cognition.

Statistics indicate that an average college football player experiences about 1,300 such blows -- again, falling far short of a concussion and viewed as routine -- each season. The point is that low-level hits as well as more violent collisions bring about damage and help explain why retired pro players of even relatively young ages often suffer mental impairment earlier than do persons who never played the sport.

Randolph says helmets don't help in such a case, because they are designed to prevent skull fracture and not MCI-related trauma. He recommends that football teams re-think practice strategies and drills to minimize contact, conceding that game conditions do not allow such a strategy.

Related Resource: Time, "Why NFL Players May Be More Vulnerable to Alzheimer's Disease" July 18, 2011