Head injury protection
Below is link to interesting equipment to address danger of head injury.
https://www.medpagetoday.com/sportsmedicine/generalsportsmedicine/91384
That's pretty interesting, thanks for sharing.
Agree 100%. Hopefully it is effective over the long term. This is a problem that needs a real solution to save the sport.
Maybe its just me, but messing with the blood flow to the brain seems dangerous. I hope this technology works and doesn't cause aneurysms, clots, passing out, etc.
I can't imagine that it won't in at least some cases produce aneurysms and strokes. But maybe the concussions it will prevent would be worth the tradeoff.
Anyway I'm glad my field involves no risk to human life.
It's got to be loose enough there is no carotid compression. I would guess only a few, less than 10, mmHg worth of compression should be enough to engorge cerebral vessels. I'm sure it doesn't take a whole lot. I would also guess the only kids seriously at risk for an aneurysm would be ones with an unstable AVM to start with. And then they're a walking time bomb who shouldn't be playing contact sports anyway.
How do you diagnose an unstable AVM in teenage athletes?
If you look at space suit technology, blood flow control has been a thing for decades and the implementation has been improved on quite a bit. I think this is a good thing to at least try to do.
Flight suit technology actually, it started in WWII.
Im really surprised they havent figured out that having a rock on your head is dangerous for everyone. Honestly they need to put about 1 inch of nerf around the helmet. It might look goofy but they need to not be colliding with two hard surfaces like that. I see something like this in practices now? Maybe the game would be a better place for them?
I'm sure that's something they've thought about before. You know there's padding inside the helmet, right? How do you know that padding outside the helmet is better?
Google Steve Wallace from the 49ers. Dude had several concussions, then developed his own outer shell and claims it prevented them. I remember him vividly from my childhood. Imagine that with 30 years of materials advancement...its worth a shot to try outter shells in football
I'm guessing this product is getting all the press because it is not a helmet, therefor it can be used in all sports.
I remember Steve Wallace doing this and it did help him. Sometimes, it crumbled due to the blows he received. It looked like a WWII German Infantry helmet fitted over his regular helmet
I'm sure that's something they've thought about before. You know there's padding inside the helmet, right? How do you know that padding outside the helmet is better?
I did know that. I do not know that. Hence why we are having a discussion here.
The soft outside shells are not great for continuous contact, because they absorb the energy, whereas the hard shell of the helmet is meant to deflect it (obviously doesn't always happen). We use the soft shells in practice, but we very rarely go full contact and a community member donated them, so for our purposes they don't hurt anything, and it is better optics to bystanders
I'm not sure that I understand your comment. I agree that soft foam outside shells absorb energy. I also understand that in some instances hard shells deflect it, for example a lighter object such as an arm or ball bouncing off of a hard shell helmet. But, in a helmet to helmet hit, that energy isn't deflected innocuously to a different object. Isn't energy absorbtion by the foam, rather than by the brain in a helmet to helmet hit or helmet to ground hit, what you want?
The way it was explained to me by our helmet rep is that the foam absorbs energy, but the energy is still going to create force that can rattle the brain. It almost concentrates the force, instead of deflecting it, like someone below mentioned, they are working to improve all the time. I will admit, im not that smart, but it made sense at the time, and we have actually had very few concussions, whether wearing foam shells or not
I think you mean distribute, not deflect. In an object to object blow, (e.g. helmet to helmet or head to head in the case of football), the total amount of energy involved in the impact is the same no matter what kind of helmet both players are wearing. The only thing that a helmet can do is either absorb that energy in the helmet itself or dissipate that energy over a larger area. When something is getting compressed (e.g. more what happens with soft material, energy is being absorbed in the helmet, but only in the limited area where the material is compressed. This is the same concept as a crumple zone in a car, but the big difference is that in a helmet, the compression element cannot result in permanent damage to the helmet. What a hard shell does better is disperse the energy over a broader area. Figuring out how to combine both of these characteristics (dissipation and dispersion) is how people who design helmets for a multitude of purposes are trying to design better helmets taking advantage of material advancements.
Thank you for clearing that up! I knew what I meant but also knew I probably wasn't doing the explanation justice
Every once in a while my ME degree comes in handy. Appreciate you taking my response in the way it was meant and not as snarky.
Helmet tech is improving. The little cutout area at the forehead portion of today's helmets is a shock absorber of a sort. They're also tinkering with the shape in subtle ways to help deflect energy. Time will tell.
I saw an article with a similar message over on Red Cedar. Their solution was a tinfoil cap under a mixing bowl with shredded Physics journals and textbooks pasted to the outside.
Beat State!
User name checks out!
BEAT STAEE!
It sounds similar to an old fashioned flight suit that compressed the legs during high-g maneuvers to keep blood from rushing to the legs. Interesting idea for sure.
We discovered this with cars decades ago. It’s why we have crumple zones as opposed to the cars of the 60s and 70s where they were as rigid as possible. All the force was transferred to the driver.
I understand it’s not super comparable because football has a lot of impacts during a game and you can’t have a crumple zone on a helmet. But still, the idea that two hard objects slamming into each other is the safest scenario seems unwise.
Interesting read. They have been trying for many many years to come up with different helmets to stop or at least decrease concussions. Riddell was one of the early innovators with their water pack helmets back in the early 1980's. I wore one and it was super heavy. Concussions in any sport is about physics and when you have a 300Lb person who runs a 4.6 40 yard dash then it is literally like being hit by a car. Head injuries can be limited by proper coaching in tackling techniques instead of using the helmet as a weapon. American football a few years back began to integrate rugby styles of tackling using the shoulders and arms much more than the head down. Pete Carroll discussed this at Seattle. That being said, concussions in rugby are equal to those playing American football. The bottom line is that no matter what protective equipment is invented, their is a RISK with anything and when you play football then you know the risks. Just like drinking to much beer or eating too much red meat. Those who choose to play football like any sport know the risks involved. We took great care of our kids when I coached high school football to ensure they were coached properly on technique and we had excellent concussion protocols in place for a player who did sustain an injury before returning to play.
Very interesting. Cinci children's is the largest volume children's hospital in the country. It's a pretty impressive facility. Done of the research was done in a relationship with them.
The key advance will be practical ways to track early "sub-clinical" (meaning no symptoms yet) injury, so help give kids/parents informed decisions about whether to continue with high school/college/NFL FB or not, much like we do for heart problems.
If I were a billionaire I'd fund a prospective study that enrolled the entire IMG football team and (with their/parents consent of course, $ compensation too) did serial "spinal tap", MRI, blood banking for years.
Bauer hockey had a big press event for a device like this a handful of years ago. Quick Google suggests this might be the same device that has been available in Canada for a handful of years. Great to see that it was studied and received FDA approval.
in doing a little more digging, it seems like this thing has been studied fairly extensively regarding some of the concerns other poster have presented.