College Football Helmets-A Guide To Safety
Posted: Friday, January 16, 2009
by Chris Johnson
http://www.footballgearusa.com
One indication of the how serious colleges and universities take the safety of their football players is the amount of technology and research they put into the college football helmets they have their players wear.
**Cutting Edge Football Helmet Research**
According to a 2004 article in ESPN, Oklahoma, North Carolina, and Virginia Tech were the first three schools to use the Head Impact Telemetry System (HIT System) which used advanced sensors and measurement devices to monitor and analyze serious player-to-player impacts on the field. The HIT system uses wireless technology that uses sensors to record the magnitude of the impact, the direction and location of each player during impact, and sends that real-time data to a trainer's laptop computer at the side of the field. The system monitors all sensors, and when an impact takes place that surpasses preset parameters defined by the trainer, it actually sends a pager to the trainer, so that the trainer can be alerted that an extremely severe (and dangerous) impact just took place.
An advanced system like HIT allows a trainer to catch all serious impacts that he or she may have missed otherwise. Sometimes the force of an impact that can cause serious injury is not always obvious visually. Sometimes an impact that looks minor or soft actually involves forces or physics that introduces severe stress to the players head. Such a system can alert a trainer that the player may have received a concussion that's more serious than even the player himself may realize. It allows the trainer with the knowledge that he or she should pay a little more attention to that player and remove them from the field if it's appropriate, for the safety of the player. Additionally, this technology can be used to improve the future development and manufacturing of better and safer football helmets.
**How the HIT System Works**
The system is made of six accelerometers that measure how much the head moves during an impact. This is converted into "force" measurements, and these individual forces are transmitted wirelessly to the trainer's laptop, where the trainer can both view and log the information. The short term data can help with immediately classifying an injury a player receives as minor or severe, but the long term data can prove even more useful because it helps researchers understand what sort of impacts result in more serious injuries, and what parts of the head could be protected better in order to reduce or eliminate the chance of concussions in the future.
According to results from the system, even impacts registering 95 Gs or above didn't result in a concussion, however medical experts and researchers are much more concerned with the cumulative effects that multiple impacts of that level could have on the brain, much like what a boxer faces in the ring. Once researchers can understand where the forces are, and what level, is more likely to cause cumulative brain damage, they can develop helmets that can eliminate that kind of injury.Chris Johnson is a sports fan and football coach.
His experience in the field has helped him keep his team safe.
For more information visit: http://www.squidoo.com/howtoplayfootball
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)I see a lot of helmets with odd shapes. I was wondering if a tight fit actually caused the damage. We had more of suspension type inside to absorb? What should a parent look for?Helmets can change shape for a variety of reasons. The combination of heat, impact, tight fits, lack of care, other uses than for what is intended. It's hard to say for a specific helmet, there are many factors to consider.
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