Types of Head Gear

Safety and equipment have come a long way in football in order to prevent brain injuries. A very important piece of equipment used to prevent brain trauma is the helmet. The helmet has evolved a lot over the years, even more in the past decade. The Helmets main purpose use to be just to stop skull fractures, then they added the facemask to prevent facial injuries. Concussions are more of a recent concern (Hand 1). Overconfidence in the helmets' protective power prompts many NFL athletes to deliver and accept hits that would have killed players of previous generations. Now the helmet is being revolutionized. Helmets aren't only being created to stop skull and face fractures but they are being created to help prevent brain damage such as concussions now. Helmets have gone through testing to see how to design a better preventative helmet. These newer helmets are being designed to reduce the amount of force that is being applied to the head by a hit that is received (Vandantam 2). Virginia Tech football has been monitoring helmet collisions since 2003, courtesy of Dr. Gunnar Brolinson. Dr. Gunnar Brolinson has outfitted the teams helmets with six sensors and a small antenna that records and transmits data to a computer on the sideline. This information collected is crucial because it will help find better ways to design a helmet that will prevent concussions(Goldman 1). Equipment isn't the only important part of football that can help prevent concussions.

This belief that the players are safe when they are actually at risk could cause them to do things they would not have done otherwise. Ultimately, protective gear results in more harm than good. Niedfeldt supports the idea of this false security when he shares that as a result of wearing protective headgear in his study, women attacked the balls with more vigor and added to the impact due to the impression of safety (Niedfeldt). The results of this study show that individuals wearing protective headgear attack the soccer ball in a more dangerous manner that they would not have done without the false sense of safety that they feel because of this gear. Therefore, Niedfeldt’s trial demonstrates the fact that protective headgear has the potential to cause more damage to athletes than if they did not wear the gear. Often times, this phenomenon is known as the Superman effect which has been proven to occur when individuals feel more invincible than they really are. This ultimately causes reckless and aggressive behavior despite the fact that what these athletes are feeling is a false sense of security (Gray). Because of the superman effect, a soccer player with experience relating to protective headgear demonstrates that she obtained a concussion despite wearing protective headgear. Due to her experience, she illustrates that

This was a replacement to the leather ones; the first chinstrap was made to help protect the chin better than what the old leather ones had which was a strap. It was many years later the first facemask was put on but only due to a player having a broken jaw but caught on the next season. They slowly started adding pads that can be aired up. In the 1990’s they introduced the VSR, became very popular and is still used by older players till this day. The 2000’s brought a new helmet called the Revolution; the helmets intent was to reduce concussions. 2008 they introduced the helmet have the Speed that was redesign of the Revo but added cushion to make it more comfortable, it quickly became the most popular helmet by players pro and college. Years later came the Revo-speed 360, uses the facemask to disperse the hits on the frontal helmet. The newest helmet to be introduced is the Speed-flex; same technology has the 360 but lighter and a added give point on the crown point of the helmet. This is quickly over taking the football world has the most comfortable and safest helmet on the

The issue of multiple concussions is finally becoming recognized by major sports. The awareness has led to a variety of interventions to help protect athletes. There have been two recent interventions concerning football helmets. First off, Riddell, a company that produces football helmets, has released a new helmet that is supposed to best prevent concussions. This helmet is known as the Revolution Speed. Using advanced technology, the Speed helmets were designed around the head 's center of gravity and include an uneven outer shell to help absorb a hit. The inside of the

4%-20% of all injuries in soccer are head injuries. Concussion and head injuries are a big part of soccer, many younger players should have to wear protective headgear while playing. Also, many of these head injuries that players sustained during soccer can affect them for the rest of their life with things such as CTE. Even though many people don’t want to change the game of soccer, at a certain age players should have to wear headgear if they want to head the ball because the brain damage kids can get from heading the ball can affect them for life, and it would decrease the amount of concussions the sport has per year.

Helmets are a major guideline that needs to be improved because a helmet is there to protect the head and prevent concussions but it doesn't seem to be doing a good job. Now there's always that question of “why don't we just make the helmet better and more equipped to prevent concussions?”, well we've had football around for years now and if it hasn't been done yet I don't think it will ever be done. According to the North Eastern Undergraduate Writing Journal, since the 1970s, helmets have been made with a polycarbonate shell, a steel face mask, and padding which is just foam and inflatable air bladders. Even though modern helmets maybe more

On the word of Blaine Hoshizaki March 8, 2011 in the local news article entitled “Ottawa Researcher Rethinks Hockey Helmet,”” Most concussions occur when there is a hit to the head that turns the head at the same time, various design factors make current helmets ill suited to protecting players against this type of hit, including helmet shape.” As Hoshizaki stated previously, a hockey helmet’s basic shape is the shape of the player’s head. The problem primary problem with the shape is in accordance with players being directly hit by a forceful object, such as an elbow or even the hockey puck. Modern hockey helmets are designed with impact in mind; Meaning, helmets are not meant to withstand major blows from a body check, which physically move the receiving player’s head in a certain direction of which makes the brain collide with the inside of the skull. The reasoning behind Hoshizaki’s research is to maintain safety as well as effectiveness in player equipment.

One issue that is a major part of concussion prevention is how the equipment is actually being processed and the tests done on the equipment to be able to show level of protection that can be provided, such as helmet strength and padding. For many decades, the standards for helmet protection was focused more so on preventing injuries, such as fractured skulls, than it was on concussion preventions. The National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment (NOCSAE) has recently revised its standards for helmet protection. NOCSAE does not make or produce helmets but rather creates and sets the testing standard for the helmet; standard tests include the “drop test” where a weight is dropped onto the helmet from certain heights to test how well the helmet reduces the linear force. Other tests that have recently been added include testing the rotational force a helmet can bare and also helps to simulate any angle that a force may come from, just like a hit during a football game. This is also “…another step forward because rotational forces

Football can be a very dangerous sport. And although those who play the game believe that they are being protected by the helmets that they wear, the truth is that this may not be the case. In a recent study released by the American Academy of Neurology it has been found that “protection against concussion and complications of brain injury is especially important for young players, including elementary and middle school, high school and college athletes, whose still-developing brains are more susceptible to the lasting effects of trauma”(Science Daily, 2014). The study also found that standard football helmets worn by the majority of players on the field today, only reduce the risk of traumatic brain injury by 20 percent compared to not wearing a helmet at all (Science Daily, 2014).

The creation of the Head Impact Telemetry System (HIT) and Star System offered ways to measure helmets in the level of protectiveness. Despite its capability of measuring linear acceleration and impact location, the HIT system is unable to measure angular acceleration accurately(2). Scholars state rotational and linear is not suitable in predicting concussions(5).With that, future innovation and improvement will provide better insight in understanding these test and concussions(1). Still,Regardless of the effectiveness of the product, helmets will never be perfect in preventing injuries(1).

American football has been around for over one hundred years, and along with the sport has been the need to provide proper safety for the players. An assortment of padding has been instituted in the game that protects against most blunt trauma including blows to the shoulders, mid section, and legs. In an attempt to prevent fracture of the skull, helmets were designed. However, studies have shown that helmets do little to nothing to prevent concussive damage to the brain. A polycarbonate shell is used as the outer housing for regulation football helmets, but along with this material, the materials used on the inside of the helmet are just as, if not more, important. The purpose of this report is to analyze the materials used in current football helmet design and the improvements being made in the field of materials science in order to combat the severe number of concussions suffered by NFL players.

The present invention of an "Electronic Helmet" is a regular football helmet. This football helmet is more indestructible comparing both of these to each other, they are completely different. One is more techno logic like, and the other is just a boring, plain helmet. Our electronic helmet is better than the boring one. The electronic helmet functions by a remote or just by your hands. The normal, and boring helmet, functions just like a regular helmet. All you do is put it on your head and play your sport or whatever else you're doing. Ours is more fun, safer, and more compatible with today's technology. The electronic helmet is going to be big in the future! Believe it or not, you might even own one, one day. this helmet is like no other

It has been discovered that kinetic energy from a head collision can transfer to the brain in the form of kinetic and elastic energy which can cause serious brain damage through deformation (Moore, 2016). Sports helmets are specifically designed to dissipate as much energy from a collision before it reaches the brain. Also, the helmet prevents the impact from fracturing the skull, causing more serious damage. Engineers use the law of conservation of energy to design the helmets. The helmets dissipate the energy by transforming it into kinetic and elastic energy that doesn’t reach the brain (Moore, 2016). The energy is also transformed into sound and heat due to the friction from the contact. Engineers use the same concepts that I’ve learned in class about the law of conservation of energy which states that energy cannot be created nor destroyed, but it can only transform into different forms of energy. We’ve learned that the initial amount of energy is equal to the final amount of energy. According to this, the total kinetic energy from the collision is equal to the total energy at the end which consists of forms like elastic, thermal, kinetic, and sound energy. By splitting the total amount of energy into different forms of energy that are stored or directed away from the head, the amount of energy affecting the brain is much less (“Newton’s Cradle: Colliding football helmets : Physics 101”, 2012).

I’ve been riding motorcycles for almost as long as I can remember. As a kid, I used to compete in dirtbike races and motocross, and I have always felt the most comfortable when riding. I used to drive a car for work, and I hated it. Sitting in traffic with the radio blaring is nothing compared to the feel of the wind on your body as you weave through the parked cars on the freeway. Recently, though, I got involved in a minor collision. I wasn’t terribly hurt, but my helmet took a beating and became useless. Even though I had used that helmet for years, once it became dented, I knew I had to replace it. That’s when I found the Nexx XR1R Full-Face Helmet. Today I’ll be talking to you about the different kinds of motorcycle helmets

Although you should take other safety measures when cycling, a helmet is by far the most important and most effective piece of protective equipment a cyclist can wear. In the event of a traffic accident, wearing a helmet saves lives by reducing the extent of a head injury because when you fall or crash, your helmet absorbs much of the force of impact that would otherwise hurt your head (“Helmet Use“). The thick plastic foam also know as firm polystyrene inside the hard outer shell of your helmet, crushes to cushion the blow during an accident (“Motorcycle Accidents“). The helmet takes the hit instead of your head. Each year, even minor bicycle and motorcycle accidents kill hundreds of people in the United States and cause brain damage and other injuries to more than half a million riders (“Why should we wear helmets?”).Buying a helmet is one of the best investments a person can make. Bicycle shops and discount department stores offer many models of helmets, priced around $20.00. Even with wide availability of inexpensive helmets and proper information on how and why to use them, it is estimated that only approximately half of over eighty million bike riders wear their helmet all the time (“Why should we wear helmets?”). As a result of the diminutive amount of helmets worn in the United States, many accidents are fatal.