Posts Tagged: "concussion"

How head impacts challenge the NFL to improve helmet innovation

The harder and more unbreakable the helmet the better it is to protect from a cosmetic standpoint, but the more likely the helmet will transfer the power of any blow through to the brain… Helmets today are reasonably good at protecting from blunt impact, but that does not mean they do not suffer from serious problems. “A major weakness in helmets is that they do not protect from any twisting or torsion motion, for example when a wearer suffers an impact that forces his neck to rotate at a substantial speed,” Abu-Taleb explains. “This is a major cause of concussions, as the brain rattles within the cerebrospinal fluid inside the skull as soon as the rotating comes to a stop, causing multiple potential points of impact between the brain and skull.”

Concussion Science, Stagnant Helmet Innovation and the NFL

Much of the science behind how concussions are sustained is still underdeveloped, but rotational forces created on the brain when a body sustains an off-center hit may be to blame. Helmet safety standards enforced by the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment have been largely unchanged since the early 1970s and typically only measures linear forces created in a straight impact. The helmet industry has been pretty stagnant for decades, but the new push for better protections against concussions has been driving innovation within the industry over the past few years.