Tyler Bridgewater November 7, 2012 Concussion Free Helmet, What?

I am student at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC) and in the engineering program. My passion is engineering and sports; what I am trying to do is to combine them. The biggest worry in sports today is safety for the players. Concussions in the NFL are the biggest safety issue today. There are almost two concussions a game in the NFL. (Marot 1) It has drawn my attention to figure out if a football helmet in the future can actually be concussion free. The definition of a concussion is a violent jarring or shaking that results in a disturbance of brain function,(Fermoso 1). The brain is freely mobile in the skull where it is attached to the spinal cord; nothing is protecting it but the skull that is around it. If a person is hit the skull moves faster than the brain in result the brain is rattled and hits the skull which can cause serious damage to the brain. The result is that the person may become disoriented, knocked out or black out. During a game or practice it is noticeable because of the coaches or parents eye can tell whether something is wrong or not. The hit on the head is a shearing event, which means the brain doesnt move as fast as the skull around it,(Morrow 1). There are a million different situations where a person can experience that, but not all helmet companies can test these kinds of actions. Ultimately it starts with the design of the helmet. High school kids and youth need to know that the helmet is not always going to protect you but its how you play. If player play really dirty and take cheap shots then they put themselves and others in danger. The football helmet

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is also a weapon in which you shouldnt launch yourself leading with you head to an opposing player. It screams concussion waiting to happen. In my research, the football helmet has varied across a 100-year span. It was first just leather padding, to a plastic helmet with padding, to plastic with air cushions almost like airbags in cars. Which will help provide protection during practice and games. The testing method established in the 1970s remains essentially the same today. The goal then was to prevent sudden death, skull fractures and brain bleeding in football. (Marot 1) The testing of helmets has not changed on whether a concussion is prevented but the factor of death, fractures of the skull, and bleeding of the brain. As of now a concussion testing is not accessible at this time. An example of that is a company has proven that it could contain a egg (a human skull) wrap it in cushion and drop it from a two stories and it would be protected, but the motion inside the egg, the yolk (brain) cannot be determine fully. The technology can only do so much and the scientists and testers can only predict what can happen on the outside. The company uses a series of technologies to emulate real-life collisions. One machine drops helmets from various heights to imitate a player's helmet crashing into the ground. Another machine, called the linear impacter, uses a metal shaft to strike a helmet at various speeds. It simulates two players colliding at full speed. (Daniel 1) These are the functions of how they can test the forces acted upon a hit from various speeds that could emulate a football hit. It will show the exact areas in which consume the most force from a hit and determine whether or not a injury is resulted from a certain range of speeds or force. These are tests that help provide protection from linear impacts. Linear impacts are head on or direct impacts where there

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is no twisting or moving within the helmets. A suggestion to which causes concussions and brain injury is the angular acceleration. Angular acceleration is the speed or velocity of which something is moving up an axis. Angular forces are also considered to cause damage such as concussions due to the force that is acted upon the helmet. The forces acted on the helmet from all angles can contribute to concussions. Today, companies are having trouble due to the lack of research and the ability to understand what makes a jolt in the skull. The inability to understand every situation a body can go through in a game is unable to be predicted. Over the years Ive seen plenty of injuries where someone has been hurt by a concussion or a knee injury. I can just see the body contorting in various ways or a hit to the head where a person never even sees it coming, and an injury is suffered in a matter of seconds. Cases where people suffer neck or head injuries are because they are either tackling poorly with their head down or even fitting their helmet improperly. (Daniel 1) Sometimes a concussion is not always decided on just that one hit. Youth football coaches need to understand that tacking properly and keeping your head up is one of the most important parts in tackling and running the football. It would help reduce concussions and neck injuries from the head and neck jamming into the body. Almost like if you jam your finger, but at a higher speed and force with your head down and trying to tackle. From certain research over a period of time a football player suffers multiple hits. Due to contact from practice and games result in growing brain problems for the player. After a hit that could cause headaches and other side effects but not always a concussion. Then that next contact to the head could be the deciding factor of a concussion if hit right. Concussions can happen to either offense or defense players, a

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term I was brought to know your either the hitter or the hittee, which means your are being hit. Supporting research from Eric Nauman, The most important implication of the new findings is the suggestion that a concussion is not just the result of a single blow, but it's really the totality of blows that took place over the season, (Venere 1). Over a course of a season the brain endures a great deal of stress and it has no time to heal. In another way a helmet can rely on its padding for more protection. Its all up to a player to become more prepared and able to rest more after head injuries. Over many years the NFL and collegiate level are decreasing the time where the practices are held in full gear and full contact. If you practice everyday and are in contact you are more susceptible to more and more hits which will give more opportunities for head injuries. From seeing collegiate and pro level minimizing full pads the high school level is decreasing full hitting practice as well because players are suffering from concussions also. Its been in effect because many kids are getting faster and stronger that they are playing at a high level. It increases the risk of every player. Another reason why players are getting more and more concussions frequently because they have symptoms of one and they dont take the right pre-cautions or they arent sitting out. At my high school I attended if we suffered a concussion it was a rule that you must sit out for 10 days before returning. Which would mean you missed next weeks practice and game. Even in the NFL if a player suffered a concussion and then weeks or months later suffers another they may have not sat out long enough to get better. For my passion and possibility to develop a new helmet would be slim due to the high improbability of perfection. A concussion free helmet is close to impossible to develop because the engineering, designing, and testing is very hard to come close to

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real life situations of a persons action. A machine can perform functions and test to where a person is falling or head on collisions, but it cant perform the millions of ways a head and neck can contort or move. In which it makes it impossible to test. A humans head can turn and move backwards to levels where it cant support itself at high levels of speed and force during contact. Then also to understand fully what a brain inside a skull is doing, like is it moving, sitting still, motioning from left to right or any other way when inside a skull when a force is hitting the head. For a scientist and engineers to determine what a brain is doing is a challenging factor in a helmet design and it is impossible right now to determine a factor in its design. So many factors come into play like where a person was hit, if they suffered more than one hit, whether or not a player saw the hit and if he was able to prepare himself by tensing his neck. (Marot, Michael) For younger players they need to be more aware of their surroundings when playing and make sure they are staying alert when playing. There is a lot of researching left to do in order for it to happen. For somebody to say that there is such a thing as a concussion-proof helmet is incorrect. It's a misinterpretation. Football is a collision sport. When it's played well, it's a violent collision sport. Concussions will happen, said John MacLean. This is the word said around all organizations and companies where they do not believe it could ever be accomplished. Its hard to believe that anyone could develop a concussion proof helmet because the research and the designing are nearly impossible to overcome to be true. It is truly unheard of because of the unpredictable acts of a persons capabilities and the ways force can make a human body do. Even when someone can take out someones knee and tear every ligament to where humans lower leg is flopping around and no longer

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connected to the top. You can see that in the injury South Carolinas running back Lattimore suffered a few weeks ago. It makes me cringe every time I see it. Then if you see someone being blindsided on a kick off or punt and you see the player drop like nothing before and is unconscious for a few second you know that he has suffered a severe injury. No tester can prove the brain activity that happens in a lab. Also the rules of both collegiate and pro are trying to crack down on illegal hits as they call them. Soon enough if there is a surge in more head injuries in high school they may shortly turn to the college and pro rules of practicing. The NFL has set out rules where you cant lead with your head, shoulder or forearm to an opposing players head. Also, you cant hit a defenseless receiver above the shoulders. They are doing so by heavily fining players that are penalized or called out by these illegal hits. They are also trying to put in account during testing more ways to show game like events. The companies are trying to update and test to account for concussions and to find the forces causing such. (Lloyd 1) So far no real test are set in stone for companies to test on concussions for each helmet. For now the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment (NOCSAE) is trying to find a way to develop ways to test for these kinds of concussions. It is still an issue in football and other contact sports. As a result in all of this is the question what if? What if a helmet was made to be concussion proof? Researchers and organization such as the NFL would respond that there is no such thing, like NFLs Ray Anderson said A concussion-proof helmet- So far, there's nothing to that effect. In result no one would believe me if I did come up with one and I dont think I could persuade the NFL to buy my helmet with out a real life

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demonstration. Football teams wouldnt want to put the risk on there players to test these helmets. If a player got hurt it would come back to the developer (Me). It is a ton of pressure for someone to say there product is concussion free. To prove so Anderson also said, I don't know if (manufacturers) could ever convince us or assure us that a helmet that would absolutely prevent concussions is doable. It would take a very long time to even consider a helmet at that such caliber. In high school not all schools are available to the technology the NFL and collegiate level are using. High Schools football teams are still using helmets from up to 10 years ago, so it is mainly up to the players to protect themselves the best. Injuries are always going to happen your best bet is to play by the rules to stay safe. Which leads me to my conclusion that based on my research and the comments within articles of this content; there is no way that the possibility of a concussion free helmet is true to belief. The purpose of this paper is to prove that no one can make a helmet with the attributes of being concussions-free. No one has the answer and neither does science, (Marot 1). For the high school and youth players, you must use your coaching to the best of you abilities and play football by the book, by protecting yourself and others. Educating the future players safety and also the safety of life after football.

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Works Cited Jose Fermoso. Anti-Concussion Football Helmets Fully Enforced By NFL, NCAA, or U.S. High Schools. Wired Gadget Lab, 2007. Web. Accessed on October 24, 2012. Michael Marot, and Chris Adamski. Is concussion-free helmet possible. Chicago Sun-Times, 2012. Accessed on October 14, 2012. Eugene Daniel. Tackling Concussions, Part 2: Can Safer Helmets Prevent Concussions? Central Illinois is Proud, 2012. Accessed on November 1, 2012. Emil Venere. Football findings suggest concussion caused by series of hits. Purdue University, 2012. Accessed on November 1, 2012. Allison Morrow. Tampa researchers hope to improve military combat helmets by studying high school football players. ABC Action News, 2012. Accessed on November 2, 2012. John D. Lloyd. Do Helmets Prevent Concussions? Dr. Ergonomics, 2012. Accessed on November 6, 2012.

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