Friday, January 27, 2012
Virginia Tech study: Youth football players face greater-than-expected threat from head hits
The biggest hits -- and those with the most potential for causing a concussion -- occurred at practice, not during games
The smallest youth football players sometimes sustain hits to the head that equate to those seen in elite college athletes.
That is among the findings of a Virginia Tech study that recorded the force of head impacts on 7- and 8-year-old boys playing football in Montgomery County.
Of the 753 hits recorded throughout the team’s season, six were at a level that would be considered a big hit for college players, according to the findings.
“I think you could characterize several of the findings as very surprising,” said Stefan Duma, the Virginia Tech engineer professor who led the study.
The study is the first to look at youth players. Duma’s ultimate goal is to gather enough data to rate helmets based on how well they protect a child’s head.
Duma said the data he collected invalidates the assumption that a smaller player won’t sustain a concussion because he isn’t as big or as fast as adult players.
“We have proven that to be false,” he said.
Additionally, the biggest hits, and those with the most potential for causing a concussion, occurred not during the team’s eight games, but at practice.
“We need to modify the practices,” Duma said. “There is no reason to have some the drills that are having at the highest hits. ... We need to stop running drills where the kids line up and have them run at each other.”
Duma has zeroed in on that finding and said it is among the reasons he has released the findings prior to having them published in a scientific journal, which would mean delaying telling the public for about eight months.
“Nobody in our group was comfortable sitting on this and missing a whole other season,” he said.
Instead of waiting for that process to be completed, which includes having the results and study reviewed by other scientists working in the field, Duma has worked with the television journalist Stone Phillips to produce a documentary about the findings. The video was posted online today and will be featured on ABC’s "The View" on Monday.
Duma said he still plans to submit the findings to be published in a journal.
The size of hits are measured in terms of G-force, or the gravitational force associated with the acceleration of an object relative to a free-fall.
To measure the G-force, Duma used the same sensor system that he has placed in the helmets of players at Virginia Tech for the past decade.
He said initially he was concerned whether the study would even work because the sensors only pick up impacts of 10 Gs or greater.
“We found out quickly that wasn’t a problem," Duma said. The biggest hit recorded came in at 100 Gs, and six measured at 80 Gs or higher, he said.
That is among the findings of a Virginia Tech study that recorded the force of head impacts on 7- and 8-year-old boys playing football in Montgomery County.
Of the 753 hits recorded throughout the team’s season, six were at a level that would be considered a big hit for college players, according to the findings.
“I think you could characterize several of the findings as very surprising,” said Stefan Duma, the Virginia Tech engineer professor who led the study.
The study is the first to look at youth players. Duma’s ultimate goal is to gather enough data to rate helmets based on how well they protect a child’s head.
Duma said the data he collected invalidates the assumption that a smaller player won’t sustain a concussion because he isn’t as big or as fast as adult players.
“We have proven that to be false,” he said.
Additionally, the biggest hits, and those with the most potential for causing a concussion, occurred not during the team’s eight games, but at practice.
“We need to modify the practices,” Duma said. “There is no reason to have some the drills that are having at the highest hits. ... We need to stop running drills where the kids line up and have them run at each other.”
Duma has zeroed in on that finding and said it is among the reasons he has released the findings prior to having them published in a scientific journal, which would mean delaying telling the public for about eight months.
“Nobody in our group was comfortable sitting on this and missing a whole other season,” he said.
Instead of waiting for that process to be completed, which includes having the results and study reviewed by other scientists working in the field, Duma has worked with the television journalist Stone Phillips to produce a documentary about the findings. The video was posted online today and will be featured on ABC’s "The View" on Monday.
Duma said he still plans to submit the findings to be published in a journal.
The size of hits are measured in terms of G-force, or the gravitational force associated with the acceleration of an object relative to a free-fall.
To measure the G-force, Duma used the same sensor system that he has placed in the helmets of players at Virginia Tech for the past decade.
He said initially he was concerned whether the study would even work because the sensors only pick up impacts of 10 Gs or greater.
“We found out quickly that wasn’t a problem," Duma said. The biggest hit recorded came in at 100 Gs, and six measured at 80 Gs or higher, he said.
