Will practice helmets become game helmets?

[FriendlySpartan]

I know you were. I'm curious about how it all works. I was always led to believe it's basically your brain bouncing around inside the skull. I agree the extra padding on the helmet is pretty pointless. The hard plastic and padding inside the helmet should protect against blunt force.

To an extent yes but that force is still transferred, the idea behind these is to have the impact absorption padding to reduce that force being passed through the skull ti the brain even further. For lineman I could see it having some positive effect in this regard but the actual effect would be very minimal

 

[VeloClone]

The auto industry especially some of the European makers developed energy absorbing designs with engineered "crumple zones" which essentially absorbed the energy of impact and allowed what would be total deceleration in a few inches in rigid body design to become a deceleration in several feet as parts of the auto body takes the energy of impact in a designed crumple.

Increased padding in a helmet, especially additional padding to the outside of the helmet could allow the skull to decelerate in a collision over the distance of 3 or 4 inches where it might have decelerated in less than an inch previously without the added external padding. The brain still will slosh around in the skull and experience trauma as the skull rapidly decelerates, however even marginal spreading out of that deceleration can greatly impact the amount of brain trauma experienced in that impact. It stands to reason that the amount of trauma from a relatively gradual impact with the skull would be lessened as compared to instantaneous impact to a full stop. The obvious difference between these two instances is that the brain has no seat belt. However the chances you go through a windshield even in a moderate speed collision even when not belted is greater in a rigid body design than in an engineered crumple zone design.

It isn't a panacea but a moderate concussion is still a better outcome than a severe one and no concussion is better than a moderate one.

 

[t-noah]

They could possibly do some good for lineman and since there is no real downside there is no harm in having them available but their actual preventive impact is extremely minimal. For what it’s worth Guardian themselves say that no helmet can prevent concussions, they have to say that for FDA purposes but it’s also true based on physiology.

It’s also worth remembering that the only way to diagnose a concussion is through a physical exam and mental acuity test. There is no imaging or any other test to definitively detect a concussion. So any claims of concussions going down from the NFL will have a massive bias. Players don’t want to report concussions for the future of their careers, the NFL doesn’t want them to appear to be a safe sport, and coaches don’t want them because it takes a player out of action.

Doc, thx for your input. Appreciate it.

What we will probably see then, regarding the outer padded helmets, is what we are seeing now. We likely won't see them, rarely or if at all. FB is a tough, physical sport and players won't want to be seen as weak. So there is a psychological component there also. I don't think they will be used unless mandated, during games.

The helmets do appear to be improving still. That's the good news. Still a few more years before flag FB takes over.

NFL Raises Standard for Helmet Performance as Five New Models Achieve Record-High Testing Results

www.nfl.com

 

[BigJCy]

 

[t-noah]

Here we go! This and a Q-Collar, together!!

I was really hoping to see some covers to the Guardian Caps, and here it is. They will likely get even better. So, it's very possible we could see these (Guardian Caps with game-day covers) during the games.

It can't be a bad thing.

 

[BigJCy]