Helmet covers - what is the purpose?

[mlh]

Why do some of the players have what looks like pads on their helmets and what purpose do they serve?

 

[Padreruf]

Cushion against concussions...may help but the brain rattles around inside the skull like an egg inside a shell. I heard an explanation that you could put an egg inside a bucket filled with concrete and that if you dropped it the egg yolk, etc., would still vibrate -- much as a brain does inside the skull.

 

[gtgilbert]

Why do some of the players have what looks like pads on their helmets and what purpose do they serve?

Guardian Caps | Guardian Sports

Guardian Caps are the leading soft shell helmet cover engineered for impact reduction. Worn by the NFL, 500+ colleges and 5000+ high schools.

guardiansports.com

Additional layer of protection. They have a lot of research from a few of the leading sports technology safety institutes and universities that claim the soft pads reduce the amount / degree of impact passed through to the more interior layers.

Company is based here in GA and they do a lot of other sports tech stuff as well based in material science. Better chin straps (on the way), better turf infil for artificial turf, lacrosse balls that don't lose their grip over time, etc

 

[mlh]

I figured it was a safety measure of some kind, just didn't know what exactly. Thanks.

 

[BamaMoon]

I suspect in time they will become standard use. I think they look silly and that's probably why many players won't wear them.

Tua refuses to, but needs to.

 

[uafan4life]

Cushion against concussions...may help but the brain rattles around inside the skull like an egg inside a shell. I heard an explanation that you could put an egg inside a bucket filled with concrete and that if you dropped it the egg yolk, etc., would still vibrate -- much as a brain does inside the skull.

That's a terrible analogy.

It's about lessening the transfer of kinetic energy.

A better analogy would be wrapping an egg in bubble wrap and dropping it. The chance of the yolk breaking is lessened compared to without the bubble wrap...

 

[Padreruf]

That's a terrible analogy.

It's about lessening the transfer of kinetic energy.

A better analogy would be wrapping an egg in bubble wrap and dropping it. The chance of the yolk breaking is lessened compared to without the bubble wrap...

It still moves around inside the shell/skull...terrible analogy or not.

 

[gtgilbert]

It still moves around inside the shell/skull...terrible analogy or not.

but in the explanation you heard, the concrete does nothing to change the rate of deceleration of the egg/yolk. It passes the deceleration straight through and that's what impacts the brain. In your analogy, the concrete is like the hard shell of a helmet. To be applicable to the helmet the analogy would have to add wrapping a pillow top mattress around the bucket of concrete, with a layer of bubble wrap around the egg before it's put in the concrete. This is going decrease the suddenness of the impact, and change the rate of deceleration. The yolk would still move some, but not nearly as much, which is what increases the degree of protection it offers.

 

[JDCrimson]

Same reason cars are designed today to crush in accidents so the occupants have a greater chance of walking away from the crash alive or uninjured.

 

[Tideflyer]

I suspect in time they will become standard use. I think they look silly and that's probably why many players won't wear them.

Tua refuses to, but needs to.

And CTE is not a serious condition. Right. This is right up there with continuing to smoke, knowing full well the consequences. Then again, football in general is not compatible with the human body, so…..

 

[Padreruf]

but in the explanation you heard, the concrete does nothing to change the rate of deceleration of the egg/yolk. It passes the deceleration straight through and that's what impacts the brain. In your analogy, the concrete is like the hard shell of a helmet. To be applicable to the helmet the analogy would have to add wrapping a pillow top mattress around the bucket of concrete, with a layer of bubble wrap around the egg before it's put in the concrete. This is going decrease the suddenness of the impact, and change the rate of deceleration. The yolk would still move some, but not nearly as much, which is what increases the degree of protection it offers.

Agree somewhat...the point is that padding the helmet may be fools gold in that it does not provide the protection that one would expect on the surface. What would happen if we did away with helmets? Would players avoid leading with their heads? No doubt...at least the smart ones. Would this result in fewer concussions? Who knows? One sport that seems to have a high degree of concussions is soccer -- especially for women.

 

[Isaiah 63:1]

That's a terrible analogy.

It's about lessening the transfer of kinetic energy.

A better analogy would be wrapping an egg in bubble wrap and dropping it. The chance of the yolk breaking is lessened compared to without the bubble wrap...

Don't confuse force with pressure. From my "AI-ded" recollection of physics:

P = F/A (Pressure = Force over Area).The greater the Area over which a Force is distributed , the less Pressure per unit of Area. Note that the value of the Force is not affected. So, I'm assuming helmet covers tend to reduce P by increasing the A over which the F to the helmet is distributed. That's why wrapping a raw egg in bubble wrap can preserve the shell; but note that they never (so far as I can recall) open the egg to show you what happened to the contents. I'm willing to bet they're far from intact.

F = MA (Force = Mass times Acceleration). Concussions occur not because of Pressure (the Force over an Area), but because of the amount of Force from the Mass undergoing Acceleration (the mass of the brain hitting the interior of the skull), irrespective of where the impact to the body occurs. For helmet covers to help with concussions, they would need materially to reduce F by significantly reducing A. I'm willing to bet they do reduce A [ETA - when the F is applied to the helmet]. The question is, do we yet know by how much and whether it's enough?

 

[uafan4life]

Don't confuse force with pressure. From my "AI-ded" recollection of physics:

P = F/A (Pressure = Force over Area).The greater the Area over which a Force is distributed , the less Pressure per unit of Area. Note that the value of the Force is not affected. So, I'm assuming helmet covers tend to reduce P by increasing the A over which the F to the helmet is distributed. That's why wrapping a raw egg in bubble wrap can preserve the shell; but note that they never (so far as I can recall) open the egg to show you what happened to the contents. I'm willing to bet they're far from intact.

F = MA (Force = Mass times Acceleration). Concussions occur not because of Pressure (the Force over an Area), but because of the amount of Force from the Mass undergoing Acceleration (the mass of the brain hitting the interior of the skull), irrespective of where the impact to the body occurs. For helmet covers to help with concussions, they would need materially to reduce F by significantly reducing A. I'm willing to bet they do reduce A. The question is, do we yet know by how much and whether it's enough?

I would assume the primary, functional purpose would be to reduce the whiplash effect. By introducing additional compression, you are lengthening the time over which the force is applied and the change of direction occurs...

 

[Isaiah 63:1]

Agree somewhat...the point is that padding the helmet may be fools gold in that it does not provide the protection that one would expect on the surface. What would happen if we did away with helmets? Would players avoid leading with their heads? No doubt...at least the smart ones...

Football padding is a great example of moral hazard - an increase in undesired behavior from lessening the consequences of undesired behavior. The introduction and evolution of pads reduced some kinds of acute, visible injuries (goodbye, compound femur fractures) and probably increased other kinds of chronic, invisible ones (hello, concussions and CTE). Not advocating for getting rid of pads, but they are not a free lunch...

 

[Isaiah 63:1]

I would assume the primary, functional purpose would be to reduce the whiplash effect. By introducing additional compression, you are lengthening the time over which the force is applied and the change of direction occurs...

No doubt, at least in some cases. We're talking a fraction of a second here, so the questions are, by how much does that reduce acceleration (and as I said, I am willing to bet they do reduce it), and is it enough?

ETA for fans of Joe Haldeman: "What happens when you drop a wrench in a submarine?"

 

[gtgilbert]

No doubt, at least in some cases. We're talking a fraction of a second here, so the questions are, by how much does that reduce acceleration (and as I said, I am willing to bet they do reduce it), and is it enough?

ETA for fans of Joe Haldeman: "What happens when you drop a wrench in a submarine?"

I'm an admitted fan of their stuff, but mostly for other sports. They publish a lot of the 3rd party testing information on their site:

"Utilizing facilities at Rutgers, Virginia Tech, BioCore and Stanford, Guardian continues building upon its current base of research in impact reduction and material development.

• Rutgers
  • Youth focused clinical study conducted by Robert Heary, MD, Neurosurgeon. Demonstrated that by using Guardian Caps & safe tackling techniques at the middle school level there are fewer head impacts over the course of an entire season.
• Virginia Tech
  • “Helmet shell add-ons have been shown to decrease linear and rotational acceleration, thereby helping to reduce risk of injury.”
• BioCore
  • On average, the Guardian Cap NXT reduced HARM (head acceleration response metric) by 9%, while the ProTech reduced HARM by 5%, which was a statistically significant difference.
• Stanford
  • Overall, by incorporating a Guardian Cap, HARM values were reduced in laboratory impact tests by an average of 25% at 3.5 m/s (range: 9.7 – 39.6%), 18% at 5.5 m/s (range: -5.5% – 40.5), and 10% at 7.4 m/s (range: -6.0 – 31.0%)
• NFL On-Field Data
  • According to the NFL, the Guardian Cap has been very effective and reduced concussions by 52%.

The Guardian team is always open to more research on the Guardian Cap to further build on the current base of research and continue to bridge the gap that exists between biomechanical testing to the end injuries. Until the gap is bridged, claims will be held only to what has been empirically proven."

There are a lot of companies doing a lot of really cool and interesting things with lessons learned and material science from the DOD used to protect our guys and gals in combat.

This company especially (https://unequal.com/ ) is leveraging layered materials to significantly reduce felt impact force. softer compressive lessens initial impact, then a kevlar layer distributes force almost as well as a hard shell, then a softer inner layer to further reduce what wasn't distributed.

G-Form has materials that are soft and flexible, until impact, then the impact force actual hardens the material so it's a hybrid soft and hard layer.

I've spent way more time than I should looking into all this. My son plays attack in lacrosse which means he is the target of defense guys whacking at him with 6 foot long carbon fiber or titanium shafts, so we're always looking for something to reduce some of the punishment without impacting his mobility.