Let’s Spring Into Action And Protect Athletes
Ralph Cornwell
is a Ph.D. candidate in health promotion/human performance at
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Prior to
pursuing his Doctoral Degree he was a collegiate strength coach.
Research from the best minds in the automotive safety industry all
agree, the circumference of the neck changes the way it reacts to forces
applied to that area.
The former Congressional appointed Chairman of the Head and Neck Committee put together a study on concussions and found:
” Stronger necks reduce head acceleration, deltaV, and displacement.
Even relatively small reductions in deltaV have a large effect on head
injury criterion that may reduce concussion risks because changes in
deltaV change head injury criterion through the 4th power.”
Test dummies are used to simulate a human in a collision whether it is by automobile or playing sports.
How do they simulate neck strength in humans?
They change the size of the spring on the test dummies. Small to
replicate a child’s neck circumference. Medium size for female adults
and large for adult males.
To
simulate an athlete’s neck you have to go one step further. The
athlete’s neck is simulated by the largest and most stiff spring on a
crash dummy in order to replicate the kinematics of a collision
accurately.
The replicated athletic neck is more resistant to change than the
mock-up normal population neck. It deforms less then all the simulated
necks.
This is true for crash test dummies; is it not true for athletes playing sports that include collisions?
By increasing the circumference of our athlete’s necks the same result should occur. Less deformation of the cervical spine.
If
this is good for test dummies, it should be good for America’s athletes
risking concussion during sports. It will certainly lowers the
subconcussive forces.
Congress calls concussions an ‘American Epidemic’. Let’s start inoculating our athletes with larger stronger necks.