Protective Equipment in Sports Safety

Protective Equipment Characteristics

• Protective equipment design principles involve redirecting impact forces to alter their path and lessen the force of impact

• Protective equipment design often utilizes a hard outer shell for impact resistance, while smooth and round surfaces are favored to reduce friction and redirection

• Protective equipment should disperse impact forces over a large area, often via rigid, continuous materials like cantivers or a combination of hard shells and foam

• Absorption is the equipment's ability to absorb some of the impact or shock and diminish the force reaching the body, for example through air or foam

  • Air absorption provides good impact absorption, comfort, and a better individual fit
  • Foam absorption provides decent impact absorption but has longer return to original shape, is generally durable, and doesn't readily absorb water/perspiration

• Limiting the movement of a joint within a specific range of motion via materials like tape, splints (sam, foam, nylon, neoprene, leather, or metal), to restrict mobility

• Contact sports like football, hockey, and lacrosse demand specific equipment for head and shoulder protection.

• Helmet purpose is to minimize head trauma, though not all injuries are preventable

Helmet Components and Materials

• Helmets typically use crushable foam (EPS) or Expanded Polypropylene foam (EPP)
  • EPS is very crushable and doesn't return to its original shape after impact
  • EPP is more "squishy"
• Helmet design implications can include an extended outer circumference, non-smooth surfaces or external additions which may interfere with helmet movement or sliding, which can cause neck wrenches

Comparison of Hockey and Football Helmets

• Football helmets face more frequent and intense body contact over shorter periods, often with high mass, low velocity Impacts
• Hockey helmet blows are typically isolated, fast-acting impacts with low mass and high force.

NOCSAE

• NOCSAE is the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment, which is a non-profit organization formed in 1969 to commission research and establish test standards for athletic equipment
• It set standards for football helmets, beginning in 1970.
• NOCSAE published a test standard by 1973
• This involved equipment installed into manufacturing plants, with manufacturers certifying their own equipment compliance
• Changes to the tests resulted in shell size modifications, and switching from stiffer to softer materials for construction

Helmet Testing and Standard Revisions

• There have been revisions and improvements to NOCSAE standards to improve the safety and quality of a helmet
• A considerable decrease in head injuries, resulting in zero deaths, occurred in the 1990s
• The revisions in standards are partially due to rules and equipment changes.

Other protective Equipment (shoulder pads)

• Shoulder pads come in two main styles (flat and cantilever) for protection/dispersion of force
• Components of shoulder pads include epaulettes, forming spring, cantilever strap
• Shoulder pad components vary, and their design is tailored to the impacts typical to the sport

Other organizations Involved in protective equipment standards, and testing

• NAERA is the National Athletic Equipment Reconditioner's Association, and was instrumental in finding that 84% of reconditioned helmets failed NOCSAE testing in 1975
• NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) and the National Federation of State High School Associations adopted NOCSAE Standards for football helmets by 1978 and 1980
• HECC (Hockey Equipment Certification Committee) developed the standards and process for hockey helmets