Should Soccer Players Wear Protective Headgear?

Overview

Objectives/Goals To determine whether soccer protective headgear prevents impact injury and if its underutilization is due to poor performance, comfort or coaching bias. Methods/Materials Three types of commercial protective headgear and an unprotected control were tested repeatedly for side and front impacts. A cranial model was struck by a reproducible impact and the compression and deformity to an applied clay slab was measured with a digital caliper. Competitive soccer players compared each product to their unprotected head for comfort and playability. Coaches were surveyed to assess their knowledge and biases. Results Protective headgear decreased the measured impact compression and deformity of the clay. The Full 90 Select had the best overall impact results and scored better than the unprotected head on the player survey. The coaches admitted little knowledge of headgear utility and one coach reported a negative bias. Conclusions/Discussion Soccer protective headgear consistently reduced the impact to the head and did not adversely affect reported player comfort and playability. Since athletes participating in football, skateboarding and cycling wear protective headgear, one has to question why not soccer players.

Awards (1)

• Fourth Place

Competition history

• CSEF 2007 Product Science (Junior Division Only) · Entry J1803

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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