NY looking to end youth football

[Online Persona]

I have a pet peeve with this and have for quite some time. If football powers really wanted to do something, they'd pad the outside of the helmets. Teams have been doing this for decades. There is simply no reason to make football helmets as hard as rocks other than teams like to use them as weapons.

My concept is multi-layered. I like a crumple zone that has some longer-term (measured in seconds, not milliseconds) deformation with padding underneath (the key is to slow the collision and return the helmet for multiple impact use, so not disposable after one big impact). Then an inside layer of pads that are filled with viscous fluids similar to your body's own cerebral fluid (this is really just an external extension of what God has designed as the most efficient means to reduce relative acceleration of the skull and brain matter upon impact. And I have a third layer as well that is enhanced performance related which I won't go into here.

 

[Texas Lion]

CTE is the result of repeated TBI. TBI becomes easier and easier with each iteration of it. TBI is the result of the brain moving through the cerebral fluid (the breaks) with enough speed that brain matter impacts the cranium and then swells or bleeds. The way that the brain matter achieves enough speed to overcome the cerebral fluid is through large accelerations as the cerebral fluid (a viscous fluid) acts to decelerate the brain matter.

Large accelerations are achieved by having large impulses (a large force as a function of time times (really the dot product) the differential element of time of impact). There are two ways to analyze the impulse of a collision.

1) Maximizing the force experienced due to impact which then maximizes the acceleration of the brain matter (F=ma), can be achieved when the time of the collision is reduced. This is done when you have a) a fast, violent hit and b) the collision occurs over a smaller surface area that is harder and therefore less compression and envelopment occurs on the impact surfaces (think of dropping an egg on the floor versus if it were to be dropped into a net that envelopes it and slows the collision down or in the practical sense of this discussion, a helmet to helmet hit).

2) Maximizing the acceleration can be achieved by maximizing the rate of momentum change with respect to time (F = dP/dt, or the original way Newton's 2nd law was written dP/dt = ma). To maximize the rate of change of momentum with respect to time, you would need to decrease the time of collision (we already covered this) or maximize the change in momentum (p = mv) by either increasing the masses or the velocity of the masses in the collision.

The point of the above analysis is that the larger and faster the players in the collisions as well as helmet to helmet collisions maximize the acceleration of the brain matter causing a higher likelihood of that brain matter impacting the skull (and with greater force) of the players. The force of the impact of the brain matter with the skull usually results in more trauma to the brain matter.

This is why we have helmets in the first place btw. They cause a slower head-to-head collision over a greater surface area with more deformation than if it were skull to skull. The unfortunate thing is that additional protection can be viewed as a weapon. I have some concepts for improved helmet design based on physics (a mix of similar concepts used in auto safety design and hydraulic breaks). But the crux of the problem is always going to be bigger players, moving faster, and hitting helmet to helmet.

I lack the ability to stay focused during that long of a post but the things I did read made sense. So I ask this.....if larger and faster players maximizes the impact, then really what does banning youth football do. My son played youth (is a soph in high school now still playing) and those games were filled with drag downs. I was more worried about knees than concussions.

 

[Online Persona]

I lack the ability to stay focused during that long of a post but the things I did read made sense. So I ask this.....if larger and faster players maximizes the impact, then really what does banning youth football do. My son played youth (is a soph in high school now still playing) and those games were filled with drag downs. I was more worried about knees than concussions.

I agree with you. I don't think CTE is as much of a threat in terms of the physics involved. Where my knowledge is lacking is in terms of human development and susceptibility at various ages to TBI. For example, bone strength and density change as a function of our age. Our neural development changes. Our muscular development and control changes as a function of our age.

Does the interaction of the brain matter with cerebral fluid change as a function of our age and how? I don't know that answer. A pediatrician is the better choice to answer this question. Perhaps it takes significantly less/more acceleration to cause the brain matter to impact the skull or an impact with the skull is more/less damaging to children's brain matter. I cannot answer this with any degree of certainty.

 

[marshall23]

The Government, both sides, are a complete joke. I still can't believe there isnt a legitimate third party...call it the "common sense" party.

Cut open a democrat and a republican.....they are the same inside. Stuffed with cash.

 

[gjbankos]

That's not the drill I know. The article says King of the Circle. I'm familiar with a drill we called Bull in the ring. The players would stand in a circle and coaches would call on two players of comparable size to go into the middle of the ring. When he blew the whistle they went at it as hard as they could trying to push each other back. The drill probably lasted for 30 seconds unless someone got knocked to the ground. The players were in full gear but I never saw a head collision.

The drill in that VT study is not bull in the ring. What you describe is correct.