Monday, March 30, 2015

Head Safety in Hockey

In recent studies it as been shown that the hockey helmets that have been used anywhere from youth to professional hockey will not protect athletes from concussions. Stephen Duma at Virginia Tech University developed a 5 star rating to determine the class of a helmet that would help protect the athlete better. Each star represents how much force the helmet can take while still protecting the brain. There were 32 helmets that were tested by Stephen Duma at Virginia Tech's own facility. The helmet companies do not provide any type of funding for Duma's research. After completing his research it was found that all helmets were insufficient in protecting the brain from trauma. There were 9 helmets that received a 0 stars with the majority of them that only ranked 1-2 stars. There was only one helmet that reached to a mere 3 stars that is made by Warrior. Upon this finding, the conclusion that with the wearing of these helmets that each individual would receive up to six concussions within the season. 
The CEO of Bauer that, Kevin Davis, who produces one of the most used helmets was confronted with this issue and asked why his helmets were not up to par. After the Bauer helmets were tested it was found that the most expensive of his helmets was rated last of all his helmets, while the cheapest helmet that they produce had a much higher star rating. Davis who claims that concussions are based on an individual basis and that each of his helmets are made to the quality that would protect each players brain. He mentions that the concussion injury is based purely on the athlete and how severe or the likely-hood of them receiving a concussion is all based on the athlete.
Dr. Alan Ashare who is head of HECC which is the organization that clears each helmet for use by athletes also reassures that the stamp of HECC on the helmets is proof that they pass the test to help protect the athletes from injury.
What do you think? Are the helmets really protecting the athlete or are they producing helmets that are not up to the task to protect our athletes? Does the helmet even protect the brain or as Kevin Davis states, concussions are an individual injury and no helmet can determine how that injury will affect an athlete?

Amanda Notley

(2015). Head Safety in Hockey [Online video]. ESPN. Retrieved from http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=12571711
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1 comment:

  1. UnknownMarch 30, 2015 at 10:47 AM

    This is a very interesting topic to look at, especially with our morality of hockey fighting discussion that will happen in class this afternoon. I am not the most familiar with the issue at hand, but going off of what the study you discussed said, it seems to me that there is much work to be done. I have a friend who plays college hockey and he has told me in the past that he has opted not to wear a visor with his helmet because he has better vision on the ice. It's possible that the same concept applies to helmets. While the helmets that are out now may not be the safest, maybe they have a better feel to the players. Despite this, I still think there should be mandated rules on what type of helmet players have to wear in order to keep them safe. The last thing the sport needs is to have issues with CTE, similar to the NFL right now.

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