Citation

O'Sullivan DM, Fife GP, Pieter W, Shin I. Br. J. Sports Med. 2013; 47(7): 447-451.

Affiliation

Department of Physical Education, Chung-Ang University, Anseong, Republic of Korea.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, BMJ Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1136/bjsports-2012-091416

PMID

23349318

Abstract

BACKGROUND: With over 20 years of taekwondo concussion research highlighting the high incidence of injury, previous studies recommend an investigation of headgear impact attenuation performance. OBJECTIVE: To examine impact attenuation differences between the anterior, posterior and sides of selected taekwondo headgear brands. DESIGN: Between-groups. SETTING: Biomechanics laboratory. METHODS: Five different commercially available taekwondo headgear were selected for impact testing. A 50th percentile Hybrid II Dummy Crash Test head and neck was fitted with the selected helmet and was bolted to a 25 kg steel torso-like structure. Each headgear model was impacted eight times to the anterior, posterior and sides by a 6.75 kg bowling ball at three heights to produce 52.25, 85 and 144 J strikes. MAIN OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS: Resultant head linear acceleration. RESULTS: Two-way (Helmet×Location) mixed analysis of variance with repeated measures on the second factor was performed to determine the differences between headgear by location of impact. There was a two-way (Helmet×Location) interaction for acceleration (η(2)=0.368). CONCLUSIONS: Taekwondo headgear manufacturers and sport governing bodies must consider improving the design of especially anterior helmet properties.

Language: en