@article{ref1,
title="Head impact exposure in youth football: middle school ages 12 to 14 years",
journal="Journal of biomechanical engineering",
year="2014",
author="Daniel, Ray W. and Rowson, Steven and Duma, Stefan M.",
volume="136",
number="9",
pages="e094501-e094501",
abstract="The head impact exposure for athletes involved in American football at the college and high school levels has been well documented; however, there is limited information regarding youth football players, despite its dramatically larger population. The objective of this study was to investigate head impact exposure in middle school football. Impacts were monitored using a commercially available accelerometer array installed inside the helmets of 10 players aged 12 to 14 years during each game and practice for an entire season. A total of 3414 impacts were measured, with an average of 341 ± 254 impacts per player. Linear accelerations ranged from 10 g to 150 g, and rotational accelerations ranged from 7 rad/s2 to 9019 rad/s2. The average instrumented player had a median impact of 21 ± 2 g and 890 ± 112 rad/s2, and a 95th percentile impact of 59 ± 10 g and 2641 ± 433 rad/s2. Similar to high school and collegiate head impact exposure distributions, these data show that middle school football players experience greater impact frequency and acceleration magnitudes during games than practices. The distribution of impact locations in middle school football is similar to that of high school and collegiate distributions, with front and rear impacts being most common. These data have applications towards youth football helmet design and development of strategies designed to limit head impact exposure.  Keywords: American football; <p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0148-0731",
doi="10.1115/1.4027872",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1115/1.4027872"
}