TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2013//
TI  - Safety performance evaluation of taekwondo headgear
JO  - British journal of sports medicine
A1  - O'Sullivan, David M.
A1  - Fife, Gabriel P.
A1  - Pieter, Willy
A1  - Shin, Insik
SP  - 447
EP  - 451
VL  - 47
IS  - 7
N2  - 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.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0306-3674
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2012-091416
ID  - ref1
ER  -