The Effectiveness of Protective Headgear in Attenuating Ball-to-Forehead Impacts in Water Polo

Abstract

Recent reports have demonstrated that there is a serious risk of head impact and injury in water polo. The use of protective headgear in contact sports is a commonly accepted strategy for reducing the risk of head injury, but there are few available protective headgears for use in water polo. Many of those that are available are banned by the sport's governing bodies due to a lack of published data supporting the effectiveness of those headgears in reducing head impact kinematics. To address this gap in knowledge, we launched a water polo ball at the forehead of an anthropomorphic testing device fitted with either a standard water polo headgear or one of two protective headgears. We selected a range of launch speeds representative of those observed across various athlete ages. Mixed-model ANOVAs revealed that, relative to standard headgear, protective headgears reduced peak linear acceleration (by 10.8-21.6%; p < 0.001), and peak rotational acceleration (by 24.5-48.5%; p < 0.001) induced by the simulated ball-to-forehead impacts. We discuss the possibility of using protective headgears in water polo to attenuate head impact kinematics.

Patterns of head impact exposure in men’s and women’s collegiate club water polo

“…20,21 Although none of the athletes we monitored wore protective headgears, the characterization of head impacts in the present study can inform the design of protective water polo headgears and the methods used to test their efficacy. A previous study of protective water polo headgears reported attenuated head impact magnitudes from a ball launched at the front of the head, 22 an impact scenario commonly self-reported in an epidemiological survey of water polo players. 15 However, ball impacts and front impacts were relatively uncommon in this cohort.…”

Návrh individuálneho chrániča uší prostredníctvom CAD/CAM metódy

“…V súčasnosti existuje mnoho spôsobov, ako chrániť ušnicu pred vonkajšími vplyvmi, či už mechanických alebo akustickými. Zároveň bolo vytvorených mnoho štúdií, ktoré sa venujú hodnotením efektivity chráničov uší [7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. Výskum je zameraný na návrh personalizovaného chrániča uší, ktorého použitie je vhodné ako pre profesionálnych športovcov, tak aj pre ľudí, ktorým hrozí riziko fyzického poranenia uší pri vykonávaní ich práce, športu, či voľnočasových aktivít.…”