Youth football participation is on the decline. One of the primary reasons is concern over the short-term and long-term effects of concussions.
While preventing concussions entirely is next to impossible, an Atlanta-based company is looking to lessen the impact. Literally.
According to Lee Hanson, President of Guardian Innovations, their scientifically-tested Guardian Caps are able to reduce the impact of hits to the head by 33 percent.
The caps are soft-shell covers designed to be wrapped over the outside of a football helmet.
The soft material is set up to reduce the initial severity of the impact through energy absorption. The hard shell of the football helmet then has to deal with lower forces and that results in lower forces reaching the interior soft helmet padding and then still even lower forces reaching the actual head of the player.
“It’s like the crush zone on your automobile,” said Hanson, a Gainesville resident. “The area of your car that absorbs all that energy so on the inside you don’t get hurt. It’s doing the same thing on the helmet.
“It’s absorbing all that energy.”
While initial testing data from multiple laboratories and universities is all showing positive results, more testing is still in the works.
Hanson says more than 60,000 caps are in use out in the field ranging from youth leagues all the way up to Division I college football. The caps are even starting to venture into other sports such as lacrosse.
Despite the positive initial tests, the NFL has yet to endorse the Guardian Caps, although several teams have inquired, stating that they will require more scientific research to show the caps effectiveness at limiting concussions before they endorse the product.
There are also concerns about the weight these caps add to the helmet potentially affecting a player’s balance, although the caps are listed at only weighing 8 ounces.
Even though local high schools such as Buford, Parkview, Brookwood and Pace Academy, as well as Georgia, Georgia Tech and Georgia State all endorse the product and use it in practice, you will not see a Guardian Cap used in a game just yet due to liability concerns.
Placing a third-party add-on to a piece of equipment voids the equipment’s certification under the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment.
“The coaches that are looking at it that are calling (Guardian Innovations) up are saying ‘We want to do what’s best and be proactive for these athletes. We know that there’s an issue going on and we want to do everything and be proactive,’” Hanson said.
The technology is still rather new having only been on the market for six years, but every year more and more schools from across the country are adopting these Guardian Caps for use in team practices.
“I think people are being smarter about the game,” he said. “They are realizing that going head-to-head on kids and making them hit heads together is not the smartest thing in the world.”
Henson commented on WDUN's Afternoon News Wrap with Russell Brown.
