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Safety performance evaluation of taekwondo headgear
David M O'Sullivan1, Gabriel P Fife, Willy Pieter
1Department of Physical Education, Chung-Ang University, Anseong, Republic of Korea.
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.
