Head Impact Exposure and Biomechanics in University Varsity Women’s Soccer

Abstract

Soccer is a unique sport where players purposefully and voluntarily use their unprotected heads to manipulate the direction of the ball. There are limited soccer head impact exposure data to further study brain injury risks. The objective of the current study was to combine validated mouthpiece sensors with comprehensive video analysis methods to characterize head impact exposure and biomechanics in university varsity women’s soccer. Thirteen female soccer athletes were instrumented with mouthpiece sensors to record on-field head impacts during practices, scrimmages, and games. Multi-angle video was obtained and reviewed for all on-field activity to verify mouthpiece impacts and identify contact scenarios. We recorded 1307 video-identified intentional heading impacts and 1011 video-verified sensor impacts. On average, athletes experienced 1.83 impacts per athlete-exposure, with higher exposure in practices than games/scrimmages. Median and 95th percentile peak linear and peak angular accelerations were 10.0, 22.2 g, and 765, 2296 rad/s 2 , respectively. Long kicks, top of the head impacts and jumping headers resulted in the highest impact kinematics. Our results demonstrate the importance of investigating and monitoring head impact exposure during soccer practices, as well as the opportunity to limit high-kinematics impact exposure through heading technique training and reducing certain contact scenarios.

Head Impact in Blind Football During the Tokyo Paralympics

“…A previous study on head impact exposure per AE in footballers reported rates of 1.83 and 3.19 among female and male players, respectively. 11,15 The values of head impact exposure were higher in the current study than in previous studies involving athletes without disabilities, indicating that head impact frequency increased with visual impairment. We found that blind football players exhibited a high head impact frequency even though they did not head the ball.…”

“…The development of effective headgear and verification of its effectiveness are expected in the future. A previous study on head impact exposure per AE in footballers reported rates of 1.83 and 3.19 among female and male players, respectively 11,15 . The values of head impact exposure were higher in the current study than in previous studies involving athletes without disabilities, indicating that head impact frequency increased with visual impairment.…”

“…For this match or competition, one athlete exposure (AE) was defined as one player participating in one match. Thereafter, head impact per AE was calculated by dividing the total number of impacts by the total number of AE 11 . No player was directly involved in this study.…”

“…the total number of impacts by the total number of AE 11. No player was directly involved in this study.…”

Influence of the frame of reference on head acceleration events recorded by instrumented mouthguards in community rugby players

“…Therefore, instrumented mouthguards (iMGs) show substantial promise for improving accuracy in real-time measurement of HAE in field sports 9–12. The data collected can be used to improve player welfare by informing decisions regarding training loads 6 13. For clinicians and sports scientists, the hope is that real-time on-field evaluation of head impacts will lead to earlier detection of potential injurious events, support earlier medical intervention and removal from play for at-risk players 14…”