I’m guessing you mean the cascade helmet. I will be upfront in stating I’ve worked with the company- but their tech is worlds better than the EPP or other foam in competing helmets, and has a total reset vs. foam where the product loses effectiveness with every impact. I’ve watched and heard stories from them as the massive giant of head protection in hockey, Nike Bauer, basically tries to bury the small guy who invents the better product though litigation and not so honest advertising. I don’t recall them ever changing their approach in selling the helmet or advertising.
So anyways I came here to post about the cascade liner and not defend them as a company- its basically an array of elastomer shock absorbers, they used in lacrosse helmets first, and is the sort of thing I wish I thought of because its so simple but works. http://www.cascadeicehockey.com/the-technology.html
I recently listened to a Frontline episode that was about high school footbal that spoke about concussion and head trauma amongst other things. Football High - Video | FRONTLINE | PBS.
I’m only 15 minutes into listening to this…and it scares the hell out of me.
The big thing about concussions, and all the talk about how “the players won’t wear the helmets”, etc. is that when we talk about “the players” we’re talking about the Pros. The Bertuzzis of the world won’t wear a chin strap.
The real problem is that before they become professionals, they are kids. 13 & 14 year olds smashing into each other without the coordination, or size (yet?) to protect themself from that monster of a kid with an anger problem that will have no problem smashing him/her into oblivion.
I have 2 young kids and this truly scares the crap out of me. I played football, and I hated it. I was too much of a wuss to make it in that kind of sport. Which is why I ran But, really…it is way different now than it was in the 80s. As a culture, we’ve gotten to be insane about sport and our attraction to the glory of it all, that a few concussions are “worth it”.
Jon: They did teach you to lead with your shoulder, right?
Part of any sport is proper technique. A friend of mine has been taking kung-fu classes for a year and has barely ever practiced one-on-one. The teacher wants to make sure a student understands the technique before practicing on another person, where bad technique can lead to injury. Even running with the wrong technique can lead to leg injuries.
Back to equipment though, it’s strange in hockey that players are required to where full face masks up until the pros (18 years old), yet no one wears a full face in the NHL. Sometimes a mandate is the only thing that can change behaviour.
Moreover, it seems like in hockey, the problems aren’t just concussion but controlling neck movement. That’s what happened to Steve Moore, he fractured 2-3 vertebrae. No helmet can eliminate this problem.
I was actually thinking that same thing IP. I think high impact sports in general will have to take a look at how they can change the root of the problem. By creating these more protective objects, it seems like we are just trying to minimize the damage (while allowing the root cause to continue) and not do anything to actually stop it outright. I just noticed that the US hockey association is having a re-evaluation of the checking age in order to allow the players to mature a bit before slamming into each other. They are looking at changing it from Peewee (12 and under) to Bantam (14 and under). There is more detail about the changes and why they need to evaluate it here: http://www.usahockey.com//Template_Usahockey.aspx?NAV=ET_03&ID=299508 It will be interesting to see how this will effect the injury rates and also the competitiveness against other countries players.
Uh…not really. Yes, you were “supposed to”, but if you could hurt the other guy. Watch/listen to that Frontline report. It is the same thing being said in there. “We know its wrong to lead with your head, but that’s how you inflict damage and sometimes you have to beat your opponent into submission” (not a direct quote, but a paraphrase/amalgamation of several interviews in the show).
But, let’s say that every kids in the world is taught to “lead with their shoulder”. At 12, 13, 14 yrs old, you don’t have the coordination yet to do so. You’re going to stumble, have miscues, whatever.
There’s a report discussed in the show about how it isn’t about concussions, but the repeated impact is causing degenerative damage to the brain. The comparison made was to a rotator cuff injury. How over time, your joint just wears out. They’re now starting to say that hit after hit has a cumulative effect that in turn creates mini tears in your brain that contributes to depression, suicide, and other evil maladies.
IP: now that I saw that Frontline, I understand what you mean. It seems like design probably can’t do much here. The game is just so dangerous. Maybe the only thing we could do is go to leather helmets. If it hurt to hit their heads, maybe the game would change. It would be interesting to see how rugby compares with injuries.
Also, let’s not forget the other football. I’ve heard that headers in soccer are just as bad. Any good soccer player will practice a ton of headers also.
he talked about how the lockout caused a “feeling out” period with the players and refs on what would and wouldn’t be called, and as they had less tolerance for hooking and obstruction, they let players start to get away with more and more vicious bodychecking out of fear of taking physicality out of the game.
But, really…it is way different now than it was in the 80s. As a culture, we’ve gotten to be insane about sport and our attraction to the glory of it all, that a few concussions are “worth it”.