There’s been a lot of talk during races about concussion protocols and I was listening to a podcast yesterday where they were talking about most of the competitors in the Womens Rugby World Cup are going to be having accelerometers and LEDs in their gum shields during the competition
When the accelerometer detects a blow to the head which may cause a concussion the LED’s will light up and flash alerting the referee so he can stop the game and have them checked out.
I was thinking something like this surely could be put on a riders helmet to help make the decision whether they are checked for concussion.
Unfortunately putting it in the helmet doesn’t work as both hair and the skin on your head cause slippage that interferes with the readings. The rugby one is in the mouth guard as it’s a direct connection to the jaw and the skull so you get a clean reading. It’s a brilliant concept and I hope they can figure out a way to transfer it to cycling. Real Science of Sport had a great pod on it too. Brilliant rugby are taking head impacts seriously.
Yes, this is true. The acceleration varies quite a lot with the location. At the helmet / road interface, the acceleration could be orders of magnitude than in the brain, during the same collision. I imagine the mouth guard one is a better measure of what the brain is experiencing, as you say.
Also the risk is associated with acceleration magnitude x duration.