Secondary Research

A compilation of five articles over the influence of athletic identity on the recovery of athletes who have suffered from spinal cord injuries and can no long participate in high-level sports.

While researching about the concept of athletic identity and how it develops, I discovered the article, ““Just Act Normal”: Concussion and the (Re)Negotiation of Athletic Identity”. The autoethnography provides the author’s personal anecdote with athletic identity and his experiences after sustaining a major sports-related concussion. Originally, I was searching for articles that detailed the factors that influence the athletic identity of a person. However, the new perspective that this article provided on how the athletic identity influences how athletes react to an injury made me reconsider my approach to this topic.

After my last assessment on the autoethnography of Mr. Nikolaus Dean and his recovery experience with a concussion, I wanted to learn more about the intricacies of concussions. I was able to find the article, “SECOND IMPACT SYNDROME: Sports Confront Consequences of Concussions” to help me learn some basics on concussion prevention and how it has evolved. While this article is a bit on the older side, it provides an early perspective into the measures that should be taken to prevent and recover from a concussion.

The Guardian Cap (GC) and its potential benefits in American football as a product to decrease the players’ susceptibility to concussions have been a hot topic of discussion recently. Concussions themselves have also been discussed more within literature and more research is being conducted on ways to effectively reduce the chances of traumatic brain injuries. The article, “Preliminary Examination of Guardian Cap Head Impact Kinematics Using Instrumented Mouthguards”, conducted a study to determine the effectiveness of the GC when used by collegiate football athletes during practice. However, the article determined that the use of the GC is ineffective in reducing the impact and risk of potential brain injuries when used during collegiate football practices. It also emphasized that there is a need for additional research on contact sport equipment to find the best solution to reduce the number of concussions that contact sports athletes experience.

In order to understand what changes need to be implemented into football helmets for my original work, I must first understand which areas of the helmet are more affected by direct impact, leading to a concussion or other sports-related brain injuries. The article “Concussion in professional football: location and direction of helmet impacts-Part 2” describes the study that the authors conducted and their findings. The authors noted that concussions were more frequent when the athlete received the blow to the front or side of the helmet. This suggests that those are the main regions that I should focus on when I am constructing my prototype and my original work. 

During my informational interview with Dr. Sophia Ulman, I was able to speak to her a bit about my idea for my original work. She advised me to look into the helmet research that Virginia Tech, her alma mater, has conducted since they have multiple studies on football helmets in particular. As a result, I was able to find the article “How Shell Add-On Products Influence Varsity Football Helmet Performance?” from their research to further analyze current helmet add-ons to see what has been proven to work and what doesn’t. 

Since I have shifted my idea for my original work to include an additional piece of equipment to analyze peak linear acceleration (PLA) and peak rotational acceleration (PRA) for the head, I need to learn more about the two. I first learned of the two during one of my past research assessments on Guardian Caps. From my understanding, a piece of equipment that is able to record PLA and PRA already exists. In order for me to determine how the currently existing equipment can be used to determine risks for concussions, I need to acquire a deeper understanding of both PLA and PRA. While researching, I found the article, “Brain injury prediction: assessing the combined probability of concussion using linear and rotational head acceleration”, which I use to try to better comprehend how they are measured.

In order to measure the biomechanical factors that indicate concussion risks, I have continued my search for currently existing equipment that has the capability of measuring peak linear acceleration (PLA) and peak rotational acceleration (PRA). During my research, I was able to find the article “Measuring Head Impact Exposure and Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in Humans” which described the process of implementing sensors, also known as accelerometers, into helmets and the Head Impact Telemetry (HIT) System or the custom-built six degree of freedom (6-DOF) system to collect head impact and exposure data. 

After learning about the Riddell Axiom helmet, I wanted to learn more about the other helmets on the market, especially those that are on the less pricey side, and how they compare. Through this, I found myself on the Virginia Tech website once again, looking at their helmet research. Paired with the technical document “Varsity Football Star Methodology”, the top 34 helmets at the time they were testing were ranked based on their performance during testing. With the Riddell Axiom sitting at #7, I wanted to learn more about the 6 other helmets that were supposedly better at reducing the linear and rotational acceleration of the head.

On its way!

On its way!

On its way!