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Crash dummy kids are helping to simulate accident conditions for researchers who are
trying to find ways to lessen sports injuries: particularly for the high risk contact
sports, such as football, soccer, rugby, and basketball.
Soccer is the most popular team sport world wide with an estimated 40 million amateur
participants. In 1998, more than 77,500 children and adolescents ages 5 to 14 were treated
in hospital emergency rooms for soccer-related injuries. The Consumer Product Safety
Commission, over a 13 year time period, has identified 18 individuals who have died
secondary to impacts with the goal post. The crash dummy kids are helping analyze a padded
system for the goal post which will hopefully aid in the prevention of head injury in
soccer. The idea is that a machine accelerates a carriage and a Humanoid head form along the
steel track until an impact occurs with an instrumented anvil at the end of the track. A load cell within the anvil is used to
measure the force of the impact. The head isn't the only location for a soccer injury. The shin is the third most common
area injured in soccer, and most often occur when players try to kick the ball and instead
kick each other.. A study performed at the Institute for Preventative Sports Medicine in Ann
Arbor, Michigan found that Shin guards significantly reduced the force delivered by a kick
to the leg by 41.2 to 77.1 percent. The researchers used a Hybrid III crash dummy which is similar in size to a ten-year-old
child. the Hybrid III dummy measures more factors and more closely mimics whole body
responses of humans than other approaches. A free swinging pendulum device delivered a force
similar to that of a high impact collision during a game to the knee of the dummy, and the
force of the 'kick' was recorded by a load cell in the dummy's knee. This simulated one
person kicking another person with their leg planted, and represents the impact a healthy,
physically active athlete could deliver with a kick. The researchers fitted the shin guards
to the leg with straps in the manner in which a player would typically attach the guard.
22 different commercially available shin guards were tested. The study found that all shin
guards demonstrated at least a 40 percent reduction in the force delivered with several shin
guards reducing the force over 70 percent. Thanks Crash Dummy Kids. I'm hoping the results of this test will be posted next to the
soccer equipment at my local sporting goods store.
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