Defend Your Head, the sports safety company based in Chester Spring, PA, announced results of an independent study recently released by Penn State University centered on football related head injuries. The three year study indicates that ProTech, the exclusive soft shell helmet technology developed by DYH, was a primary factor in reducing traumatic head impacts to the Nittany Lion players tested.
The Penn State University research team combined the ProTech soft shell technology with special helmet sensors to monitor collision impact forces and to collect valuable data from every practice and game day. Sensors in the helmets measured impacts of significant G-forces in real time, as well as rotational aspects of each impact and their location on the helmet.
In 2015, before players were fitted with ProTech, linemen averaged 38.16 hits greater than 25Gs per player per week and 3 hits greater than 80Gs per player per week. In 2017, after players were fitted with ProTech, data showed a reduced average of just 20.41 hits over 25Gs or approximately half of the previously averaged 25Gs per player per week and 0.83 average weekly hits over 80Gs – a 72% reduction per player, per week in higher intensity impacts to the head.
The independent research initiative, titled “The Accumulation of Sub concussive Impacts Across a Single Season of Division 1 Football” was led by Penn State University Medical Chief Investigators Dr. Semyon Slobounov and Tim Bream.
Said Tim Bream, recent Athletic Trainer at Penn State and current head of Sports Medicine at University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, “Penn State has worked closely with ProTech and has scrutinized the technology over two full years of use. We can conclude from our testing scrutiny that the ProTech is a proactive solution that reduces collision force from blows to a players’s head. With our concern regarding the long term effects of the accumulation of head impacts, this is great news for our players! When we realized we could reduce the amount of total head impacts and also reduce the force from those impacts, we became confident we were improving both short term and especially the long term health of our players.”
“ProTech is changing the conversation around football and safety,” said Defend Your Head Founder, President and former NFL football player John Roman, “It’s our goal to make football a safer sport for players at all levels.” Glenn Tilley, DYH’s Executive Chairman and CEO observed, “No other add-on safety technology company has subjected itself to this level of independent testing rigor. We are not aware of any add-on technology that has significantly improved the force management attributes of a helmet to the extent of the ProTech. The recent Penn State Study underscores this performance representation. With the responsible and appropriate concern by parents to improve player safety, we believe it is time parents know solutions exist and ProTech is one of them.”
For more information about the ProTech for your team or football organization contact Defend Your Head at: info@defendyourhead.com.
