Source: University of Western
Kody Campbell admits to having his bell rung a few times. As a Mustangs football player for five years (2007-11), Campbell never sustained a concussion himself, but knows of many others who did. He is well aware the hard hits which deliver those head injuries are not leaving the game anytime soon.
Out of the game, and pursuing a master’s degree in Kinesiology, Campbell now tackles the science behind the hard hits and the triggers of concussions.
“The thing with concussions is they are very hard to understand,” Campbell said. “One way you can start to understand is through biomechanics. Looking at it bio-mechanically, you’re trying to understand how big the accelerations are when heads are receiving these hits. From there, you can calculate the forces and try and understand better what time of acceleration is potentially going to lead to a concussion.”
Concussion In a Canadian-first study of the physics behind concussions on the football field, gForce Tracker devices located in the helmets of Mustangs players are collecting and monitoring the biomechanics behind the hard hits on the football field.
Campbell knows simply asking players ‘how they feel’ after a big hit isn’t going to create accurate data. So, he’s taking a crash course and, literally, getting into a player’s head – well, his helmet, at least.
Teaming up with gForce Tracker Inc., a company from Markham, Ont., Campbell has outfitted 49 Mustang helmets with data-tracking devices, each roughly the size of a domino. With this technology, he is able to track – in real time, if necessary – every hit a player gives or receives.
“We are the first university in Canada to conduct this sort of research,” said Campbell, who received support from Mustangs head coach Greg Marshall. Projects like this have been under way in The States for several years.
“There is (no data) out there for Canadian football players at the moment. In Canada, the football field is longer and wider; there are different rules, three downs instead of four; so the style of play is different, meaning the data, I think, will be different.”
Built into each miniature device, known as a gForce Tracker , are tri-axial linear accelerometres which measure every impact that exceeds a specified threshold. Once it reaches that level, the device starts saving the data straight to Campbell’s laptop on the sidelines. The device also has a gyroscope built into it to measure rotation acceleration, or how fast the head is moving at the time of impact.
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