On April 20, 2013 at the Maryland SoccerPlex, Abby Wambach was hit by close range clearance by one of her teammates. Wambach immediately fell to the ground clutching her head. Head referee Kari Seitz walked over to Wambach and waited holding off trainers from entering the field as Wambach indicated she would play on without seeking treatment from the Western New York trainers.
Wambach went down again minutes later after the end of the game, opposing goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris called for trainers to come over as Wambach appeared to still be feeling the effects of the blow to her head.
The controversy and media attention of what was eventually diagnosed as a concussion put the league’s treatment of concussions under scrutiny and became another in a long list of instances of improper handling of head injuries in soccer matches.
However, that unfortunate incident shed light on and provided an impetus for the league to refine and further stress the importance of following proper concussion protocols for their players.
The incident also left an impression on Wambach as she felt an acute need for not only the importance of educating youth players about concussions, but also better monitoring her own head impacts playing soccer.
Abby Wambach has partnered with Triax, to count and score impacts while training for the upcoming World Cup.
“When I started playing soccer as a kid, no one talked to me about the risk of head injury. It simply was not an issue. Back then, if you didn’t have a headache or feel nauseous, you’d convince yourself that you were fine,” explained the veteran member of the US Women’s National Team.
That attitude is slowly fading as more parents and players learn about the dangers of concussions. Now concussions are a hot topic in the soccer community, particularly among parents of youth players, and there are myriad startups introducing technology that is intended to help prevent or monitor head impacts and concussions.
As with any emerging technology, the effectiveness and accuracy of new products is certainly not equal and there isn’t currently much regulation in the industry to hold companies accountable for their claims.
Triax was one of the first companies to enter the market and remains one of only a few vendors to earn the Hit Count® certification in all sports categories as defined by the Sport Legacy Institute. And because of their credibility for accuracy Triax SIM devices are currently being used or evaluated for use with 18 institutions and universities around the country as part of various research projects.
Unlike other technologies, which are often affixed directly to the head, Triax SIM™ devices are worn in headbands to record head impacts. The device transmits data in real time from the field to a smart phone or tablet on the sideline allowing players to track up to 180 individual head impacts measuring the G-force of direct hits and jarring through linear and rotational measures.
Through monitoring, parents, trainers and coaches can identify if a player is sustaining increased impacts and use the findings to evaluate, teach and train techniques to help minimize the potential of head trauma.
Ultimately, more awareness and focus on monitoring head impacts of soccer players is a positive step and technologies like Triax that can offer objective measurement and information can help not only day-to-day training and technique, but it can also contribute to a growing body of scientific research that can be used to craft more effective concussion procedures moving forward.