Confronting the Concussion Dilemma: Introducing Warrior Tough’s- Concussion Counterpunch Helmet (Patented)

Figure 1: Warrior Tough Helmets- The Concussion Counterpunch

Sports concussions continue to be an issue that affects more than 3.8 million athletes annually. Despite increased awareness and evolving safety protocols, the frequency of concussions remains alarmingly high, posing a significant risk to the long-term health and well-being of athletes. The risk of head injuries in high-impact combat sports continues to grab headlines, casting a shadow over the enjoyment and integrity of these sports which are known to teach participants resilience/mental toughness, self-discipline/courage, work ethic, and confidence - far more than just combat skills. The time to prioritize concussion safety and redesign sports headguards is well overdue.

The issue of concussion has plagued athletes and coaches for decades particularly in activities like Boxing, Muay Thai, MMA, and Karate. Athletes understand that concussions are an inherent risk of combat sports participation.  Despite increasing national interest in these high-impact activities, the purpose and design of old-style headguards currently in use, only addresses cuts, scrapes, and bruising while overlooking the elephant in the room – concussions.  When purchasing old-style headguards, there is little to no protection against concussions.  In other words, relying on old-style headguards to keep from being concussed reflects a misunderstanding of their intended purpose.

What is a concussion? Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), also known as a concussion, is considered a temporary impairment of neurological function, leading to a range of symptoms, such as headache, dizziness, and cognitive difficulties caused from rapid acceleration or jarring of the brain. For a concussion to occur, two factors must be present: 1) the impact must exceed the concussive threshold and 2) the brain must be jarred or accelerated by the by the kinetic force of the impact.

A new helmet design is necessary to manage these concussive forces, implementing interventions aimed at reducing concussion potential.  This new helmet design enables athletes to brace the helmet against their shoulders when taking a proper on-guard stance, transferring impact energy away from the brain to the torso, where it can safely dissipate, making a concussion harder to occur shown in Figure 2 below.  The Warrior Tough Concussion Counterpunch helmet is currently the only helmet on the market designed and proven to break the concussion cycle.

Figure 2: Warrior Tough Helmets- The Concussion Counterpunch Transfers Kinetic Energy Away from the Head

What exactly is the concussion cycle?  In sports, concussions often stem from the transfer of kinetic energy from an external force to the head, as shown in Figure 3 below. Comparatively, the energy from a punch causes the head in an old-style headguard to whip backward, as shown in Figure 3. When an athlete experiences a sudden impact force, the head undergoes rapid acceleration and deceleration. This rapid movement causes the brain to collide with the inside of the skull, highlighting a fundamental flaw in the design of old-style headguards in fighting concussions. When struck, the head inevitably whips backward, adding energy to this cycle. Due to the design of the old-style headguard, athletes are unable to interrupt this cycle, nor can they do anything to transfer the energy away from the head.  Every time the helmet is hit with concussive force, trapped impact energy creates a whiplash-based concussion cycle that puts athletes at risk of injury with every punch.

Figure 3: The Concussion Cycle with Old-Style Headguards

For over a century, the old-style headguard design has remained largely unchanged, effectively preventing cuts and bruises. However, its design never intended to address the prevention of concussions; in fact, its design promotes the potential for whiplash and concussion injury. This oversight stems from a historical focus on cuts and abrasions and not attempting to control concussive forces.  

An initial attempt to address concussive forces involved adding padding to old-style headguards. Regrettably, this modification only contributed to the helmet's top-heaviness, increasing the likelihood of concussions. Rather than providing protection against concussions, the additional padding increases the risk of sustaining such injuries, making headguards more dangerous. This dilemma was recently highlighted in the news with the decision to eliminate headguards from the elite men's division in Olympic boxing. While motivated by a desire to enhance safety and minimize concussion risks, this decision recognized the limitations of the old-style headguard design. By removing headguards, the committee sought to reduce concussion potential of top-heavy, high center of gravity headguards which dangerously add weight to the head during violent back and forth whiplash movement.  This strategic decision to remove headguards recognizes that old-style headguards were never designed or intended to reduce whiplash or concussion.

The Concussion Counterpunch helmet puts the athlete in charge of energy transfer to inhibit dangerous head movement.  The act of bracing, raising the shoulders and lowering the chin into the on-guard stance, creates a connection between the head and torso which according to Shaw (2002) makes it more difficult to move the head on impact because “the mass of the head has effectively become too large to be easily and suddenly accelerated or decelerated by the potentially concussive force" (p. 288). In simpler terms, the harder it is to accelerate the head, the harder it is to concuss.

Warrior Tough was founded by an Army Veteran, West Point Boxing Instructor, Coach of a National Championship College Boxing team and lifelong martial artist, who has extensive experience working with youth interested in boxing and combat sports.  Frustrated by the inadequate safety provided by existing headguards, he embarked on a decade-long journey to research sports concussions. After five years of rigorous design and field testing in Collegiate, State and National USA Boxing tournaments, the fundamental flaws of traditional old-style headguards were resolved with his new design, resulting in no college athletes experiencing concussions or neck injuries during the five-year field test. Warrior Tough is ushering in a new standard of protection and performance, ensuring athletes can compete with confidence, knowing that their helmet is equipped with concussion interventions designed to reduce concussive potential.

The Warrior Tough Concussion Counterpunch helmet design is grounded in professional research conducted by concussion experts such as Shaw, Cantu and Parkinson who tackle the three main challenges associated with sports related concussive forces:  Energy transfer, dissipation, and deceleration. When designing safety gear to mitigate kinetic energy from an impact, the first step is to transfer the energy out of the brain case and away from the brain and neck.  This energy must then be safely dissipated, reducing its concussive potential. Finally, the design must also focus on decelerating the head to prevent jarring of the brain leading to a concussion of the athlete. 

The Warrior Tough Counterpunch helmet design safeguards athletes. The first of three issues inherent to old-style headguards is the problem of kinetic energy being trapped in the helmet which transfers to the brain.  With Warrior Tough’s new design, the act of bracing creates a connection between the head and torso, which allows energy to transfer through the head, leaving the brain unharmed. This well-known fact is supported by numerous concussion experts. For example, Shaw’s (2002) research found that "if the head is stationary or in contact with another surface, the kinetic energy from a blow [punch] will simply flow through it [the head] and be transmitted elsewhere, leaving the brain unharmed and its function intact" (p. 287). The Warrior Tough Concussion Counterpunch helmet allows the athlete to make this important connection between the head and torso.

The second issue of dissipating energy has been resolved by the new Warrior Tough design which includes the addition of neck support which lowers the helmet’s center of gravity.  Figure 4 (above) illustrates the contrast between the neck support offered by old-style headguards and the additional support integrated into the Warrior Tough design.

Neck support via padding creates a connection between the helmet and torso when engaged, creating a pathway for the transfer of energy, allowing it to dissipate safely through the rest of the body. Cantu’s (1992) research found that “In football, a player may escape being concussed or dinged if he tenses his neck muscles prior to collision so decreasing head mobility and allowing kinetic energy to be dispersed throughout the whole body and not confined to the head.” The Warrior Tough helmet uses neck support to transfer energy in the same way neck tensing is used in football prior to collisions to disperse kinetic energy throughout the body. 

The third issue is deceleration or reducing the ability of kinetic energy to move or jar the brain. Parkinson found that (1982) “it has been evident to boxers and most layman and physicians that the essential feature of a concussive force is that it be sufficient to jar or shake the head and any connection thereto” (p. 132).  Warrior Tough neck support creates that connection between the head and torso, shifting the pivot point away from the neck, making the head harder to move.  Old-style headguards use the neck as a pivot point which promotes whiplash every time they are hit. Athletes are forced to rely on neck strength to counteract this motion, which is intensified by the added weight and high center of gravity of old-style headguards. Through the act of bracing, the Warrior Tough helmet allows the athlete to create a connection between their head and torso making the head more difficult and less likely to accelerate.  According to Parkinson (1982) “…it is unlikely to knock him [the athlete] out as he effectively adds the mass of his neck, shoulder, and upper thorax to the mass of his head, thus requiring a greater force to significantly move the total mass” (p. 133-134).  In other words, if an impact from a punch or kick cannot accelerate the head fast enough, a concussion is nearly impossible.

Warrior Tough’s Concussion Counterpunch helmets look different because they are different. The new design changes the outcome of the concussion cycle in favor of the athlete.  This change in design resulted in the creation of a concussion reducing safety helmet, the counterpunch, designed using professional research and proven through testing to reduce concussion potential while safeguard against cuts and abrasions.

Warrior Tough had a nationally accredited independent third-party agency test its helmet design features. Although there are no testing requirements for training headguards we thought it was important to see if our concussion interventions were effective.  Testing was conducted with the goal of evaluating whether the concussion intervention features function as proposed by professional research. Two Warrior Tough prototype helmets were tested and a certified competition boxing headguard was used as a control. Test results in Figure 5 show that the Warrior Tough helmets consistently maintained forces below the concussion threshold for mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) of 250 on the Head Injury Criterion (HIC) scale.

Figure 5: Test Results

The Warrior Tough Concussion Counterpunch helmet includes additional design enhancements that improve the athletes training experience.  First is a free-movement zone between the helmet and the shoulders. This gap allows the athlete to freely move while controlling the distance between the helmet and the torso (Figure 6A) offering the ability to instantly close the gap (Figure 6B).  Closing this gap simply requires the athlete to brace, taking a proper on-guard stance to create a connection between the head and torso.  This one instinctive action completely changes the physics of the impact and provides an instant safeguard to the athlete.

Figure 6C illustrates how this gap automatically closes and transfers energy when the athlete is hit unexpectantly or fails to brace.   This connection or bridge allows kinetic energy to transfer from the head and neck to be dispersed safely throughout the torso.  This bridge also artificially increases the mass of the head and neck diameter while lowering the helmets center of gravity - making the head harder to accelerate on impact and reducing the potential for concussion.

                          A                                              B                                               C

Figure 6: Open free-movement zone (A), Braced/on-guard stance- Impact energy transferred (B), Automatic bracing upon impact (C).

The Warrior Tough helmet promotes proper technique ensuring greater athlete safety. The sides of the helmet act as a built-in Chin Down training devise, helping the athlete maintain proper chin placement. Researchers from Stanford recently determined that head position may be more important than tensing your neck upon impact. They argue that the greater angular acceleration, also called rotational acceleration, the greater the likelihood of concussion.  Figures 7A-C below model three head and neck alignment positions with the red dot representing point of impact.  The findings presented in Figure 7D confirm what coaches have known for decades – keeping your chin down decreases knock-out and concussion potential.  Body alignment through proper technique provides the athlete with additional protection that complements the Warrior Tough helmet with the transfer of impact energy away from the brain and neck.

                        A                             B                       C                                  D

Figure 7: Chin Position and Concussion Potential

The introduction of the Warrior Tough helmet marks a significant advancement in sports safety that provides athletes a new helmet designed to mitigate the risk of concussion injuries while enhancing learning and enjoyment of combat sports. Drawing inspiration from leading concussion experts to include Shaw, Cantu, and Parkinson, Warrior Tough has revolutionized combat sports helmets, effectively reducing the potential of concussion and whiplash with the introduction of a new helmet design that effectively delivers a counterpunch to the concussion cycle.

Published by Warrior Tough LLC. (www.WTGear.com)