Today, Alabama and LSU face off against each other for a pivotal SEC matchup that has clear conference and national championship implications.
Just as Alabama and LSU are two teams that lead the way in excellence on the field in college football, each school has put itself on the front lines of helmet technology research, when it comes to better tracking and diagnosing concussions in football.
Earlier this year, the Crimson Tide and Tigers became two of the first major Division-I schools in the country to use Brain Sentry’s concussion sensor for football helmets. The sensors, which are the brainchild of Brain Sentry’s Chief Executive Officer, Greg Merril, use an indicator light to let people on the sidelines know when a player took a strong hit, and could potentially have a concussion.
“It takes the self-reporting of concussions off the table,” Merril said. “80 percent of concussions go unreported according to a recent Harvard study, and there are natural human errors and conflicts that arise in using the self-reporting system.”
Merril’s points are valid. Players and coaches, two of the parties involved in concussion diagnosis, are incentivized to battle through concussions. Players want to play, and coaches want to win. A natural conflict of interest in the overall health of individual players arises from the conundrum.
“The two big risk factors for concussions are a single, impactful hit to the head or repeated, smaller and frequent hits to the head,” Merril said. “Our sensor technology helps to track both.”
In addition to the sensor on the helmets that alerts the sidelines that a player could be concussed, the newest version of the sensor also contains a “hit counter” that keeps a tally on the total number of hits to the head a player sustains during a game or during practice.
“The hit counter is really a big breakthrough that a lot of coaches are excited about,” said Merril.
For example, Merril stated that when LSU experimented with the technology during 2014 spring practices, Head Coach Les Miles noticed a particular offense lineman had a particularly low hit count. After investigating, coaches found that this lineman had unique form that allowed him to get his hands up faster and avoid collisions. After teaching this technique to other lineman, those players also saw their hit count go down.
“The technology gives coaches the ability to diagnose poor form through data rather than just through observation.” Merril said. “So, in addition to keeping players healthy, it can actually help their game improve as well.”
Merril, who was worked with a number of different medical-based startups, said he first got the idea while working with the military to do screening to evaluate brain and head injuries. After developing a mobile app and solution for that, Merril saw the technology with a potential to be applied to football.
So, Brain Sentry set out to create the first-ever concussion sensor for football helmets.
How does it work?
“It is incredibly simple, and that is by design,” Merril. “We knew that in order for this to be successful we had to make sure there was no setup or work required by the user. That’s why we created this to be so light and small that it has no adverse effect on helmet or player performance. The battery also never runs out.”
While Merril is excited to see college football and other prominent teams using the sensors, he says the real impact will come in youth football.
“3.5 million of the total of 5 million people that play football in the United States are less than 14 years old,” Merril said.
“If coaches can emulate what Coach Miles was talking about and use the hit counter to improve form to reduce hits, this technology could make a huge impact. It will also help youth football coaches, who often have no formal training, know when a player needs to sit out after getting a hard hit.”
From youth football to big-time SEC football, Brain Sentry’s seemingly simple sensor idea has the potential to revolutionize how concussions in football are tracked and diagnosed.
Roll Tide and Geaux Tigers.