Item Details

abstract

Soccer is one of the most popular sports in the world. Once thought to be a safer alternative to collision and contact sports, there is increased concern for concussions due surrounding headers, whereby players intentionally use their head to impact the ball. Female soccer players in particular have highest concussion rate compared to all other female sports. Most headers are non-concussive, meaning there are no signs or symptoms of concussion. Evidence points to most concussions being caused by contacting another player; however, exposure to repetitive non-concussive impacts may be associated with long term changes within the brain. With the concern for both concussions and high head impact exposure, current mitigation efforts focus on limiting heading activity in youth players under the age of thirteen. The research in this thesis quantifies head impact rates in female soccer players during games, both at the youth and collegiate level, categorizing events observed on film by play state, ball delivery, position, field location, head region impacted, and type of impact. Additionally, head impact frequencies and magnitudes experienced during collegiate level soccer practices are characterized by activity type. Results presented may help inform future rule changes in an effort to improve athlete safety in soccer.

subject

collegiate

impact rate

practice

soccer

wearable sensors

youth

contributor

Segars, Mary Frances (author)

Urban, Jillian E (committee chair)

Stitzel, Joel D (committee member)

Miles, Christopher M (committee member)

date

2022-07-11T19:17:45Z (accessioned)

2022 (issued)

degree

Biomedical Engineering (discipline)

2027-05-14 (liftdate)

embargo

2027-05-14 (terms)

identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/101029 (uri)

language

en (iso)

publisher

Wake Forest University

title

Evaluation of Head Impact Exposure in Female Youth and Collegiate Soccer

type

Thesis