How do woodpeckers pound their beaks into trees without knocking their brains out? After all, they peck with the force of 1200 gs!
What can we learn from woodpeckers that will prevent concussion? One factor is that woodpeckers have long tongues that wrap around their head and pinch their jugular vein increasing blood volume in the skull resulting in a cushioning effect.
Football helmets are being created to mimic this dynamic. The result? The Q collar. It gently clamps down on the jugular vein and puts a kink in the hose which increases the brain’s blood volume leaving less room for the brain to bang around.
My concern is this. What happens if a player has an unknown weakness in a blood vessel? Could this additional pressure, slight as it might be, trigger a stroke during a hard tackle?
Q-collar creators say it’s the same increase in blood as when we lie down, so there’s no danger. Do you want your player to wear one?
Claudia
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