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Relationship Between Position, Cumulative Impacts And Cumulative Accelerations In Ncaa Division I Football Players

2016; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; Volume: 48; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1249/01.mss.0000486595.90783.06

1530-0315

Katelyn E. Grimes, Eric D. Shiflett, Barry A. Munkasy, Klarie M. Ake, Nathan D’Amico, Megan E. Mormile, Douglas W. Powell, Thomas A. Buckley, Nicholas G. Murray,

Traumatic Brain Injury Research

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential differences of cumulative and mean linear acceleration magnitudes (LA) over the course of a single football season between positions (line vs. skill) and participation settings (games vs. practice). METHODS: Thirty-two NCAA Division I football players were fitted with Head Impact Telemetry (HIT) System sensors to measure acceleration forces associated with a head impact (player vs. player or contact with ground). LA were recorded for all head impacts above 10 g during the 2014-2015 competitive football season. Recorded LA were totaled per session (practice and game) and over the entire season to yield the cumulative LA of each session and for the entire season. For statistical analysis, players were dichotomized into two groups: line-position players (LINE), which consisted of offensive and defensive linemen; and skill-position players (SKILL), which consisted of running backs, wide receivers, linebackers, defensive backs, and quarterbacks. Cumulative and mean LA of both practices and games were then compared with paired sample t-tests. RESULTS: Position demographics were as followed: offensive SKILL: n=12, defensive SKILL: n=8, defensive LINE: 2, and offensive LINE: n= 10. Over the course of one season, players had significantly higher (p=0.001) cumulative LA during practices (10,247.18g ± 8,730.69g) than games (5,271.17g ± 5,196.77g). Cumulative LA during practices were significantly higher (p<0.001) in LINE (19,692.43 g ± 7,338.59 g) than SKILL (4,645.91 ± 2,872.57g). However, there was no significant difference (p=0.079) between LINE cumulative LA (7,830.19g ± 6,453.36g) and SKILL cumulative LA (3,264.15g ± 3,538.72g) during games. Mean LA during practices were significantly higher (p=0.027) in LINE (27.67g ± 2.54g) than SKILL (25.32g ± 2.85g). Conversely, mean LA during games were not significantly different (p=0.944) between SKILL (29.04g ± 6.11g) and LINE (29.24g ± 4.11g). CONCLUSION: Over the course of a single football season, line-position players experienced significantly higher cumulative LA compared to skill-position players during both practices and games. This could be due to the more total contact hours that line-players experience than skill-position players.