Brown University To Conduct First Helmet Study For Women’s Lacrosse


In March, we wrote a story on the Bullis High School girls lacrosse team wearing helmets. Head Coach, Kathleen Lloyd, made it mandatory for every girl on the team to wear helmets after nine players received concussions the previous season. The Bullis Bulldogs wore custom rugby helmets. The article (girls lacrosse helmets) generated a lot of buzz. Today, Newsday revealed Brown University will be conducting the first helmet study for girls lacrosse. Brown University in Rhode Island will be simulating physical play with crash dummies used as the test subjects.

Project director Joseph “Trey” Crisco, a professor of orthopedics at Brown, states:

So we decided to use dummies, like they use in car crash simulations,” Crisco said. “We have a model and we will have girls lacrosse players from the [Rhode Island] area come into our lab and whack away from different angles. They’ll be whacking on the top of the ‘head’ and the side of the ‘head.’ They’ll use the tip, the shaft and the middle of the stick so we can determine the severity of stick checks.

Head injuries in the women’s game have steadily risen over the years. A number of factors could have contributed to this such as the aggressive style of play or maybe because more people are playing than ever before. The American Journal of Sports Medicine recorded video incident analysis of head injuries in high school girls’ lacrosse. In the 25 public high schools of 1 school system, 529 varsity and junior varsity girls’ lacrosse games were videotaped by trained videographers during the 2008 and 2009 seasons. Video of head injury incidents was examined to identify associated mechanisms and game characteristics using a lacrosse-specific coding instrument. They found 25 head injuries, including 21 concussions and four contusions (bruises).

Brown University plans to conduct their study the third week of July. It will be interesting to see what they find in their study. It will be even more interesting to see how people react to the findings. To wear a helmet or not wear a helmet? Will teams take a page out of Bullis’ book or will they continue to play sans helmet? Should girls where helmets or not? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

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12 Comments

  1. […] Womens Lax Related: The Bullis Women’s Lacrosse Team Wear Helmets for 2012 Campaign Brown University To Conduct First Helmet Study For Women’s Lacrosse Do Girls Need Lacrosse HelmetsBALTIMORE, Feb. 13, 2013 — US Lacrosse President and CEO Steve […]

  2. […] Womens Lax Related: The Bullis Women’s Lacrosse Team Wear Helmets for 2012 Campaign Brown University To Conduct First Helmet Study For Women’s Lacrosse Do Girls Need Lacrosse HelmetsBALTIMORE, Feb. 13, 2013 — US Lacrosse President and CEO Steve […]

  3. curious on August 3, 2012 at 1:22 am

    Where do you find helmets like these? Coming from a girl who has received 3 concussions from the game I’d like to get one. 

  4. curious on August 3, 2012 at 1:22 am

    Where do you find helmets like these? Coming from a girl who has received 3 concussions from the game I’d like to get one. 

  5. CathMac on July 12, 2012 at 2:00 pm

    The visceral reaction of some to this topic is unbelievable. Studies were conducted prior to mandating mouth and eye protection. Studies are a way to make an educated recommendation about a topic. Why don’t we all wait and see what these different test runs and studies come up with before making uneducated declarations and blasting the possible use of additional protection. Perhaps there will be further changes to the rules for stick to head contact that really mean something. An automatic red for instance. 

  6. CathMac on July 12, 2012 at 1:52 pm

    Right – a study by a Brown University professor of orthopedics is “dumb”

  7. CathMac on July 12, 2012 at 1:52 pm

    Right – a study by a Brown University professor of orthopedics is “dumb”

  8. Lax Mom in GA on July 12, 2012 at 12:20 pm

    The players and THE REFS need to follow the rules, and then this wouldn’t be necessary.  Stupid study…wacking away at a crash test dummy–like this is what happens in real life??

  9. christina on July 12, 2012 at 3:46 am

    NO HELMENTS, our rules are already designed so that we can’t go near the other persons head, if you involve a helmet it all result in more checks to the head…and they use look bad

  10. christina on July 12, 2012 at 3:46 am

    NO HELMENTS, our rules are already designed so that we can’t go near the other persons head, if you involve a helmet it all result in more checks to the head…and they use look bad

  11. Xyz on July 11, 2012 at 11:38 pm

    NO HELMETS! thats asking to make the game more physical.. box lacrosse (where they must already wear helmets) still get concussions all the time!!!!

  12. Xyz on July 11, 2012 at 11:38 pm

    NO HELMETS! thats asking to make the game more physical.. box lacrosse (where they must already wear helmets) still get concussions all the time!!!!

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