Thoughts on Head Contact

[KieronC]

Do we have the smart mouth guards, or is that just RU. I think even they are only deploying them to international games this year.

Ideally the mouth guards would be streaming live info to medics who can use them to spot impacts and have objective criteria to withdraw or monitor regardless of whether they were tackled, tackling or ran into the pose or whatever. I think we're a number of years from that situation though.

Cheers, Mike. I'm not sure why I was under the impression they were used in league too. It'll be interesting to see how the technology develops.

[KieronC]

I found this article from a week or so ago that suggests the smart mouth guards will be used in league so perhaps we'll get more of a real-time idea of how the technology develops rather than seeing what happens in other sports.

Is it okay to share a link without copy and pasting the entire article as well? If there's rules or people have a preference, please let me know and I'll try and remember!

https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/sport/ ... rs-9096180

There's a paragraph in there that says:
"Additionally, players will have a 'maximum workload' this year. In essence, the number of minutes they will be allowed on the field over the course of a season will be restricted. Forwards will be limited to 25 full-game equivalents, with backs restricted to 30. This is lower for players under the age of 22."

I wasn't aware of that!

[WarriorWinger]

Do we have the smart mouth guards, or is that just RU. I think even they are only deploying them to international games this year.

Ideally the mouth guards would be streaming live info to medics who can use them to spot impacts and have objective criteria to withdraw or monitor regardless of whether they were tackled, tackling or ran into the pose or whatever. I think we're a number of years from that situation though.

Cheers, Mike. I'm not sure why I was under the impression they were used in league too. It'll be interesting to see how the technology develops.

I thought there were introduced this season, watching one of the games (may have been wigan & cas I think) I am sure one of the pundits mentioned that when they took Thompson off and that they had data from the mouthguard as part of the reason

[KieronC]

Thanks, WarriorWinger. I thought someone referenced it but I couldn't be sure if it was something I read about Union, from watching the first round of Super League or the NRL pre-season!

[endoman]

The mouth guard data can do no more than give us a baseline as to what forces are exerted under current rules. They can’t tell us anything about the past, nor how impactful or significant these forces may be in relation to future health. It’s good to have data, but it needs handling very carefully.

I spend a lot of my working life dealing with the results of poor data in clinical trials, and know world class people involved in the setting up of gold standard trials. Let’s just say most trials may not be as useful as people would like them to be……

I thought I read that players didn’t have to wear them should they chose not to,

[KieronC]

The mouth guard data can do no more than give us a baseline as to what forces are exerted under current rules. They can’t tell us anything about the past, nor how impactful or significant these forces may be in relation to future health. It’s good to have data, but it needs handling very carefully.

I spend a lot of my working life dealing with the results of poor data in clinical trials, and know world class people involved in the setting up of gold standard trials. Let’s just say most trials may not be as useful as people would like them to be……

I thought I read that players didn’t have to wear them should they chose not to,

I guess data can tell a story but context around it and how it is presented can influence how that is digested that to a certain extent.

I think you're right, the article linked in a previous post has a bit in it that says, "Players who don't wear them will be unable to return to the field if they require a head injury assessment - even if they are cleared of having a concussion. There are some exemptions, such as for players wearing braces, but the sport is keen to make the mouthguards mandatory to help them collect as much data as possible, which will then help them make decisions relating to the sport in the future."

So, it doesn't appear to be mandatory at this stage.

[southportcdm]

I'm sure that, in the first game of the season, one of the Hull players was taken off for a HIA using data received from his mouth guard. The commentators mentioned it.

[josie andrews]

Do we have the smart mouth guards, or is that just RU. I think even they are only deploying them to international games this year.

Ideally the mouth guards would be streaming live info to medics who can use them to spot impacts and have objective criteria to withdraw or monitor regardless of whether they were tackled, tackling or ran into the pose or whatever. I think we're a number of years from that situation though.

Think Luke Thompson was wearing one in the Castleford game

[Mike]

Do we have the smart mouth guards, or is that just RU. I think even they are only deploying them to international games this year.

Ideally the mouth guards would be streaming live info to medics who can use them to spot impacts and have objective criteria to withdraw or monitor regardless of whether they were tackled, tackling or ran into the pose or whatever. I think we're a number of years from that situation though.

Think Luke Thompson was wearing one in the Castleford game

That;s good news. Hopefully the technology and criteria for withdrawal will get refined over time until we have a much safer sport in terms of the long term effects of head injuries. I'm talking over decades though, we just don't have the data at this point to fix the issue in one year.

[benjamaphone]

Speaking of head contact - I think the red for Fa'amanu Brown just now is bonkers. Penalty at best in my opinion, but hey ho.