Soccer Ball Heading Model

Increasing attention on health and safety has brought attention to the possible cumulative head trauma of soccer ball heading. Attempts to study the correlation of neurocognitive deficits with heading, the acceleration of the head during heading, and the effectiveness of soccer headgear have appeared in the literature [1–7]. Lacking was an analytically based, experimentally verified biomechanics model of the impact between the soccer ball and the head. Such a model was attempted here. Figure 1 shows (a) a drawing of the impact at time t used to develop the theoretical analysis and (b) the solid resin sphere and fixture, soccer ball, and force plate experimental apparatus.