geldefender^TM Blog

It’s a rarity for pitchers to get beaned by a batter’s line drive, but it’s also a reality. With that in mind, Major League Baseball has been scrambling over the past several months to find head protection for its fielders, particularly pitchers.

Unfortunately, the search has not yet yielded the results MLB has been seeking, and Toronto Blue Jays pitcher J.A. Happ faced that very scenario Tuesday without any head protection. Luckily, Happ seems to have suffered no significant injuries other than bruising and a cut ear and has since been released from the hospital.

While the search for the right product for pitchers to comfortably wear under their caps has not yet been successful, watch for a new GelDefender product – one made specifically for caps – that will be available May 18.

The comfortable soft gel and the cooling benefits make the newest GelDefender head protection pad perfect for use under caps, and the design allows the pad to fit inside caps securely.

We’re sending samples to MLB and a few MLB teams that have requested our product, and we hope they and other ball players will choose this added protection.

Now that the NFL draft has been completed, 224 draftees and an undefined number of free agents are making plans to strap on their helmets and work to earn a spot on a team.
 

In 2012 the big news was how many rookie quarterbacks were opening day starters. This year, it’s how few quarterbacks were drafted in prominent rounds.
 

Florida State’s E.J. Manuel was taken by Buffalo but was the lone QB picked in the first round.
 

Second-rounder Geno Smith will have a shot at immediate playing time as part of the Jets dreadful offense, but the remainder of the 11 quarterbacks taken—with the exception of Southern Cal’s Matt Markley—are longer-term projects.
 

Matt Barkley, taken in the fourth round by the Eagles, looks to be one of the most intriguing picks. Injuries and a weaker Southern Cal team dropped his stock in 2013, and arm-strength questions remain. But Michael Vick’s 2013 performance was nothing memorable and new coach Chip Kelly will be looking for any way to score points.
 

The 2013 NFL preseason kicks off Sunday, August 4, when the Dallas Cowboys face the Miami Dolphins in Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio.
 

The defending Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens lead off the regular season with a Thursday night game on September 5.
 

Three days later, Bills fans will find out if Manuel will have the reins when Buffalo tees it up against New England. That same first Sunday of the season, the Jets may have West Virgina’s Smith under center against Tampa Bay.
 

The NFL draft has become perhaps the most important annual sports activity that involves no activity on the field.

When NFL commissioner Roger Goodell strides to the podium Thursday night—shortly after 8 p.m. ET—to announce the first selection in the 2013 draft, he’ll be in front of a packed house at Radio City Music Hall in New York and over 8 million viewers on ESPN and the NFL Network.

Such viewership, not even including months of pre-draft speculation and post-draft analyses, makes the NFL draft a television powerhouse that approximates viewership for hallmark sports events such as the final round of the U.S. Open, the Indy 500, NBA playoffs and most NASCAR events.

Typically, given the geography, fans of the New York Giants and New York Jets dominate the live audience and annually provide collective groans or cheers depending upon the fan view of the choices made by team executives.

This year, it is likely that the most vocal of those reactions will come from fans of the Jets, who watched their team end a disappointing 2012 season plagued by the Mark Sanchez/Tim Tebow quarterback puzzle and are now debating the pros and cons of the recent trade of star quarterback Darrelle Revis to Tampa Bay for the Bucs 13th pick in the first round and a chump change pick in 2014.

Jets fans unhappy with current starting quarterback Sanchez may plead for West Virginia QB Geno Smith, but the Jets are most likely to grab LSU linebacker Barkevious Mingo if he’s still available.

After several years packed with quarterback talents including Robert Griffin III, Andrew Luck and Cam Newton, Smith may be the only QB taken in the first round, with Matt Barkley of Southern Cal and Ryan Nassib of Syracuse slipping to Friday night’s second round.

Most of those considered in the “can’t miss” category in 2013 are beefy offensive and defensive tackles. If Kansas City doesn’t trade down, watch for Notre Dame’s Luke Joeckel or Texas A&M’s Eric Fisher to be called first by Goodell as the Chiefs try to keep new QB Alex Smith protected from the concussion problems that knocked him out mid-season in 2012.

The first round of the draft concludes Thursday night, rounds 2-3 are Friday evening and rounds 4-7 are Saturday afternoon.
 

The 2013 Supercross AMA National Championship is poised to kick off April 6 in Houston, TX and will definitely be a stiff competition among the many challengers. Some of the top riders should be Ryan Villopoto, Ryan Dungey, Blake Baggett, Justin Barcia, and Ricky Carmichael. Houston is just the first leg in the tour, where riders will attempt to set the pace.

The most dominant riding should appear in both this race and the last race. We predict the top three riders will finish in this order: Villopoto, Ivan Tedesco, and Ryan Baggett. Though Ryan Dungey was a tempting pick, we cannot see him finishing in the top three given his subpar performance in the World Motocross Championships. In the 2012 Motocross Tour in Germany, Dungey came in behind Baggett below the #7 spot. This shed light on the inefficiencies of the US Motocross team and Dungey specifically.

Tedesco is a hard-to-sell pick, but he has been finishing in a higher position every year. Travis Pastrana would make an interesting pick, but his foray into other sports have taken away from the time he used to spend solely on motocross runs. He’ll likely make the top ten, however, and have a chance to redeem himself in the next leg of the race. We’re definitely excited to see how it turns out!

The baseball season is officially underway, bringing with it plenty of stories throughout MLB. The highlight of opening day was a shutout from the Los Angeles Dodger’s ace, Clayton Kershaw. On top of that, he became the second pitcher in history to hit a homerun and pitch a shutout on opening day. The Dodgers were locked in a 0-0 tie with the San Francisco Giants until the 8th inning, when Kershaw broke it open.

Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper also cemented his place in history at just 20 years and 167 days old by becoming the youngest player ever to hit two home runs in the season opener.

Star Nationals pitcher Steven Strasburg also looked very solid in his season debut, going seven innings. This is the longest outing he has had since the middle of last season. He allowed 0 earned runs. His pitch count was being monitored, but he made each one count.

Finally, after missing much of last season due to severe injuries, the Philadelphia Phillies’ second baseman, Chase Utley, made a splash by hitting a homerun and a triple and driving in 3 runs. He looked much more like the Chase Utley of old, an exceptionally gifted offensive and defensive player capable of stealing, fielding, and hitting the long ball.

As the season progresses, we can expect to continue seeing dazzling highlights. We can only hope that players stay safe and protect themselves so as to enjoy long, productive, and entertaining careers!

Some have speculated recently about the future of football, given recent concussion issues. So far, most seem to think that football will not be unseated from America’s sports throne and that, with better equipment and safer rules, it’ll get through.

But, according to a recent Reuters report, another sport could be in more imminent danger: boxing. In the words of Dr. Calvin Inalsingh, head of the World Boxing Association’s medical advisory committee, “Boxing is the only sport in which the objective is to render blows to the head and body of the opponent so as to cause the opponent to be incapacitated."

It’s easier to alter football’s rules to make it safer, and the goal of the game would remain the same. Score touchdowns. Kick field goals. Keep the other team from scoring.

In boxing, the goal is to hurt the opponent. Hard hits aren’t a means to an end; they are the end. And while violence is somewhat inherent in football, it’s doubly true that violence is the essence of boxing. Not senseless violence, but violence none-the-less.

Boxing, like football, incorporates contact into its practices as well as its matches. Sparring sessions in boxing can lead to much head and body contact, even with pads that have been used for years in such practices.

One boxer taking head protection into his own hands is undefeated heavyweight Amir Mansour. The Wilmington, Del., native recently became the first boxer to supplement traditional sparring head gear with the new GelDefender head safety pad.

Though boxing has a rich history, no longer is it as main-stream as it once was. So it’s reasonable to speculate that it may not be able to weather the concussion storm as well as the American sports giant that is football. Only time will tell.

Women’s winter sports have made substantial strides since the advent of the X GAMES. According to a survey performed on a random sampling of professional snowboarders and skiers, women say they prefer to perform the exact same course runs as men. However, when the same question was phrased to shift the focus onto quantitative measures, the results took a completely different shape. Over 60% of women preferred 50-60 foot jumps, while men, on average, preferred jumps between 70 and 80 feet.

Professional skier Kristi Leskinen initiated the survey. She was curious if there was a direct correlation between women’s injuries and women’s progression in the sport. The survey indicated that while women wanted to make the same range jumps, they were reporting injuries at a frequency 3.5 times as often as men. This suggests that longer jumps could be more dangerous for women. Of course, other factors such as men’s failing to report injuries as often or their underreporting their injuries on the survey could skew this number. A more standardized study could result in much closer numbers.

Changing the jumps for women would be viewed as a setback to women’s progress in extreme sports more than a way to prevent injuries, but the length of the jump shouldn’t be the most important thing. An athlete’s comfort level with performing these tricks at the specific jump range should be the critical issue. When X GAMES administrators suggested the change, there was a huge backlash from pro women’s skiers and snowboarders. Progress in any sport comes with growing pains, regardless of an athlete’s gender.

Astute observers of this winter X-games in Tignes, France, will notice something missing this time around. Past events always included a grand finale of sorts, much like the “cherry-on-top” to the entire competition. As contestants competed throughout the week to reach such pinnacle events as the Ski Slopestyle final or the Superpipe, observers began to get excited about the adrenaline-charged moment: the Best Trick Event.

The Best Trick Event typically included the best and brightest snowboard or snowmobile artists. However, because of the ongoing investigation into the untimely death of X-games snowmobile rider, Caleb Moore, ESPN and the X-games have discontinued the event. The accident occurred in January when Moore’s snowmobile flipped and landed on top of him. Though there was a scramble to uncover him, it was already too late. The danger of these events stems from the competitors’ continuous struggle to push the envelope with bolder moves or better variations.

For example, the 360 degree rotation was once the gold standard in the skateboard/snowboard world. However, once the trick was performed successfully, many were able to eventually mimic it with practice, and the quest to go one step further than ever before continues. Unfortunately, the X-games and ESPN believe this overzealous nature will eventually cause greater accidents like Caleb Moore’s. Greater protection for athletes is key in ensuring greater athlete safety during tricks. Hopefully, with better protective equipment, the Big Trick Event can be safely returned to the Games, as fans will undoubtedly be disappointed this year.

According to recent medical research news, authors in the American Journal of Psychology have noticed a startling positive correlation between individuals who have suffered Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs) and chemical dependency.

A group of 5,065 active-duty airmen were studied against a control group of 44,733 airmen who had sustained other types of injury. According to the study, those who suffered mild traumatic brain injuries were at an increased risk for developing a dependence on either alcohol (within six months of the injury) or nicotine (within 30 days of the injury). An increased risk for nondependent abuse of drugs or alcohol was also uncovered for those with TBI.

It is important to consider the multiple negative effects of this. Substance abuse slows down the healing process and can result in increased psychological issues. It can also lead to an increased risk of seizures.

Remember that concussed individuals are already at increased risk of sustaining a second concussion. Current medical testing procedures use time as a critical variable to determine whether or not an individual is fit to return to active duty. So a slower healing process prompted by substance abuse could mean soldiers are potentially returning to action too soon. The chances of someone in this situation experiencing Second Impact Syndrome are tremendous.

Although the tests were strictly conducted on military personnel, numerous parallels can be drawn to athletes as well. These developments are definitely worth monitoring for their future implications on concussions and substance abuse.

General Electric and Under Armour have teamed up with the NFL by issuing an “open innovation challenge” for new technologies to diagnose and protect against head injury. They will collectively donate up to $20 million for the two-year Head Health Challenge. A panel of external judges comprised of experts will choose the winners of the funding based on their credible ideas for future brain injury prevention and diagnosis.

The Health Initiative, a four-year, $40 million collaboration of the NFL and GE, was also announced. Its focus will be finding ways to diagnose brain injury through imaging, since current technologies can’t reliably diagnose TBI and can never diagnose CTE in a living person.

Though the NFL has taken plenty of heat on the concussion issue, a $60 million initiative is nothing to balk at. And it’s not just those established as experts that are getting that money: $20 million of it is going to whomever has the best and most plausible ideas for research and development. An open invitation shows all three companies’ willingness to think outside the box on the issue by bringing in new and fresh ideas. With so much money being donated over a very short period of time, the next four years should be exciting ones for head safety progress.