Making Sports Safer for Kids: Using Biomechanical Devices to Prevent Injuries

Children seem so resilient. They can fall off a moving bike and get right up off the ground, seemingly no worse for the wear. They can leap off the side of a hill and land hard but run off with an ease that makes adults jealous. Nonetheless, kids can and do get hurt, and sometimes those injuries are difficult to spot. A growing number of research groups and companies are now turning their attention from professional and college athletes to schoolchildren aged 6-18 years to learn how to make sports as safe as possible. Researchers have developed a biomechanical surrogate that models a child's response to impact observed in sports.