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Professor Nick Draper is interested in solving real-world problems –like the design of headgear to reduce the impact of collisions in rugby for young players.
Based at the University of Canterbury, Draper and his team are working on a highly collaborative project funded by Te Tītoki Mataora to learn more about what happens during rugby game collisions, particularly during the first year of playing.
Draper has a thorough understanding of the elite performance sport environment, having been a sport and exercise scientist for British Judo for eight years and a selector and team manager at European Championships, World Championships and the Olympic Games. He has written training programmes for World and Olympic medalists, supporting athletes to success at the highest levels in sport.
His interest in headgear for young players began about 10 years ago. “I was talking with University of Canterbury mechanical engineer and inventor Keith Alexander, who invented spring free trampolines, and it developed from there.”
Draper began with headgear design but soon realised they needed to know more about happened with collisions on the field. They began by measuring collisions using smart mouthguards.
“That gave us critical data about the direction of those collisions so we could measure brain strain, and it also gave us better granularity around the range of collisions players experience during training and games,” says Draper.
“We added MRIs and neurocognitive tests pre-season and post-season to provide attempt to understand the cumulative effect of collisions on developing brains. An additional benefit of the research approach is to be able to examine the effects of a season of sub-concussive knocks on brain integrity.”
They began with two years of data from under-16 and under-17 sides. Players were monitored via their mouthguards and via video of every training and game. Draper says this enabled his team to examine each collision in detail to understand the exact kinematics of each event.
Draper emphasises the importance of the collaborative effort going into the project. “Medtech-iQ has provided invaluable advice to take the project from one of research, on to one of commercialisation. We have a sports scientist, engineers, medics and the University’s innovation centre on board.”
The team has also received a million dollars in direct support from groups including the Health Research Council, Canterbury Medical Research Foundation, the Neurological Foundation, Cure Kids, the Maurice and Phyllis Paykel Trust, Child Well-being Research Institute and the University of Canterbury. They’ve also had in-kind support from HItIQ who make mouthguards and Pacific Radiology Group who provide the MRI scans.
“This year, we’re collecting data from year 8 female players and male 1stXV.”
Over recent years, there’s been a whole series of rule changes in rugby, such as tackle height and stand-down periods, and Draper says these are also helping to mitigate the effect of collisions.
“We now have a lot more understanding about concussion but it’s clear that we need more than just one season’s data – we need longitudinal data. And that’ll be the subject of future grant applications.
“We now have a good cohort of players to study over the next five to ten years which will give us excellent data and help us to support the welfare of the players involved.”
Draper says worldwide awareness and interest in sports collisions is growing. “There’s a group in Australia doing something very similar and we’re collaborating with another Australian group. We have Vicki Shim’s Gisborne project on sporting head injuries, and there’s a PhD student at the University of California in Fullerton working with our group.”
Draper says they have enough data to see the potential for headgear to be beneficial, so 2025 is also about creating prototype headgear and heading off down the commercialisation path.
