engleski

THE INFLUENCE OF PROTECTIVE HEADGEAR ON THE VISUAL FIELD OF RECREATIONAL LEVEL SKIERS – FIELD TESTING

Ski slopes have become crowded, and the risk of collisions and accidents has grown significantly, as well as the number of injuries. One of the most serious injuries are those to the head. Therefore, to minimize the risk of severe head injuries, protective headgear is widely used. A sufficient level of anticipation helps athletes to properly position themselves to reduce the forces transferred to the head or even move to avoid a collision. To objectively identify the impact of protective headgear on the reaction speed when skiing, it is necessary to conduct suitable measurements on the ski slopes. The sample consisted of 45 recreational-level skiers (27 M, 18 F ; age 31.6 ± 8.2 years ; 22 helmet users, 23 non-helmet users). Reaction speed on visual stimuli was tested on the ski slope for three conditions of wearing protective headgear (ski cap, ski cap and sunglasses, ski helmet and ski goggles). Reaction time was measured with Witty photocells. The participant was standing in the middle of the ski slope, with the head fixed on the stand to avoid head movements during measurement and was wearing earplugs to avoid any sound stimuli. The protocol was identical for each testing condition. Differences in reaction speed between the three conditions were tested by analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results confirm that the slowest reaction on visual stimuli was measured when wearing ski helmet and ski goggles combined, both for previous helmet users and non-users. Our results confirm the hypothesis regarding the differences in gained results for helmet users and non-users when observing the role of ski helmet and ski goggles on reaction speed. The results indicate significant differences between helmet users and non-users, i.e., the reaction was slower for helmet non-users. Gathered results suggest that a combination of ski helmet and ski goggles significantly negatively influences reaction speed on visual stimuli both for helmet users and non- users in three tested conditions. When comparing the results of helmet users and non-users, there are differences in the time necessary to react during skiing. The habit of wearing a helmet does influence the ability of perceiving visual stimuli.

ski helmet, ski goggles, reaction speed, field testing, head injuries

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