I dare say I might not have been had I been wearing a helmet but I am saying that had I been wearing a helmet it would have been damaged but it wouldn't have "saved my life"
Not sure you really understand how this works.
Your brain can withstand up to a certain G force as it decelerates or accelerates by being hit by something, without being damaged. A helmet crumples and helps slow your brain's deceleration and reduces the G force.
So if you are wearing one, the consequences of an impact are less severe. An impact big enough to cause permanent damage to a naked head might be reduced to temporary damage with one. An impact that might have caused temporary damage to a naked head might be reduced to a sore head with a helmet.
So they don't prevent injuries necessarily, but they reduce the severity of the consequences.
what are the head injury sats for the tour de France pre and post helmet compulsion
That's a much better question and one I would be interested to find the answer to. Seems like most crashers, of whom there are plenty, seem to hit their bodies and hips. I wonder how many helmets get dinged? We see plenty of pics of cut up lycra but not dinged helmets.
Dan Martin's after the crash with Geraint Thomas and Riche Porte:
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He finished the stage and only lost just over a minute.
The fundamental point here, surely, is that as adults we can choose whether or not to wear a helmet, but children do not have that level of responsibility, so it is our job, as parents, guardians, coaches, to instruct them, in the safest way possible.
Different approach to the OP here - helmet wearing has been the default for my kids until I felt they were experienced enough to be able to assess the risk for themselves for whatever riding they are going out to do. One's nearly 13 and sometimes doesn't wear a helmet when pootling about, the other is 7 will very rarely ride without one - he's the only one that's smashed a helmet though when he was trying little wheelies and somehow manage to go over the bars and flip round, whacking the back of his head onto the tennis court we were playing on. But they tend to know what sort of a mood they're in - riding round the village can involve just that... or dropping 1.5 foot kurbs, jumps, etc, etc
Neither they nor me were exposed to any peer pressure in this though (ignoring their grandparents that is). They always wanted to wear a helmet to ride as that's what I did - that was part of going for a ride. I had to insist they took their helmet off when riding in the trailer (they both wanted to) so they were actually comfortable!
Getting them to a point where they can make a fairly sophisticated risk calculation is difficult though, and I'm certainly not kidding myself that they always get it right and I do sometimes simply say "Why don't you put a helmet on?". The stress has always been on them understanding the risks and minimising those, rather than mitigating some potential effects through wearing a helmet.
My boys wear them, always have done, but they are bloody daft.
Do rugby forums have gumshield threads?
More likely to have headgear threads I'd thought. Gumshields are mandatory.
Lots of the U10 team I coach wear headgear. I don't like it to be honest as I think it gives a false sense of security when tackling. That being said my son now wears one due to my wife insisting and me wanting a quiet life.
I felt they were experienced enough to be able to assess the risk for themselves for whatever riding they are going out to do.
What about when something happens that they weren't planning to do?
What about when something happens that they weren't planning to do?
Yup - that's the difficult part. Either they change their mind, or they get sucked into something, or it's something out of their control. We are working from the usual default of wearing a helmet though, so it's the not wearing a helmet that is the conscious decision and needs assessment. So if they go out without a helmet then they've made a conscious decision to ride in a certain way, in certain places. I'm happy (from what I've seen, not hypothetically happy) that they mostly get it right.
My kids (8 and 10 - need to think up some better names for them at some point) have always worn helmets and understand that it's part and parcel of cycling, whatever discipline you do. I like the fact that you've thought it through and you're quite correct to have risk assessed it, but (IMHO) the reality is that the earlier you get them wearing them, the less complaints you'll get on that day when you insist on them wearing it (for a race, a club event or at an MTB trail centre). For me, there was never any option.
As for strangulation, I think that's a very, very outside risk. There have been statements made about kids playing in their helmets when away from the bikes and I think these have merit (and I now try to remember to get them to remove them when playing) but these seem small fry in my mind compared to the risk of getting their heads battered in a crash.
In the last month, my 8yo son has had a reasonably big "off" while road coaching. Fortunately, he only scraped his head, but he was fortunate and it could have been much worse. Last weekend, he went down hard in a CX event and, even though he landed on grass, he hit his helmet hard enough to leave a good mark on his head and to knock his senses for 60s or so. Fortunately, there was no serious harm and he was able to keep racing, but I was extremely glad that he had his helmet on in both situations.
I've lost count of the number of bashes he's had on his MTB. Now that I think about it, he's probably due a new helmet 🙂
I'm not suggesting that OP would have allowed his kids to be without a helmet in any of these situations (in fact, in a club or race environment, they would have been mandatory and on the trail you'd be daft not to wear one), but my attitude is that "always wear a helmet" is much easier to teach kids than having to argue with them every time about whether a given ride is risky enough to need one.
Each to their own, of course, but with my cycle coach hat on, I see enough crashes that it's helmets all the way.
[quote=giantalkali ]If you were to land on the floor, would you prefer to have some form of protection? Even if it may strangle you on the internet, though not in real life.
If you were to risk being stabbed would you fancy a stab resistant vest, despite it being hot and sweaty?
If you were to be savaged by a beaver or somesuch, would you like beaver proof galoshers, despite someone on the internet telling you they may burst into flames?
How about if, whilst wrestling a rabid haddock, someone was to pass you a sharpened golf club. Handy, I'm sure you'll agree...
Unlikely as these scenarios may sound, you just never know, and it pays to be prepared.
You make a very good point. I always wear my stab vest, beaver proof galoshes and carry a sharpened golf club, just in case. Clearly such measures work as I have yet to be stabbed, attacked by a beaver or by a rabid haddock.
*s****s*
Clearly such measures work as I have yet to be stabbed, attacked by a beaver or by a rabid haddock.
Conclusive, I'm sure you'll all agree.
Such is the speed and ferocity of the beaver, seldom is the victim afforded time to apply the correct PPE. Should a beaver begin it's attack then you must respond hard and fast, striking repeatedly at the sternum with any heavy object to hand. Such as a ladle.
