A Lacrosse Face Mask Could Reduce Concussion Rates

When Camille Richardson plays lacrosse, she wears a face mask. The freshman midfielder is one of just a few female players to do so. The rest of her teammates play without helmets, a decision that some safety advocates say encourages recklessness and puts them at a greater risk for head injuries.

At this point, it seems a forgone conclusion that girls’ lacrosse will eventually require head protection like the hard shell and full face masks required in boys’ lacrosse. But even if the rules did change, there’s no guarantee that such gear would reduce the incidence of concussions. In fact, some experts believe that the chin-strap and helmet combo could increase concussion rates by causing the neck to move more as the player rotates his or her head during a collision.

In the meantime, most girls who play lacrosse at all levels are stuck playing with youth ice hockey helmets that are too big for them. This is a problem because the helmets offer less protection than a traditional lacrosse face mask, and they can be more easily cracked or broken by stick hits. And while some experts argue that soft-shell helmets might protect against some stick-to-head concussions, others fear they might actually encourage more violent plays.

As the lacrosse season resumes after the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s been a lot of debate about whether or not girls should be allowed to wear full-face helmets and chin straps. But one thing’s for sure: if the rules did change, the new face masks would need to pass strict safety tests before they could be used in competition.

Currently, most lacrosse equipment makers are struggling to make the necessary changes and to get their products to market during this difficult time. For example, StringKing’s core business is making men’s and women’s lacrosse sticks, but when the quarantine began, they quickly had to figure out how to keep their workers employed. So they shifted production from sticks to the manufacture of personal protective equipment (PPE). They’re now producing thousands of masks per day in their Los Angeles factory.

The researchers compared the effectiveness of three methods for face mask removal on a human model with no history of injury or concussion. The participant wore dark clothing and Brine Core lacrosse shoulder pads and was properly fitted for the equipment by a certified athletic trainer. Thirteen round plastic retro-reflective markers (17 mm) were fixed to the model’s body in locations that correlated with the anatomical structure of the right acromion, left acromion, right iliac crest, and left iliac crest. Clusters of three were also fastened to the torso over the shoulder pads.

FMR was performed using a Face Mask Extractor 2 (Sports Medicine Concepts, Livonia, MI), the Trainer’s Angel (Trainer’s Equipment, Riverside, CA), and a cordless screwdriver with a pruner attachment (model HP41LK; Ryobi Technologies Inc, Anderson, SC). The data showed that each method yielded similar results. The most efficient method was the face mask extractor, followed by the Trainer’s Angel, and then a cordless screwdriver with reversible blades.