May 1

May 1 Chad Hollingsworth, President & Co-Founder of Triax Technologies

This week on the Heads 'N Tales podcast we talk about how technology can help make sports safer to play at all levels with Chad Hollingsworth, President and Co-Founder of Triax Technologies. In this episode, Chad and I talk about two of the products his company has innovated to improve sports safety, especially when it comes to concussions. The SIM-P and the SIM-G use a small accelerometer placed inside a headband or skull cap (pictured below).

The accelerometer measures the number, severity and location of head impacts to the athlete. Data collected by the accelerometer is synced via bluetooth technology to a smartphone for the SIM-P, which is perfect for any parent who wants to keep tabs on head impacts their child is receiving in practice or games. Alerts are sent to notify the parent or data-manager of severe impacts. The SIM-P is designed for individual use, but the SIM-G is designed for team use. With the SIM-G, Impact data is transmitted within 20 milliseconds to the sidelines and cloud, allowing for instant notifications of high impact events. Up to 63 athletes can be monitored simultaneously with the SIM-G.

I talk a lot about the culture of toughness in sports and how in our society it is glorified to play injured. As in my case, playing sports with a brain injury can be potentially fatal or life altering because of second impact syndrome (listen to episode 1 if you want to learn more about SIS). Products like these have the ability to break through the culture of toughness because they warn parents or athletic trainers of potentially dangerous blows to the head.

In addition, these products are used in research with the hope of all sports becoming safer for athletes to play in the future. Lastly, Chad said numerous times throughout the interview that the most important thing we can do to protect athletes from concussions is to educate them. Traix Technologies dedicated a section of their website called "HEAD ON" to concussion education.

Where can you learn more about Triax Technologies?