The study investigated the effects of ball inflation pressure on head impact biomechanics. In a two-stage study, footballs with a range of ball inflation pressures (0.4 - 0.95 atm) were impacted into a force plate across a range of ball velocities. Next, 12 male players headed a reduced range of inflation pressures (0.4 & 0.54 atm) and ball velocities (5 & 8m/s) whilst instrumented with three-dimensional motion capture markers to assess linear and angular head accelerations. Results suggest that in isolation, a reduced inflation pressure reduces peak impact force across all velocities barring a low velocity of 4.6 m/s. In Vivo, findings suggest that inflation pressure has no effect on linear or angular head accelerations at any velocity, and ball velocity has no effect on linear accelerations. However, a ball velocity of 5 m/s could reduce angular accelerations by 180 rads/s2 (95% CI: 104 - 255 rads/s2).
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