NOCSAE Welcomes New Research Director Kim Barber Foss

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Kim D. Barber Foss, MS, LAT, ATC, CCRP brings with her a passion for innovative research and a clear vision for her new role as she succeeds outgoing Research Director, Frederick O. Mueller, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor, UNC-CH. Barber Foss has published extensively in the areas of injury epidemiology, biomechanics, and brain injury and has 29 years’ experience as a certified athletic trainer. She is an associate research scientist at the Emory University Sports Performance and Research Center (SPARC), which utilizes a lab-to-field research approach to sports injury in young athletes. Barber Foss also spent fifteen years as a Senior Research Assistant in the Sports Medicine Division at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital where she was involved with biomechanics, epidemiology, and concussion research and was director of the Brain Network Activation Lab.

More about the research director position

The research director position oversees NOCSAE’s Grant Program, which has underwritten more than $13 million dollars in research over the past 50 years. As research director, Barber Foss will chair NOCSAE’s Grant Review Committee, co-chair the Request for Proposal Committee and hold a seat on the Scientific Advisory Committee. Barber Foss has relinquished the NOCSAE board position, which she held for four years as the representative from the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA), to assume the duties of her new leadership position.

More about Barber Foss

Barber Foss’s further experience includes her role as the coordinator for the National High School Sports Injury Registry, which was a large-scale NATA project. She currently serves on the NATA COPA Analytics and Outcomes Committee.

Barber Foss’s honors include the 2018 Gatorade Secondary School Athletic Trainer of the Year District 4, 2019 NATA Service Award, 2020 NATA Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer Award, and 2020 NATA Secondary School Athletic Trainer of the Year award District 4.  She was also selected as the 2019 Girl Scouts of Western Ohio Woman of Distinction.

New NOCSAE, NAERA Video Addresses Sports Equipment Reconditioning and Recertification

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OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (January, 2021) ― In December 2020, NOCSAE’s executive director Mike Oliver visited with Bob Fawley, president of the National Equipment Reconditioning Association (NAERA), and Tony Beam, executive director of NAERA, for a webcast discussing sports equipment reconditioning and recertification.

The video, which can be found here, addresses questions about the sports equipment recertification and reconditioning process, with an added look at the significance of the process today and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The presentation is the first in a series of educational materials NOCSAE will be showcasing in 2021 to better inform all stakeholders, including athletes, parents, coaches, retailers and others about NOCSAE and its efforts and achievements in sports equipment safety, scientific research and the creation of performance standards for athletic equipment.

 

NOCSAE’s Winter Standards Committee to Meet January 29, 2021

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OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (December, 2020) ― NOCSAE’s Winter Standards Committee Meeting will be held virtually on January 29, 2021 to cover research findings from the NOCSAE Scientific Advisory Committee, as well as discuss various existing and potential standards.

A vote will be held on whether the formal standards development process should be commenced on requested potential revisions for the following standards. (The potential revision for all four standards is the same and involves adding a compression deflection upper limit of 400 pounds to the softball projectile specification.)

·       ND022 – Standard Performance Specification for Newly Manufactured Baseball/Softball Batter’s Helmets

·       ND024- Standard Performance Specification for Newly Manufactured Baseball/Softball Catcher’s Helmets

·       ND029 – Standard Performance Specification for Newly Manufactured Baseball/Softball Fielder’s Headgear

·       ND072 – Standard Performance Specification for Newly Manufactured Baseball/Softball Batter’s Helmet Mounted Face Protector

A vote will also be held on whether to begin the formal standards development process on a potential revision to ND200 – Standard Test Method and Performance Specification Used in Evaluating the Performance Characteristics of Protectors for Commotio Cordis.

ND006-20, the proposed Standard Performance Specification for Newly Manufactured Youth Football Helmets, will also be discussed.

The opportunity to make comments during the meeting will be limited by time, so if you have comments regarding the agenda or specific to a standard that you want the committee to address, please make them in advance of the meeting.

Comments or questions related to the agenda items should be sent by Jan. 11 to Executive Director Mike Oliver: mike.oliver@nocsae.org.

Comments specific to a standard may be made through the NOCSAE website. This method requires registering on the site first, then locating the appropriate standard on the Standards Matrix found here.

This meeting will be held using Cisco Webex, a video conferencing service. You do not need a Webex account to join a meeting. Answers to how to join a Webex meeting and frequently asked questions regarding Webex can be found here. Video tutorials for joining a Webex meeting can be found here.

NOCSAE’s Winter Standards Committee Meeting to Be Held Virtually

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OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (November 2020) ― Amid concerns regarding COVID-19 and its continued spread, the decision was made to move NOCSAE’s Winter Standards Committee Meeting to a virtual event, scheduled to take place this year on Jan. 29, 2021.

Interested parties will be able to revisit www.nocsae.org and https://nocsae.org/meetings/ later this winter to register and gain further details.

Standards Committee to Meet Jan. 31, 2020

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OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (December 2019) ― The NOCSAE Standards committee will meet Jan 31, 2020 in Phoenix, Ariz. to discuss research findings from the NOCSAE Scientific Advisory Committee, and to consider revisions and proposed new standards. Here is a link to the agenda for the meeting.

The committee will consider this revision to ND022 – the Standard Performance Specification for Newly Manufactured Baseball/Softball Batter’s Helmets. A vote will also be held on ND006, the submitted Standard Performance Specification for Newly Manufactured Youth Football Helmets, which will be discussed and voted upon as a “Proposed New” standard.

 

NOCSAE Issues Warning About Counterfeit Lacrosse Balls

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OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (March 7, 2019) – The National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment, NOCSAE is warning lacrosse players, coaches and teams to use caution when purchasing lacrosse balls online.

NOCSAE is taking aggressive steps to stop the sale of counterfeit lacrosse balls by multiple illegitimate vendors, primarily on the Internet. In recent months, NOCSAE has worked with Amazon, GoDaddy and other online shopping platforms to shut down vendors selling lacrosse balls that have not been certified to the NOCSAE standard.

“Without proper testing and certification to the NOCSAE standard, these counterfeit lacrosse balls could pose safety risks for players,” said NOCSAE Executive Director Mike Oliver. “Consumers should also be aware that many of the counterfeit lacrosse balls appear to have the proper NOCSAE and Safety Equipment Institute (SEI) logos, but the vendors in question are not registered licensees and the balls fail to meet the NOCSAE standard.”

Consumers should not rely solely on the presence of on-ball marking to assess whether lacrosse balls meet the NOCSAE standard. To ensure these products have been certified to the NOCSAE standard, NOCSAE recommends checking the name of the manufacturer and the ball model against the certified product list available on the Safety Equipment Institute (SEI) website (www.seinet.org).

US Lacrosse, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) require that all balls used in lacrosse games meet the NOCSAE standard to help protect players from potential safety risks. In addition, all three governing bodies strongly encourage the use of balls that meet the NOCSAE standard for all practice games. The NOCSAE standard for newly manufactured lacrosse balls includes specifications and performance requirements related to weight, density, size and other quality controls.

NOCSAE will continue to provide updates on this issue as new information becomes available. More information on all NOCSAE standards is available at www.nocsae.org.

NOCSAE Standards Committee Establishes New Effective Date for Revised Football Helmet Standard

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A priority focus for NOCSAE has been the development of a football helmet standard to limit rotational accelerations involved in many concussions. The revised football helmet standard, which was finalized in 2017, utilizes a complex software program to collect helmet performance data during pneumatic ram testing. On June 15, 2018, the software developer advised NOCSAE that an error in one of the data analysis algorithms, which occurred when using a specific version of the software system, caused some of the data to be reported inaccurately. The inaccurate data related to the rotational acceleration results that are the basis of the revised standard. As a result of this development, the NOCSAE Standards Committee voted to postpone the effective date of the revised football helmet standard, which had been scheduled for November 2018.

After investigating the issue further and ensuring the software issues were resolved, the NOCSAE Standards Committee reconvened on Aug. 14, 2018 to vote on a revision to the specified impact recording software to be used in testing. It was also agreed that the effective date of the revised football helmet standard would be moved to November 2019.

 

NOCSAE Standards Committee Votes to Revise Standard, Establishes New Effective Date

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On August 14, 2018, in a public online meeting, the NOCSAE Standards Committee voted to revise the pneumatic ram testing standard (section 6.12 of ND081) as presented in the redline version, and established an effective date of Nov. 1, 2019 for standard ND081-18am18.

Objections to the vote of the committee may be recorded for 30 days following this meeting and may be sent to Mike Oliver at mike.oliver@nocsae.org, or made under the standard here.