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from Boys' Life, March 1998
SMASH HITS
by Charles Downey
Crack! Crash! Bam! Boom! Engineer Dave Halstead
makes sure sports equipment crunches before you do.
 Pro football players take their share of hits to the head. It's part of the job.
But for one professional football player—we won't name him to spare him embarrassment—his hardest hit didn't come from a beefy ballplayer. It came from scientist Dave Halstead.
Mr. Halstead is head of the Sports Biomechanics Impact Research Lab at the University of Tennessee. He's a safety tester, making sure the sports equipment that everyone uses—from pro athletes to players like you—is safe.
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Now That's a Hard Knock
The player looked on eagerly as Mr. Halstead tested a new football helmet. A huge machine kept cracking the helmet on a test dummy's head, with seemingly little effect.
"You guys aren't hitting that helmet nearly as hard as I get hit in a real game," the player scoffed. "Our helmets are hit very, very hard."
After the player had asked several times to be the test "dummy," Mr. Halstead turned the striking force down by 40 percent, put the helmet on the player and let the striker fly.
Ka-bang!
The pounded pro didn't say a word. He  groggily walked around and pulled off the test helmet.
"I've played professional football for 14 years and I have never, never been hit that hard!" he gasped. "I take back everything I said. That machine hits real hard."
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"Our helmets are hit very, very hard."
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How to Build a Better Buckle
The machine has to hit hard—to make sure you don't get hurt. Mr. Halstead and his colleagues test new materials to make sure they're tough enough. The lab reviews everything from helmets to bats to pads—even basketball shoes, to find better ways to protect athletes' legs.
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"Smash Hits" by Charles Downey from Boys' Life, March 1998. Published by the Boy Scouts of America. Copyright © 1998 by Charles Downey. Reprinted by permission of the author.
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