Preparedness during Head Impacts in Intercollegiate Men’s and Women’s Soccer Athletes

Research in hockey has found that preparedness and activity alter head impact magnitudes. It is unknown if similar occurrences take place in soccer. Therefore, our study purpose was to determine differences in the magnitudes and frequencies of head impacts due to sex and preparedness. Sixteen female (age: 19 ± 1.05 years, height: 163.68 ± 5.03 cm, mass: 61.36 ± 4.99 kg) and 14 male (age: 20 ± 1.07 years, height: 180.34 ± 5.58 cm, mass: 74.357 ± 8.64 kg) Division III intercollegiate soccer players were included in this study. The independent variables were sex and preparedness (anticipated with good body position, anticipated with poor body position, and unanticipated). xPatch sensors (X2 Biosystems, Seattle, WA, USA) applied over the participants’ right mastoid processes for practices and games provided the frequency and biomechanics of all of the head impacts over 10 g. A total of 860 female and 870 male impacts were verified and coded by preparedness and activity during 1182 female (IR = 727.58, CI = 678.95–776.21) and 801 male (IR = 1086.14, CI = 1013.97–1158.32; IRR = 1.49, CI = 1.36–1.64) exposures. The interaction between sex and preparedness was significant for the combined dependent variables (multivariate F6,3442 = 3.67, p = 0.001, ηp2 < 0.01). Male and female intercollegiate soccer players, although exposed to different frequencies of head impacts, sustained similar magnitude impacts to the head within the preparedness categories. Training interventions should aim at improving technique while sustaining impacts as both sexes often received impacts while unprepared.