5 ways to take care of your baseball helmet

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by Malisa Walker

With head injuries recently becoming a huge talking point in sports and increased number of concussions experienced by athletes, head protection has become even more critical when it comes to safety.

More and more companies are investing money in research and development to make sure that their products meet the demands of today’s game without sacrificing performance.

It’s highly unlikely that you will ever be able to produce a completely safe and concussion-proof baseball helmet so you can’t just rely on the helmet. However, there really has been some serious advances in technology that allow you to go out there with confidence.

In this article, we are not going to be looking at what the safest baseball helmets are on the market right now. If you are interested in finding this out then check out this article by WhatAllTheProsUse (http://www.whatalltheprosuse.com/baseball/best-baseball-helmets).

Instead, we want to go through how to make sure you maintain your baseball helmet so that it remains safe throughout the period that you decide to use this.

There is nothing worse than just throwing it in the back of your car and leaving it there for days without taking the appropriate care, it will only put yourself at risk!

Let’s start with the size

You’ve probably heard this before but size is probably the most important thing when it comes to baseball helmets especially the younger age groups. We often hear parents say that they kid will grow into the helmet as they go through the years. DON’T LISTEN TO THIS!

Just grab a tape measurer and wrap it around their forehead to get quite an accurate measurement. You don’t want your kid playing with the wrong size or developing any neck or head injuries from a young age.

The sizes for each brand will vary so it is important to make sure that you try the helmet on first and not just trust that the brand will fit.

What about the right fit?

This one probably goes hand-in-hand with the right size for the helmet and is just as important or sometimes even more.

Again, we have so many cases where parents are under the impression that its one size fits all and that it’s ok if it’s slightly bigger because their child will grow into it in a year or two.

We do not recommend this at all and instead find a helmet that when you put it on should feel very snug and not be able to move around too much. The best way to see if this is the case is to check that there is no room in between the padding and the head.

It’s also worth checking that you are able to actually see out of the helmet. Again, this is crucial for younger players where a slightly bigger helmet will block their vision which can obviously be very dangerous for the player.

Take care of your Helmet

It’s only natural that you will see some scuffs and marks appear on the helmet as you use it over a certain period of time, it’s never going to stay squeaky clean forever! However, the mistake that you do not want to make is leaving it out in areas without care or prone to being damaged.

Areas like this include in the bottom of your bag, back of the car, in the garage etc. Cracks and dents usually appear when there’s items placed on top or it’s thrown around in a bag or something. Small damages may begin to occur which will then develop into much bigger ones.

Many people will tell athletes not to use the helmet at all if there is any form of cracks or broken parts to the equipment. This is definitely true and especially if there is any damaged padding, it will probably need to be replaced because they usually absorb the impact on collision.

Make sure that you clean your helmet

We know it’s not the most attractive job in the world and can be messy at times but if it prolongs your helmet and keeps your head safe, then it’s a job worth doing.

After a day of practice or game time, obviously it’s very likely that sweat would have been in contact with your helmet. If this is just left alone, it can quite quickly turn into dangerous germs and bacteria throughout the season. Plus it can leave a nasty smell at time too.

Just a little bit of warm water and a mild detergent can go a long way when used to clean the inside and outside of the helmet.

Look out for labels on the helmet

Obviously, there are regulations in place to make sure helmets meet certain level of safety measures. However, this becomes more dangerous when you start looking at second-hand helmets. We’ve always recommended staying away from them as you won’t know what their true condition is really like. Second hand helmets should have a label which will state a date if the helmet has gone through certified repairs.

But is it really worth saving a couple of bucks but risk a critical head injury? We don’t think so and is definitely worth investing your money into a good helmet.