On the recommendation of Ian Bell we received a phone call from Englands head physio and a brief chat ensued discussing our helmet and as a result we were asked to send a sample up for them to trial in Loughbrough. We sent up 2 helmets for them, one modern style and one of the traditional ones we produced.
Following them getting these we scheduled a little visit to go and see them to talk about the reasons behind the helmet appearance and how it offered the players the best possible protection. So off we set from Bristol to travel up to Loughbrough. A few hours later we were mingling with the student types and had signed ourselves up for various teams, clubs and drinking squads all whilst trying to find the ECB centre on the campus. We battled our way past the girls hockey match and found the sign we had been looking for....
A meeting followed and we were given a presentation by Mark showing us what issues they were having with the helmets currently being worn and the injuries that had occurred when wearing them...some vids i had seen before and a couple were new to me...after this we talked about the design features the Ayrtek helmet has in order to prevent the issues that were pointed out and we showed them the Keith Barker video which they hadn't as yet seen
It seems that video footage is the easiest way on convincing someone about the benefits of something they were previously sceptical of
and the shape of the helmet was explained as the feedback was that the lads didn't want to look different than normal when wearing the helmets.
A week later the footage of Keith barker was used in a presentation to the EPS (as the full squad had flown out to Aus already). It must have worked as we had a phone call from Mark asking for 3 helmets to be sent up as a few of them had trialled the one we gave them and would like one to take to Aus with them during the tour. Were glad to know that our lads are wearing the safest helmet on the market and keeping themselves protected, as the future of the full England side we are 100% behind them