UNHInnovation has partnered with UNH Kinesiology Professor Erik Swartz for the commercial launch of a ground-breaking, evidence-based helmetless tackling program. Professor Swartz developed HuTT® to decrease head impacts in football and increase the safety of one of America’s favorite pastimes.
HuTT aims to lower the number of head injuries in football by changing how players tackle. Football athletes sustain a majority of head impacts to the top and front of the helmet, which pose the greatest risk of injury. Proper execution of the HuTT tackling program trains players to avoid initiating contact with the head and reduce head impacts. Swartz conducted the first scientific study to demonstrate this claim.
Swartz’s two-year study at UNH concluded at the end of the 2014 football season. Working with Swartz, UNH football coaches implemented the specific techniques of HuTT, and the study found a nearly 30% decrease in head impacts among the group of players who participated in helmetless drills as compared to the control group. His findings were published in the December 2015 Journal of Athletic Training and his story was reported by news outlets across the country, including the Washington Post, New York Times, and Sports Illustrated. Coaches at UNH have also found the HuTT techniques improved tackling performance overall.
Since the completion of the study, UNHInnovation has been working with Swartz to commercialize the HuTT curriculum so that youth, high school, and collegiate football programs around the country can integrate HuTT drills and exercises into their training. The HuTT website (huttprogram.com) went live this past spring and UNH has recently received its first two HuTT curriculum licenses from high schools in Delaware and Connecticut. Coaches from these high schools are currently incorporating the HuTT exercises and drills into their weekly practices.
In an effort to improve the user experience, HuTT has teamed up with Retrieve Technologies out of Manchester, New Hampshire to create a customized app that offers video instructions for each drill. Coaches can access videos of UNH football players performing drills to illustrate and improve drill performance as well as record and send video back to the HuTT team for review and further instruction.
Chris Harris
Licensing Manager, Creative Works
