A group of six concussion sensor companies and the non-profit Sports Legacy Institute yesterday unveiled a new protocol to begin creating a database to determine the appropriate number of head hits before sidelining an athlete. Dubbed Hit Count, which is trademarked by SLI, the genesis of the program was first unveiled two years ago, and in the interim the organizers had hoped until just recently to have a specific hit figure to offer youth football coaches. "Current science” does not justify a specific hit count, said Gerard Gioia, a PhD in George Washington Univ.'s Children's National Health System who helped devise the new protocol. "Our goal is to eventually provide clear guidance for coaches and parents.” The figure Head Count unveiled yesterday is 20G, or the impact of the hit that must be recorded before the program registers it. Walking for example creates a 1G impact. SLI co-Founder Chris Nowinski, whose organization studies brain trauma, said there are 1.5 billion head hits annually in youth and high school football, but one third of them, or half a million, are unnecessary. He cited unnecessary practices as an example. Of the six sensor companies, G-Force Tracker, was unveiled as the first to be officially SLI certified for use at the youth level for tracking head hits (Daniel Kaplan, Staff Writer). 
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