System for monitoring a physiological parameter of players engaged in a sporting activity

A system for monitoring impact-related acceleration of a body part of a player engaged in a contact sport, the player wearing a piece of protective sports equipment adjacent the body part that receives and attenuates impacts while the player is engaged in the contact sport, the system comprising:

• a reporting unit positioned within a piece of protective sports equipment worn against a body part of an individual player while engaged in the contact sport, the reporting unit having:
• a plurality of sensing devices arranged to measure a direction and a magnitude of acceleration of the player's body part resulting from impacts applied to the protective sports equipment and to generate body part acceleration data for each of said impacts, and
• a control unit configured to process said body part acceleration data and to calculate for each of said impacts:
• <a body part acceleration result;
• a direction of the impact;
• a location of the impact;
• and
• a duration of the impact;
• and
• a signaling device that provides an alert when said calculated body part acceleration result exceeds a predetermined value.