Deriving Representative Head-Impact Profiles in Contact Sports: A Shape-Based Clustering Approach

Instrumented mouthguards (iMGs) capture thousands of head acceleration events in contact sports, though processing the data from these into meaningful information remains a challenge. To bridge this gap, we developed a principled clustering pipeline to extract concise kinematics that are representative of real-world impact scenarios. We evaluated six multivariate time-series distance metrics using k-medoids clustering and a dataset of 5149 impacts across three sports: mixed martial arts, boxing, and rugby union. Model performance was evaluated using a Coverage Quality Score (CQS), prioritizing reconstruction coverage and cluster separation. Joint Shape-Based Distance (SBD) significantly outperformed all other metrics, including Dynamic Time Warping (DTW), driven primarily by superior reconstruction coverage. The methodology yielded two complementary archetypes. First, a 36-impact canonical set provides distinct medoids representing core kinematic mechanisms; however, distributional checks confirm these medoids alone do not reproduce cohort severity distributions. To resolve this, we generated a second, extended impact set sampled proportionally within clusters along specific severity axes (e.g., peak acceleration and whole-brain strain). This targeted sampling recovers full severity-distribution fidelity using fewer than 150 impacts per dataset. Ultimately, this framework successfully distills large iMG datasets into manageable cohorts providing a scalable solution for assessment, experimental targets, and finite element simulations.