Ask A Genius 1309: Peyton McNabb Volleyball Injury: Fact vs. Political Narrative
Author(s): Rick Rosner and Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/03/08
Rick Rosner: A few nights ago, the president delivered his speech to Congress. As is customary, members of Congress brought special guests to emphasize political points.
For instance, Trump brought a 13-year-old boy who is recovering from brain cancer and made him an honorary Secret Service agent. The Democrats didn’t clap. Republicans used this moment to accuse Democrats of being heartless, corrupt, and out of touch. However, Democrats were reportedly frustrated by what they saw as hypocrisy—honouring a cancer patient while Trump and Musk are actively working on cutting funding for the CDC, which conducts cancer research, including research on childhood cancer. So, they did not applaud the boy, not out of malice toward him, but because they saw the gesture as politically disingenuous.
The Republicans also highlighted Peyton McNabb, a high school volleyball player who suffered a severe injury during a game in 2022 after being hit in the face by a spike from a transgender athlete on the opposing team.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Before this, I hadn’t heard about the story. It sounded like a name that a random name generator would create.
Rosner: When McNabb was 17, she was playing a high school volleyball match when a spike from a transgender female athlete struck her in the face. Reports claimed the ball was travelling at 70 mph, but I decided to analyze the footage myself.
The impact resulted in a concussion, temporary paralysis on one side of her body, vision problems, and other lasting health effects. McNabb later became an advocate for policies banning transgender women from competing in girls’ sports.
Once again, the Democrats did not applaud, which Republicans framed as evidence of heartlessness.
I reviewed the footage of the play—watching the clip about 20 times—and examined the public reaction. Many comments were sympathetic, calling the incident “savagery.” However, volleyball players in the comments argued that the spike was not exceptionally powerful or unusual.
A few key details stood out:
- McNabb was positioned behind the attack line 10 feet from the net.
- The spike travelled 12 feet from the point of contact to her face.
- Volleyball players claimed the speed was not excessive. Many pointed out that poor positioning contributed to the injury.
- Spikes to the face are not uncommon. Studies suggest that 5% of volleyball injuries result from ball impacts.
After slowing the footage and analyzing it frame by frame, I calculated that:
- The ball travelled 12 feet in six frames (one-fifth of a second).
- This equates to a speed of 60 feet per second (41 mph)—far from the 70 mph originally claimed.
- Many varsity-level female players can spike at similar speeds.
While the injury was severe, the narrative that it was an unprecedented or freakishly powerful spike does not hold up under scrutiny.
A spike of that speed has one-third of the kinetic energy of the supposed 70 mph “savage spike” that The Daily Mail, a British newspaper, claimed. In reality, the ball was travelling at 40–41 mph.
If you calculate the g-forces, a volleyball weighs 9 to 10 ounces. To sustain a concussion, a person’s head must move upon impact. If the head remains stationary, a concussion does not occur.
A concussion happens when the skull rapidly moves and then collides with the brain, causing it to compress against the skull. So, if someone dropped a rock off a building onto the top of your head, you wouldn’t get a concussion—assuming it didn’t crack your skull. You might suffer a bruise, a laceration, or significant bleeding, but there would be no concussion because your skull isn’t accelerating or decelerating sharply.
If it were a large boulder, that’s a different story. But in this case, her head barely moved. Yes, she has black eyes, which suggests localized impact and blood vessel damage, but I haven’t seen photographic proof. There may have been sinus bleeding, but the g-forces from a 10-ounce volleyball striking a mostly stationary head are far below what is required to cause a concussion.
It takes 70–75 g’s to enter the concussion range. The average concussion occurs at 98 g’s. She might have experienced 60 g’s at most, but that’s being generous. Likely, it was even lower.
A human head weighs about 8 pounds but is attached to a torso via the neck. This means that for a concussion to occur, the force from the volleyball would need to move not just the head but also overcome the resistance of the torso. Given that her neck was tensed, her entire upper body would have needed to move significantly—which it didn’t.
So, I’m not buying the severity of the reported injuries.
- A) It wasn’t a savage spike. It was a regular spike.
- B) Head and neck injuries are the most commonly exaggerated or misrepresented.
This reminds me of a car accident I was in. I lightly tapped a guy’s bumper—it made a loud noise because it was a hollow bumper, but his car barely moved. The guy initially said he was fine. Then, three days later, after talking to a lawyer, he suddenly had “whiplash” and filed a claim against my insurance.
Even though I called my insurance company and told them it was nonsense, they still paid the claim because fighting small claims isn’t worth it. If it’s $10,000 or even $25,000, they’d rather pay it than go to court.
And now, Peyton McNabb is being paid by an anti-trans political action committee called something like ‘Fairness for Women.’
Also, it was claimed that the injury ended her athletic career, but there are records of her playing sports the following year. Varsity sports, I believe. So, there’s a lot of bullshit there. But at least there’s bullshit in the physics, yes.
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