dome shaped padding layer 12 the padding layer 12 substantially fitting over and conforming to the shape of the cranium of the human head h thus the shell layer 14 and padding layer 12 distribute focused mechanical shocks received by the shell layer 14 thereby protecting the human head h the surface of the shell layer 14 is substantially smooth without significant protrusions that might affect the rebound direction of the soccer ball furthermore the dome shaped shell layer 14 is sufficiently rigid and resilient when worn on the human head h that the shell layer 14 rebounds the ball with about the same speed or with greater speed than the ball would rebound if off an unprotected head the thickness and material of the shell layer 14 and padding layer 12 are chosen as described below to balance head protection e g energy absorption properties against performance rebound direction and resiliency such that the soccer helmet protects the head without significantly interfering with heading the various components of the soccer helmet 10 are now described in further detail with respect to fig2 which shows the soccer helmet 10 in exploded view the padding layer 12 in the center of fig2 is composed of for example a closed cell foam such as volara u2122 closed cell polyolefin foam supplied by voltek a division of sekisui america corporation located in lawrence mass the polyolefin foam making up the padding layer 12 preferably has a substantially uniform thickness of approximately u215c inches although the padding layer 12 covers the entire cranium the portion of uniform thickness may apply over the forehead only over the forehead and crown only or over the entire cranium the choice of thickness of the padding layer 12 given a certain material is obtained by.