Using your Head Might Not Be So Smart

[greybeard]

The evidence is gathering to support what many of us long ago figured out--heading the ball in soccer, concussions aside, is not smart, that is, if you want to stay smart. There is pretty strong evidence out there that the billions of cells in your brain do not fair well when they collide with a soccer ball repeatedly over time. Parents ask for when it is okay to let "them" start, 10 years old, 14 years old. Really?

The US is dying to make soccer a professional sport, and presumably have more and more children play it on a level in which heading plays a significant part. It seems to me that the game has more than enough going on without risking permanent damage to brains. Soccer is a very heady game, perhaps the most interesting team games there are. Passing and receiving, the most fun in sport, in soccer you get to use all of yourself except your arms. Less take the head out of it also. All of us only has one of those, including your kids.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/27/sp...ayer.html?_r=1

[blazindw]

The evidence is gathering to support what many of us long ago figured out--heading the ball in soccer, concussions aside, is not smart, that is, if you want to stay smart. There is pretty strong evidence out there that the billions of cells in your brain do not fair well when they collide with a soccer ball repeatedly over time. Parents ask for when it is okay to let "them" start, 10 years old, 14 years old. Really?

The US is dying to make soccer a professional sport, and presumably have more and more children play it on a level in which heading plays a significant part. It seems to me that the game has more than enough going on without risking permanent damage to brains. Soccer is a very heady game, perhaps the most interesting team games there are. Passing and receiving, the most fun in sport, in soccer you get to use all of yourself except your arms. Less take the head out of it also. All of us only has one of those, including your kids.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/27/sp...ayer.html?_r=1

Umm...soccer is a professional sport.

[Reisen]

Yeah, I have to be honest, the guy had multiple severe concussions.

I played soccer extremely frequently for many years, including playing high school varsity, olympic development program, for a German club team, and a military team. I managed to never get concussed once. I have more concussions in far fewer hours skiing than I do playing soccer.

I have to believe blows to the head when going for a header (cracking skulls with an opponent, taking an elbow to the head) are far worse.

I have zero reluctance putting my 4 y/o in soccer, and to teach her proper heading technique when the time comes. The impact is just so mild compared to other impacts I've experienced, including blows to the head in skiing and football. I've already started to teach her to ski, and she wears a helmet. Soon, I'll upgrade that to a MIPS helmet.

Honestly, I'm far more worried abut damage to her knees and ankles (from soccer). Virtually every high level female soccer player I know has had an ACL reconstruction, often in high school. I have witnessed some of the injuries. Many of them are in their 30's now, and paying the price (ie. can't run distances without pain, etc.).

[greybeard]

Yeah, I have to be honest, the guy had multiple severe concussions.

I played soccer extremely frequently for many years, including playing high school varsity, olympic development program, for a German club team, and a military team. I managed to never get concussed once. I have more concussions in far fewer hours skiing than I do playing soccer. He sent me the article as an apology for having called me a girlie-man all those years. That was okay, we do what we can.

I have to believe blows to the head when going for a header (cracking skulls with an opponent, taking an elbow to the head) are far worse.

I have zero reluctance putting my 4 y/o in soccer, and to teach her proper heading technique when the time comes. The impact is just so mild compared to other impacts I've experienced, including blows to the head in skiing and football. I've already started to teach her to ski, and she wears a helmet. Soon, I'll upgrade that to a MIPS helmet.

Honestly, I'm far more worried abut damage to her knees and ankles (from soccer). Virtually every high level female soccer player I know has had an ACL reconstruction, often in high school. I have witnessed some of the injuries. Many of them are in their 30's now, and paying the price (ie. can't run distances without pain, etc.).

This thread was inspired when the above article was sent to me by my 23 year old son who played on a top ten high school team in the Greater DC area for 4 years, trained in Brazil in the beautiful game 2 summers. I used to nag him about the dangers of heading the ball, he played right back, a position that presents scores of opportunities to head hard hit balls. Did he listen? Right. He presented it as a sort of an apology for having called me a girly-boy all those years.

I think soccer is a terrific game. I also think that it poses serious dangers to the brain caused by repeatedly heading the ball over a period of formative years for kids and teens. Research thus far confirms it. see, for example, in addition to the previous article, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/27/sp...ayer.html?_r=0

Heading can be taken out of the game, it seems to me, except for balls played into the box, and leave the game with its integrity intact. In fact, college ball itself produces very few players in the MSL, most of whom earn next to nothing. The college game should in my opinion be made much safer in terms of reducing greatly the incidence of repetitive non-concussive. So what if it doesn't prepare one to play college ball. How many college kids go on to play in the MLS, and how much do those who make it earn. Not many and way not much. The college game, the best teams, have scores of scholarship athletes from abroad. Do we really need to be giving away scarce scholarship money to import soccer players.

The skills other than heading associated with receiving long balls are, in seems to me, far more elegant than heading it. Goalie punts can be allowed to hit the ground, or taken with a soft and hollowed trunk. Goal line kicks, the more interesting play is on the ground anyway, can be exercised with touch and loft. There are scores of ways.

My kids are done, my daughter played 4 years of high school soccer and was a very effective defender. She did not head the ball, nor attack off the dribble. She was a terrific one-touch distributer and positioned herself to win the ball without dangerous leg extensions (she figured it out). She was quite good and a terrific athlete.

Steven graduated summa from a fine university. He lives in Medellin, Columbia, where he has successfully launched a career as a journalist. He occasionally writes about the game. Who knows what he might have become had he followed my advice. A doctor maybe. wink.