Should we ban heading under 17?

[Unregistered]

Girls more at risk

This is a scientific study of frequency concussions that found young girls are more at risk of a concussion and says headers are a precipitating event.

Other studies have postulated that the relatively weak neck muscles prevent girls from properly powering through the ball and end up getting the head snapped back which slams the brain into the skull!

http://archpedi.jamanetwork.com/arti...icleid=1812615

[Unregistered]

From that "left wing rag" Sports Illustrated

Even they agree it's past time to have this discussion.

http://www.si.com/soccer/planet-futb...fa-head-injury

[Unregistered]

To make it easier

From the Sports Illustrated Article:

In June, Nowinski’s Sports Legacy Institute announced a partnership with Santa Clara University’s Institute of Sports Law and Ethics to create a new initiative, called Parents and Pros for Safer Soccer, which is aiming to minimize or eliminate heading before high school. Dr. Robert Cantu, one of the world’s leading experts on head trauma in sport and a clinical professor of neurosurgery at Boston University School of Medicine, has pointed to studies showing at least 30 percent of concussions in soccer come from the act of heading the ball, sometimes through direct contact with the ball but more significantly when the head smashes into another player or the ground. Cantu is also involved in the new initiative.

The brains and bodies of children are still developing, meaning they are more susceptible to concussions. Recurring head injuries also become more likely each time an individual suffers a concussion. Based on those reasons, as well as the fact that roughly eight million youths play soccer in America, the group decided a potentially effective way to take on soccer’s head trauma problem was to minimize heading before age 14, or more specifically prior to high school.

One of the leading crusaders for heading reform at the youth level is former United States international Brandi Chastain, who clinched the 1999 Women's World Cup with her penalty kick and also won an Olympic gold medal during her career. Chastain, who is the most prominent professional soccer player directly tied to Parents and Pros for Safer Soccer, admits she took pride in her own ability to head the ball.

[Unregistered]

Who are the victims of our demands?

"In soccer, a particular source of concussion concern is heading the ball. A recent study published in the medical journal Radiology showed that repeated heading of the ball resulted in brain damage and weakened cognitive performance in adult amateur players with a median age of 31."


So all of you adult soccer players who say "I head the ball and I'm fine" are you really sure?

[Unregistered]

Even the best suffer

Huntingtown All-Met soccer player Tori Bellucci turned down a full scholarship to play soccer at Towson due to repeated concussions. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)
But according to Comstock and Crutchfield, it’s not head-to-ball contact that poses the greatest concussion danger for younger players, but rather player-to-player or player-to-ground contact that can result from a heading attempt.

“It’s all the other injuries associated with that activity, rather than hitting the ball itself — at least at a high, elite level,” said Crutchfield, who helped develop the NFL’s concussion protocol.

“Though when you talk about just kids who are younger and playing, they have poor technique. Then the head hitting the ball is a problem.”

[Unregistered]

What we should be doing at a MINIMUM

I understand that a couching community that was raised in an era unaware of concussions and the long term effect they pose is going to resist banning heading but there are common sense and easy to implement things we can ask our coaches to do.

1. Add neck muscle strengthening exercises to the warm ups. This makes sense both from an injury preventative perspective but also from a performance perspective as a stronger neck is going to produce a more productive header!

2. Stop using soccer balls for header practice. Substitute lighter weight rubber playground balls. It's the weigh and velocity that causes the head to change direction or stop it's direction which slams the brain onto the skull. So heading practice should involve light weight balls at low velocity.

3. Do not practice heading where the player heads the ball for more than 60 consecutive seconds. Even with the lighter ball as each mi**** strains/stretches the brain's tethers.

4. Teach better trapping technique as over 80% of headers at the youth level are nonproductive hits to nowhere.

Until we can get a universal ban on heading in games below the High School level these are four common sense changes that will allow our children to prepare for heading and give their bodies a chance to handle the move.

[Unregistered]

For What?

Given that 70% of our youth players do not continue playing competitive soccer in High School just what are we asking them to risk/suffer for the demands of the coaching community?

Yes heading is an integral part of the game at the higher levels of soccer at the older ages. but how important is it really under 14? How many header goals have you seen U13? Not very many here on Orygun. In other more competitive regions you will see more but to what end? They have the same drop out rate so what is the point? Scoring, Winning versus a life time of Brain damage!

[Unregistered]

Dear BSC Oregon Members,

BSC Oregon is working with Dr. James Chesnutt, M.D., Medical Director - OHSU Sports Medicine, to develop a strategy to mitigate long-term and traumatic brain injury in our member athletes. While there is not yet enough evidence to formulate any specific policy, we are developing guidelines to minimize risk of long-term and traumatic brain injury.

"I just lectured on concussion in soccer at the World Soccer and Science Conference last month. I tried to find evidence to guide the decision that you and others are interested in addressing regarding youth heading guidelines. I have discussed this issue with other leading researchers and no one knows exactly what is best. It does seem that mounting evidence suggests that heading less and less often is better.” - Dr. Chesnutt

There are three main occasions for potential head trauma: head-ball, head-head, head-ground/goal post contact. Of these head-player comprises roughly 40% of occurrences, with head-ball (12.6%) and head-ground or head-goal post (10.3%) comprising the majority of other incidences. (Spiotta, A., Bartsch, A., & Benzel, E. Heading in Soccer: Dangerous Play? NEUROSURGERY, 70, 1-11.)

BSC Oregon will work to minimize the opportunity for such occasions to arise with the following guidelines:
1. Teach our goalkeepers play out of the back (which also promotes our penetrative possession style of play).
This expectation will apply to players of all ages, although we will continue to teach our goalkeepers all applicable distribution techniques and tactics (often times a quick punt up field is the best tactical option available, and we will expect our goalkeepers to realize our tactical advantage in punting or drop-kicking the ball).

2. Teach and train players in other ways to control aerial balls, especially keeper punts and corner kicks. We will expect our Intro Academy (U5-U10), Development Academy (U8-U10), Youth Academy (U11-U12) and Junior Academy (U13-U14) to collect the ball with body surfaces other than their head (e.g. feet, chest, thigh) and concentrate on winning the second ball (not the first, headed one, but the resulting ball) by proactively positioning themselves.
Our Senior Academy (U15-U18) players will be expected to head the ball in most circumstances as they will have the physical maturation, soccer IQ and technical competency for the task. Some younger players may be developmentally suited to head the ball on corner kicks earlier than their team-mates.

3. Developmental Academy and Youth Academy players will be trained on proper technique but only expected to head balls that are travelling slowly and short distances when that player is not in situation where an opponent or team-mate will be attempting to head the ball as well.

4. Junior Academy players who are developmentally and physically more mature may be asked to head balls that are travelling at greater speeds over greater distance, but they must not be in a situation where head-body contact may occur. Again, Junior Academy players will not be asked to directly head punts/drop-kicks or direct corner kicks or long set-pieces.

Training Proper Heading Technique by Academy
Heading the ball is an important and integral part of the game. We will continue to teach proper heading technique based on developmental age of individual and pools of players within our Academies.

Intro Academy - no training on heading

Development Academy - underhand thrown balls (by coach) of short distances, only for U10 players. Possible use of a softer ball (Nerf, volleyball, balloon, beachball, etc.)

Youth Academy - Soccer Tennis, self-toss, head juggling

Junior Academy - Introduction of passive opponent (to teach situational awareness), Tactical Aspects (defensive and attacking heading, heading to goalkeeper, passing), crossing and finishing from run of play

Senior Academy - Match situations, service from feet, can head corners and other set-pieces

It is impossible to eliminate any physical risk in soccer, but proper education, expectations and training will lessen the chances that our players may suffer injury from heading.

We will continue to work with leading medical experts, including Dr. Chesnutt, to whom we give our considerable gratitude, to monitor developments in this area and we will update our guidelines or form policy when appropriate.

BSC Oregon will hold a Coaching Development Workshop for our team coaches to ensure all staff coaches are up to date and aware of this important issue.

[Unregistered]

look, useful info on Talking soccer

Thanks for posting this BSC parent.

In many ways this seems like exactly what we would want out of our clubs - considered and considerate information that takes both our kids and their soccer development into account. There's nothing "liberal" about this and it recognizes what is known and unknown, and, most importantly, how to thoughtfully limit and integrate the use of heading over time.

[Unregistered]

Almost there!

Dear BSC Oregon Members,

BSC Oregon is working with Dr. James Chesnutt, M.D., Medical Director - OHSU Sports Medicine, to develop a strategy to mitigate long-term and traumatic brain injury in our member athletes. While there is not yet enough evidence to formulate any specific policy, we are developing guidelines to minimize risk of long-term and traumatic brain injury.

"I just lectured on concussion in soccer at the World Soccer and Science Conference last month. I tried to find evidence to guide the decision that you and others are interested in addressing regarding youth heading guidelines. I have discussed this issue with other leading researchers and no one knows exactly what is best. It does seem that mounting evidence suggests that heading less and less often is better.” - Dr. Chesnutt

There are three main occasions for potential head trauma: head-ball, head-head, head-ground/goal post contact. Of these head-player comprises roughly 40% of occurrences, with head-ball (12.6%) and head-ground or head-goal post (10.3%) comprising the majority of other incidences. (Spiotta, A., Bartsch, A., & Benzel, E. Heading in Soccer: Dangerous Play? NEUROSURGERY, 70, 1-11.)

BSC Oregon will work to minimize the opportunity for such occasions to arise with the following guidelines:
1. Teach our goalkeepers play out of the back (which also promotes our penetrative possession style of play).
This expectation will apply to players of all ages, although we will continue to teach our goalkeepers all applicable distribution techniques and tactics (often times a quick punt up field is the best tactical option available, and we will expect our goalkeepers to realize our tactical advantage in punting or drop-kicking the ball).

2. Teach and train players in other ways to control aerial balls, especially keeper punts and corner kicks. We will expect our Intro Academy (U5-U10), Development Academy (U8-U10), Youth Academy (U11-U12) and Junior Academy (U13-U14) to collect the ball with body surfaces other than their head (e.g. feet, chest, thigh) and concentrate on winning the second ball (not the first, headed one, but the resulting ball) by proactively positioning themselves.
Our Senior Academy (U15-U18) players will be expected to head the ball in most circumstances as they will have the physical maturation, soccer IQ and technical competency for the task. Some younger players may be developmentally suited to head the ball on corner kicks earlier than their team-mates.

3. Developmental Academy and Youth Academy players will be trained on proper technique but only expected to head balls that are travelling slowly and short distances when that player is not in situation where an opponent or team-mate will be attempting to head the ball as well.

4. Junior Academy players who are developmentally and physically more mature may be asked to head balls that are travelling at greater speeds over greater distance, but they must not be in a situation where head-body contact may occur. Again, Junior Academy players will not be asked to directly head punts/drop-kicks or direct corner kicks or long set-pieces.

Training Proper Heading Technique by Academy
Heading the ball is an important and integral part of the game. We will continue to teach proper heading technique based on developmental age of individual and pools of players within our Academies.

Intro Academy - no training on heading

Development Academy - underhand thrown balls (by coach) of short distances, only for U10 players. Possible use of a softer ball (Nerf, volleyball, balloon, beachball, etc.)

Youth Academy - Soccer Tennis, self-toss, head juggling

Junior Academy - Introduction of passive opponent (to teach situational awareness), Tactical Aspects (defensive and attacking heading, heading to goalkeeper, passing), crossing and finishing from run of play

Senior Academy - Match situations, service from feet, can head corners and other set-pieces

It is impossible to eliminate any physical risk in soccer, but proper education, expectations and training will lessen the chances that our players may suffer injury from heading.

We will continue to work with leading medical experts, including Dr. Chesnutt, to whom we give our considerable gratitude, to monitor developments in this area and we will update our guidelines or form policy when appropriate.

BSC Oregon will hold a Coaching Development Workshop for our team coaches to ensure all staff coaches are up to date and aware of this important issue.

BSC that is a nice "start" however by not incorporating neck strengthening exercises you are missing a key preventative measure.

Further there is no justification for using regular weight balls for header practice. That is an unnecessary risk for the results you are trying to achieve.

Lastly, teaching heading techniques has to include proper arm and body position while in the air as the single largest cause of concussion at the competitive level is from head to head contact DURING header attempts. Further proper aerial technique needs to focus on balance and landing after being bumped as the next largest cause of concussions at the competitive level are falls after attempting headers.

So if you add up all of the common causes of concussions in youth soccer they are almost ALL related to headers; the ball, another head and the ground!

We have the knee injury prevention protocol so there is no excuse for not developing and following a similar concussing prevention protocol.

[Unregistered]

Good stuff!

[Unregistered]

In conclusion

After reviewing all of the available medical information I can't see a reason for OYSA to NOT ban heading for all rec soccer and mandate a head injury protocol for competitive club soccer.

They also should consider banning heading in U13 club games and below as few if any of the players can repeatedly execute proper technique and or have the requisite neck strength to prevent injury.

[Unregistered]

After reviewing all of the available medical information I can't see a reason for OYSA to NOT ban heading for all rec soccer and mandate a head injury protocol for competitive club soccer.

They also should consider banning heading in U13 club games and below as few if any of the players can repeatedly execute proper technique and or have the requisite neck strength to prevent injury.

Thanks Dr. Phil. Please continue to opine on subjects of which you have no knowledge. It's quite entertaining.

[Unregistered]

Parents need to learn what to look for too

It is a requirement that coaches have concussion awareness training and being a responsible parent of an athlete means you should education yourself too.

Here is a simple 20 minute course that many youth athletic leagues require their coaches to complete. Take the time to learn what to look for and how to deal with concussions.

In the middle of the program there is an allocation chart for the percentage of concussions by sport. I seriously doubt anyone who has not taken this or a similar class before will be able to correctly assign more than 3 sports correctly.

http://www.brainline.org/content/201...s_pageall.html

[Unregistered]

We're having an "Adult" conversation here

Thanks Dr. Phil. Please continue to opine on subjects of which you have no knowledge. It's quite entertaining.

I can always count on you for your juvenile comments even when we are talking about a serious subject. Did you even bother to read any of the studies? Well of course not because you know evvvvvrrrrryyyything. I guess ignorance is a badge of honor for you!

Grow up and learn how to read and then you might not be the subject of smack downs pointing out your immaturity.