Heading & concussions

Great read. Slate story on soccer, heading and the sport's first confirmed case of CTE.

http://slate.me/1lqdrFQ

Recommendations from researchers include ban on heading before 10, including practice. Also reasons headers are even more dangerous for girls.

“We can’t say for certain that heading the ball caused his condition in this case,” Boston University neuropathologist Ann McKee, who examined Grange’s brain, told reporter John Branch.

I'm a little confused as to how that statement equates with a "confirmed case".

Outside of the United States, soccer has been popular worldwide, in some countries for over a 100 years with it being far more popular in terms of % of take up than here. I'm pretty sure that the science would be a little more conclusive by now given the hundreds of millions of youth players that have played the game across the last few decades.

I'm not saying players shouldn't take precautions to prevent head injuries, far from it, but with few exceptions, most concussions occur with head to head or head to ground collisions.

That's true, but aren't most head to head injuries a result of an attempted header? Just playing devils advocate. I'd personally hate to see headers go away.

soccerdad1969 wrote:That's true, but aren't most head to head injuries a result of an attempted header? Just playing devils advocate. I'd personally hate to see headers go away.

That's probably true but I'd like to see mandatory headwear before ruining the game by removing headers. Imagine corner kicks, lol!

First the game without headers would be a mess. You may not notice it in your DD's game but when you get to older divisions / college / pro it's an integral part. Ms. Wambach would be a lot less fun to watch.

Second, the jury is still out in the headgear some say it helps others claim that, like a football helmet, the player becomes more reckless.

Also, the head injuries don't all come from headers. Falls, collisions, elbows, etc all are at fault as well. Even the player's hairstyle lends a hand. A sports medicine doc I spoke to mentioned how many "ponytail" injuries he sees. Player falls back an hits her head. Since her hair is in a ponytail it creates a hard "knot" which is similar to falling on a rock the size if your fist. This concentrates the impact and makes it worse.