For over 25 years, I have been coaching girls soccer--this year 12-year-olds--and part of my routine has been to teach the children how to head balls. Stefan Fatsis explains the proper technique:
As a teenager in the 1970s, I watched Pele, when he played for the star-studded New York Cosmos, explain how to head a ball. First he pointed to his forehead. Then he placed the thumb and forefinger of each hand in front of each eye and opened them both wide. Then he dragged his thumb and index finger across his closed mouth. Moving his head and shoulders back in tandem to prepare to strike the ball, Pele demonstrated how the neck muscles needed to be tensed at the moment of impact.
But, as is often the case, the proper technique is not employed with the following result:
Failure to take Pele’s steps can result not only in a misdirected ball but in greater force imparted to the brain. That’s because a header is a collision that can cause the brain to shake inside the skull. “If you take a header off the back of your head or the side of your head and it whips your head around, there are much greater forces, 40 or 50 G’s, as opposed to a proper header where the G-force is under 20,” Dr. Robert Cantu, a colleague of McKee’s and the co-author, with Mark Hyman, of the 2012 book Concussions and Our Kids, told me recently.
Most prepubescent children aren’t capable of making the necessary
preparations to head the ball; they’re just not strong enough or aware
enough or coordinated enough. And if they do keep their eyes open and
their mouths shut and strike the ball with their foreheads, their neck
muscles, even if tensed, aren’t strong enough to prevent their heads
from absorbing what often are elevated G-forces.
So, I read with interest a Washington Post story about a decision from a Pennsylvania school:
The Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, Pa., instituted a “no-heading” policy for its middle school soccer teams earlier this month. The groundbreaking stance prohibits heading with game-sized balls in practice and will ask players to avoid heading the ball in games.
Shipley Head of School Steve Piltch and Athletic Director Marc Duncan approved the policy in response to mounting evidence suggesting heading can cause lasting brain damage, particularly in children ages 14 and younger. Increased concussion rates in Shipley’s upper school soccer players also provided impetus.
I've decided this is the right thing to do. Just as we apply the precautionary principle in environmental matters, we should apply it here. Why take the chance of causing harm when it is not necessary?
Indeed, I could argue that it is more valuable for children of this age to learn how to use other parts of their body when trying to control an air ball. The game can be just as exciting and interesting if kids learn how to use their chest, their thigh, or other body parts in this situation.
Accordingly, I've decided to adopt this approach for the future: I plan to encourage my young charges to avoid using their head for air balls. As you can see below, I think they will still bring enough intensity to the game to make it very competitive!
As a teenager in the 1970s, I watched Pele, when he played for the star-studded New York Cosmos, explain how to head a ball. First he pointed to his forehead. Then he placed the thumb and forefinger of each hand in front of each eye and opened them both wide. Then he dragged his thumb and index finger across his closed mouth. Moving his head and shoulders back in tandem to prepare to strike the ball, Pele demonstrated how the neck muscles needed to be tensed at the moment of impact.
Failure to take Pele’s steps can result not only in a misdirected ball but in greater force imparted to the brain. That’s because a header is a collision that can cause the brain to shake inside the skull. “If you take a header off the back of your head or the side of your head and it whips your head around, there are much greater forces, 40 or 50 G’s, as opposed to a proper header where the G-force is under 20,” Dr. Robert Cantu, a colleague of McKee’s and the co-author, with Mark Hyman, of the 2012 book Concussions and Our Kids, told me recently.
Most prepubescent children aren’t capable of making the necessary
preparations to head the ball; they’re just not strong enough or aware
enough or coordinated enough. And if they do keep their eyes open and
their mouths shut and strike the ball with their foreheads, their neck
muscles, even if tensed, aren’t strong enough to prevent their heads
from absorbing what often are elevated G-forces. So, I read with interest a Washington Post story about a decision from a Pennsylvania school:
The Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, Pa., instituted a “no-heading” policy for its middle school soccer teams earlier this month. The groundbreaking stance prohibits heading with game-sized balls in practice and will ask players to avoid heading the ball in games.
Shipley Head of School Steve Piltch and Athletic Director Marc Duncan approved the policy in response to mounting evidence suggesting heading can cause lasting brain damage, particularly in children ages 14 and younger. Increased concussion rates in Shipley’s upper school soccer players also provided impetus.
I've decided this is the right thing to do. Just as we apply the precautionary principle in environmental matters, we should apply it here. Why take the chance of causing harm when it is not necessary?
Accordingly, I've decided to adopt this approach for the future: I plan to encourage my young charges to avoid using their head for air balls. As you can see below, I think they will still bring enough intensity to the game to make it very competitive!
From Twitter:
ReplyDeleteCompletely agree. I coach kids 2 trap, not head. Promotes stronger possession.
From facebook:
ReplyDeleteEven without considering the health aspect of it, most of the modern European football (i just can't give in to calling it soccer... sorry) pushed heading away from being a central attacking aspect. Most of the most successful strikers are not tall and big built as before because the modern striker isn't so "big and tall target man" focused as before, but many teams would rather have small and agile players which is a much more effective feat for the modern striker. So even not considering the health aspect I would think that pushing heading out would not dramaticly change the game, so I guess when you do consider the health aspect it seems like a no-brainer when you talk about youth level.
I just saw this in a Boston Globe article by Derrick Jackson:
ReplyDelete“There is still a lack of information to make a recommendation one way or the other,” said Mike Singleton, executive director of Massachusetts Youth Soccer and head men’s soccer coach at MIT. “The problem with banning heading is you’d have kids running out of the way of balls, and they might be banging into each other that way.”
http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2014/05/17/ban-heading-youth-soccer/F0jPt3oMlfajNfuphDFO8J/story.html
The "logic" leaves me confused.
As someone who has never been involved in soccer (nor has my child), to me this is a no-brainer, not to make a poor pun. If there is any risk of brain injury from a deliberately taught practice, even if "unproven", in a child who is playing voluntarily in a club system (i.e. not even in school), then the risk is too high. This is not professional or even varsity soccer. The multiple studies cited in the Globe column as well as in the Post are all I need to hear. What more proof do you want?
ReplyDeleteThe MIT coach must not be a graduate of that intelligent institution, because his comment was idiotic and self serving. Avoiding anything aimed at your head is simple - duck.
It's called football, after all. Banning heading would be no different from banning trapping or redirecting the ball with your fist or your arm. Even at the highest level, making heading an infraction would hardly alter the game, even in front of the goal. (We'd lose some great shots, but we could adjust.) In midfield most headers are just interrupters of a smooth game -- contested, dangerous, occasions for injury and usually haphazardly directed. Better as suggested above to trap the ball with chest or feet. Or go for the bicycle kick. You're right. Coach your girls to eschew the header. (I salute you as a former coach of U-14 boys, and the father of a Bryn Mawr soccer captain.)
ReplyDeleteNow about improving the offsides rule.