Would there be any mileage in saying kids can head the ball, but should wear rugby-style headgear up to [insert age here]? Or would that just be an admission that it isn't safe, full stop?

Are shinpads compulsory in kids' football?

George Street-Bridge wrote:Would there be any mileage in saying kids can head the ball, but should wear rugby-style headgear up to [insert age here]? Or would that just be an admission that it isn't safe, full stop?

Are shinpads compulsory in kids' football?

They won't prevent concussions/cumulative damage from heading. Again, as with boxing, they are simply to reduce cosmetic/superficial damage about the head.

Also, what little skill/control that kids of that age have would probably go out of the window because of the unnatural deflections of the headgear.

George Street-Bridge wrote:Would there be any mileage in saying kids can head the ball, but should wear rugby-style headgear up to [insert age here]? Or would that just be an admission that it isn't safe, full stop?

Are shinpads compulsory in kids' football?

Oddly the problem is that the brain gets shaken in skull. Headgear protects against traumatic injury but not against shaking. Shaken baby syndrome being the most well known and tragic instances of this phenomenon.

Professional footballers are three times more likely to suffer various forms of dementia in later life than the average person. In American football the problem is even worse, and as we know they wear helmets.

The reality is that heading a ball repeatedly carries a small but not insignificant risk. As I said above, as adults it is a risk we can choose, for children who can't I believe heading should be banned.

It has been introduced here in America for around 4 years now, maybe more.
In general the culture here towards head injuries is a little excessive anyway but for me it has probably made the game more dangerous. Rather than have a kid try to head a corner in you now have 3-4 kids ninja kicking toward the ball as kids just want to score goals and don't necessarily understand about high feet and referee's don't give decisions anyway.

We have a specific amount of time we can teach heading to specific ages per week (not mandatory but a maximum time you can spend on it should you want to)

Once kids turn to U12 and start heading they're either scared of the ball or have improper technique as they have not had much exposure to it. There has to be a middle ground for me and as previously discussed lighter balls these days help.

There is a statistic somewhere that girls have a higher rate of concussions and a lot of these concussions and a lot of these are not even caused by heading, but that was part of the reason for the ban being introduced.

Anyway.. apologies for staying on topic I know that is rare for this board.

NearlyDead wrote:

SJG99 wrote: It's the logical conclusion that something "proven" to be causing concussion and head trauma is banned ...

You'd think so, but in that case why wasn't boxing banned many years ago, or else the rules changed to make it illegal to hit above the shoulder? Head guards do little to prevent concussion; they are just to prevent/minimise facial damage.

In truth, any (semi-)contact sport that may involve sharp movements of the head could lead to concussions of varying degrees. Just the act of falling over in a legal tackle or from a trip (whether accidentally or deliberately brought about) will have the brain swishing around and possibly hitting the inside of your skull. So one may have to ban tackling, too.

Absolutely no idea why boxing still exists tbh, but it would be difficult to say participants wouldn't be aware of the consequences of agreeing to a situation where the whole point is for them to get punched - whilst the likelihood of head trauma from football is very much less obvious.

Tbf if I'd known wrecking my knee from a tackle from behind at the YM about 20 years ago would be so detrimental to my ability to maintain a decent level of fitness since as it has been, I might not have been so keen to play either - but you just don't expect just booting a ball around to have that kind of impact on everything else.