Heading dangers again

[Unregistered]

It is important to look at who is funding or pushing the study. In the past it has been the doctor who invented the heading band and who owns the patent and stands to make a buck or two off of everyone sold. Follow the money..........

- Cujo

What Cujo said.

My son is U18 and will play in college. He has had two concussions in his career (with one being pretty minor and the other, not so minor). The bad one occurred at a summer high school basketball camp. He took a very hard elbow to the side of the head. The more minor one occurred in a match while an eighth grader playing for his JV team. It was a head to head collision. The kid is a midfielder and has been heading soccer balls for more than a decade with no adverse effects. He played Wednesday in a District Semi-final and probably headed 15 balls in that match alone. The notion that heading a soccer ball is a major cause of concussions is unproven at best and, more likely, spurious.

- Odie

[Unregistered]

What Cujo said.

My son is U18 and will play in college. He has had two concussions in his career (with one being pretty minor and the other, not so minor). The bad one occurred at a summer high school basketball camp. He took a very hard elbow to the side of the head. The more minor one occurred in a match while an eighth grader playing for his JV team. It was a head to head collision. The kid is a midfielder and has been heading soccer balls for more than a decade with no adverse effects. He played Wednesday in a District Semi-final and probably headed 15 balls in that match alone. The notion that heading a soccer ball is a major cause of concussions is unproven at best and, more likely, spurious.

- Odie

You do understand that the damage may be cummulative and doesn't show until the person is older UNLESS the person dies and donates their brain to research. So you will likely be dead before you'll know whether your son is among those affected.

[Unregistered]

What Cujo said.

My son is U18 and will play in college. He has had two concussions in his career (with one being pretty minor and the other, not so minor). The bad one occurred at a summer high school basketball camp. He took a very hard elbow to the side of the head. The more minor one occurred in a match while an eighth grader playing for his JV team. It was a head to head collision. The kid is a midfielder and has been heading soccer balls for more than a decade with no adverse effects. He played Wednesday in a District Semi-final and probably headed 15 balls in that match alone. The notion that heading a soccer ball is a major cause of concussions is unproven at best and, more likely, spurious.

- Odie

Spurious? Is that a word? Who uses that?

[Unregistered]

Spurious? Is that a word? Who uses that?

Anyone with an education~

[Unregistered]

You do understand that the damage may be cummulative and doesn't show until the person is older UNLESS the person dies and donates their brain to research. So you will likely be dead before you'll know whether your son is among those affected.

Sure I do. I recognize that they "may be cumulative," but I also recognize that the root cause and the mechanics of concussions are poorly understood and attributing them to heading the ball ignores the fact that collisions, which occur routinely, are just as likely (if not more likely) a cause. It also ignores the fact that many studies that assert a link between heading a soccer ball and concussions are funded by those who hold patents on products that are reputedly designed to minimize the impact of heading the ball. As Cujo suggested - follow the money trail. I don't believe in being a lemming. I require more proof. If you wish to be, be my guest. I am also a doubter of global warming . . . er, climate change - a convenient change in terminology employed by theorists whose theories didn't quite pan out. Isn't it frustrating to learn that for all our technology and scientific advances, there are things out there that we don't fully understand (and maybe never will)? Anyways, I'm done playing the Socratic gadfly for the evening. I think I'll go have a glass of Bourbon and watch Fox News' coverage of the attacks in Paris. Ciao~

- Odie

[Unregistered]

A really good article on the subject I found posted on Michelle Akers Facebook page.

http://alz101.************/2015/11/h...ience.html?m=1

[Unregistered]

Sure I do. I recognize that they "may be cumulative," but I also recognize that the root cause and the mechanics of concussions are poorly understood and attributing them to heading the ball ignores the fact that collisions, which occur routinely, are just as likely (if not more likely) a cause. It also ignores the fact that many studies that assert a link between heading a soccer ball and concussions are funded by those who hold patents on products that are reputedly designed to minimize the impact of heading the ball. As Cujo suggested - follow the money trail. I don't believe in being a lemming. I require more proof. If you wish to be, be my guest. I am also a doubter of global warming . . . er, climate change - a convenient change in terminology employed by theorists whose theories didn't quite pan out. Isn't it frustrating to learn that for all our technology and scientific advances, there are things out there that we don't fully understand (and maybe never will)? Anyways, I'm done playing the Socratic gadfly for the evening. I think I'll go have a glass of Bourbon and watch Fox News' coverage of the attacks in Paris. Ciao~

- Odie

Having thought that the concussion debates were overblown scare-mongering, I have two kids who have sustained concussions in the past 10 days from heading the ball. Both have been taught how to head with the correct technique from a fairly young age, but this was a real wake up call. Concussion is no joke.

[Unregistered]

This isn't about "concussions" but more about repetitive brain injury. Similar to boxers taking jabs for years and offensive lineman banging heads on every play. The blows are not severe enough to be symptomatic but cause damage over time due to the repetitive nature.

[Unregistered]

This isn't about "concussions" but more about repetitive brain injury. Similar to boxers taking jabs for years and offensive lineman banging heads on every play. The blows are not severe enough to be symptomatic but cause damage over time due to the repetitive nature.

It should be about both.

[Unregistered]

Dental Dams. Problem solved. Next.

[Unregistered]

This isn't about "concussions" but more about repetitive brain injury. Similar to boxers taking jabs for years and offensive lineman banging heads on every play. The blows are not severe enough to be symptomatic but cause damage over time due to the repetitive nature.

Yep, and those boxers are adults. Their brains are not developing. It's definitely true that kids can knock their heads together when they go up to head the ball. Taking away headers completely alleviates not just those impacts, but the repeated head banging the kids receive practice their technique. Bringing this both types of activities into the game at a later stage isn't going to take away from the game, and I doubt it will hurt our kids soccer development.


Its funny how the damage heading causes is considered "spurious", but it is fully and completely accepted that this new change will damage the U.S. soccer program. I think that's a spurious assumption too...whether a kid has been heading for 4 years or 14 years will have little difference on their ability to head the ball well.