Originally posted by Unregistered
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The WaPo article is worth reading. Relevant excerpts:
"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."
“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.”
“The teaching of the skill, it keeps getting passed along, passed along, passed along and they get to high level high school and high level club, they haven’t really practiced it,” Hakopian said. “So they start doing it, they start doing it incorrectly.”
1. Don't ban heading in practice. Focus on developing a sound, age appropriate curriculum for heading (technical and tactical - how to head the ball AND when to and when not to as a means to emphasize developing other technical skills and tactical choices that essentially changes the style of play).
2. Ban heading in games for younger players. (I think outright U12 and younger is sound, allowing for players to transition, mostly at their own pace as is the case presently, before competitive HS play. I think a complete ban prior to HS and no ban in HS is a tenuous strategy at best).
Others might be heavily in favor of more innovation and research around headgear and other strategies. I don't think there's a silver bullet (ban heading) on concussion prevention, never mind being free from adverse impacts (whether to the game itself or the frequency of concussions), but I'm inclined to believe a combination of ideas might help. I think the most important focus is, and rightfully has been, to properly identify concussions and prevent return to play prematurely and avoid risk of repeated concussions as much as possible.
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