Hey guys I was thinking about this the other day and thought I'd ask. I've been playing the game for a long time and ever since the beginning I just accepted the fact that heading the ball will always lead to a headache (literally). However after talking to a friend about it he said he never gets headaches, is it normal to get one?
First I am no doctor. I was a back I tried not to do a lot of heading. Play in hot weather and get over tired. Don't hydrate enough you can get a head ache just from that. Attack the ball don't let it hit you. Protect the space your heading in. Please don't make a case for any more lawyers. I don't know who I hate more liberals or lawyers. I had more head aches from American football then I ever had from heading the ball.
I'll make a distinction between headache and head pain. Headache is a pain you feel inside your skull. Head pain is pain coming from the superficial muscles of the head and forehead—soreness from hitting a ball. Which one we talking about?
More of like a headache, for example I was off balance trying to reach for a header yesterday and hit it with the side of my head by accident off a pretty pacy cross. I still have a headache today, if I shake my head it seems to get worse.
When you are really going for headers to score goals. Your not going to always get your head on the ball. Sometimes you have to stick your head into the mess. So you might score, but you pay a price to score. It comes down to how much do you really want to score.
Sounds like you have a concussion. Get it checked out by a dr ASAP. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Thanks I'll get it checked out tomorrow ASAP. But what are the odds it's a concussion just by heading a ball of a cross?
Hard to say. Some people get concussed from a hard shot to the head, some get it with a seemingly mild blow.
Thanks from the reply, today is day 3 and my headache is still there but it's mostly in the back/sides of my head. I had a friend who's in med school check it out and he said my eyes are fine. It wasn't really a hard shot or anything, just a normal cross with a bit of pace on it. I'll try and visit the doctors after my classes.
Pupil dilation is only one indicator and it's not a solid indicator. The 3-day headache would be my main concern. None of the physical tests really are. Most docs are going by cognitive speed tests these days, but if you didn't do a "baseline" test beforehand—they'd have nothing to gauge against.
I never have done a baseline, I just don't really feel myself not sure if this is related to the heading incident or maybe it's just all in my head?
The more you describe: not feeling like yourself, headache—sounds like a concussion. When I had a concussion I felt like I was under water for a week. In a fog. Like I had water in my ears. Best way to compare it to.
What did your concussion feel like and how long did it take for you to fully recover? Forgive me if I come off as ignorant here but I have this irrational fear that this concussion may effect my intelligence or my studies. Is there any truth to that?
I've had 8 concussions while playing soccer in high school in the span of a short period of time. With my concussions I was lethargic, sensitive to light, had a headache and just general fogginess. I paid the freshmen on my team to take my concussion test for me. Like an idiot, I came back and played without my concussions healing all the way leading to more concussions, hence the suspected 8 concussions. In a matter of time I was back to my own self, however it did take awhile. Now 7 years later I've developed arachnoid cysts on my brain that are suspected to be from the damage to my head. My advice is to take a break from soccer until you feel perfect, and even take two more weeks after that. As for damage to your cognitive thinking, don't worry. I went on to graduate from college and am working full time. Just don't treat concussions as a joke because they're not. You only have one brain.
Just as I described above. Best to ask a doctor about long-term effects. Are you in college? High school? Either way, go to the clinic and tell them you may have suffered a concussion.
I'm in college, I saw a doctor and he said although he can't rule it out he's positive it's not a concussion. Thanks everyone for the help in this thread!
Awesome. But it's what I question about the concussion training we receive. Yours are textbook symptoms we are taught to look for but you're not the first I've heard that textbook symptoms don't equal concussion Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I believe a part of it was just mental too, I'm easily mentally effected by these things. If someone tells me I have a knee problem when in reality I don't, I begin thinking I do. Something I need to work on not just in football but also in life.
I get headaches from taking even mild blows to the head. I would get headaches from doing heading drills. I train in Muay Thai and after relatively light sparring I often have a mild headache. They go away overnight for me. I think it's pretty easy to get a minor concussion from the ball unexpectedly hitting you in the face/ear/on the chin. The best thing in my opinion is to actually track the ball visually and brace for it. In combat sports people don't get knocked out by shots they see coming, it's the surprise blows that lead to KO's/major concussions. The second best thing is to strengthen your neck. It's been proven that athletes with stronger necks can take bigger blows without sustaining a concussion. That's because a stronger neck stabilizes the head better, and you don't get the whiplash effect. Look at Ronaldo's neck. He almost has a wrestlers' neck and I strongly suspect that it didn't get that way by accident.
If concussion is ruled out, consider getting an MRI to check for a Chiari malformation in your brain. I have this - persistent headaches from light head impact, whipping head around, or straining the neck are some of the main symptoms. The malformation itself is not degenerative, however if you are regularly doing things that trigger the pain, it will escalate over time. Many people stay undiagnosed for years because the pain is very similar to concussion and/or migraine.
I was getting head aches for 47 years. In the last three years they stopped. They stopped because I started to lose my hearing. Now when my wife starts talking I don't hear what she is saying. I just say yes, sure good no problem. So no more head aches and we get along great.
Just as an update to this today I tried heading the ball again for the first time since all this happened and I have a headache AGAIN. I thought everything was fully healed but I'm not so sure now...