Soccer, CTE and football

Bullshit. Prove it. The player uses his/her neck muscles to put all the momentum into the ball through the forehead. The head continues its motion and the player is in control at all times. The brain does not slosh around in the skull from the body suddenly going from a full sprint to a dead stop. I've been heading the ball for 30 years and I've never had problems from it. I have had pain from elbows, though.

 

We should ban headers now in all U.S. levels and then we'll have a competitive advantage when world soccer as a whole catches up in a few decades.

 

Now that's definitely a concern troll

 

At this point, it is upon you to provide links showing that heading a soccer ball does not cause issues. There are more than enough links in this thread from actual scientific studies that identify heading as an issue. Afraid your anecdotal evidence doesn’t mean crap.

 

Where are the legions of CTE-suffering retired soccer players?

 

Umm...

 

Have you ever heard that you can't prove a negative?

 

For me the issue isn't a player heading the ball on their own, the issue is the inevitable collisions that come from two players trying to head the same ball. I am not sure I agree with the calls to end heading but if their is a case for it. it's around reducing head to head collisions.

Has their been any research on soft rugby style "scrum caps" success in preventing concussions? They would look weird and the players would hate them but they might be the most effective way to limit head injuries since not all head injuries come from players trying to head the ball, and would have a less dramatic impact on how the game is played.

 

An innovation from Rugby could be allowing temporary subs for head injury assessments (10 minutes minimum). Doctors watching video of head clashes make the decision jointly with the referee.

 

Have thought this would be a good option for a while. One issue is soccer has a different culture around, shall we say, bending the rules than rugby does. There will automatically be coaches and players trying to figure out how to abuse the rule. But I say introduce it and thing figure those things out later.

 

This... makes sense.

 

That's actually not true. It would certainly be difficult because they would have to control for heading over a protracted period of time, but it is possible to make comparisons between two groups and see if there are increased rates of head injuries and/or cognitive impacts. If there is no statistical difference between the groups, then it is likely that heading is not an issue.

Unfortunately for you, there are a number of scientific studies (links are already in the thread, so go crazy and look at them) that list heading is one of causes of the issues that are showing up with soccer players. Seriously, most of the ones I've seen have listed heading as an issue and it is based on these studies that USSF banned heading for kids...

Unlike American football, CTE hasn't become a "scandal" in soccer yet. FIFA and the various confederations are basically ignoring brain injuries in general, I'm not sure why you'd think that CTE would become a thing. With American football the big change came after the study identified CTE in players and then families started donating players' brains for study. Once the brains were being donated in decent numbers, scientists were able to piece together just how pervasive it is among American football players.

 

It's not about proving the negative, it's about proving beyond mere correlation the assertion put forth. I don't think there's nearly enough information yet.

 

Breathless predictions tend to not pan out so well.

This isn't persuasive. This is usually the refuge of a charlatan.

That's not an argument. It's a plea. And it's not a good one.

 

Players of Geoff Astle's generation had to play with a ball that turned into a brick in wet weather. I know because I played with them when I was a kid.

 

That's much, much less of a problem these days. Now it's more a lack of instruction/technique. You can tell which adults took up the game later in life, and which adults had shitty instruction as kids.

 

Maybe they should ask their far more popular brother, Rugby Union, what they are doing about their significantly more huge problem that hardly anyone seems to be kvetching about.

 

Well then Rugby Union would respond that they have a concussion protocol that can be initiated by the referee on the field and includes substitutions for players while they are undergoing the examination. Rugby Union has also changed rules and consequences for high and dangerous tackles.

 

Yes. I suggested a similar thing to the HIA a few posts up.

The thing with RU is that they still have tons of guys getting "head binned" pretty regularly, but no one seems alarmed. I watch about 70% of all Super Rugby fixtures. Guys are visibly staggered at least twice a game, and some games there are 6 or 7 HIAs.

 

Whataboutism is weak and you should be ashamed for using it. Rugby Union’s and grid iron’s issues with head injuries have no bearing on whether soccer has issues with it and your attempt to deflect the discussion does nothing but discredit you.

 

You should be ashamed of using the term "whataboutism".

It was the New Zealand factor and ONLY the New Zealand factor that prompted my post, Mr. Precipitous Namecalling. New Zealand has a tremendously popular sport (far more popular than soccer) that already addresses concussive and sub-concussive head impacts. Their football federation would do well to listen to it. I suggested EXACTLY this sort of thing within easy viewing reach on this very page of this very thread.

Now, my ancillary point of no-one in RU proclaiming emergency and running around having kittens is just that: an ancillary point that has some interesting points of comparison and contrast to our own situation here.

But you'd rather just play the gotcha game. Because of course you would.

 

Maybe you don’t remember your post?

It wasn’t until @owian called you on your shit that you backtracked. So.. yes, do better.