U.S. Soccer Bans Headers For Kids Under The Age Of 11

This topic is obviously starting to generate a lot of talk in the US soccer community, but I think this move by USSF might be actually missing the actual issue. Increasing amounts of research are showing that it isn't concussions that may be potentially causing the most problems in youth soccer players, but cumulative subconcussive forces. It is quite evident that these subconcussive forces cause changes to the brains of many people that do a lot of heading. However, the jury is still out about exactly what threat cumulative subconcussive forces pose because it isn't clear whether the damage to the brain is permanent or can heal over time. For that matter, it is unclear not only whether the damage can be healed, but if it can be, what time period is necessary to produce results (which has ramifications for the length of offseasons and time between heading-heavy practices).

With the new rules prohibiting goalie punts at U9 and U10 and the rarity of balls getting off the ground at U10 and below, I don't think we'll see this new recommendation play much of a role during games. It is during practices heavy on heading that the subconcussive force issue could be an issue, and where this recommendation would have the most effect. At U11-U14, both concussions during games (goalie punts allowed and more aerial balls in general) and drills and subconcussive impacts during heading-heavy practices is a greater issue. At these ages, starting with beach balls, foam balls, and partially deflated soccer balls is probably where a lot of coaches will be going in the years ahead.

Kids, especially girls, are more prone to concussions and subconcussive effects because they have weaker neck muscles and due to structural and metabolic differences between kids and adults. This is not in question, so USSF is wise to agree to this recommendation for legal reasons as well as ethical ones.

Of course, you could also make a strong argument that younger kids should be more focused on the ball staying on the ground anyway, so this has a benefit for technical development as well. Will decreased heading have an effect on the quality of players that the US produces? That is an interesting question, and it may be a tradeoff between decreased heading ability and improved ground-oriented passing ability.

 

Just came back from a u11 girls tournament in Westfield Indiana where heading was banned.

It affected the games greatly. Girls were pulling up short. On a corner a ball bounce to my daughter who would have headed it but she had to chest in down and got swamped by defenders. Another one where our goalie did a goal kick where their forward could have headed it and then walked in all alone but she ducked.

Finally, cleats are coming up high to receive the ball where they use to head it.

Not really liking this decision.

 

How about a player hitting a high bounce ball down to their feet so they can dribble the ball. Is that considered a dangerous header?

Does anyone actually read the huffington post?

 

Yes, all heading for u11 and under was banned in this tournament.

 

So my example of a head high bounce headed to the same players feat is considered dangerous heading?

Then this is an Amature tournament run by amatures. Will it be done the same way in the Dallas cup?

 

Does the Dallas Cup have any brackets for u11 or younger?

• Eliminating heading for children 10 and under
  • Please note that U11 is listed in the U.S. Soccer Concussion Initiative document because U11 players can be 10 years old at the beginning of the season
• Limiting the amount of heading in practice for children between the ages of 11 and 13

 

I posted this before their was a coach on the coaches e mail list years ago. A girls high school coach that a lot of people respected. Then he posted that parents approached him that they did not want their daughters to head the ball anymore. He says sure yes no problem.

But then he gets to coach a college team. Then all he looks for are girls that can head the ball.

How can a coach be respected who does that when he moves up to coaching college.

Germany is interesting I spend a lot of time in Germany. Most coaches there expect kids to start heading early and often.

Balls are low they don't want their players to play the ball with your feet. They want diving headers.

 

it stinks there was one penalty kick in the box as a girl on my DD team went to head it and realized she couldn't and put her hands to her face to cover her face and well that was a PK that decided the game. Second offense was an accidental heading that lead to the indirect kick in the midfield.... some of the girls on her team use that to settle the ball more often than moving it up field and well now they have to break that habit... i see more incidences as the season goes on.

 

Went to Google scholar did a search on subconcussive forces and looked at the article with the most recent date on the first two pages. Here is the conclusion from the abstract.

Conclusion: Human studies of the neurological/neuropsychological impact of subconcussive blows are currently quite limited. Subconcussive blows, in the short-term, have not been shown to cause significant clinical effects. To date, findings suggest that any effect of subconcussive blows is likely to be small or nonexistent, perhaps evident in a subset of individuals on select measures, and maybe even beneficial in some cases. Longer-term prospective studies are needed to determine if there is a cumulative dose effect.

I read a lot of the research a decade ago when the first heading scare was started by people trying to sell head gear. Biggest danger of injury comes from rotational or shear forces not the straight ahead forces found in proper heading. The problem in the country is that most people are scientifically illiterate and are easily swayed by nonsense. This is simply a defensive move by the lawyers. So instead of learning how to properly head and ingrain good technique at a young age, we put kids at more risk by have them learn later. Even worse instead of doing participating in a relatively healthy sport with a lot of running and learning of complex motor skills we send them to "safety" of the couch or less regulated, but higher risk activities like skateboarding. There is risk in everything.

BTW - I used to head the ball hundreds of times an hour. Had a a ball tethered to an elastic string and would hit the ball 10 - 50 times in a row over and over. Never noticed any issue when I was doing it but I got really good at heading the ball and had very strong neck muscles that stabilized my head when I made contact with the ball. On the other hand when I went to an amusement park with a bunch of wild roller-coasters that subjected my head to a lot of twists and G-forces I would get very bad headache and feel sick. My guess is that kids are at far more risk going to Magic Mountain than practicing heading a ball.

 

Saw the new rule in use outdoors for the first time this weekend as my son's U11 team opened its spring season. I didn't realize the degree to which his teams and the others they regularly play in their league in downstate Illinois were starting to head the ball on their own until I noticed all the situations over two games Sunday that turned into awkward waits for a ball to drop or desperate lunges to get a foot on a chest- or head-high ball in the air. It's a definite change in the game (and for this group, very short term since they'll be U12s in the fall).

Kids quickly started to figure out, for instance, that there was almost no point to sending in corners that were off the ground.

Officiating thus far was very uneven, too. One crew called what I take to be the letter of the law and was consistent (to the extent that's possible over just a few calls). Another crew was all over the map -- allowing one deliberate header because, as best I can tell, it didn't occur to anyone to call what has until now been OK. I don't recall any calls for dangerous plays on those feet in the vicinity of heads, either.

On the positive side of the register, some of the adaptations -- a nifty little flick for a goal on a ball that otherwise would have been a header and kids who would seldom try to chest trap a ball being forced to do just that -- were interesting.

 

From what I've seen, at both youth and professional levels, is that it's not necessarily heading the ball that's the problem, but the head-to-head collisions that are often associated with heading the ball. Just last month two defenders on my son's team went to head a ball and collided, and one of them has now been out for over a month after the ensuing concussion.

It's a tricky business, as we don't want to be behind other countries that don't have such restrictions, but then you wonder if that's something they'll eventually catch up with us on. I can imagine a complete prohibition on heading can make games pretty chaotic like people are saying, but this is with players who'd learned heading already, maybe as kids grow up in that system from the beginning they won't have to unlearn habits. But then learning good heading later will be a challenge. Like I said, tricky business all around....

 

No it's more like forearm to head collisions. If players are doing head to head collisions that means they don't know how to protect their space when heading the ball.

 

Damn, you should go teach the pros a thing or two, I see those hacks clash heads when going up for balls all the time.

In the example I mentioned above both players were focused on the ball with attackers around and didn't even see the other defender there. Shit happens.

 

Would you people please read why this is an issue?

Accumulation of subconcussive blows.

Yes, I see that one abstract from a study suggesting it's not a bad thing. Maybe that person can debate Dr. Cantu and others.

But for goodness sakes -- please quit coming in here thinking you're adding to the conversation by saying, "Oh, no, concussions happen from arm-to-head or head-to-head collisions, not by heading the ball."

That's ... not ... the ... issue. We've covered this for months.

 

This thread is only 15 posts long and I don't see any links to the studies you're talking about, so maybe you should post them? One poster talked at length about the studies regarding subconcussive blows, another posted different information, and that's the extent of it.

Now are they saying that accumulation of subconcussive blows alone causes concussion problems, or that they increase one's risk of a serious concussion when a greater impact occurs?

Speaking from personal experience, seeing concussions occur on the field both as a parent and as a spectator of professional games, as well as reading people's personal accounts here, it's pretty obvious that concussions DO occur from head-to-head, arm-to-head, or head-to-ground contact. If accumulation of subconcussive blows alone is a large issue, well that's absolutely relevant too, but the most acute manifestations of concussion symptoms occur after the more dramatic impacts, so I hope you weren't denying that.

 

No, definitely not denying that concussions happen from collisions. Several former MLS players might still playing if not for that cruel fact.

On youth soccer, here's what I wrote back in November:
http://www.soccerwire.com/blog-posts/dure-u-s-soccer-takes-good-first-step-with-heading-initiative/

Some of the citations therein:

Dr. Robert Cantu -- "In the last year alone, there have been 13 studies that I’m aware of — there might be more– that have shown that sub-concussive hits in sports that take a lotta brain trauma, like soccer in some cases, football in other cases, have shown abnormalities on DTI MRI, have shown abnormalities on functional MRIs … and also breakdown of the blood-brain barrier. … And that’s happened without recognized concussion, just from repetitive trauma."
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates...ets-top-neurosurgeon-weighs-concussion-risks/

Here's another piece by Dr. Cantu and others: http://concussionfoundation.org/sites/default/files/Safer Soccer/Safer Soccer White PaperCLF.pdf

To be sure, it's certainly a new-ish field, with more research to be done:
http://www.udel.edu/udaily/2015/mar/soccer-heading-031915.html

But it's hard to read this stuff and not at least see the logic in what they're suggesting.

And again -- at an NSCAA panel I attended, coaches fretted that they wanted to have the freedom to teach heading with soft balls and so forth. That's actually not a bad idea for U-12s, anyway.

 

Benefits of heading ban are clear to sее

http://www.socceramerica.com/article/68496/benefits-of-heading-ban-are-clear-to-see.html

 

I expected that after watching Diablo Jr. Play his first competitive U10 match under these new rules to come here and rant about how terrible this change was.

I must admit, this article so closely matches what I saw I wondered if we were at the same match.

Both teams just completely deflated the ball on all punts. I'd be willing to bet that the team that touched the punt first retained possession at least 80% of the time.

 

Same here.

I was a critic but willing to admit I was wrong.

 

Our local league punting is not allowed. Goalkeeper can either play it quick with a roll or throw or they may ask the other team to retreat back. Think of it as similar to playing a free kick quickly or asking for space and a ceremonial restart. Anyhow, I went to a match my son refereed on Tuesday. Two high level local U-10 boys teams. Neither team opted for the ceremonial restart and played quick rolls or throws. Actually gave the match a better flow.

Two headers were called by my son. Seemed the players adapted to the rule change very quickly. They were not aware of the rules until referee/coaches told them before the match.

 

I think the "buildout line" in the new small-sided mandate may also help. At this age, I think we'd all rather see kids playing out of the back rather than punting, wouldn't we?

 

This was a pretty good level game. Neither team at any time requested for the build up line and played quickly. Their players handled traffic well either through ball control or open teammates to pass to.

 

We are seeing some of the same things at the U8 level here. That said, I've already seen one unscrupulous coach tell his kids to take throw ins at opposing players' heads so they'll try to head the ball instinctively and grant them a FK. Pretty gross, and I hope other coaches start calling him out on it.

 

Heard is happening here in the UK at the younger age groups. Waiting for the heads up and guidance.