There's a joke in here somewhere.
Posted on 11/27/2004 10:51:16 AM PST by neverdem
This subject has been knocked around at many coaches meetings. The general consensus from the coaching community goes something like this.
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If players are taught the proper way to head a ball, there is little to no injury. The problem here is that there are so many amateur coaches out their in the youth leagues, a lot of them don't know how to teach it.
Serious head injuries occur in two ways:
1. Players bumping heads. This is by far the most common head injury.
2. Playing on a hard field and coming down unbalanced and hitting the head.
There is an even more serious issue and that is one of players jumping up and pulling down the goal post on their heads from a non secured goal.
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I can actually see the need for headgear for the ages of around 10 to 15. That is a crucial growing time for the head. But at 16 and up the remaining players that have not gone on to the fat sports know pretty much what they are doing and the head development is almost mature.
It is ridiculous for college players to be wearing head gear. But look at what liberal school is using them.
The other thing I've seen from time to time is that sometimes you'll get leagues who have one-size-fits-all goalposts to try accomodating all ages, where the goalposts split the difference between youth and adult players, which causes the goal to be too small for older players. For players 12 and up, the goal really should be FIFA standard-regulation 8 feet high by 24 feet wide - anything less is just asking for trouble.
Kudos. :)
i should qualify what i said: i am only referring to travel soccer teams on long island, NY.
Confession: You are correct, I don't have a teenage girl.
I guess what I was getting at was that once headgear use reaches a certain 'level', the fashion imperative will kick-in. Cut & color are going to be as important as functionality.
Hope your daughter doesn't have continuing problems with concussions. My experience from football is that successive concussions come easier after you've had that first one. After a while, no headgear is going to help.
There's a joke in here somewhere.
LOL!
Exactly. Typically, for older players, two guys go up after the ball and header each other instead. I'm of two minds on this - headgear would certainly mitigate that, but then again, I've rarely seen the same player do that more than once. Clunking heads tends to instill a certain amount of situational awareness, so to speak ;)
The other common thing I saw was players engaging in the classic "dangerous play", where they dip their heads down into the other fellow's kicking zone. That's an instant penalty for dangerous play when I was refereeing. Failing to keep your head up is hazardous play, and if the coaches are not teaching that, the referees are, again, responsible for protecting the players - in that case, from themselves.
I can actually see the need for headgear for the ages of around 10 to 15. That is a crucial growing time for the head.
I can sort of buy that. But the thing is, the younger you get, the less common head injuries seems to be. Under 12, most players just aren't coordinated enough to make headers a regular part of their repertoire, so you just don't get as many situations where head injuries are likely. If parents want it, by all means they should have it. Unfortunately, I think the next inevitable step is requiring it, and I'm not so sure that's a good idea.
I'ld just to say that football (no-one calls it soccer over here) is a superb game. We wear shinpads, but generally no other body armour.
Helmets make sense for batsmen in Cricket, but not for football.
Unfortunately, more than a few refs do little to protect the keeper. Their attitude seems to be that if my daughter is "stupid enough to play goal, she has to be tough enough to take what she gets." The girl that kicked my daughter square in the head should have been red-carded, but didn't even get a yellow. If she could legally play soccer with a combination catcher's mask/NFL helmet on, we'd have her wear it!
My son played travel soccer for one year when he was 10. We couldn't get out soon enough. You are absolutely correct that the travel soccer teams even at that age are hypercompetitve to the point of being reckless with the kids. Your lightning story is pretty typical.
Both my boys have played football for 3 years now and I have yet to see a significant injury or cutthroat behavior. I've no problem putting on padding (I make them where rib cages). The idea that soccer is safer than football is a canard.
I've coached soccer both competitively and recreationally for fifteen years. I have no doubt but that most injuries are caused by poor coaching and poor officiating. A properly executed header will not cause a concussion and will not even hurt. The best change that could be made in soccer today--eliminate the shoot-out to resolve tie games and instead pull both keepers from the field and play golden goal.
Stryker
Well, keep in mind that as she gets older, the game is going to open up a bit - that's just the nature of the beast. That being said, it seems like there's four video cameras per player at games these days, so if you see something that looks like it's clearly over the line, don't be shy about getting the coach to approach whoever's in charge of officiating for your league.
Headgear intended to save your fragile brain cells from his horrible jokes? ;)
And travel soccer teams? That is where all the stereotypes end up! We've noticed that most of the high school soccer team comes from local teams and not travel teams - the travel team kids burn out from the sport and change to something else as soon as their parents outgrow the sport.
Playing men's indoor soccer about twelve years ago, I took a very hard and straight on shot from a ball I was heading and was momentarily dazed. I continued to play, however, and finished the game without incident. A few days later a co-worker noticed that my right pupil was noticeably smaller than the left. I went to a Henry Ford Hospital medical center in Troy, MI and they immediately recommended that I go downtown to the main hospital where I was admitted through emergency and diagnosed with a dissection of the right carotid artery. I was told that type of injury is almost invariably the result of head trauma and usually associated with auto accidents. The only trauma inflicted on my head was by that soccer ball.
My recovery was complete and though that was my last soccer game, I'm more physically active now and in better shape than at any time in my life. If I were to give soccer another try, I think I'd want to give something like this a try.
Looks a lot better on the chicks ....
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