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.
Kudos. :)
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 like your analysis. I played for Cal and adult league after that and coached for ten years in High School. We had only one head injury in that time, it was a head to head collision while both players went for a header. One kid had to sit out the rest of the match and I had him check in with a doctor when his partents picked him up.
I have never had a kid receive in injury from heading the ball. (I have heard that some people are asserting that there could be cumulative brain injury, but have not seen any data on this. As for wearing head gear, if it is not hazardous to other players, I don't mind a kid wearing it if he/she (a) thinks it helps heading accuracy or (b) thinks it helps keep injuries from occurring while keeping the hair out of the way.