Mamby Pamby State. Tarquine mustn’t spoil his £50 hair style! A water soaked leather ball with lacing Yes but not while using these balloons (unless lactic intolerant).
What next...punching people when boxing should be banned and replaced pillow fights?
This is PC gone mad, probably some scheme dreamed up by a bloated Brussels bureaucrat.
Thankfully once we get Brexit done we can get on with letting English kids head old-fashioned heavy English footballs again rather than these new fangled foreign ones.
Here Here, And while they're at it, they can take their diving and play acting and poke it where the sun don't shine an all.
My little fella (8) loves heading a ball, even in training, match, he scored a header couple months back and is his favorite thing he talks about when asked about his football.
As a coach Ive paid extra for softer match balls not the hard plastic crap that would hurt if left out in the cold over night (I also keep my footballs indoors next to a radiator in the winter).
As a qualified coach I will abide by the rules as its other people's children but when he is in his own garden as a dad Ill let him carry on heading a ball sparingly.
IMO Its a skill that kids learn not just pick up at 13 years of age.
There has been millions and millions of people playing football and a handful of cases over 100 years, there has probably been more players affected with heart conditions but still they don't make defibrillators compulsory at sports grounds and parks
Shearer did a really good documentary on this, it was frightening seeing the impact on the brain (using scanners) even from heading a modern football.
Relevantly to this thread, what concerned him about his career wasn't all the headers he did in matches (which were relatively few even for a target man like him), but the hours and hours of heading practice he carried out.
Children's brains are more vulnerable, it's the cumulative effect on a growing brain of 1000s of head impacts which is concerning
I wish they'd banned it in '65 when I went off to school in Canterbury, and for matches as well. I still remember the sight of that sodden leather sphere dropping from the sky like a cannonball, always seemingly in my direction. I'm sure my posts on here would be far more coherent if they had.
I used to love heading. My favourite goal I keep playing back in my head still was a bullet header from a corner from the edge of the area. Of course when you catch a header, there is no pain, but I recall being dazed many a time too. The worst was clearing headers.
But I would not be happy, knowing the risks that we know now, with my son or daughter heading a ball. It just feels likely there is something in it and that is enough. The game has to look at this and forget what it wants to hear and find the truth.
The problem I have as a coach is that I have mixed ages in my squad. Of the 15 players I've got, 3 are playing up a year. So next season they won't be allowed to head a ball in training, but their team mates, and more importantly their opponents will do. I've got to send them into a match where the ball will inevitably be headed, without any training, and against opponents who have trained. Frankly that sounds dangerous.
I'd have been far happier if they had just done a blanket ban up until a certain level of football (e.g. once the players progress for mini-football, 7/9 a-side, to full 11 a-side football), even if that mean the cut off effectively became 13/14 years old instead of at the end of primary school. If a 13 year old is playing a year up then they can still train fully, a 10 year old playing a year up now can't.
And all of this completely ignores the different rates children develop. Apparently it's fine for an under-developed 11 year old to head the ball, but not for an advanced 10 year old. It all feels very arbitrary and un-thought-through.
The problem I have as a coach is that I have mixed ages in my squad. Of the 15 players I've got, 3 are playing up a year. So next season they won't be allowed to head a ball in training, but their team mates, and more importantly their opponents will do. I've got to send them into a match where the ball will inevitably be headed, without any training, and against opponents who have trained. Frankly that sounds dangerous.
I'd have been far happier if they had just done a blanket ban up until a certain level of football (e.g. once the players progress for mini-football, 7/9 a-side, to full 11 a-side football), even if that mean the cut off effectively became 13/14 years old instead of at the end of primary school. If a 13 year old is playing a year up then they can still train fully, a 10 year old playing a year up now can't.
And all of this completely ignores the different rates children develop. Apparently it's fine for an under-developed 11 year old to head the ball, but not for an advanced 10 year old. It all feels very arbitrary and un-thought-through.
How many times do your players head the ball in training, say, per week? And how many headers are there per match?
Well Sunday I'd say it was probably a handful of times per players, with some probably not heading it much at all and a couple heading it 10-12 times in the match. In training we don't do a huge amount of heading training as we knew this was in the pipeline, but I guess we'd do a heading season once every month or two and they would head the ball (mostly from a gentle throw) 15-20 times. The aim here is improve their technique rather than to simply recreate match conditions. We don't throw the ball up into orbit like the did when I was a kid. We also have training matches, so there's obviously some heading there too.
There are teams we've played who clearly do a lot more work on heading. At U11 most teams aren't great in the air, so there is a lot to be gained by having your team well drilled for set pieces. We're not a big side, so we don't often throw the ball into the box trying to win the first header, but we do have to defend, and these regulations mean next season I'll be asking one of my players who is playing up a year to try and defend against a larger kid who's had a lot more heading training. As I said, that doesn't sound safe to me, so I'm put in a position where the child is at a massive disadvantage (and hopefully only a small risk) or I simply have to remove them from the team. That's why I said it should be based on level of football, not just age of players. The guidelines as they stand put younger players at unnecessary risk
Comments
My little fella (8) loves heading a ball, even in training, match, he scored a header couple months back and is his favorite thing he talks about when asked about his football.
As a coach Ive paid extra for softer match balls not the hard plastic crap that would hurt if left out in the cold over night (I also keep my footballs indoors next to a radiator in the winter).
As a qualified coach I will abide by the rules as its other people's children but when he is in his own garden as a dad Ill let him carry on heading a ball sparingly.
IMO Its a skill that kids learn not just pick up at 13 years of age.
There has been millions and millions of people playing football and a handful of cases over 100 years, there has probably been more players affected with heart conditions but still they don't make defibrillators compulsory at sports grounds and parks
Relevantly to this thread, what concerned him about his career wasn't all the headers he did in matches (which were relatively few even for a target man like him), but the hours and hours of heading practice he carried out.
Children's brains are more vulnerable, it's the cumulative effect on a growing brain of 1000s of head impacts which is concerning
Ridiculous! I've been playing football all my life and it never did me any harm. I've been playing football all my life and it never did me any harm.
I was a great header of the baloon, bladder, cowpat, eggplant...
But I would not be happy, knowing the risks that we know now, with my son or daughter heading a ball. It just feels likely there is something in it and that is enough. The game has to look at this and forget what it wants to hear and find the truth.
I'd have been far happier if they had just done a blanket ban up until a certain level of football (e.g. once the players progress for mini-football, 7/9 a-side, to full 11 a-side football), even if that mean the cut off effectively became 13/14 years old instead of at the end of primary school. If a 13 year old is playing a year up then they can still train fully, a 10 year old playing a year up now can't.
And all of this completely ignores the different rates children develop. Apparently it's fine for an under-developed 11 year old to head the ball, but not for an advanced 10 year old. It all feels very arbitrary and un-thought-through.
There are teams we've played who clearly do a lot more work on heading. At U11 most teams aren't great in the air, so there is a lot to be gained by having your team well drilled for set pieces. We're not a big side, so we don't often throw the ball into the box trying to win the first header, but we do have to defend, and these regulations mean next season I'll be asking one of my players who is playing up a year to try and defend against a larger kid who's had a lot more heading training. As I said, that doesn't sound safe to me, so I'm put in a position where the child is at a massive disadvantage (and hopefully only a small risk) or I simply have to remove them from the team. That's why I said it should be based on level of football, not just age of players. The guidelines as they stand put younger players at unnecessary risk