Quit using your head

U.S. Soccer bans heading in youth soccer leagues to prevent concussions

I am sure you have heard about the concussion epidemic that has taken the sports world by storm. It seems everyday another high profile football player has revealed he has chronic traumatic encephalopathy late in his life. Unfortunately, many governing sports bodies are feeling the pressure to take action, and they are forgetting to use logic when making these decisions.

Heading — U.S. Soccer banned heading in leagues with players under the age of 10. Google Images

U.S. Soccer has recently called for youth soccer to ban heading for children under 10 and to ban heading in practice for children ages 11-13. To the uninformed, this seems like a great idea. To those who grew up in or around the game, this is certainly a huge accident waiting to happen again and again.

“Given the enormous stakes of a significant health risk to millions of American children, it was the right thing to do,” Leander Schaerlaeckens said in an article for FC Yahoo.

I strongly disagree with Leander. First of all, imagine a 13-year old child who has never learned to head the ball, playing in a competitive soccer game. By the age of 13, many young boys already have quite a bit of skill and power in their game. They can easily float a ball to a teammate or send a goal kick sky high.

When the situation arises, the child is going to attempt to head the ball. Thanks to U.S. Soccer, he or she has no idea what the proper technique is because it has never been allowed in practice. Children will be thrown into a game with a ball flying at them from a goal kick. They get under the ball and brace for impact with their head pulled in like a turtle. If you have ever done this, you know that the child most likely just sustained a concussion or possibly a pinched nerve.

Ironically, that child’s concussion would be a direct result of the new policies to limit concussions. You see, throwing the child into the game with no practice is a recipe for disaster.

Can you imagine sending a football player into a game with zero practice tackling someone? The whole point of youth football these days is teaching kids the techniques of tackling before they get into the game. Now U.S. Soccer wants to do the exact opposite. In practice, coaches can slow the game down and teach. But in a game, the coach has no control over the speed of play.

It seems all U.S. Soccer is worried about is covering themselves from lawsuits. As long as the players do not get hurt in practice, they really do not care what happens. After all, these new policies are a direct result of a lawsuit against U.S. Soccer. They are more worried about making a change just for the sake of public opinion and dollars than they are the safety of the kids they are supposedly protecting.

Heading a soccer ball is all about technique. If you sit back and let the ball hit you, it is going to hurt. If you attack the ball, it will be virtually pain free. Instead of banning headers in practice, we should encourage proper heading techniques in practice. Let the kids learn to head the ball from 5 feet away before throwing them into a game and asking them to do it in full game speed.

U.S. Soccer needs to learn to use its head so that youth soccer players do not hurt theirs.

SCHMIEG is the asst. sports editor.