FA bans primary school children from heading in training

[DJS]

FA advises coaches not to train children in heading but denies blanket ban

"There's lots of myths out there. This is not a ban on heading. This is about guidance to support our volunteer coaches."

www.skysports.com

With the health concerns raised in relation to heading the ball I wonder why football doesn’t just introduce compulsory head wear to try and provide a level of protection?

Sure they kinda look like they’re wearing condoms on their heads but sure kit suppliers can provide snazzy ones as part of the kits and if everyone is wearing them they won’t look and feel quite so silly lol.

I‘d certainly prefer my head protected then take risks of ill health due to it later in life.

Plus you do get some very nasty clashes of heads sometimes.

 

[Gassin's finest]

Always knew that head height rule in 5-a-side would come in handy one day.

 

[whitelightwhiteheat]

Always knew that head height rule in 5-a-side would come in handy one day.

Spurs under Mourinho would be fucked.

 

[Geyzer Soze]

?‍

 

[CowInAComa]

if you listen really carefully you can hear a million middle aged Sun readers let out a collective 'its health and safety gone mad'

 

[Japhet]

I don't know for sure but I'd imagine most of the ex players surveyed would be from an era where heading a football would be like somebody dropping a sack of cement on you. The balls now are featherweight by comparison. It used to be unusual for a goalkeeper to punt the thing over the halfway line.

 

[Geyzer Soze]

if you listen really carefully you can hear a million middle aged Sun readers let out a collective 'its health and safety gone mad'

I'll be with them on this one

 

[soflapaul]

I don't know for sure but I'd imagine most of the ex players surveyed would be from an era where heading a football would be like somebody dropping a sack of cement on you. The balls now are featherweight by comparison. It used to be unusual for a goalkeeper to punt the thing over the halfway line.

Especially when wet. And when that ball was crossed with lots of spin, you would often change your run to allow you to use part of your body if given space.

 

[whitelightwhiteheat]

Having watched primary school kids play football for the past 5 years heading the ball is quite rare in that age group anyway, at least until they get to the age of last year of primary school, and even then it’s rare.

They should be focusing the kids on ball control, passing and moving.

That’s what my kid’s team did anyway.

 

[whitelightwhiteheat]

 

[DJS]

if you listen really carefully you can hear a million middle aged Sun readers let out a collective 'its health and safety gone mad'

I’m against silly health and safety (and to be fair quite a lot of the health and safety stuff in The Sun has been reporting on silly nonsense overkill stuff) but as in my original post I just can’t see the harm in wearing protective head gear - why take the chance innit?

 

[nailsy]

Good. There's really no need to head the ball at that age.

 

[Gassin's finest]

 

[McFlash]

Dunno, always thought it was supposed to be character building, to close your eyes and get walloped on the head by an extremely heavy, wet, muddy ball, on a freezing cold day.
Bloody snowflakes nowadays... Bah!

 

[WalkerboyUK]

I get the reasoning behind it, in terms of potential long term damage, but 99.999% of these kids are also not going to end up heading a football as a career, therefore it's unlikely that there will actually be any damage.
The link to alzheimers/dementia is based on studying professionals who were heading the ball on a daily basis, probably hundreds of times per day.

Besides which, who is then going to stop it in the playground kickabouts at lunch/play time??

 

[Spurs 1961]

The game is called football so heading is not really necessary especially at a young age.

I grew up in the sixties was a fairly prolific goal scorer in primary and early senior schools days but eschewed heading as crazy with heavy wet footballs. Even as a kid I knew this was a dumb thing to do. When we practised indoor heading volleyball I declined; happy to play anything with my feet though.
Glad to see finally some common sense. Maybe we will even produce better footballers?

 

[CowInAComa]

I'll be with them on this one

Things change.

 

[whitelightwhiteheat]

The game is called football so heading is not really necessary especially at a young age.

I grew up in the sixties was a fairly prolific goal scorer in primary and early senior schools days but eschewed heading as crazy with heavy wet footballs. Even as a kid I knew this was a dumb thing to do. When we practised indoor heading volleyball I declined; happy to play anything with my feet though.
Glad to see finally some common sense. Maybe we will even produce better footballers?

Little known fact but the name of football has nothing to do with kicking the ball with feet, but was called football because it was played on foot and not horseback like most sports were back in the boomer days.

 

[EighteenEightyTwo]

I'm not sure a ban is the answer. Primary school age kids shouldn't be using size 5 balls and headers should be quite rare in training if they are being coached properly. Maybe special balls for practicing heading technique would be a better way to go?

That's not to say that this shouldn't be taken seriously though. At that age I was once made to do a heading drill with a basketball as there weren't enough footballs. I had a headache for days.

 

[dontcallme]

Essentially I believe we should be taking head trauma more seriously.

If studies are showing damage caused by kids heading footballs before fully developed then it seems common sense to not head the ball until the kids are older.