Heading ban.....

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Come on - they’re only trying to prevent little kids dying of brain related diseases later in life.

It’s only for under 11s and it doesn’t apply in matches. What’s wrong with allowing children to develop their ball skills first? There’s plenty of time to learn how to head a ball properly later in their development, and if kids want to practise heading on their own they’ll find a cheap, lightweight, plastic ball and a wall - like we all did.

It’s a lot of fuss about nothing imo.

Yeah, this isn't people being snowflakes and panicking over nothing, there's a hell of a lot of very good research that has gone in to this, and all of it shows that heading the ball over a longer period of the time makes you many times more likely to develop dementia later in life, and an even further increased risk if you play certain positions.

Until even more research can be conducted and some solutions thought up, it makes perfect sense to remove the risk to kids in the meantime. Maybe eventually it'll just be banned outright, and if that's the only way to protect people, then it's clearly worth it. I doubt that will happen, though.

Heading is part of the game but if its causing one of the worst things (IMO) that can happen to a human being, you have to take some sort of action.
 
Can the modern balls cause as much damage as the balls of yesteryear? They are so lightweight now, probably don't become even heavier when wet, and no laces, which could cut a player's head. These days, I think most head injuries are when players come together in a collision.
I think it's fair enough to ban it from kids' games, but not so much at adult level.

Was listening to experts on this not too long ago..... Can't remember the exact statistics, but the force of heading a modern ball directly back from where it came when it's flying full pelt is still pretty serious in terms of the potential accumulative effects.

Of course people initially point to th old days/old balls etc. but we're coming into a time frame where the 80's guys are now hitting their 60's so a new generation of research samples are becoming available.....

This debate and research will rumble on for decades to come.....
 
I'd be interested in watching an experimental game, where heading's not allowed. Maybe somebody's setting one up now, as a TV show. I reckon I could handle the change, if ever it happened.
 
I'd be interested in watching an experimental game, where heading's not allowed. Maybe somebody's setting one up now, as a TV show. I reckon I could handle the change, if ever it happened.

Some early test games have been played very recently at lower (yet competitive) level.... I'm sure once they get a few more under their belt, we'll start to see some data being tossed around.


What is a complete non-starter though are these suggestions where players are only allowed to head a certain amount of times per game or training session.... Totally un-trackable/police-able accept for at the very highest level of the game where you could perhaps pay for a 'heading ref' to sit up at Stockley Park with the VAR gimps.
 
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Was listening to experts on this not too long ago..... Can't remember the exact statistics, but the force of heading a modern ball directly back from where it came when it's flying full pelt is still pretty serious in terms of the potential accumulative effects.

Of course people initially point to th old days/old balls etc. but we're coming into a time frame where the 80's guys are now hitting their 60's so a new generation of research samples are becoming available.....

This debate and research will rumble on for decades to come.....
This is the most important aspect for me. When I played my most competitive football, late 80’s early 90’s I would blackout 7 or 8 times a season after heading a ball (almost all of mine were defensive and back then from keepers launching the ball high into the air to be contested by CB and CF). The blackouts would be for no more than a couple of seconds but even then us players were all talking about it and if it was any good for you.

The balls then weren’t just heavier from the start but on a wet pitch they would absorb so much water it was like a medicine ball into the 2nd half.

Whilst I play vets stuff now, I still head the ball and it has to be +20yrs since I’ve blacked out from heading a new style (lighter ball, and I guess they’ve got lighter over this period too??).

It would be a massive change to the sport but if the data supports it’s still dangerous then it has to be banned IMO
 
This is the most important aspect for me. When I played my most competitive football, late 80’s early 90’s I would blackout 7 or 8 times a season after heading a ball (almost all of mine were defensive and back then from keepers launching the ball high into the air to be contested by CB and CF). The blackouts would be for no more than a couple of seconds but even then us players were all talking about it and if it was any good for you.

The balls then weren’t just heavier from the start but on a wet pitch they would absorb so much water it was like a medicine ball into the 2nd half.

Whilst I play vets stuff now, I still head the ball and it has to be +20yrs since I’ve blacked out from heading a new style (lighter ball, and I guess they’ve got lighter over this period too??).

It would be a massive change to the sport but if the data supports it’s still dangerous then it has to be banned IMO

Yikes!

.......When you say this, do you mean it happened moments after the impact or randomly later that evening?
 
Yikes!

.......When you say this, do you mean it happened moments after the impact or randomly later that evening?
Immediately after impact!! Never long enough to fall over, but long enough to make you think twice about wanting to challenge for it again.

It’s a bit scary if I dwell on it and what’s ahead of me if you look at the stats you mentioned above.
 
Immediately after impact!! Never long enough to fall over, but long enough to make you think twice about wanting to challenge for it again.

It’s a bit scary if I dwell on it and what’s ahead of me if you look at the stats you mentioned above.
Did you get that checked at the time?

I would get it looked at now though even if you did 30 odd years ago, just to be safe.

Of course you could just tell me to mind my own business.
 
Did you get that checked at the time?

I would get it looked at now though even if you did 30 odd years ago, just to be safe.

Of course you could just tell me to mind my own business.
No, never checked, just all of us players asking how many of us it happened to and how frequently, just seeing if it was a normal thing.

Guess I'm in and have always been in complete denial then and now. I don't think there's a cure for dementia(???) if it's going to happen then I guess I don't want to know about it.
 
Immediately after impact!! Never long enough to fall over, but long enough to make you think twice about wanting to challenge for it again.

It’s a bit scary if I dwell on it and what’s ahead of me if you look at the stats you mentioned above.
Now that you say, I used to experience that a few times, never discussed it as I always thought maybe my technique wasn’t spot on as this was said to me once when I was a youngster.

Then we used those Mikasa balls that absorbed water, got easier when Tango and the like were developed
 
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