US Soccer Eliminating/Limiting Heading
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Anonymous
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Recently announced new guideline. Additional detail to be released in 30 days.
The United States Soccer Federation and the other youth member defendants, with input from counsel for the plaintiffs, have developed a sweeping youth soccer initiative designed to (a) improve concussion awareness and education among youth coaches, referees, parents and players; (b) implement more uniform concussion management and return-to-play protocols for youth players suspected of having suffered a concussion; (c) modify the substitution rules to insure such rules do not serve as an impediment to the evaluation of players who may have suffered a concussion during games; and (d) eliminate heading for children 10 and under and limit heading in practice for children between the ages of 11 and 13. The complete details of the initiative along with a more comprehensive player safety campaign will be announced by U.S. Soccer in the next 30 days. |
Anonymous
| I'm unimpressed. If they truly cared about the well-being of kids, they would have been more aggressive in limiting heading. But alas, developing players for international competition is the primary goal. |
Anonymous
How much more aggressive can you get without eliminating it completely? Kids have to learn the skill at some point if they have an aspirations of playing competitive soccer. |
Anonymous
| Seems like a pretty reasonable position to me...hold off for younger kids until we know more about the problem. |
Anonymous
| At some point players need to learn to head the ball properly. But at a younger age a chest trap is probably more likely than a header anyway. |
Anonymous
| Reasonable step. But this will be fertile ground for lawsuits down the road. As well it should. |
Anonymous
As well it should? It seems like USSF is acting in a proactive manner before there is any established science proving that heading is bad. Who do you thing deserves to be sued? |
Anonymous
I have listened to the leading neuroscientists and Ms. Chastain. |
Anonymous
This is the result of a lawsuit. |
Anonymous
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develops better skills by keeping the ball on the deck and limits repeated brain injury. great move by ussf
As for learning how to head the ball - there are lots of pros who are really bad at it. You can get away with being clueless in the air if you are ultra elite with the ball at your feet. When's the last time you saw iniesta or xavi execute a half decent header that wasn't a cushioned trap off a lob pass? |
Anonymous
I haven't seen Xavi execute anything in a while since he doesn't get any playing time. Isn't it time for him to come play for DC United and be MLS league MVP for a couple of years ? |
Anonymous
Xavi is getting $10 Million a year to play in Qatar right now. He's doing OK. |
MikeL
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Xavi and Iniesta are both ~5'7" and play in the midfield. Heading's not a big part of their game. Betcha they're damn good at it, though, if they need to be. |