Heading in football

I thought that would be obvious mate, you have been happy to submit yourself to a lifetime of torture supporting SAFC

 

I remember as a kid, heading the old wet casey, trying to head away a corner and you catch it in the lace......Who put that concrete in there? I played, not very well, in Norway until a few years ago... OK, a lot of years ago, and can't really remember a problem heading this new lighter ball. As someone posted earlier the percentage of people with damage is very small in comparison to the people who play, and head the ball. Having said that, One or more of my old bosses told me I was brainless,...that might explain a lot

 

It depends where you made contact too, I always tried to use my forehead but more often than not it would hit me on the top. I remember being dazed a few times.

 

I'd like to know just how dangerous heading the ball is.

Clearly having even the relatively light balls used today, traveling at speed, regularly hitting a skull is not a plus point.
But while I watched the Jack Charlton programme last week the thought occured to me that he was an 85 year old with Dementia.
Sadly there are many much younger than Jackie who have never headed a football in their lives who are affected.

Alan Shearer did a programme some time ago where he suggested that the percentage in those former players who were required to head the ball a lot, and were now suffering from Dementia, was much higher than the percentage in the genaral population, or even other footballers.

But the telling bit, for me came from Dave Watson and his wife following Dave's dementia diagnosis.
'Even had he known at the time what might happen to him, he would still have done it because he loved it'.
Dave, who is at the start of that horrible journey, agree with her.
I think that Mrs Charlton said something similar.

In the proffessional game the price might be high, but for some at least, the rewards are enormous.

The only suggestion I can think of is to ban heading the ball for anyone under, say, 18.
After that, they are adults and free to decide how they want to live.
And yes I aware of the flaws in this.
Say to some 18 year old, yes you can have a future as a proffessional player, but you will have to risk an increased risk of dementia, and most will be so pleased that they will jump at the chance.

(While typing this a thought has just occured to me.
We, as a society, are quite happy to recruit youngsters into the Forces.
By no means all of them come out unharmed.
And they do it for a lot less in £££'s terms.)

 

Let adults make their own minds up, you don’t have to box, rock climb, drive cars at 200 miles an hour + or play football if that’s what you want to do crack on.

 

I was lucky and only played with an old casey for a year or two. This was in the mid-late 1960s so they weren't the old brown balls but the sealed, white ones and the stitching was always dubbined to within an inch of its life. The biggest hazard for me was never weight when wet, but heading the laces.

To a young kid like me the weight of even the dry ball was considerable, but that was offset by the fact that none of us could kick the ball that hard.

Anyway, this got me thinking about how much water an old casey would take on through a game and couldn’t come up with much more then repeating the old anecdote that they would get considerably heavier during a match. The best I could find was a BBC report where an academic sated the soaked the ball and it only increased in weight by a couple of grams.

Yet the report was very sketchy. It didn't say what type of casey (eg brown or white), how old, what condition, was it freshly dubbined or not at all, how well laced, how long it was allowed to accumulate water an how (gentle shower, torrential downpour or even total immersion) or what the temperature was.

I'm not belittling the issue, just pointing out some of the physical complexities they need to deal with. Of course, there are lifestyle complexities that need to be added because a significant number of old time footballers smoked and drank heavily even during their playing careers.

I'm pleased that widespread studies are now under way, but we are just beginning to scratch the surface of this issue so I wouldn't want to see any rule changes made just yet.

 

Jesus Christ it’s only a header. While we are at it, we might as well stop boxers punching each other.

 

A lot of people would like that to be fair.

 

I remember in a match once I closed down an attacker having a shot. He struck it clean as a whistle and I took it flush on the chin. Apparently I was out cold for about 10 seconds. Coach told me to crack on. Thankfully we know a bit more now about the dangers.

Had a lad in a team last year got a concussion from heading it in a match, just once. Came on that night and had to go to hospital. Scary. Had to have several weeks off as that is the protocol now.

 

Like many jobs, can it not be seen as an occupational hazard? I'm thinking that they should explore every avenue towards reducing the risk, but changing the process of teaching and training footballers isn't workable. If kids are not taught how to head the ball at an early-ish age the evolution of football will change. The art of heading will become watered down. But then again, once a generation of kids who don't know how to head get near the professional stage, will they be suddenly forced to start heading, suddenly bombarded with high balls? There's too much money involved in football for teams to allow other teams to have an aerial advantage. So, like I say, they will be forcibly teaching these youngsters how to head the ball, playing catchup for the lack of teaching of the skill in the more formative years.

 

I think this will probably see the result of heading becoming a lesser element of the game and thus the problem is either lessened, or it is easier to change the rules.

 

If they change the rules to stop heading the ball, they will change the whole outlook of this wonderful game. Rule changes in general have not benefitted the game too much, like the offside rule, nobody really understands it now. No-one forces the players into the game, as @Rooch said earlier adults can chose, even kids can chose if they want to be a boxer, a footballer, a mountain climber. Why do kids climb trees, knowing that they might fall and break something? It is the thrill of daring, accomplishing something, they don't do it while thinking of the dangers.
It is surely up to the individual, to understand the possible dangers of the sport they chose, not to change the rules because they can't accept those possible dangers. If you don't like it take up knitting or tiddlywinks, something with very few if any dangers!

 

I think we're all missing the obvious rule change solution to avoid long term brain injury - a method that has been tried and tested