Maybe girls who play soccer should wear helmets?
Rush was way ahead of the curve with Keep Our Own Kids Safe.
It is much like why you tell boys under 14-15 to not throw breaking balls. The body is not fully developed and more prone to injury. The bones are still somewhat soft in children and thus skeletal and soft tissue injuries are more likely.
This seemed centered around girl’s soccer, will Chastain and her supporters be focused on trying to implement this, voluntarily or not, with boy’s soccer as well? And then football, rugby, lacrosse and anything else?
I grew up in Europe and the dangers of heading a ball in soccer were never even brought up.
I grew up in Europe and the dangers of heading a ball in soccer were never even brought up.
One of the only non-yawn-inducing aspects of soccer is going the way of football’s kickoff return.
I used to coach in Washington state. They made a big deal of it - I think it has been proven to be a risk. The kids were fairly old by the time they learned headers (11 or 12?). We would practice them with soft balls, and not all that often. In a game it was pretty rare that too many good headers would happen. (This was recreational youth - 15 and younger).
Did have a gal trip over the ball and break her leg. That was no fun as a coach. (Our best and most-aggressive player too).
At that age and level of skill I think we had more instances of bonks on the head from running into someone or a stray elbow. A few times a ball would catch a gal from point blank into the face or head. Those were scary.
Brandi Chastain? I’d hit it!
Playing high level Volleyball of all things, my daughter got a concussion at 13. It was a fluke thing. She’s 17 and still playing. Her sister plays Soccer. Never had a problem. Any sport comes with a chance of injury. My nephew doesn’t play sports but tripped over his drum set! Most skills, I always thought, should be taught early on so they are learned correctly. Regardless of a “no heading” rule or not, kids will use their head if the ball is there. And if they ever tried the helmet thing... I think most kids would quit.