10 headers a week! | Vital Football

10 headers a week!

Isn’t that the point… how do the experts know the issues are caused by heading a ball, as opposed to a career of playing actual games with all the head-to-head clashes.
I am not an expert but doing anything hundreds of times usually affects the body in some way.
I do two hundred sit ups every day and have got a very impressive six pack. If I did 200 headers everyday I imagine I might eventually get a sore head at the very least?
 
Enjoy it while you can because this is the beginning of the end for football as we know it.

I suspect heading will be banned in all football within 10 years. Insurance companies won't insure players against the effects of head injuries in the future because the legal claims will soon start to mount up (where there's a blame there's a claim culture we have created).

I think football will ultimately end up where the ball isn't allowed to go above shoulder height in case it hits somebody on the head.

Brian Clough would be happy.
 
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Bloody Nanny state. This seems like an overreaction to an issue dating back to an era when footballs were much heavier. I have no wish to see players suffering long term head and brain injuries and feel the publicity received in some high-profile cases is responsible for this. 10s of thousands suffer from Alzheimers/Dementia who have never headed a football. Are they going to ban boxing, UFC, Taekwondo etc where the head is being targeted and hit with considerable force.
 
The number of head clashes in modern day football is alarming, it goes with the vastly increased pace of the game. Those pose a major threat, as do tackles with a lot of force, even though many/most(?) fans may say the tackler won the ball. Those tackles, with the speed these days, are rightly being outlawed.

As for heading the ball Glasgow University did a massive study and found that, yes, there was an increased likelihood of dementia-type illness in later life for footballers. This was offset by their lower chances of serious illness or death in other major diseases that affect the general population.

The dementia element is often quoted in the media by campaigners. What they don't mention, though, is that the level of dementia in goalkeepers was just the same as it was for outfield players.

I think it's safe to say that the results of that huge study were inconclusive.
 
Bloody Nanny state. This seems like an overreaction to an issue dating back to an era when footballs were much heavier. I have no wish to see players suffering long term head and brain injuries and feel the publicity received in some high-profile cases is responsible for this. 10s of thousands suffer from Alzheimers/Dementia who have never headed a football. Are they going to ban boxing, UFC, Taekwondo etc where the head is being targeted and hit with considerable force.

I agree totally with what you are saying but this is the society we have created for ourselves.

Ultimately yes I think all sports that could involve head injuries will be modified or banned. Just think of some of the laws and the way society is now and if you had said these would have been in place 40 years ago people would have laughed at you.

So it might seem ridiculous now but this is the way society is going. As a society we are becoming increasingly risk averse and we are being told what to eat, what to say, what to think and what to do and it will only get more like that!

Like I said enjoy it while you can because if we are all here watching it in 20 years it will be very different to what it is now. The Lawyers and the cyber warriors will see to that!

The world changes and you either have to adapt and accept it or become bitter and miserable.
 
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Going to throw it out there that if you head the ball less in training, the risk of clashing heads is also less...
Equally if you don’t practice how to head the ball in training, the risk of clashing heads in an actual match is higher.
 
Equally if you don’t practice how to head the ball in training, the risk of clashing heads in an actual match is higher.

Do you think? That seems slightly less provable! Clashing heads isn't simply a matter of technique surely; Rheady clashed heads with people plenty?
 
The number of head clashes in modern day football is alarming, it goes with the vastly increased pace of the game. Those pose a major threat, as do tackles with a lot of force, even though many/most(?) fans may say the tackler won the ball. Those tackles, with the speed these days, are rightly being outlawed.

As for heading the ball Glasgow University did a massive study and found that, yes, there was an increased likelihood of dementia-type illness in later life for footballers. This was offset by their lower chances of serious illness or death in other major diseases that affect the general population.

The dementia element is often quoted in the media by campaigners. What they don't mention, though, is that the level of dementia in goalkeepers was just the same as it was for outfield players.

I think it's safe to say that the results of that huge study were inconclusive.
Agree. very general results. not very specific on heading the ball only.
https://www.gla.ac.uk/news/archiveofnews/2019/october/headline_681082_en.html
 
Do you think? That seems slightly less provable! Clashing heads isn't simply a matter of technique surely; Rheady clashed heads with people plenty?
if you don’t practice heading, you will mistime more jumps and headers. More mistimed jumps and headers will lead to more head clashes. At least that is obvious to me.
 
if you don’t practice heading, you will mistime more jumps and headers. More mistimed jumps and headers will lead to more head clashes. At least that is obvious to me.

But it's not neccessarily mistiming headers that causes a clash is it? Is that a causal link? Most head clashes seem to be where two players go for the ball at the same time and the other one's in the way! I'm not sure you ever really replicate that properly in training (the intensity of going for a 1 v 1 header much higher in the game).

I don't know, might be right but I suspect if you head the ball a bit less in training the chance of head clashes overall across a week is reduced, rather than suddenly spiking because no one knows how to head it in a real game.
 
Find the higher force part baffling. Not sure how that’s determined.

As much as it is a bit woolly, it is described in that article

"These are typically headers following a long pass (more than 35m) or from crosses, corners and free-kicks.
 
But it's not neccessarily mistiming headers that causes a clash is it? Is that a causal link? Most head clashes seem to be where two players go for the ball at the same time and the other one's in the way! I'm not sure you ever really replicate that properly in training (the intensity of going for a 1 v 1 header much higher in the game).

I don't know, might be right but I suspect if you head the ball a bit less in training the chance of head clashes overall across a week is reduced, rather than suddenly spiking because no one knows how to head it in a real game.
I agree the 50-50 header can cause a clash.
short term spike? Probably not. the article is saying that younger players are not heading the ball at all, teens are heading it less, pros are now practicing heading it less. I would suggest this is going to have a medium term effect on the quality and ability to head the ball. Yet in a competitive match heading is still very much one of the skills. It is a mismatch.
a bit like saying don’t practice tackling. And then see what the results would be like in a competitive match.
 
I agree the 50-50 header can cause a clash.
short term spike? Probably not. the article is saying that younger players are not heading the ball at all, teens are heading it less, pros are now practicing heading it less. I would suggest this is going to have a medium term effect on the quality and ability to head the ball. Yet in a competitive match heading is still very much one of the skills. It is a mismatch.
a bit like saying don’t practice tackling. And then see what the results would be like in a competitive match.

How much do you think teams actually practice tackling now? I suspect not much in comparison to other skills, and certainly not in the style of a competitive game?