And yet (those who troll me are going to love this) my wife’s grandma made it to 83 with a 20/30 a day habit all her life. Died of nothing related to smoking. Ah, you can’t been anecdotal confirmation.
Your subsequent comments verified what i already knew at the point you said this - this is not because of a lost opportunity at specific skill acquisition but more due to a relative deficit in the ability to acquire physical skills. This just isnt a factor when considering the selection bias of the kids who will continue to progress and so will have no impact on the final product we get to watch.
That is a brilliant post.
Learning how to do stuff properly is essential from an early age, and that is recognising the argument for not teaching kids to head the football.
That is why in ten to fifteen years time the rules will have changed significantly.
A) Its too dangerous
B) We dont know how.
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Just seen this and would contend that learning specific skills is more successful at a younger age.
I go back to my nephews who don’t instinctively go for headers. They try to get their foot up or turn and run for it.
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and it scares the shit out of me when I’m defending a ball with my head (at shoulder level) and I see a guy who is going to twist his body like he’s going to kick the ball at head height.
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Which illustrates the point perfectly.
At what age will they learn to hwad the ball properly. Or will they ever?
I think football is evolving into a sport where all risks will be removed. No tackling, no heading the ball, no punching by the keeper…
All of the argument about welfare and safety is made from a genuinely good place, and I understand that…
But the current changes to the underage game will manifest at senior level in the next few years…
The argument for banning heading is premised on incomplete or at best unsubstantiated research. Maybe thats enough?
At this point I am sure nobody wants risk of injury to kids playing football. I just wonder hiw my generation has survived.
pretty soon, all of our kids will be playing footy in bubble wrap.
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I remember playing space ball in your neck of the woods when I lived there. 10ft ball and carnage. Very much the opposite of this.
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you’d probably appreciate our over-40’s league. have a lot of guys who are in their 50’s who can still move a ball around pretty good. pretty much the only place in Canada where we can play all year round except for 6 weeks between Mid-Dec and early Feb
Hopefully the FAI and KFA don’t introduce such a rule. I understand they were monitoring what the English FA would do but that was two years ago so hopefully pushed under the rug. Think heading is such a big part of football especially at lower leagues and Sunday league. Everyone plays sport at a risk, I could break my leg and be out of work for a while, or anything could happen on a pitch. Heading, whilst I believe isn’t ideal for the brain, is still generally safe enough. All the issues down the line I do believe were caused by a heavier ball and then the social life’s already documented on this thread. Todays footballs are light anyways and the game is not as direct as it used to, even at Sunday league and academy’s as I see. I think if evidence in 20ish years comes out and says it’s still a major problem then maybe we can have a talk about it, but for now if evidence is still showing results from 60s-80s football, then it’s irrelevant for now. Everyone plays sport for the risk like I said, if you are concerned about your future brain, then quit. Don’t take it away from everyone is my thinking
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Well said totally agree, heading has been and is an integral part of the game.
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And that’s the crux of the matter. It is about choice as well.
I think the points on heading in kids football are well made, but there is choice in what we want to participate in.
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So how do we seek informed consent from under tens?
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Is that asked tongue in cheek?
How do eight year olds give consent for anything?
Its through their parents obviously.
And I understand your earlier points re football and fun, and keeping kids interested. I spoke to a former pro player who has coached kids and adults and his take is the we should do things properly from the start. Throw ins, tackles, heading should all be coached early to increase the skill base
Like schools and sport clubs do already. Parents?
It depends how you do it.
‘Drill’ style coaching is not in vogue right now. It is boring for the kids, and there is scant evidence that it actually works.
Game based training with a competitive element is the way that coaches are taught to do it. One of my favourites is super short (like, 30 second) matches, where you roll a dice to see how many players each team has. It means teams have to work out what to do to defend an overload, how to make the most of an attacking advantage etc. You can see the kids working it all out for themselves. It’s brilliant.
It’s also not consistent with the current thinking on motor learning and skill acquisition. For a sport like football, where the skills are required to be produced in a highly variable way (in contrast with something like golf) there doesn’t appear to be any advantage in specialized skill acquisition as long as the kid is doing something that promotes some of development of motor learning pathways and acquisition of other related skills.
The idea there will be an epidemic of professionals unable to header the ball properly because they were prevented from learning the skill until they were 12 is just not realistic.
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The current thinking on motor learning is exactly that: the current thinking. Trends on learning are constantly changing, and there is an assumption that current thinking cannit be improved.
And lets be fair, because you say its not realistic that players will be unable to head a football isn’t an evidence base to go by.
Anyway, the argument goes beyond that. Aside from “learning” the game, my fear is that heading will eventually be banned anyway, along with tackling as the risk avoidance in contemporary times takes over.
Additional newly published study demonstrating a smart way of evaluating a body of evidence when gold standard studies are not possible