Concussions in sports have turned into every sporting organizations greatest fear.  No other time in sports history has a physical injury been the cause of such widespread fear, lawsuits, policy changes, early retirements, and parents pushing their kids away from participating.  Why? Because a concussion is not just physical, it is neurological.  "A concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury caused by a blow to the head that causes the head and brain to move rapidly back and forth. This damag[es] the brain cells and creat[es] chemical changes [with]in the brain" (Center for Disease Control and Prevention).  Concussions are not a short term problem either.  More scientific research is showing a strong correlation between multiple concussions and permanent brain damage and CTE.  "Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy is a progressive degenerative disease that has been seen mainly in former athletes with a history of concussions" (Boston University).  Associated with the brains deterioration comes "memory loss, impaired judgment, impulsive aggression, depression, progressive dementia" (Boston University).  Fears of once great athletes turning into vegetables has forced sporting organizations to abandon traditions of their games for safety of their players.  The National Football League has come under the most fire for how they are managing concussions, including losing a one billion dollar lawsuit to former players.  But they are not the only organization writing checks to former players for treatment and scientific research trying to find a solution to this epidemic.  Most recently, The United States Soccer Federation (US Soccer) settled a lawsuit with parents in an attempt to protect young soccer players. The ridiculous settlement was not looking for monetary reimbursement for injury treatment, but for policy changes to eliminate a fundamental skill in the game that the plaintiffs believed caused the concussions.  Effective January 1st, 2016, youth players under age 11 may not head the ball, and players under age 14 are limited to practice the skill.  I believe this landmark decision for youth soccer is actually going to do more damage than help protect youth soccer players.

As I stated earlier, soccer is not immune from the threat of concussions occurring in the game.  Actually youth soccer is at a greater risk of concussions than many other youth sports.  The University of Colorado Medical School study entitled "An Evidence-Based Discussion of Heading the Ball and Concussions in High School Soccer" published in the Journal of the American Medical Association for Pediatrics, which is currently the most widely accepted source of information about concussions in youth soccer, found that "the rate of concussions in high school soccer was second only to American football" (Comstock).  This data sparked a group of soccer parents to file a lawsuit against US Soccer and its partnering bodies to take some form of action to limit concussions happening in the game.  The plaintiffs from California sought for better youth soccer injury prevention and protocol.  For the most part, they successfully did so.  For example, the substitution rules were changed for a player suspected of a head injury.  Now teams that have a player who suffers a suspected head injury can get fair assessment for that player off the field, while not being penalized by having to play down a player on the field like the past rules stated (US Soccer).  I applaud US Soccer by making changes like that because that does not change the game in a major way, it just allows players to be more willing to seek medical assistance.  The problem I have with the settlement is that the governing body for soccer in the United States is eliminating a fundamental skill to youth players until they are in high school.  Heading a soccer ball is when "a player uses their forehead to pass the ball to another player, to move the ball down the field or to score a goal." (Janda).  Even though I understand that the U.S. Soccer Recognize 2 Recover Concussion Initiative is trying to protect young soccer players from concussions, eliminating headers in youth soccer is the wrong way to solve the issue.  Because young players will not be trained with the proper skills until they're fourteen years old, more concussions will occur, quality of soccer will go down in the United States, and the main cause of concussions in soccer will remain unaddressed.

Medical Research

The scientific community has been diving into the issues of concussions in soccer for just over a decade.  Current research, like the study mentioned previously from the University of Colorado Medical School, has actually suggested a different cause for concussions in soccer.  Unlike popular belief, only "seventeen percent of all concussions come from a ball striking a players head" (Comstock). So where did all of these concussions really come from?  "Athlete to Athlete contact is responsible for close to seventy percent of concussions" (Comstock).  This contact is described as when a player's body makes physical contact with any part of another player's, same or opposing team, body.  The way the game is played contributes to this contact.  Soccer is an extremely physical and contact sport which allows players to use their bodies as tools to get the ball into their possession or protect the ball from being stolen.  Since the game is mostly played with one's feet, the ball is normally kept bellow knee height, soccer players tend to be less comfortable with using the ball above shoulder height.  This leads players to stick their elbows out or lean into the ball when trying to head a soccer ball.  This action of athlete to athlete contact causes the seventy percent of concussions in soccer.  However, developing heading skills more thoroughly will allow players to be more confident when playing the ball with their heads.

Proper technique of any skill will prevent injury, and heading a soccer ball is no different.  Like previously stated, the act of heading a soccer ball is completed by using ones forehead to play the ball.  The Institute for Preventative Sports Medicine defined the proper technique of heading a ball as;

"fixating [one's] head so that the whole body is used to generate a greater momentum at the impact of the ball. This fixation also prevents the rotational acceleration of the head and lowers the risk of injury to the brain and spinal cord. After impact, the player must time his/her heading of the ball so that his/her head does not continue to snap forward after the ball is released from contact." (Janda)

Just like the institute states, this proper technique limits the impact and dangers of heading the ball to the point where it is safe to do so.  But what happens when players cannot practice this skill?  US Soccer's new policy states that no youth athlete is to head the ball until they turn ten years old, and is limited to minimal training until age fourteen (US Soccer).  Will a twelve year old who may have only practiced this skill only a dozen times be able to follow the proper procedure to prevent a head injury?  Brett Jacobs, an international soccer coach from the United States, does not believe so, saying, "teaching [heading] shouldn't take a back seat, because kids will not know what to do until they learn heading like they did kicking the ball" (Dure).  Coach Jacobs is right, without practicing a skill, young athletes will open themselves to injuries when they attempt to perform the skill.  Unfortunately youth players will not be taught proper technique of heading until after potentially injuring themselves because US Soccer will not let them practice.

Because I am representing the minority opinion, there are many arguments to why US Soccer was correct to eliminate heading in the youth game.  The same study from the University of Colorado Medical School study that proved that athlete to athlete contact being the main source of head injuries also states that the single most popular activity during the game that caused a player to suffer a concussion was heading the ball (Comstock).  They found that thirty-two percent of all concussions in soccer came from the act of heading the ball, more than any other activity.  The problem I have with this section of the study's results is the way that they group the specific activities mentioned.  The majority of the activities were sport specific; like chasing a loose ball, passing, and shooting.  But other activities that are not sport specific, like goaltending, defending and general play, were all wrongfully separated and should be put together into the activity called general play.  After combining those activities together, general play accounts for forty-five percent of all concussions in soccer.  This makes sense because the study said athlete to athlete contact is the culprit to concussions, and most contact of that nature will happen during the normal course of play.  Also, the study itself does not believe heading should be eliminated.  The authors of the study concluded that "reducing athlete-athlete contact across all phases of play will more effectively prevent concussions, as well as other injuries, than will simply banning heading" (Comstock).  It is mind blowing that US Soccer, who mainly used this study to develop its new guidelines would not take their conclusion into consideration before just eliminating heading.  

Another opposing viewpoint that supports the ban of headers is studies addressing head impact from heading a soccer ball.  A study produced by The Institute for Preventative Sports Medicine found that "an impact with a soccer ball during a game or practice can produce a force of 2000 Newton's", most likely causing a concussion (Janda).  What critics did not take into account was that this study was produced in 2002.  Back then soccer balls were still made of leather, which meant they became heavier during the course of a game or practice when they took water.  Today's balls are made to be more waterproof and have more padding to absorb a higher velocity of play while being softer to the touch (Rigsby).  This means that balls now are safer to use to practice headers then balls over a decade ago when the study was released.  In addition to this, the velocity of the ball that was used to compute the force of a ball was fifty-four meters/second (Janda).  That velocity is the fastest a ball will travel during a game, like when a professional takes a shot on goal.  The average speed a ball will travel is in reality closer to thirty meters/second (Parrish).  Calculating the force on impact at this velocity is much less then stated from the 2002 study.  Also, that number was for how fast a ball moves during a professional game.  Children will be kicking the ball at considerably lower velocities that create forces too weak to cause a concussion.  

Decrease in Skill Quality

The United States is considered new to the scene in the international soccer community, but with the rise of international stars coming to the US to play in Major League Soccer; the US is starting to become competitive.  Within the past two decades, The Women's National Team has dominated international competitions by winning three world cups.  However, the skill level for US players is considered subpar to the likes of European, African, and South American born players.  Now with the new concussion guidelines, US Soccer is taking a step back from their progress in a defective attempt to keep their players safe.  No other country has eliminated heading in its highly competitive youth leagues like the United States has.  Instead, coaches in other countries have found safer approaches to teach the skill.  For example, the Netherlands created a lightweight ball that models after a regulation size ball so that youth players can learn how to head a ball properly with minimizing risks (Dure).  Now when these players become older, they are able to use the proper technique as well as reducing danger to their brains.  At the same time, they are learning to play the ball while it is in the air and not hide away from it, as US Soccer is enforcing its kids to do until they are eleven years old.  This produces an overall decrease in skill quality produced by United States born soccer players over the course of the next few decades.  If United States professional players now cannot compete with players across the world, how are future generations supposed to compete when they are playing without a fundamental skill?  Not only will player quality decrease from not being able to use the skill, but it will also decrease because referee quality will go down in the United States.  

The new policy now forces soccer referees to stop the play of game at any time the ball makes contact with a players head.  Depending if it was intentional contact with the ball or not, the restart is different.  Non-intentional contact made with the player's head leads to a drop ball, when the ball is dropped in between a player from both teams, to restart play.  However, if a referee judges the contact to be made intentionally, then an indirect free kick is awarded to the opposing team (US Soccer Referee's Department).  This now gives the referees opinion even more power to influence the game negatively because now they are in a position to give an advantage to the opposing team simply because a youth player tried a fundamental skill of the game.  Because of this added task, many referees are not willing to officiate these youth games were they are forced to call a "head-ball".  Maryland's State Referee Administrator, Greg Watson, publically denounced the rule change because now "good referees are not willing to go to a ten year olds game", where good referees are needed to encourage and teach young athletes the game (Miller). Good referees are now supposed to "Encourage all on the field to be held to a higher standard, which generally leads to a better quality of play" (Metropolitan Washington Soccer Referee Association).  Without a high quality of officials at the games, young athletes will not be able to grow as players as they would without the rule change.  However, some extremely optimistic supporters of the new guidelines wrongly see other skills actually improving by eliminating headers.

Fundamental skills, like heading a soccer ball, are the first thing a child learns when playing a sport.  The fundamentals are to come first, not later on in their playing careers.  Unfortunately some coaches believe they can wait to teach the fundamental skill of heading a soccer ball because it will help strengthen other areas of a player's ability.  Coaches see that "US players are rarely renowned for their foot skills, [so] with a lack of aerial play, it will encourage youth clubs to do more foot skill-building activities" (Dure).  First of all, the US is known for their aerial play in the game, and it has suited them fairly well.  Abby Wambach, a former US Soccer player, scored the most goals in international competitions than any other male or female in history.  She is known for having sixty four of her one hundred and eighty four goals being scored with her head, leading to three world cup trophies (US Soccer).  I agree that the US needs to work on having players being more technically minded with better foot skills.  However, why should eliminating headers be the reason they work on their foot skills?  United States coaches can still teach their players to focus on keeping the ball on the ground in a possession oriented style of play, without eliminating an aspect of the game; that's what every other country does.

Conclusion

US Soccer implemented rule changes to protect young athletes from concussions, however, by eliminating heading, they will face more problems than they avoided.  Medical research is in too young of stages to be a reliable source to base a major change like this off on.  The governing body for soccer in the US ignored the most widely accepted study that says eliminating heading is not the main source of concussions in the game.  Also, now the US will take a step back in the quality of the game compared to other nations who were already strides ahead of them.  Instead of creating these changes, maybe US Soccer should have considered continuing what they were already doing to combat the concussion issue in youth soccer.  Over the past few years, they had improved better coaching models that taught coaches to be more effective in teaching their athletes about the dangers of concussions and how to head the ball properly.  Also, The United States Soccer Referee Program has put an emphasis on being stricter on fouls for above the shoulder contact.  Contact above the shoulder has been shown to lead to concussions because athletes use their bodies as weapons to win the ball by creating athlete to athlete contact near the opposing players head and neck region.  This crackdown on violators has led to better coaching and players being safer with using their bodies more as tools then weapons.  US Soccer could have waited to see the effectiveness of these policies before feeling the need to institute the new guidelines.  With just over four months into the new changes, it is too early to see the damages caused by US Soccer's Recognize to Recover Concussion Guidelines, but the next few years will show how far the United States have been set back compared to the rest of the world in soccer.

