Heading Ban

[spen666]

So, the FA are to follow the Scots and others in restricting heading the bail in football training for children over concerns regarding brain damage.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/51396744


It did set me thinking about how football would change if heading the ball was to be outlawed. no more headed goals or headed clearances. The game would certainly be very different, but would it lead to more exciting football?

[Long slender neck]

They should just make the balls lighter.

[WickfordO]

They should just make the balls lighter.

I wouldn't want to be a keeper if they did.

[Clive Evans]

I think quite a few contributors to this Board have headed the ball a bit too much in their past.

[Beradogs]

The kind of Nanny state meddling that makes my blood boil. I headed one of those big hard balls from the seventies and I can count my brain injuries on one hand.

[bobo66]

The kind of Nanny state meddling that makes my blood boil. I headed one of those big hard balls from the seventies and I can count my brain injuries on one hand.

So did I and I can count my brain cells on one hand.

[Max B Gold]

The players should just wear crash helmets to be on the safe side.

[RientO]

Heading will probably end up being banned from football, but there will have to be some rule changes such as limits on players in the area for corners and so on. In extremis, it have to be under head height like 5-a-side. That will stop Neymar’s rainbow flicks.

[RientO]

The kind of Nanny state meddling that makes my blood boil. I headed one of those big hard balls from the seventies and I can count my brain injuries on one hand.

I was knocked unconscious by one of those laced balls. My dad seemed to think it would toughen me up! I was only 4.

[Thor]

The balls are so light now, not like the old mitre balls from my youth or the even heavier ones my old man played with or the even heavier ones my grandad played with. Does this study look at these new balls or has it been a retrospective review?

[Max B Gold]

The kind of Nanny state meddling that makes my blood boil. I headed one of those big hard balls from the seventies and I can count my brain injuries on one hand.

I was knocked unconscious by one of those laced balls. My dad seemed to think it would toughen me up! I was only 4.

I was knocked unconscious in a clash of heads with Tipsy Turnbull in a game against St Mirren Boys Club. I actually went back on and played 90 minutes. But I did try to avoid heading the ball and Tipsy again.

The guy running our team was obviously very safety conscious because later that night he bumped into my old boy in the pub and mentioned that I'd had a nasty one and to keep an eye on me!

[Sid Bishop]

The balls are so light now, not like the old mitre balls from my youth or the even heavier ones my old man played with or the even heavier ones my grandad played with. Does this study look at these new balls or has it been a retrospective review?

Apparently not lighter now, just made of water resistant materiel, read on.
http://www.morethanmindgames.com/2010/0 ... -the-ball/

It is a myth that the modern ball is lighter than the balls used in the past.
Since 1937, the dry weight of the ball has been specified by Law 2: 14-16oz. Prior to that, the rules governing the ball’s dry weight specified something lighter – 13-15oz. This goes for the new ball used in 2010 just as much as it did for the 1966 ball. Whenever you read a comment along the lines of “I’d like to see modern players heading the leather pudding the ’66 boys had to put up with” you can assume that they don’t know what they’re talking about.
What has changed are (1) the material from which the ball is made, and thus the ability of the ball to avoid weight gain during the game through water absorption, and (2) the aerodynamics of the ball i.e. the smoothness of the surface.
The new ball isn’t lighter in of itself – which is what people seem to be assuming: but the new ball won’t get so wet in play. So in the broad sunshine of the ’66 World Cup Final, the famous orange balls were the same weight as the ones we see today. And so it has been on every dry day, on every dry pitch, since the balls were first standardized in the early 1870s.

[Max B Gold]

The balls are so light now, not like the old mitre balls from my youth or the even heavier ones my old man played with or the even heavier ones my grandad played with. Does this study look at these new balls or has it been a retrospective review?

Apparently not lighter now, just made of water resistant materiel, read on.
http://www.morethanmindgames.com/2010/0 ... -the-ball/

It is a myth that the modern ball is lighter than the balls used in the past.
Since 1937, the dry weight of the ball has been specified by Law 2: 14-16oz. Prior to that, the rules governing the ball’s dry weight specified something lighter – 13-15oz. This goes for the new ball used in 2010 just as much as it did for the 1966 ball. Whenever you read a comment along the lines of “I’d like to see modern players heading the leather pudding the ’66 boys had to put up with” you can assume that they don’t know what they’re talking about.
What has changed are (1) the material from which the ball is made, and thus the ability of the ball to avoid weight gain during the game through water absorption, and (2) the aerodynamics of the ball i.e. the smoothness of the surface.
The new ball isn’t lighter in of itself – which is what people seem to be assuming: but the new ball won’t get so wet in play. So in the broad sunshine of the ’66 World Cup Final, the famous orange balls were the same weight as the ones we see today. And so it has been on every dry day, on every dry pitch, since the balls were first standardized in the early 1870s.

That's a bit of a contradiction.

If the old balls absorbed water during a game (which they did) and the new ones don't then blabbing on about the standardised dry weight being the same is bollox.

[KC & sunshine band]

We used to play with the old leather balls with the laces on Hackney Marshes

If you headed the laces you would remember it for the next week

Mud seemed to cling to the ball and by the second half it seemed twice the size than when we started

Then there was the cleaning the ball after the match with that lovely smell of dubbin

we have seen some of the best headers of a football in the game, Tommy Johnston, Micky Bullock, Joe Mayo Henry Mancini

All part of the game

[Thor]

The kind of Nanny state meddling that makes my blood boil. I headed one of those big hard balls from the seventies and I can count my brain injuries on one hand.

I was knocked unconscious by one of those laced balls. My dad seemed to think it would toughen me up! I was only 4.

I was knocked unconscious in a clash of heads with Tipsy Turnbull in a game against St Mirren Boys Club. I actually went back on and played 90 minutes. But I did try to avoid heading the ball and Tipsy again.

The guy running our team was obviously very safety conscious because later that night he bumped into my old boy in the pub and mentioned that I'd had a nasty one and to keep an eye on me!

Cool story bro!

One question did it happen in the warm up? As you went back on and played 90 mins!

[The Mindsweep]

I suspect clubs will be more direct. Keepers booting into the opposing half will be a problem for defenders.

[Howling Mad Murdock]

The kind of Nanny state meddling that makes my blood boil. I headed one of those big hard balls from the seventies and I can count my brain injuries on one hand.

So did I and I can count my brain cells on one hand.

+ Beradogs.

[Real Al]

The kind of Nanny state meddling that makes my blood boil. I headed one of those big hard balls from the seventies and I can count my brain injuries on one hand.

You're in Wales right? So just the 6 or 7 times?

[Captain Zep]

Headers won't be banned in games, kids just won't practice it in training. Most reputable grass roots clubs already don't do this. Given the evidence available, it seems a sensible approach.

[spen666]

Headers won't be banned in games, kids just won't practice it in training. Most reputable grass roots clubs already don't do this. Given the evidence available, it seems a sensible approach.

That situation won't work.

If heading is allowed in a game, then kids will practice heading. It may not be in a formal training session, but coaches will "encourage" kids to practice away from the formal training.

Its a rather bizarre situation when you allow something in a match but stop people practising it

[Thor]

If you practice heading in training the current thought process is to let the air out of the ball so that the child headers a softer ball. One thing is that heading is not worked on like it was when I was a kid, that’s a big change I see.

[Sid Bishop]

If you practice heading in training the current thought process is to let the air out of the ball so that the child headers a softer ball. One thing is that heading is not worked on like it was when I was a kid, that’s a big change I see.

Why not do that or use lighter balls or smaller balls when doing heading practice for youngsters. When I was at school, we used to play football in the playgrounds using tennis balls. Great for learning ball control, dribbling etc and also taught you to get over the ball when you had a shot or passed it.
Street football using small balls, even tins etc was where many of the old time greats honed their skills long before we had children's football leagues, organised training sessions etc like today.

[RientO]

.
Street football using small balls, even tins etc was where many of the old time greats honed their skills long before we had children's football leagues, organised training sessions etc like today.

Heading tins should be banned. Especially the full ones :-)

We used to play football with 2 litre plastic bottles of coke. Always fun when they burst!

[RientO]

If you practice heading in training the current thought process is to let the air out of the ball so that the child headers a softer ball.

Heading a soft ball is pretty pointless as the ball tends to just fall in front of you. Similar with light balls where it's impossible to judge the trajectory.
When I think of all the heading I used to do playing in defence, I do wonder if there could be a long term impact. I stopped playing about 12 years ago in my early 40s as my knee had given up. No idea what damage (if any) 30 years of heading balls has done. Suspect not too much as I tended to have a week between games, but hopefully I don't go gaga in the next 10 years.

[Sid Bishop]

.
Street football using small balls, even tins etc was where many of the old time greats honed their skills long before we had children's football leagues, organised training sessions etc like today.

Heading tins should be banned. Especially the full ones :-)

We used to play football with 2 litre plastic bottles of coke. Always fun when they burst!

What a waste of coke, should have drunk it first then re-filled with water !