OT: US Soccer bans headers for U11 programs

Kids need to learn to bring it down with their chest anyway. Limiting it to punts and goal kicks makes more sense as set pieces and service goes up there pretty soft by compparison anyway. Kids also need to be able to score with their head from the corner.

If youth football had as many concussions as soccer they would make players wear helmets and mothers would be afraid to let thier kids play.

And I think this is a great idea.  It would be better if it was an outright ban.  I'd also like to see a ban on slide tackling until U11 or so.

Here's why:  The point isn't so much that kids are getting concussed from heading the ball.  I've never seen it occur once over the course of hundreds of games.  But many Dutch clubs and a few other countries have either banned heading until U14 or required protective headgear.  And the Dutch remain pretty freakin' good at soccer.  And the reason is CTE, which is different than single-incident concussions.

Headgear would be best, since many headers present precious little risk to the player.  (There's a big difference between heading [e.g.,] a corner kick and heading a ball that pops up midfield after [e.g.,] a clean tackle.)  Most headers don't involve a high velocity ball - although as kids get older, head-to-head contact becomes an increasing risk as they work to head a 50:50 ball.  In fact, I've seen many more injuries due to head-to-head collisions on headers than impact with the ball itself. 

On slide tackling, the clubs I coached with "discouraged" it until U10 or so.  I think that is a dumb approach, especially at the rec level.  You end up with a few kids making dangerous and clumsy slides.  And those kids are most-times being coached by a parent who thinks it's great that "Johnny or Jenny is such a go-getter".  And the recipient gets hurt because Johnny or Jenny is not trained in making a proper tackle, and the slide tackle that the coach is applauding would be called a foul if rec refs weren't generally terrified to do so (most games at these ages are reffed by kids just a few years older than the players - as a way of raising a generation of refs to support the clubs moving forward).  So you end up with a few kids hurting other kids due to poor coaching, and that behavior getting rewarded.  None of which makes Jenny or Johnny a better player.

Even as kids get older, we teach them that sliding is a last resort, because if it doesn't work then you are out of the play (bad) or pulling a yellow (worse).  By the time a kid is 12 or 13, they can be coached on how to slide cleanly, but by that point the coaches are competent rather than volunteer parents who don't know what they're doing.  (Not that all the rec coaches are inept - it's more that it's a mixed bag of great coaches and well-meaning hacks.)  And I love me a good clean slide tackle, especially when the recipient thereof is a cocky kid.

Anyway, if for U12 and under players U.S. Soccer would (A) work more on on teaching younger players individual ball skills, beating their man on one-on-ones, dribbling, juggling, having 2-4 moves (L and R) in the player's pocket, and (B) not focus so much on passing, set pieces, shape, etc., our players would be so much better able to compete when older.  

/Steps off soap box/

Seems like a good idea.  You really don't need to be doing them at that age anyway.  How many aerial duels do you see among 9-year-old soccer players?

I'm not sure what the final effect will be. No doubt there are some youth academies and camps that taught headers pre-u11. But, following my daughter's soccer over the years (she's currently a HS Sr), I don't recall her teams practicing headers until U12 at the earliest.