New soccer policy aims at youth concussions
JACKSON, Tenn. — The United States Soccer Federation is putting a stop to using your head in youth soccer. A new policy handed down this week suggests players younger than 11 not heading the ball as part of a resolution to a class action lawsuit. It’s something local trainers say is needed in younger kids. “Your brain’s still developing. We’re talking 6, 8, 10 years of age,” athletic trainer for Sports Plus Rehab Jay Roberts said. “Their bodies, they’re nowhere near fully grown or anything like that. You’ve got to give them time to develop and recover.” Studies show the concussion rate in girls soccer is the 2nd highest in youth girls sports, and it’s 5th highest in boys sports. Coaches said stopping head injuries altogether is a tough task. “Prevention of concussions is really challenging just because you can never take the risk out of any sport, so it’s really tough. It’s really tough to enforce,” Jackson Christian soccer coach Jeff Lean told WBBJ Wednesday. The new policy will change how coaches and parents oversee and teach some parts of the game, but with a third of concussions in soccer coming when a player tries to use their head on the ball, coaches and trainers agree it’s for the best. “I’ve run camps for a number of years, and when we’re talking 4- and 5-year-olds, we’re using balloons to teach heading, and so there’s things done along those lines to help,” Lean said. “We’ve got to think about their futures,” Roberts said. “The game is important, but at the same time anything that we can do to bring awareness to the subject of concussions, especially in our youth, we need to go all out and be full force.”
