Young soccer players need training in heading balls

My husband and I were sitting on the sidelines, leisurely watching a spring soccer game. I was glad to be outdoors and doubly glad that the temperature had finally made it above freezing. The high school girls from both teams were doing a good job moving the ball down the field, dribbling, passing and using their heads, in all senses of the word.

After watching a player head the ball, I overheard another parent comment that she had recently read about potential brain injuries linked to heading. She wondered if heading the ball in soccer could be comparable to the kind of hit a boxer takes in the ring. Another player's grandmother, who seemed very knowledgeable about the sport, offered her opinion that heading was actually safe, provided it was performed correctly.

In 2010, the American Academy of Pediatrics published its clinical report, “Injuries in Youth Soccer,” characterizing soccer as a moderate- to high-intensity contact/collision sport. AAP experts still conclude that a review of the medical literature “does not support the contention that purposeful heading contacts are likely to lead to either acute or cumulative brain damage.”

At the same time, the pediatric authors do promote strategies that may reduce “heading” injuries. Soccer coaches are advised to teach proper heading techniques to carefully determine the appropriate age level to begin training a player to head the ball, and to always play with appropriate types of soccer balls.

The preferred heading technique involves making contact with the soccer ball at the hairline of the player's forehead. This action should occur while the athlete is simultaneously contracting his neck muscles, keeping his head in the safest contact position, “rigidly fixed” to the trunk.

There is no agreed-upon age to begin teaching this soccer heading technique, but the AAP recommends that a child begin such training only when he or she has the coordination and the willingness to perform the maneuver properly.

Officials at the American Youth Soccer Association do not advocate teaching or practicing heading with children younger than 10 years of age. For older kids, the organization instructs its coaches never to force a player to head the ball, but instead to teach proper technique when the child herself shows genuine interest in heading.

When choosing balls for practice or game play, the AAP advises using soccer balls that are water-resistant and properly inflated. This helps prevent head and body contact with heavy, waterlogged balls, or with balls made dangerously hard by careless over-pumping.

Soccer balls should also be appropriately sized for the intended group of players. The Canadian Academy of Sport Medicine suggests using the smaller size 3 soccer balls for children under 10 years of age, size 4 for ages 10 to 14, and the largest size 5 balls for soccer players older than 14.

• Dr. Helen Minciotti is a mother of five and a pediatrician with a practice in Schaumburg. She formerly chaired the Department of Pediatrics at Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights.