Protecting the minds of the game...

Yesterday, the New York times published an article titled, U.S. Women’s Soccer Stars Take Lead on Risks of Heading.  I enjoyed reading the article for many reasons, the first one being that my mom actually started this discussion back around 1992.  Her ideas have always been before her time...on more than one occasion her rules for raising her three daughters were eventually written into law...and I am not even joking. (see MA law on new drivers).

I started to play soccer when I was 6 years old.  The idea of heading the ball at that time was pretty much unnecessary because the ball rarely left the ground.  I continued to play recreational soccer and was lucky that my coaches weren't just parents supervising us run around but actual former soccer players.  When I was 9-10 I started to play competitive travel soccer and this was around the time my mom started to speak up.  Before practices with any of my club/ODP teams, my mom would address the coach and tell them that I was not allowed to head the ball during practice.  She believe that it would cause injury to my brain and also lower my future SAT scores.  

I was embarrassed by this situation and thought I would develop slower than the rest of the kids but turns out that was not the case.  At that age, there is not a lot of heading in the games...just in practice for specific drills.  My teammates didn't actually seem bothered by my lack of heading in practice and some of them started to follow suit.  Once I was older, bigger, and stronger I began to head the ball, and never noticed a deficiency in my ability to perform the task.

I am happy to say that I never got a concussion from playing soccer.  Although I have had moments where I've "seen stars"as mentioned by Cindy Parlow, I don't currently have any residual headaches.  In 2005 while working as a young professional at a law firm in NYC, I participated in an adult co-ed soccer tournament.  I went up for a header and got the back of a head to my upper eye lid; and let me tell you.  Sporting a black eye at a law firm for several weeks is not a good look for clients haha.  Now when I think of using my head in a game, I have more caution. Meaning, I think to myself, "is it the end of the world if I don't head this punt?"  The answer is most often no, I can just take it down with my feet and move along.  

In college however that was not the case, and as an asst. college coach for 8 years I had roughly 7 girls with documented concussions and who knows how many just kept quiet.  Every sport carries a risk of injury but it seems to me in this country, we always try to find a way to make the games we love more safe so we can continue to enjoy the healthy competition.  

I hope the future of soccer continues to grow and develop and I hope that people take the idea of protecting young brains more seriously for both girls and boys.