Getting ‘A-head’?

Are you really getting ‘a head’? Purposeful heading of the ball in soccer has long been thought to have negative impacts on the brain. So much so in 2015 in the US heading was banned in children under 10 years of age and limited in those aged 11-13 (Player Safety Campaign, 2015. www.ussoccer.com). How much further ‘a head’ are we today in understanding the effects of this practice in soccer players of all ages? A study published over 20 years ago on professional Dutch soccer players documented neurocognitive impairments (Matser et al., 1998). While this and other studies provided a basis for further investigation into structural, functional and metabolic changes in the brains of soccer players, there still lacks a definitive causative link preventing evidence-based guidelines such as heading technique, terms of use, and playing positions, etc.

 Recent research published in Medicine Science in Sport and Exercise estimated the mean exposure for male professional players in a full match was 4.2 headers with maximum exposure at 10.6. Researchers recorded the headers by observation, a registration tool and video analysis over the course of 116 games (96 male and 20 female) of Dutch national teams (Shari et al., 2022). Research such as this is helpful in estimating the real-life exposure in games, yet falls short in terms of quantifying the exposures in training and the varying degrees of impact depending on type, speed, placement, etc.

In sports where there is potential of cumulative long-term negative impact on the brain, we should take a more proactive approach to minimize unnecessary trauma regardless of how it innocuous it may appear.