A&H

Heading and Dementia!

Sheffields Finest

Sheffields Finest

Maybe I'm foolish, maybe I'm blind!
Level 7 Referee
New study in the new year to look into this, not sure what I think about this, Is it all baloney or is their something in it???? Thoughts!
 
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Definitely something in it imo, especially for players pre 70's with the old leather balls. They were always the same weight when dry but when wet swelled up with lots of water. Balls today are much better but still can't be great to forcefully head it time after time.

Not sure what the solution is as heading is a big part of the game, heard ideas such as banning heading outside the boxes or banning it altogether upto adult football, that'll just make things worse imo as adults will have no idea how to head a ball properly!
 
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Imagine that being wet, heavy and you rise like a salmon to head it home!!!

I only ever scored one sublime header in the Works League in 1984 on Bawtry Road (best pitches in Sheffield).. probably the only time I caught one right on the sweet spot and it didn't hurt!! Scored loads on the floor but heading wasn't a strong part of my No 9 thuggery!!! :devil:
 
Sheffields Finest said:
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Imagine that being wet, heavy and you rise like a salmon to head it home!!!

I only ever scored one sublime header in the Works League in 1984 on Bawtry Road (best pitches in Sheffield).. probably the only time I caught one right on the sweet spot and it didn't hurt!! Scored loads on the floor but heading wasn't a strong part of my No 9 thuggery!!! :devil:
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And you didn't even need to lift your feet off the ground you long tall....
 
I'd suggest having something hit you in the head that is travelling at speed does have potential to have some side effects. I guess elements like frequency and velocity of the ball (pros are stronger so kick the ball harder than your average Sunday morning player) will have some form of impact also.

Also interesting to see as the football designs have changed, whether that has an impact as well.
 
I'd be surprised if anyone who has played in the past 20 years or so has been too badly affected as the balls are now so light. Shearer's scans all came back clean, and there can't be many players that headed it more than he did. Heading a ball 50 years ago though would be like heading a medicine ball when it was wet, so you can easily imagine the damage that could have caused.

I played centre half so I guess I headed the ball more than most (some would say that explains a lot ..!). I'm only 5'9", so I often didn't get picked up at set pieces, or got picked up by the smaller players, and as a result scored a lot of goals with my head. Probably responsible for conceding a lot as well, as with the best will in the world if someone who is 6 feet or above jumped I wasn't getting anywhere near him. That said, it's quite hard to jump when some short @rse defender has got hold of your shorts ... :)
 
RustyRef said:
I'd be surprised if anyone who has played in the past 20 years or so has been too badly affected as the balls are now so light. Shearer's scans all came back clean, and there can't be many players that headed it more than he did. Heading a ball 50 years ago though would be like heading a medicine ball when it was wet, so you can easily imagine the damage that could have caused.

I played centre half so I guess I headed the ball more than most (some would say that explains a lot ..!). I'm only 5'9", so I often didn't get picked up at set pieces, or got picked up by the smaller players, and as a result scored a lot of goals with my head. Probably responsible for conceding a lot as well, as with the best will in the world if someone who is 6 feet or above jumped I wasn't getting anywhere near him. That said, it's quite hard to jump when some short @rse defender has got hold of your shorts ... :)
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Do you think it had an impact on your follicle recession...... Where there is Blame!!!! :blackeye:
 
There is a growing body of opinion suggesting that heading a football can be linked to various issues like dementia. It can't yet be considered as medical fact especially as so much of the opinion comes from non medical 'experts' but it is something that needs more investigation. Ultimately, if it is proven that conditions are caused or worsened by heading a football then heading will have to be taken out of the game.
 
Heading the ball will be taken out of the game when boxing gets banned.

Heading a ball can't be any worse than a right hook (although probably not the ball that @Sheffields Finest posted)
 
The NFL settled with a group of ex players for multi millions of dollars, I wonder if some of this is being driven by interest groups looking to benefit from the Brewster’s Millions of the a Premier League booty. Or am I being cynical?
 
RustyRef said:
the balls are now so light.
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Actually they're not - at least not in terms of starting weight. The difference is that the modern balls don't absorb water and become heavier during a game in wet conditions like the old ones did. Adidas for instance, actually increased the starting weight of some of their balls in recent times, for example the Jabulani ball used in the World Cup in South Africa was heavier than the one used in the previous World Cup.

The players complained about it having an unpredictable flight path and some people mistakenly claimed it was because it was lighter but it turned out that it was because the outer surface was too smooth. The principle behind it is the same as the reason why golf balls have dimples. If a sphere is totally smooth, it's unstable in flight.

Ball Flight Characteristics
 
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