The Dangers of Soccer

Heading for trouble
A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has raised new concerns about the practice of "heading" a soccer ball. A group of 33 young adult amateur soccer players in the Netherlands submitted to more than a dozen tests designed to measure various brain functions. The results were compared to those of a control group of runners and swimmers. The findings:

• 39% of the soccer players had an impaired performance on tests measuring planning abilities, compared with 13% of the control athletes.

• 27% of the soccer players, compared with 7% of the control athletes, had an impaired performance on memory tests.

• Concussions were frequent; 27% had one concussion due to soccer play; 23% had two to five concussions over the course of their years playing the sport.

The conclusions:

"Participation in amateur soccer is associated with decreased performance on tests of memory and planning. Although cognitive impairment appears to be mild, it presents a medical and public health concern... Methods for surveillance and prevention should be developed and adopted to maximize safety."

What's the impact?
Dr. Lyle Micheli, director of the division of sports medicine at Children's Hospital in Boston, advises parents of young soccer players to take the findings "seriously," noting that despite the small sample size used in the study, its findings concur with the results of earlier research.

"It's an additional piece of data that suggests there's a problem here," says Micheli, one of the nation's leading medical authorities on youth sports. "I would not encourage a child under 12 to head the ball. I think that would be a responsible guideline for now (pending further research.)"

Dr. Robert Michaels, a pediatrician, agrees. "Never mind the head itself, small children just don't have the neck strength to do heading and there's the risk of injury there. But I wouldn't take my kids out of soccer based on this study."

Indeed, parents and coaches say the issue may be moot for younger players, who simply don't have the coordination needed to connect their heads with the ball.

"It's like having kids work on their dunk shots in basketball," says Bob Bigelow, a former NBA basketball player who is now a parent and self-described "youth sports activist." "Most of them don't have the physical ability yet," he says.

"I've seen maybe one headed goal in ten years of coaching kids' soccer," says Dan Szatkowski, a father and volunteer coach. "It's such a small part of the game."

Still the dangers for pre-teens and teens remain largely unknown. Two years ago, Dr. Micheli was asked to delete references to the risks of heading in a video produced for the US Soccer Federation. At the time, he readily complied.

"I'd give them more of an argument now, though, given the recent studies."