Heading a football

[Jakubclaret]

How does heading a ball or playing conkers make children become desensitised to pain? Why would we want children to be more warrior like?

So they don't bullied & they can defend themselves better, I don't get the conkers bit that much myself but I agree with rest he said, you got to let your kids be kids, come home muddy & sometimes bloody, it's part & parcel of growing up, in & out of scrapes.

[Rileybobs]

So they don't bullied & they can defend themselves better, I don't get the conkers bit that much myself but I agree with rest he said, you got to let your kids be kids, come home muddy & sometimes bloody, it's part & parcel of growing up, in & out of scrapes.

What a load of b0llocks. So heading a football, playing conkers, climbing trees and swimming in rivers will make our children warrior-like and able to fend off bullies? I’m sorry but what you’re claiming makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

[Jakubclaret]

What a load of b0llocks. So heading a football, playing conkers, climbing trees and swimming in rivers will make our children warrior-like and able to fend off bullies? I’m sorry but what you’re claiming makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

It does it's normal childhood, instead of watching neighbours (is that still on?) & locked in a bedroom playing space invaders. Kids need a sense of adventure to facilitate adulthood in later life.

[Rileybobs]

It does it's normal childhood, instead of watching neighbours (is that still on?) & locked in a bedroom playing space invaders. Kids need a sense of adventure to facilitate adulthood in later life.

None of that has anything to do with heading a football, or being desensitised to pain or being warrior-like - or am I missing something?

[Jakubclaret]

None of that has anything to do with heading a football, or being desensitised to pain or being warrior-like - or am I missing something?

True to form quite a lot, I'll try to explain tomorrow well today but later, it's late, over & out.

[tim_noone]

So they don't bullied & they can defend themselves better, I don't get the conkers bit that much myself but I agree with rest he said, you got to let your kids be kids, come home muddy & sometimes bloody, it's part & parcel of growing up, in & out of scrapes.

Hey! Them conkers hurt like hell whacked across the knuckles

[Rileybobs]

True to form quite a lot, I'll try to explain tomorrow well today but later, it's late, over & out.

Good luck.

[Stanbill05]

You have to teach kids to head a ball properly. Use a sponge ball or soft ball by all means but the unintended consequence of banning headers could be worse. Kids transitioning to real football without this basic skill ingrained, I can picture it now bouncing off the top of players heads, players not knowing how to protect themselves in an aerial battle... You can call social services if you want, my 5 year old will doing diving headers in the garden again this summer, I’m not even going to put a mat down!

I don’t deny the science, I’m sure if you spend a long career heading footballs every day it will become a problem. Figuring out how to manage that scenario is more important.

Interesting point someone made about kids being better these days and coached to only play football on the floor; do you watch (Barnes and Wood led) Burnley? What are these players going to do when they play Burnley?

[JohnMac]

A major shift to Aussie Rules or Gaelic Football coming soon to a ground near you ...

[Colburn_Claret]

What do you mean by ‘grow up strong’? How does heading a ball or playing conkers help our children grow up strong, whatever that may mean?

Growing up strong in a sense of character, not physicality.
So many things in the world are dangerous, but you can't protect children from them because if you do then they won't know how to react, or think for themselves when you've gone.
In a world where computer games and TV have over taken the informative years of youngsters, physical activity in and out of school is taking massive steps backwards. School sports fields continue to get dug up and sold for housing. School sports consist of none contact, no winners, no losers games. you get prizes for finishing 8th, 9th...... Winning and losing is all a part of life, no matter how hard you try, you can't protect your children from life, and not having winners, getting prizes for just turning up doesn't teach children anything. Dealing with defeat and failure is all part of development of character. I couldn't care if my kids came last, so long as they did their best. That's the message we should be delivering. Stopping kids from heading a ball won't stop dementia, because it's a disease that could happen to anybody, but it's another nail in the coffin for developing kids character.

[Rileybobs]

Growing up strong in a sense of character, not physicality.
So many things in the world are dangerous, but you can't protect children from them because if you do then they won't know how to react, or think for themselves when you've gone.
In a world where computer games and TV have over taken the informative years of youngsters, physical activity in and out of school is taking massive steps backwards. School sports fields continue to get dug up and sold for housing. School sports consist of none contact, no winners, no losers games. you get prizes for finishing 8th, 9th...... Winning and losing is all a part of life, no matter how hard you try, you can't protect your children from life, and not having winners, getting prizes for just turning up doesn't teach children anything. Dealing with defeat and failure is all part of development of character. I couldn't care if my kids came last, so long as they did their best. That's the message we should be delivering. Stopping kids from heading a ball won't stop dementia, because it's a disease that could happen to anybody, but it's another nail in the coffin for developing kids character.

That's just a load of waffle. We're not talking about children getting less physical activity than before, or schools selling their sports facilities to housebuilders. You suggested that activities such as climbing trees, playing conkers and heading footballs makes our children into men (laughable) and makes them grow up strong. That's a load of rubbish. Heading a football does nothing for a child's strength of character or physicality.

You could say that sending 6 year old children down the mines was character building and turned them into men. And before you suggest, I'm not directly comparing heading a football to working down the mine. I'm demonstrating how times change and things that previous generations thought was best for their children doesn't necessarily mean is best for today's children.

[Colburn_Claret]

That's just a load of waffle. We're not talking about children getting less physical activity than before, or schools selling their sports facilities to housebuilders. You suggested that activities such as climbing trees, playing conkers and heading footballs makes our children into men (laughable) and makes them grow up strong. That's a load of rubbish. Heading a football does nothing for a child's strength of character or physicality.

You could say that sending 6 year old children down the mines was character building and turned them into men. And before you suggest, I'm not directly comparing heading a football to working down the mine. I'm demonstrating how times change and things that previous generations thought was best for their children doesn't necessarily mean is best for today's children.

Have it your own way, I'm not bothered, but I still disagree.
It's not about conkers, or heading a football, or selling sports fields, or climbing trees, or getting prizes for coming last, or swimming in rivers. It's all of them. A chipping away at anything, small or large, that can be deemed by the morons to have a negative affect on a child. Whatever you may believe character is important, and it's learnt in childhood. A man with common sense and strong character will surpass a man who's clever and weak, imo. It's no wonder that kids get suicidal when they are unfriended on FB, it's the result of the mollycoddling, pampering of parents and society. You are free to raise your children your way, but I should be free to help raise my grandchildren the the way I see fit. So if you don't want your kids to head a ball then stop THEM, don't stop my grandkids from carrying on regardless.

[Rileybobs]

Have it your own way, I'm not bothered, but I still disagree.
It's not about conkers, or heading a football, or selling sports fields, or climbing trees, or getting prizes for coming last, or swimming in rivers. It's all of them. A chipping away at anything, small or large, that can be deemed by the morons to have a negative affect on a child.

Just because you don't agree with medical experts doesn't make them morons. Unless you have done some research of your own then your view is the moronic one.

Whatever you may believe character is important, and it's learnt in childhood. A man with common sense and strong character will surpass a man who's clever and weak, imo.

Surpass in what way? Gaining wealth? Finding happiness? Academic or professional achievement? Or being a real man?

It's no wonder that kids get suicidal when they are unfriended on FB, it's the result of the mollycoddling, pampering of parents and society. You are free to raise your children your way, but I should be free to help raise my grandchildren the the way I see fit. So if you don't want your kids to head a ball then stop THEM, don't stop my grandkids from carrying on regardless.

So basically these kids should man up? Your posts read like a caveman has just got wifi. Nobody is stopping your grandchildren from heading footballs, although I think their parents may have the ultimate say. The FA have produced guidelines for coaches to work to. So your grandchildren WILL be stopped from heading a ball until a certain age whilst they train with a school or FA registered team. If you're more concerned about your grandchildren being real men than their long term health that's up to you.

[keith1879]

I think that this article from Scientific American usefully sums up the concerns being expressed 6 years ago. https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... in-damage/

Notice that (1) They do NOT advocate banning heading altogether and (2) They DO advocate caution with children ...because there are specific reasons why children may suffer disproportionately more than adults.

I can see the argument that we should let children explore their world and learn what is dangerous by some degree of trial and error - and in fact I agree with it.

The point here is that when a young child heads a football he probably won't feel any pain - so it really isn't helping him to "man up" or learn to deal with the world......sadly it may be laying down the groundwork for an appalling condition and potentially early death some decades later.

[Jakubclaret]

Good luck.

Looks like colburn beat me to it, I will say 1 thing though the older you become you value time more, I don't know if you have any children or not, childhood only happens once & it's shortlived so it's important that children have a good childhood & when they get older they can't reflect back with happy memories.

[TheFamilyCat]

You've got to hand it to Jakubclaret. Never before has one person written so much nonsense about so many subjects.

[Jakubclaret]

You've got to hand it to Jakubclaret. Never before has one person written so much nonsense about so many subjects.

Raising the bar yet again in terms of insightful inputs.

[claret2018]

I was wondering how long this thread would take to turn into the usual “I used to do it, I know best and nothing should ever change for any reason” claptrap you expect from overweight 55 year old divorcees on Facebook