As a soccer parent, one of the most stomach-turning injuries to witness on the field is a head collision. Whether it is contact with the ball or another player, a blow to the head can get scary as your woozy player lies on the field.
While current youth soccer rules only call for shin pads as the only required protective equipment, rising head injury and concussion rates are making a case for some type of head protection. Other remedies include banning the “heading” of a ball under the age of 14 as well as better enforcement of player to player contact rules. However, a new study from a youth sports injury expert at the University of Colorado reveals the leading causes of soccer head injuries and recommendations of how to reduce them.
There’s no question that soccer has exploded in popularity over the last 30 years. Back in 1970, there were only 49,593 boys and, amazingly, no girls playing on school-sponsored soccer teams. In the latest statistics from 2014, those numbers grew to 417,419 boys and 375,564 girls playing for over 11,000 school programs.
As expected with this type of growth, injuries are also on the rise. Dawn Comstock, associate professor of public health at the University of Colorado – Denver, has been tracking youth sports injuries using the National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study, a database where school athletic trainers can submit sports-related injuries of all types along with their causes and severity.
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