Safety

MomsTEAM recently spoke with Dr. C.J. Abraham, the inventor of the Forcefield FF Protective Headband about the value of protective headgear in soccer. Dr. Abraham said that there is no headgear in the world for any sport or recreational activity that can eliminate subconcussive and concussive brain injuries. All that can be said is that headgear can significantly reduce the effective impact to an individual's head and brain.

New rules and recommendations regarding heading in youth soccer issued in November 2015 by a number of national and California soccer organizations have generated significant controversy, with some criticizing the rules as going too far and some as not going far enough. Not surprisingly, Dr. Frank Webbe, a prominent researcher on the subject of heading in soccer and a longtime supporter of a ban on heading in soccer below age 14, favors the new rules, despite the lack of data to establish their effectiveness.

The November 2015 announcement by a group of US youth soccer groups of a recommendation that players age 11 and younger be barred from heading the ball and that headers be limited in practice for those from age 12 and 13, has generated controversy, with experts lining up on both sides of the debate.

A new research paper finds the overall rate of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries among high school athletes is significantly higher among females, who are especially likely to experience ACL tears while playing basketball, soccer and lacrosse.

A recent youth soccer safety campaign urging middle schools and under-14 soccer leagues to eliminate heading in the sport has sparked renewed interest in the controversial issue, but is also being criticized for advancing a slanted view of the science.

Four years after the American Academy of Pediatrics adopted the recommended return-to-play (RTP) guidelines proposed by the Third International Conference on Concussion in Sport, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta (CHA) has proposed sport-specific guidelines for ten sports known to put young athletes at the highest risk for concussion.

With the World Cup starting, the author of a new book discusses three soccer-specific conditions that youth soccer players can suffer, all of which can be easily managed with proper care and treatment: Sever's Disease, Osgood-Schlatter's, and Pattellofemoral Syndrome,

Goalkeepers must now leave the field when they suffer an apparent injury and the referee stops the clock, according to a new rule approved by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Soccer Rules Committee and subsequently approved by the NFHS Board of Directors.

Female middle school soccer players sustained concussions at a rate higher than their high school and college counterparts, most continued to play despite experiencing symptoms, and less than half sought medical attention, a first-of-its-kind study finds.