In Extra Time, Standard coach Carl Hoefkens noticed a trend on Monday evening: he says he sees fewer and fewer heading players in football, because youth football is paying more and more attention to the dangers of heading. “There is indeed a lot of awareness, but heading can also be learned in a safe way,” Voetbal Vlaanderen responds.
Hoefkens: “Headery players will disappear”
Filip Joos saw a lot of header misses in the Jupiler Pro League last football weekend. Standard coach Carl Hoefkens eagerly picked up on this on Monday evening at the Extra Time table.
“I think that in the future you will see more and more that strong header players will disappear,” says Hoefkens. “You can train much less for that and that is right.”
In recent years, scientific studies have created a lot of awareness of the dangers of heading, which can result in brain damage.
“We used to head a ball 20, 30 or 40 times during training. Always harder and higher. Nowadays that is no longer the case. Now they teach that with plastic or soft balls, but the trajectory of those balls is very different “You notice that young players are less good with their heads than they used to be,” Hoefkens concludes.
I think that in the future you will see more and more that strong players will disappear.
Standard-coach Carl Hoefkens
Football Flanders: “Think about banning heading from U9”
At Voetbal Vlaanderen, Voetbal Vlaanderen does not want to say in so many words that young people are less able to head the ball. But there is no doubt that headlines are viewed differently these days. Bob Browaeys, Sports Director at Voetbal Vlaanderen, also confirms this to our editors.
“Today there is no ban on heading, but we are considering banning it up to and including the U9,” Browaeys tells Sporza. “Everyone knows that heading can cause a lot of damage, especially when there is a duel.”
Football Flanders is looking for a balance between healthy and safe sports on the one hand and the game of football itself on the other. “Because heading is of course an important part of this, which can even determine performance,” he said.
Today there is no ban on heading yet, but we are considering banning it up to and including the U9.
Bob Browaeys, Sports Director at Voetbal Vlaanderen
Football Flanders mainly wants to focus on awareness. “It is very important that we pay sufficient attention within the training to learning to head the correct way and from the right age,” says Browaeys.
“We think that it is possible from the so-called “golden age”. That is between the ages of 9 and 12, when children learn fastest. The structure is also important: first learn to head technically correctly, with adapted material. No hard leather ball , but a soft ball and with the forehead.”
“And in any case, our training vision encourages you to play football on the ground as much as possible. Then you will also end up in header situations less often.”
Banning headings completely would have a major impact on the game of football.
Bob Browaeys
Learning to head the right way remains an important aspect in youth training, Browaeys believes. “It is an important technique, so we also pay attention to it in the training of our trainers. This way, children can learn the right technique at the right age and with appropriate material.”
“We cannot check whether this actually happens during the training sessions, but we hope so. In any case, we as Voetbal Vlaanderen try to provide the correct methodology to our trainers and our clubs.”
“Will the header ever disappear from football? I think it will remain, precisely because it is a technique that can also be performed correctly. Banning headings would have a very big impact on the game of football. But it is good that many federations are now considering banning heading up to a certain age. There is a lot of awareness,” Browaeys concludes.
2023-12-12 10:29:11
#headstrong #footballer #disappearing #Heading #age #technique #Extra #Time
