Heading incidence in boys’ football over three seasons

ABSTRACT

Purpose: To quantify the incidence and characteristics of purposeful headers and unintentional head impacts in football (soccer) in boys’ football over three seasons.

Methods: This retrospective longitudinal study analysed purposeful headers and unintentional head impacts collected over three seasons (under-10 to under-12) using match video analysis from boys’ team in Australia. Total headers and head impacts, as well as incidence rate (IR) per 1000 match-hours for different match characteristics, were calculated.

Results: Total number of headers and heading IR increased significantly (r = 0.99) with age from under-10 (n = 29; IR: 483) to under-12 (n = 149; IR: 1515). All but three players (87%) were observed to head the ball at least once during a season (mean: 10, range 0–25) with the accumulative number of headers performed by out-field players over three seasons ranging from 6 to 40. Players in defensive positions (n = 121) headed the ball more frequently than midfielders (n = 83) or attackers (n = 53). Five (IR: 22) unintentional head impacts were observed, of which four required medical attention.

Conclusion: Although the number of headers performed by young players in under-10 to under-12 age groups was low, the range of headers performed by individuals varied greatly. These results could be used to guide age-specific heading coaching practices.

KEYWORDS:

• Soccer
• children
• header
• injury reduction

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Harry Peek for assistance with coding.

Data availability statement

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

No funding is associated with this study.