The Impact of Two Heads Colliding Is Like …
Female soccer players suffer a high rate of concussions as do high school age girl players … they have a significantly higher concussion rate than boys youth soccer players. Here is a visual to help explain the power of a woman’s head.
Well known and highly accomplished women’s soccer’s top professionals, including Megan Rapinoe, Abby Wambach, Michelle Akers, and Brandi Chastain have been outspoken on the issue of concussions.
Last year, an NCAA study found that after football, women’s soccer had the largest estimate of concussion with more than 1,100 annually.
How strong is the force of a woman’s head? Or a girl’s? We discussed this with windpact and to help our readers visualize this, they came up with a fabulous infographic.
Girl youth soccer players can be at a similar risk as high school football players for traumatic brain injuries.
The issue of concussions has been well documented and U.S. Soccer has resources to help coaches, players, and parents understand the importance of speaking up, proper diagnosis and recovery.
While concussions can be caused by hitting another player or the ground, even the goalposts, concussions can also occur when heading the ball.
Heading the ball — to redirect it or score a goal — can be a game-changer and is a valued skill in the game. The question is, can it cause a concussion and is it a precursor to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, the degenerative brain disease known as CTE? The legendary female superstar, Akers who is in the National Soccer Hall of Fame, played in the 1991 and 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup, as well as the 1996 Olympics, was a top goal scorer. According to the NPR, “She now regrets what she estimates were at least 50 headers per game during her career.”
Although the U.S. Soccer Federation banned heading for youth soccer players 10-years-old and under, there is still a major issue of concussions in youth soccer players U11 and older.
Teen girl soccer players rate of concussions found to rival football
Last year a study published in Pediatrics, found that the rates of football practice-related concussions and recurrent concussions across all sports has decreased.
In fact, according to this study, among sex-comparable sports, concussion rates were higher in girls than in boys (3.35 vs 1.51 per 10,000) and girls had larger proportions of concussions that were recurrent than boys.
A big thanks to Windpact – they are committed to researching, designing, and improving impact protection materials to make sports safer for today’s and tomorrow’s athletes. Windpact combines applied science, technology, and material data to make sports safe.
