Ω
I agree with this, a lot of success in soccer depends on good decision making , particularly when one has possession of the ball.
Measuring what are known as 'executive functions', which reflect the cognitive ability to deal with sudden problems, may make it possible to predict how good an elite football player will become in the future. This has been shown by a new study from Karolinska Institutet. Scientists believe for the first time that they have found the scientific key to what has previously been described as 'game intelligence' in successful football players.
It has long been known that physical ability and ball sense are not enough to become really good at football. A third vital component has often been mentioned: game intelligence, which is the ability to 'read' the play, to be always in the right place at the right time, and steal goals. Many people have regarded game intelligence to be almost a magical ability, something that is impossible to measure.
The scientists at Karolinska Institutet, however, claim that game intelligence is hardly mystical, and that it can be understood from a scientific perspective. It is, rather, an example of something that cognitive scientists call executive functions, which encompass the ability to be immediately creative, to be able to see new solutions to problems, to change tactics rapidly and to revise previous behaviour that has proved not to work.
"Our brains have specific systems that process information in just this manner, and we have validated methods within cognitive research to measure how well the executive functions work in an individual," says Dr Predrag Petrovic at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience.
Predrag Petrovic and his colleagues report in one study, to be published in the on-line scientific journal PLoS ONE, tests of certain executive functions in football players in Allsvenskan (the highest Swedish league) and in Division 1 (the league under Allsvenskan), a total of 57 elite footballers. The scientists found that football players in both groups performed much better in tests of executive functions than the general population. And they found that players in Allsvenskan achieved much better results in these tests than players in Division 1.
The study then compared the test results with the performance of the players on the pitch. The scientists followed several of the football players for some years and recorded the number of goals and the number of assists each player made. In this way, each player was awarded points related to his or hers performance on the pitch. A clear correlation appeared between the results of the tests of executive functions and the number of points obtained on the football pitch (when corrected for such factors as a player's position and age).
It was thus shown that the best players had also performed best on the tests of executive functions. These results are unique, since they are based on scientifically standardised tests. Previously, researchers have used either specific tests from which it has not been possible to generalise the results, or studied specifically how heading the ball can cause cognitive abilities to deteriorate.
"We can imagine a situation in which cognitive tests of this type become a tool to develop new, successful football players. We need to study whether it is also possible to improve the executive functions through training, such that the improvement is expressed on the pitch. But there is probably a hereditary component, and a component that can be developed by training," says Torbjörn Vestberg, psychologist and a member of the research group that carried out the study.
Ω
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Beanballs and the psychology of revenge
This week, as tens of millions of Americans awaited the baseball season’s first pitches, Brown University psychologist Fiery Cushman was watching more warily for the first beanballs. As someone who studies moral judgment, Cushman recognizes that the intentional targeting of an innocent player to avenge a hit batsman could be a telling exception within American culture, even if the rest of the game is a national institution.
Cushman and collaborators A.J. Durwin of Hofstra University and Chaz Lively of Boston University put the question to scores of baseball fans mingling outside Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park last season: A pitcher on the Chicago Cubs intentionally throws at and hits a batter on the St. Louis Cardinals. An inning later, the Cardinals’ pitcher retaliates by throwing at and hitting a previously uninvolved batter for the Cubs.
In their new study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, the researchers report that 44 percent of the fans they surveyed granted moral approval for the Cardinal pitcher’s beanball.
The researchers call this system of exacting revenge by targeting a teammate “vicarious punishment,” and note that it has emerged in many cultures throughout human history. In such “honor cultures” it has been acceptable to kill someone’s brother to avenge one’s own brother — as in, for example, the American blood feud between the Hatfields and McCoys.
“No one should conclude from this that ... vicarious punishment is considered acceptable widely in American culture,” Cushman said. “Quite to the contrary, what makes this striking is that it’s an exception. We’re trying to explain this exception.”
The new study examines what the revenge culture of baseball may reveal about the cultural practice of “blood feud” more broadly.
The beanball exception
In their survey questions, Cushman, Durwin, and Lively peeled back the layers of the fans’ thinking and found data that suggest vicarious punishment is more of a social norm than a product of different moral reasoning.
In the first survey of 145 fans at both ballparks, they asked half about the revenge scenario between the Cubs and Cardinals (of which 44 percent approved), and asked the other half to judge a situation where the Cardinals exacted their revenge not on the Cubs, but an entirely different team the next night. Far fewer fans (although still 19 percent) approved of that.
In a second experiment they asked 78 fans outside Yankee Stadium to judge either the original situation or the beaning of the pitcher who himself threw the malicious pitch the inning before. In that case 39 percent of fans still approved of the original vicarious method, but 70 percent approved of beaning the offending pitcher himself.
The third experiment, played out among 79 fans at Fenway Park, put the question in the context of the hometown favorite Red Sox. In one case a Red Sox pitcher was described avenging a previously beaned teammate. In the other case, a Sox batter was described as bearing the brunt of his teammates’ pitching transgression. In these cases, 43 percent of Red Sox fans acknowledged the morality of their own player being beaned out of revenge, but 67 percent approved of their pitcher exacting revenge against the other team.
In a final experiment, conducted among 131 baseball fans in an online discussion group, Cushman, Durwin, and Lively sought to assess fans’ understanding of moral responsibility, as well as their opinions about the overall morality of vengeful beaning. In this sample, 61 percent approved of beaning, such as in the Cubs and Cardinals case (the more highly they rated their affinity for baseball, the more likely they were to approve). Despite the high approval for vicarious punishment, only 18 percent of the surveyed fans held the recipient of the retaliatory beaning to be morally responsible for the original beaning. Meanwhile, 92 percent of fans held the pitcher who threw the first beanball morally responsible.
“Deserve’s got nothing to do with it”
If the vast majority of fans recognize the individual responsibility of the situation as accruing to the first pitcher who beans and not the last batter to be beaned, why do as many as two-thirds (in the hometown experiment) approve of that second batter being hit? It’s a similar question to ask why such systems of justice emerged in Iceland around the 10th century A.D. or in Montenegro more than a century ago, Cushman said. Vicarious punishment also characterizes some cases of gang- and mob-related violence. Previous researchers have seen a correlation between such systems and weak state oversight.
The cultural exception that Americans make for baseball, even as they acknowledge who is and is not really at fault, the researchers suggest, may indicate cultures that practice vicarious retribution can be understood more as driven by either contextual necessity or tradition, rather than by a fundamentally different way of assigning moral responsibility. Motivations might instead be honor or deterrence.
“It’s really beautifully captured by this quote from the Clint Eastwood movie Unforgiven: ‘Deserve’s got nothing to do with it,’” Cushman said. “The idea is we have to protect ourselves, we have to do something to respond to this act. The person we’re targeting isn’t morally responsible but the practical demands of the situation are such that we’ve got to do something and this is it.”
In that sense baseball is a game of athleticism, strategy, community, and collective punishment without an underlying theory of moral responsibility.
Ω
Cushman and collaborators A.J. Durwin of Hofstra University and Chaz Lively of Boston University put the question to scores of baseball fans mingling outside Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park last season: A pitcher on the Chicago Cubs intentionally throws at and hits a batter on the St. Louis Cardinals. An inning later, the Cardinals’ pitcher retaliates by throwing at and hitting a previously uninvolved batter for the Cubs.
In their new study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, the researchers report that 44 percent of the fans they surveyed granted moral approval for the Cardinal pitcher’s beanball.
The researchers call this system of exacting revenge by targeting a teammate “vicarious punishment,” and note that it has emerged in many cultures throughout human history. In such “honor cultures” it has been acceptable to kill someone’s brother to avenge one’s own brother — as in, for example, the American blood feud between the Hatfields and McCoys.
“No one should conclude from this that ... vicarious punishment is considered acceptable widely in American culture,” Cushman said. “Quite to the contrary, what makes this striking is that it’s an exception. We’re trying to explain this exception.”
The new study examines what the revenge culture of baseball may reveal about the cultural practice of “blood feud” more broadly.
The beanball exception
In their survey questions, Cushman, Durwin, and Lively peeled back the layers of the fans’ thinking and found data that suggest vicarious punishment is more of a social norm than a product of different moral reasoning.
In the first survey of 145 fans at both ballparks, they asked half about the revenge scenario between the Cubs and Cardinals (of which 44 percent approved), and asked the other half to judge a situation where the Cardinals exacted their revenge not on the Cubs, but an entirely different team the next night. Far fewer fans (although still 19 percent) approved of that.
In a second experiment they asked 78 fans outside Yankee Stadium to judge either the original situation or the beaning of the pitcher who himself threw the malicious pitch the inning before. In that case 39 percent of fans still approved of the original vicarious method, but 70 percent approved of beaning the offending pitcher himself.
The third experiment, played out among 79 fans at Fenway Park, put the question in the context of the hometown favorite Red Sox. In one case a Red Sox pitcher was described avenging a previously beaned teammate. In the other case, a Sox batter was described as bearing the brunt of his teammates’ pitching transgression. In these cases, 43 percent of Red Sox fans acknowledged the morality of their own player being beaned out of revenge, but 67 percent approved of their pitcher exacting revenge against the other team.
In a final experiment, conducted among 131 baseball fans in an online discussion group, Cushman, Durwin, and Lively sought to assess fans’ understanding of moral responsibility, as well as their opinions about the overall morality of vengeful beaning. In this sample, 61 percent approved of beaning, such as in the Cubs and Cardinals case (the more highly they rated their affinity for baseball, the more likely they were to approve). Despite the high approval for vicarious punishment, only 18 percent of the surveyed fans held the recipient of the retaliatory beaning to be morally responsible for the original beaning. Meanwhile, 92 percent of fans held the pitcher who threw the first beanball morally responsible.
“Deserve’s got nothing to do with it”
If the vast majority of fans recognize the individual responsibility of the situation as accruing to the first pitcher who beans and not the last batter to be beaned, why do as many as two-thirds (in the hometown experiment) approve of that second batter being hit? It’s a similar question to ask why such systems of justice emerged in Iceland around the 10th century A.D. or in Montenegro more than a century ago, Cushman said. Vicarious punishment also characterizes some cases of gang- and mob-related violence. Previous researchers have seen a correlation between such systems and weak state oversight.
The cultural exception that Americans make for baseball, even as they acknowledge who is and is not really at fault, the researchers suggest, may indicate cultures that practice vicarious retribution can be understood more as driven by either contextual necessity or tradition, rather than by a fundamentally different way of assigning moral responsibility. Motivations might instead be honor or deterrence.
“It’s really beautifully captured by this quote from the Clint Eastwood movie Unforgiven: ‘Deserve’s got nothing to do with it,’” Cushman said. “The idea is we have to protect ourselves, we have to do something to respond to this act. The person we’re targeting isn’t morally responsible but the practical demands of the situation are such that we’ve got to do something and this is it.”
In that sense baseball is a game of athleticism, strategy, community, and collective punishment without an underlying theory of moral responsibility.
Ω
Friday, March 23, 2012
Fewer Injuries for Winning Soccer Teams
Ω
All soccer players and fans know that it is better to win than to lose. Yet the fact that victory also means less risk of injury is not as obvious. New findings from researchers in sports medicine at Linköping University have aroused great interest among Europe's elite soccer teams.
Håkan Bengtsson, a master's student in physiotherapy, has analysed data from 6272 games played by 26 of the top European clubs. The material comprises 2739 injuries and constitutes the world's largest database of its kind. The results was tabled at a regional conference on physiotherapy in Linköping March 22.
Based on information the clubs sent to the Swedish researchers once a month, Håkan Bengtsson then examined how the injury rate is influenced by three factors:
* the result
* home or away match
* type of competition
It turned out that the outcome of the match had the clearest correlation with the proportion of injuries. For teams that lost, the risk of injury was 21 percent greater than for the winning teams; in drawn games the risk was 15 percent higher.
"We have not established which is the chicken or the egg. The most likely scenario is that a player was injured during the match, which subsequently lead to a loss. The bottom line is that the clubs' medical work is vital to the results," says Håkan Bengtsson.
Bengtsson was somewhat surprised that a higher injury risk ensued for the home team than the away team. One conceivable explanation is that home teams play more aggressively coupled with longer and faster running sorties. With regard to the type of competition, Champions League matches appeared somewhat more dangerous than for the rhythm of the domestic leagues.
Ω
All soccer players and fans know that it is better to win than to lose. Yet the fact that victory also means less risk of injury is not as obvious. New findings from researchers in sports medicine at Linköping University have aroused great interest among Europe's elite soccer teams.
Håkan Bengtsson, a master's student in physiotherapy, has analysed data from 6272 games played by 26 of the top European clubs. The material comprises 2739 injuries and constitutes the world's largest database of its kind. The results was tabled at a regional conference on physiotherapy in Linköping March 22.
Based on information the clubs sent to the Swedish researchers once a month, Håkan Bengtsson then examined how the injury rate is influenced by three factors:
* the result
* home or away match
* type of competition
It turned out that the outcome of the match had the clearest correlation with the proportion of injuries. For teams that lost, the risk of injury was 21 percent greater than for the winning teams; in drawn games the risk was 15 percent higher.
"We have not established which is the chicken or the egg. The most likely scenario is that a player was injured during the match, which subsequently lead to a loss. The bottom line is that the clubs' medical work is vital to the results," says Håkan Bengtsson.
Bengtsson was somewhat surprised that a higher injury risk ensued for the home team than the away team. One conceivable explanation is that home teams play more aggressively coupled with longer and faster running sorties. With regard to the type of competition, Champions League matches appeared somewhat more dangerous than for the rhythm of the domestic leagues.
Ω
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Competitive Soccer Linked to Increased Injuries and Menstrual Dysfunction in Girls
Regular warm-up exercises can significantly decrease ACL injury risk
In the U.S., there are nearly three million youth soccer players, and half of them are female. New research presented today at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) found that despite reporting appropriate body perception and attitudes toward eating, elite youth soccer athletes (club level or higher) face an increased risk for delayed or irregular menstruation. In addition, female soccer players are more likely to suffer a stress fracture or ligament injury. A separate study found that a consistent 15-minute warm-up substantially decreases knee injury risk.
The Female Triad (Menstrual Dysfunction, Eating Attitudes, Stress Fractures) in Soccer Athletes"
The “female athlete triad” – menstrual dysfunction, eating attitudes and stress fractures – puts female athletes at risk for diminished performance and long-term health problems.
To determine the prevalence of the female triad among soccer players, investigators recruited 220 athletes, median age 16.4, from an elite youth soccer club, an NCAA Division I university team, and a women’s professional team. The participating athletes completed questionnaires regarding age of menarche (first menstruation), menstrual history, and history of musculoskeletal injuries including stress fractures. The Eating Attitudes Test was used to assess each athlete’s body image, and attitudes toward eating.
The average age of menarche was 13 years of age among the participants. Irregular menstruation cycles, or absence of menstruation, were reported by 19 percent of the participants in the 15-17 age group, 18 percent of the college-age players, and 20 percent of the professional athletes. A history of stress fractures was reported in 14 percent of the players, with a majority of the injuries in the ankle and foot.
Only one player scored in the “high risk” range, and 16 in the “potentially high risk range,” in terms of body perception and eating attitudes.“Elite female soccer athletes are at risk for delayed onset of menarche, menstrual dysfunction and stress fractures, which may be due to an imbalance of energy intake and output,” said Robert H. Brophy, MD, co-investigator and assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo. “The risk for soccer athletes appears to be lower than for female athletes in aesthetic (gymnastics, dancing, etc.) and endurance sports. More research is needed to identify the underlying causes, and potential remedies, for these findings in elite female soccer athletes, and whether these findings translate to female athletes participating in other team sports.”
A Randomized Trial of Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury Prevention in Adolescent Female Soccer.
In another study, investigators studied the effects of a regular, progressive warm-up exercise program on knee injuries and health.
The study involved more than 4,500 female soccer players in Sweden, age 12-17, from 309 elite clubs. The players were randomly assigned to one of two groups: an intervention group instructed to complete a 15-minute muscular warm-up consisting of six progressively more difficult knee and core stability exercises, twice a week throughout the 2009 season, and a non warm-up “control” group. Team coaches documented player participating during the season, and acute knee injuries were examined by the physical therapist and/or physician assigned to each club.
There was a 64 percent decrease in anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries in the intervention group, and an 83 percent reduction among “compliant,” fully participating players. In addition, there was a “significant” decrease in the rates of all severe knee injuries.
“We showed a statistically significant reduction – by almost two-thirds – in ACL injuries in (participating) female teenage soccer players in a coach-directed neuromuscular warm-up program,” said Markus Waldén, MD, PhD, lead investigator, and an orthopaedic surgeon at Hässeleholm-Kristianstad Hospitals in Hässeleholm, Sweden. “Interestingly, players (who complied) had a reduction in other acute knee injuries as well.
“The program is intended to replace the ordinary warm-up and thus does not steal time from soccer training,” said Dr. Waldén.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Frequent "Heading" in Soccer Can Lead to Brain Injury and Cognitive Impairment
Ω
Using advanced imaging techniques and cognitive tests, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and Montefiore Medical Center, the University Hospital and academic medical center for Einstein, have shown that repeatedly heading a soccer ball increases the risk for brain injury and cognitive impairment. The imaging portion of the findings was presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in Chicago.
The researchers used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), an advanced MRI-based imaging technique, on 38 amateur soccer players (average age: 30.8 years) who had all played the sport since childhood. They were asked to recall the number of times they headed the ball during the past year. (Heading is when players deliberately hit or field the soccer ball with their head.) Researchers ranked the players based on heading frequency and then compared the brain images of the most frequent headers with those of the remaining players. They found that frequent headers showed brain injury similar to that seen in patients with concussion, also known as mild traumatic brain injury (TBI).
The findings are especially concerning given that soccer is the world's most popular sport with popularity growing in the U.S., especially among children. Of the 18 million Americans who play soccer, 78 percent are under the age of eighteen. Soccer balls are known to travel at speeds as high as 34 miles per hour during recreational play, and more than twice that during professional play.
After confirming the potentially damaging impact of frequent heading, "Our goal was to determine if there is a threshold level for heading frequency that, when surpassed, resulted in detectable brain injury," said lead author Michael Lipton, M.D., Ph.D., director of Einstein's Gruss Magnetic Resonance Research Center and medical director of MRI services at Montefiore. Further analysis revealed a threshold level of approximately 1,000 to 1,500 heads per year. Once players in the study exceeded that number, researchers observed significant injury.
"While heading a ball 1,000 or 1,500 times a year may seem high to those who don't participate in the sport, it only amounts to a few times a day for a regular player," observed Dr. Lipton, who is also associate professor of radiology, of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and of the Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience at Einstein.
"Heading a soccer ball is not an impact of a magnitude that will lacerate nerve fibers in the brain," said Dr. Lipton. "But repetitive heading may set off a cascade of responses that can lead to degeneration of brain cells."
Researchers identified five areas, in the frontal lobe (behind the forehead) and in the temporo-occipital region (the bottom-rear areas) of the brain that were affected by frequent heading – areas that are responsible for attention, memory, executive functioning and higher-order visual functions. In a related study, Dr. Lipton and colleague Molly Zimmerman, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Saul R. Korey Department of Neurology at Einstein, gave the same 38 amateur soccer players tests designed to assess their neuropsychological function. Players with the highest annual heading frequency performed worse on tests of verbal memory and psychomotor speed (activities that require mind-body coordination, like throwing a ball) relative to their peers.
"These two studies present compelling evidence that brain injury and cognitive impairment can result from heading a soccer ball with high frequency," Dr. Lipton said. "These are findings that should be taken into consideration in planning future research to develop approaches to protect soccer players."
Heading is an essential part of soccer and is unlikely to be eliminated from practice or play. As there appears to be a safe range for heading frequency, additional research can help refine this number, which can then be used to establish heading guidelines. As in other sports, the frequency of potentially harmful actions in practice and games could be monitored and restricted based on confirmed unsafe exposure thresholds.
"In the past, pitchers in Little League Baseball sustained shoulder injuries at a rate that was alarming," Dr. Lipton noted. "But ongoing research has helped shape various approaches, including limits on the amount of pitching a child performs, which have substantially reduced the incidence of these injuries."
"Brain injury due to heading in children, if we confirm that it occurs, may not show up on our radar because the impairment will not be immediate and can easily be attributed to other causes like ADHD or learning disabilities," continued Dr. Lipton. "We, including the agencies that supervise and encourage soccer play, need to do the further research to precisely define the impact of excessive heading on children and adults in order to develop parameters within which soccer play will be safe over the long term."
Ω
Using advanced imaging techniques and cognitive tests, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and Montefiore Medical Center, the University Hospital and academic medical center for Einstein, have shown that repeatedly heading a soccer ball increases the risk for brain injury and cognitive impairment. The imaging portion of the findings was presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in Chicago.
The researchers used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), an advanced MRI-based imaging technique, on 38 amateur soccer players (average age: 30.8 years) who had all played the sport since childhood. They were asked to recall the number of times they headed the ball during the past year. (Heading is when players deliberately hit or field the soccer ball with their head.) Researchers ranked the players based on heading frequency and then compared the brain images of the most frequent headers with those of the remaining players. They found that frequent headers showed brain injury similar to that seen in patients with concussion, also known as mild traumatic brain injury (TBI).
The findings are especially concerning given that soccer is the world's most popular sport with popularity growing in the U.S., especially among children. Of the 18 million Americans who play soccer, 78 percent are under the age of eighteen. Soccer balls are known to travel at speeds as high as 34 miles per hour during recreational play, and more than twice that during professional play.
After confirming the potentially damaging impact of frequent heading, "Our goal was to determine if there is a threshold level for heading frequency that, when surpassed, resulted in detectable brain injury," said lead author Michael Lipton, M.D., Ph.D., director of Einstein's Gruss Magnetic Resonance Research Center and medical director of MRI services at Montefiore. Further analysis revealed a threshold level of approximately 1,000 to 1,500 heads per year. Once players in the study exceeded that number, researchers observed significant injury.
"While heading a ball 1,000 or 1,500 times a year may seem high to those who don't participate in the sport, it only amounts to a few times a day for a regular player," observed Dr. Lipton, who is also associate professor of radiology, of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and of the Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience at Einstein.
"Heading a soccer ball is not an impact of a magnitude that will lacerate nerve fibers in the brain," said Dr. Lipton. "But repetitive heading may set off a cascade of responses that can lead to degeneration of brain cells."
Researchers identified five areas, in the frontal lobe (behind the forehead) and in the temporo-occipital region (the bottom-rear areas) of the brain that were affected by frequent heading – areas that are responsible for attention, memory, executive functioning and higher-order visual functions. In a related study, Dr. Lipton and colleague Molly Zimmerman, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Saul R. Korey Department of Neurology at Einstein, gave the same 38 amateur soccer players tests designed to assess their neuropsychological function. Players with the highest annual heading frequency performed worse on tests of verbal memory and psychomotor speed (activities that require mind-body coordination, like throwing a ball) relative to their peers.
"These two studies present compelling evidence that brain injury and cognitive impairment can result from heading a soccer ball with high frequency," Dr. Lipton said. "These are findings that should be taken into consideration in planning future research to develop approaches to protect soccer players."
Heading is an essential part of soccer and is unlikely to be eliminated from practice or play. As there appears to be a safe range for heading frequency, additional research can help refine this number, which can then be used to establish heading guidelines. As in other sports, the frequency of potentially harmful actions in practice and games could be monitored and restricted based on confirmed unsafe exposure thresholds.
"In the past, pitchers in Little League Baseball sustained shoulder injuries at a rate that was alarming," Dr. Lipton noted. "But ongoing research has helped shape various approaches, including limits on the amount of pitching a child performs, which have substantially reduced the incidence of these injuries."
"Brain injury due to heading in children, if we confirm that it occurs, may not show up on our radar because the impairment will not be immediate and can easily be attributed to other causes like ADHD or learning disabilities," continued Dr. Lipton. "We, including the agencies that supervise and encourage soccer play, need to do the further research to precisely define the impact of excessive heading on children and adults in order to develop parameters within which soccer play will be safe over the long term."
Ω
Heading in Soccer—Could It Lead to Brain Injury?
Ω
Could heading the ball in soccer lead to degenerative brain disease, like that seen in athletes in other sports? That's the question addressed by a review in the January issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
As yet there's not clear evidence to link heading to short- or long-term brain injury, according to Dr Alejandro M. Spiotta of the Cleveland Clinic and colleagues. However, while research is ongoing, they stress the need for proper heading technique at all levels of organized soccer.
New Review of Evidence on Heading and Brain Injury Risk in Soccer
Soccer (called football outside the United States) is the only sport in which players use their unprotected heads to intentionally deflect, stop, or redirect the ball. Headed balls travel at high velocity both before and after impact, raising concerns about possible traumatic injury.
In 2002, English footballer Jeffrey Astle, known as a "formidable header," died with degenerative brain disease. The damage was consistent with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE): a progressive neurodegenerative disease caused by repeated brain injury, seen in American football players and other athletes. Those reports have prompted concerns about similar risks in soccer players.
Although concussions are common in soccer, they more often result from the head striking another player or the goalpost, rather than heading the ball. But there's still concern about long-term injury related to repetitive trauma from heading.
Detailed biomechanical studies have been performed, showing that heading is a complex task in which significant energy is absorbed by the head. Emphasizing the importance of proper heading technique, studies have shown that anticipation and "pre-tensing" of the neck muscles play a key role in absorbing and redirecting the impact of a headed ball.
Pending Further Research, Emphasis on Proper Heading Technique
Older studies reported symptoms related to heading ("footballers' migraine"), but more recent research has not confirmed those effects. One factor may be the introduction of newer soccer balls that don't absorb moisture—unlike the leather balls used in Jeffrey Astle's day.
Soft headgear has been suggested to protect against soccer-related head injuries, although studies have questioned the protective benefits. There are even concerns that wearing headgear might even lead to increased injury risk, if players develop a false sense of security.
For now, the data on heading and brain injury "leave us somewhat in the grey zone," according to Dr Spiotta and colleagues. While it's reassuring that there's no clear link to CTE, the potential for long-term brain injury remains. "Even if the cognitive impairment were to be mild, it would still present a major medical and public health concern because of the massive volume of soccer players worldwide," the researchers write. "Any possible detrimental effect…may only become clinically evident decades in the future."
Dr Spiotta and coauthors emphasize the need for further research—including autopsy studies of players in the "light ball" era—to see if there is any similarity to the patterns of brain injury seen in CTE. Meanwhile, "Proper heading technique should continue to be stressed at all levels of play." The authors also highlight the importance of using an age-appropriate ball size for younger soccer players, as they develop the neck strength and posture control needed for proper heading technique.
Ω
Could heading the ball in soccer lead to degenerative brain disease, like that seen in athletes in other sports? That's the question addressed by a review in the January issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
As yet there's not clear evidence to link heading to short- or long-term brain injury, according to Dr Alejandro M. Spiotta of the Cleveland Clinic and colleagues. However, while research is ongoing, they stress the need for proper heading technique at all levels of organized soccer.
New Review of Evidence on Heading and Brain Injury Risk in Soccer
Soccer (called football outside the United States) is the only sport in which players use their unprotected heads to intentionally deflect, stop, or redirect the ball. Headed balls travel at high velocity both before and after impact, raising concerns about possible traumatic injury.
In 2002, English footballer Jeffrey Astle, known as a "formidable header," died with degenerative brain disease. The damage was consistent with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE): a progressive neurodegenerative disease caused by repeated brain injury, seen in American football players and other athletes. Those reports have prompted concerns about similar risks in soccer players.
Although concussions are common in soccer, they more often result from the head striking another player or the goalpost, rather than heading the ball. But there's still concern about long-term injury related to repetitive trauma from heading.
Detailed biomechanical studies have been performed, showing that heading is a complex task in which significant energy is absorbed by the head. Emphasizing the importance of proper heading technique, studies have shown that anticipation and "pre-tensing" of the neck muscles play a key role in absorbing and redirecting the impact of a headed ball.
Pending Further Research, Emphasis on Proper Heading Technique
Older studies reported symptoms related to heading ("footballers' migraine"), but more recent research has not confirmed those effects. One factor may be the introduction of newer soccer balls that don't absorb moisture—unlike the leather balls used in Jeffrey Astle's day.
Soft headgear has been suggested to protect against soccer-related head injuries, although studies have questioned the protective benefits. There are even concerns that wearing headgear might even lead to increased injury risk, if players develop a false sense of security.
For now, the data on heading and brain injury "leave us somewhat in the grey zone," according to Dr Spiotta and colleagues. While it's reassuring that there's no clear link to CTE, the potential for long-term brain injury remains. "Even if the cognitive impairment were to be mild, it would still present a major medical and public health concern because of the massive volume of soccer players worldwide," the researchers write. "Any possible detrimental effect…may only become clinically evident decades in the future."
Dr Spiotta and coauthors emphasize the need for further research—including autopsy studies of players in the "light ball" era—to see if there is any similarity to the patterns of brain injury seen in CTE. Meanwhile, "Proper heading technique should continue to be stressed at all levels of play." The authors also highlight the importance of using an age-appropriate ball size for younger soccer players, as they develop the neck strength and posture control needed for proper heading technique.
Ω
Friday, November 11, 2011
Soccer: the effects of articular cartilage injury and degeneration in soccer players.
Ω
More than 300 million play soccer across the globe and while the game is one of fast footwork, two organizations are trying to make sure these athletes stay on their feet. Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and International Cartilage Repair Society (ICRS) have teamed up on a special supplement of Cartilage (published by SAGE) that examines the effects of articular cartilage injury and degeneration in soccer players.
"This issue provides a compact reference for players, coaches, medical staff, and researchers working with football players," wrote editors Kai Mithoefer, Lars Peterson, Daniel Saris, Bert Mandelbaum, and Jiri Dvorák. "Furthermore, it intends to act as a catalyst for the advancement of science and education of cartilage injury in soccer."
This supplement builds upon FIFA's successful 11+ program that is an easy-to-follow, standardized warm-up routine that helps all levels of soccer athletes reduce injury. In keeping with the theme, Cartilage features 11 articles that provide a comprehensive overview of current knowledge around cartilage injury, prevention strategies and treatment options.
The introduction written by the co-editors is available free for a limited time at: http://car.sagepub.com/content/3/1_suppl/4S.full.pdf+html
The special supplement of Cartilage features the following contributions:
• Editorial: "Special Issue on Articular Cartilage Injury in the Football (Soccer) Player" by Kai Mithoefer, Lars Peterson, Daniel Saris, Bert Mandelbaum, and Jiri Dvorák
• Executive Summary: "'Cartilage Issues in Football (Soccer): An Executive Summary of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)/International Cartilage Repair Society (ICRS) Initiative" by Bert Mandelbaum
• "Scientific Evidence Base for Cartilage Injury and Repair in the Athlete" by Matthias Steinwachs, Lars Engebretsen, and Robert H. Brophy
• "Clinical and Basic Science of Cartilage Injury and Arthritis in the Soccer Athlete" by Hannah Hoeun Lee and Constance R. Chu
• "Microfracture in Football (Soccer) Players: A Case Series of Professional Athletes and Systematic Review" by Kai Mithoefer and Richard J. Steadman
• "Osteochondral Autograft and Mosaicplasty in the Football Athlete" by Gergely Pánics, Eszter Baló, Gábor Vásárhelyi, Tamás Gál, and László Hangody
• "Osteochondral and Meniscal Allograft Transplantation in the Football (Soccer) Player" by Simon Görtz, Riley J. Williams, Wayne Gersoff, and William D. Bugbee
• "Evolution and Current Role of Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation for Treatment of Articular Cartilage Defects in the Football (Soccer) Player" by Kai Mithoefer, Lars Peterson, Daniel B.F. Saris, and Bert R. Mandelbaum
• "Management of the Retired Athlete with Osteoarthritis of the Knee" by Donald T. Kirkendall and William E. Garrett, Jr.
• "Rehabilitation after Articular Cartilage Repair of the Knee in the Football Player" by Karen Hambly, Holly Jacinda Silvers and Matthias Steinwachs
• "Return to Sports after Articular Cartilage Repair in the Football Player" by Kai Mithoefer and Stefano Della Villa
• "New Frontiers for Cartilage Repair and Protection" by Kenneth Zaslav, Tim McAdams, Jason M. Scopp, Jason Theodosakis, Vivek Mahajan and Alberto Gobbi
• "Cartilage Repair in Football (Soccer) Athletes: What Evidence Leads to Which Treatment? A Critical Review of the Literature" by Joris EJ Bekkers, Tommy S. de Windt, Mats Brittberg and Daniel BF Saris
More than 300 million play soccer across the globe and while the game is one of fast footwork, two organizations are trying to make sure these athletes stay on their feet. Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and International Cartilage Repair Society (ICRS) have teamed up on a special supplement of Cartilage (published by SAGE) that examines the effects of articular cartilage injury and degeneration in soccer players.
"This issue provides a compact reference for players, coaches, medical staff, and researchers working with football players," wrote editors Kai Mithoefer, Lars Peterson, Daniel Saris, Bert Mandelbaum, and Jiri Dvorák. "Furthermore, it intends to act as a catalyst for the advancement of science and education of cartilage injury in soccer."
This supplement builds upon FIFA's successful 11+ program that is an easy-to-follow, standardized warm-up routine that helps all levels of soccer athletes reduce injury. In keeping with the theme, Cartilage features 11 articles that provide a comprehensive overview of current knowledge around cartilage injury, prevention strategies and treatment options.
The introduction written by the co-editors is available free for a limited time at: http://car.sagepub.com/content/3/1_suppl/4S.full.pdf+html
The special supplement of Cartilage features the following contributions:
• Editorial: "Special Issue on Articular Cartilage Injury in the Football (Soccer) Player" by Kai Mithoefer, Lars Peterson, Daniel Saris, Bert Mandelbaum, and Jiri Dvorák
• Executive Summary: "'Cartilage Issues in Football (Soccer): An Executive Summary of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)/International Cartilage Repair Society (ICRS) Initiative" by Bert Mandelbaum
• "Scientific Evidence Base for Cartilage Injury and Repair in the Athlete" by Matthias Steinwachs, Lars Engebretsen, and Robert H. Brophy
• "Clinical and Basic Science of Cartilage Injury and Arthritis in the Soccer Athlete" by Hannah Hoeun Lee and Constance R. Chu
• "Microfracture in Football (Soccer) Players: A Case Series of Professional Athletes and Systematic Review" by Kai Mithoefer and Richard J. Steadman
• "Osteochondral Autograft and Mosaicplasty in the Football Athlete" by Gergely Pánics, Eszter Baló, Gábor Vásárhelyi, Tamás Gál, and László Hangody
• "Osteochondral and Meniscal Allograft Transplantation in the Football (Soccer) Player" by Simon Görtz, Riley J. Williams, Wayne Gersoff, and William D. Bugbee
• "Evolution and Current Role of Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation for Treatment of Articular Cartilage Defects in the Football (Soccer) Player" by Kai Mithoefer, Lars Peterson, Daniel B.F. Saris, and Bert R. Mandelbaum
• "Management of the Retired Athlete with Osteoarthritis of the Knee" by Donald T. Kirkendall and William E. Garrett, Jr.
• "Rehabilitation after Articular Cartilage Repair of the Knee in the Football Player" by Karen Hambly, Holly Jacinda Silvers and Matthias Steinwachs
• "Return to Sports after Articular Cartilage Repair in the Football Player" by Kai Mithoefer and Stefano Della Villa
• "New Frontiers for Cartilage Repair and Protection" by Kenneth Zaslav, Tim McAdams, Jason M. Scopp, Jason Theodosakis, Vivek Mahajan and Alberto Gobbi
• "Cartilage Repair in Football (Soccer) Athletes: What Evidence Leads to Which Treatment? A Critical Review of the Literature" by Joris EJ Bekkers, Tommy S. de Windt, Mats Brittberg and Daniel BF Saris
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
