Reminds me of a Hawkwind gig at Newcastle City Hall in 1975. This one guy stuck his head inside one of the huge speakers at the front of the stage and stayed there for the entire gig. I bet he's got dementia now.
Probably not! It was without doubt the loudest gig I ever went to, I was sat right at the back and my ears were buzzing for hours after...
He obviously has all the statistics and knowledge and stuff. My opinion was based purely on personal experience, I never winced or ducked heading a modern ball but I did with the old 'caseys' that felt you were heading a pigging medicine ball especially when they got wet. He might say that both pose a threat but to say its the same one defies belief, he wants to try heading a few and see which one hurts most
It's a shared opinion if I'm honest, but what you say about not wincing when heading a modern ball is arguably part of the problem. The impact isn't as painful with a modern ball, but the momentum has just as big an impact (potentially bigger) on movement of the brain after impact because of the speed of impact and the shearing forces from rapid acceleration/deceleration are significant. I guess it's like a false reassurance, so we do it with more confidence and probably more often. Be interesting to see what the future research identifies.
This was another question put to him: whether a 'soft shell' protective helmet would help protect - perhaps in training rather than matches. A similar response - that it would potentially do more damage because while the impact isn't lessened significantly, the players perception of protection would encourage more risks to be taken. Personally, I can see heading becoming gradually less prevalent in the game over a very long time. I don't think anyone will ever go as far as suggesting it should be banned in match play, but I can well imagine it being significantly reduced in training. Kids football already bans heading up to a certain age I think too. If heading is practiced much less as a youngster and in training, it will inevitably become less prevalent in matches.
Where is this going to end,i agree,reduce heading in training but take it out of the game and we might as well pack it in.Millions of people have played football all over the world so i wonder what is the percentage of these get dementia through football. I agree one is too many but we have to be sensible and not stop living our lives. People who have never headed a ball or had a bang on the head will get dementia.
You have safeguards and perform scans to see if people's brains are changing over time and stop them playing if any abnormalities are observed. It's mitigating the long term risk.