07-02-2020, 17:54
I think blows to the head must have an effect, but the brain is obviously complex and the changing history of the game and the way it is played can only multiply those complexities. I too watched the Alan Shearer documentary, which, whilst informative, left the issue as foggy as my brain.
Has anyone compared the rate at which professional goalkeepers end up with dementia compared to outfield players? Obviously keepers don't spend as long heading the ball, but they do experience much the same training and lifestyle as outfield players.
Similarly as Snoots suggests though some old boxers are borderline gaga others seem to age fairly normally other than a crumpled look around the visage ….
Apparently youngsters may not be allowed to tackle at rugby for safety reasons ……. but what happens later on to the adult game when it is full of testosterone-filled young blokes tackling each other without the background of junior years' of being taught to do it properly? If you get your head in the right place you can bring down Billy Vunipola without getting hurt, but if you don't do it right tackling Warwick Davies could be a problem.
Dancing's quite right. If you didn't head that old ball just right it could really hurt you and you knew it at the time, not 45 years on. Not only could the laces cut you, but also if you mistimed it the ball juddered onto your head compressing it down into your neck …. and your neck into your shoulders. You were immediately genuinely groggy. Seeing stars was normal and what we did was shake our heads and carry on.
Back in those days life for a boy growing up was very different from today. Now you rarely see kids out playing football. Between the ages of say 7 and 14 you never saw me very far from a football. There were always informal games and kick abouts on any green space. Yes for sure we often used light plastic balls, but if a game became serious someone would produce a casey. Back then we played far more than a budding starlet today. Jeff Astle must have had the same experience, who is to tell whether what happened to him stemmed from the professional game or a childhood of school games, break time games, games on the local green, kick ins …….. ?
Much as scientists will produce evidence to support further funding for their research I can't help but wonder whether with so many variables and much of the evidence already unreliably consigned to history, how they believe they can help children starting out today to enjoy a game we certainly loved at their time of life. Technology and the conditions under which sports are played change everything. Fred Perry would hardly return a ball from Andy Murray would he? Well being dead would be a severe disadvantage ,,,,,,
And imagine doing that school cross-country in Nike Vaporflys? Mind you at our school you'd probably have got the slipper on suspicion of having taken a short cut.
Has anyone compared the rate at which professional goalkeepers end up with dementia compared to outfield players? Obviously keepers don't spend as long heading the ball, but they do experience much the same training and lifestyle as outfield players.
Similarly as Snoots suggests though some old boxers are borderline gaga others seem to age fairly normally other than a crumpled look around the visage ….
Apparently youngsters may not be allowed to tackle at rugby for safety reasons ……. but what happens later on to the adult game when it is full of testosterone-filled young blokes tackling each other without the background of junior years' of being taught to do it properly? If you get your head in the right place you can bring down Billy Vunipola without getting hurt, but if you don't do it right tackling Warwick Davies could be a problem.
Dancing's quite right. If you didn't head that old ball just right it could really hurt you and you knew it at the time, not 45 years on. Not only could the laces cut you, but also if you mistimed it the ball juddered onto your head compressing it down into your neck …. and your neck into your shoulders. You were immediately genuinely groggy. Seeing stars was normal and what we did was shake our heads and carry on.
Back in those days life for a boy growing up was very different from today. Now you rarely see kids out playing football. Between the ages of say 7 and 14 you never saw me very far from a football. There were always informal games and kick abouts on any green space. Yes for sure we often used light plastic balls, but if a game became serious someone would produce a casey. Back then we played far more than a budding starlet today. Jeff Astle must have had the same experience, who is to tell whether what happened to him stemmed from the professional game or a childhood of school games, break time games, games on the local green, kick ins …….. ?
Much as scientists will produce evidence to support further funding for their research I can't help but wonder whether with so many variables and much of the evidence already unreliably consigned to history, how they believe they can help children starting out today to enjoy a game we certainly loved at their time of life. Technology and the conditions under which sports are played change everything. Fred Perry would hardly return a ball from Andy Murray would he? Well being dead would be a severe disadvantage ,,,,,,
And imagine doing that school cross-country in Nike Vaporflys? Mind you at our school you'd probably have got the slipper on suspicion of having taken a short cut.