Category: Heading

There has been (and still is) a lot of discussion about the dangers of heading the ball but the short answer to the question “is heading dangerous?” is “no”.

There is no evidence that heading a ball has ever resulted in actual, long-lasting harm… as long as you teach your players to do it properly.[1]

What age to begin?

Children under the age of six have neither the body awareness or ability to visually track the flight of a ball and are very unlikely to even try to head a ball during games.

That said, you can help children as young as four or five develop the skills they need to head the ball safely by starting with a balloon instead of a ball.

Just make sure you teach the “mouth closed, eyes open” technique (see below) and encourage your players to jump up to meet the balloon on its way down.

You can also make it a fun team game. Have four or five children in each team and see which one can keep the balloon in the air the longest.

How to teach the basic technique

When your players get to U8 level, you can expect them to try to make contact with the ball when it’s in the air. So it’s important to make sure they do it properly.

Give every child a beach ball or a small, light football ball and demonstrate the following technique before allowing them to have a go themselves by throwing the ball up and heading it on the way down.

• Keep your eye on the ball.
• Eyes open – if you can’t see the ball coming, it could hit you anywhere.
• Mouth closed – if you don’t, you could bite your tongue.
• Chin tucked in – helps keep your neck stiff.
• Use your arms to balance.
• Use your legs to move your head towards the ball – don’t let it hit you.
• Make contact with your forehead – the thickest part of your skull.
• Follow through towards the target.

Have your players hold the ball in their hands and move their forehead to the ball (you want to ingrain the habit of meeting the ball with the head, not waiting for the ball to hit the head). Then ask them to throw the ball a couple of feet in the air and head it back into their hands.

If you ensure your players are using this technique and heading the ball correctly, their forehead will absorb the impact of the ball and their neck will not flex.

Games to practise heading

Throw, head, score

Set-up: Divide your players into teams of four or five and set up a 40 yards by 20 yards playing area with a goal at each end for each pair of teams.

How to play: The players advance towards the goals by throwing the ball to each other.

They can only take one step with the ball before throwing it again. If they take too many steps or allow the ball to fall to the ground, possession is given to the other team.

Goals can only be scored with a header.

Coaching note: Correct faulty technique as soon as you see it.

Heading volleyball

Set-up: Divide your players into teams of three or four. Set up a badminton net or rope attached to two poles in the centre of the playing area.

How to play: Teams play volleyball by heading a beach ball over the net or rope.

Serves are made by punching the ball over the net by hand.

A point is conceded if a team allows the ball to fall to the ground inside its half of the playing area.

A ball that lands outside the playing area results in a point to the defending team.

Challenge!

You can also play a small-sided game (SSG) called Challenge!

It’s a standard 4v4 game with the condition that every time the ball goes out of play you restart by throwing the ball in the air and awarding a point to the team whose player heads it first.

Tip: Don’t allow players to push each other to reach the ball. You’re looking for decisive jumping and a desire to get to the ball first. If the ball hits the ground before anyone heads it, throw it up again.

Reference

[1] The American Academy of Pediatrics, Heading Soccer Ball Doesn’t Cause Brain Damage, Pediatrics, February 2010; 410-414

For more soccer coaching tips and products visit Soccer Coaching Club.

Timidity can be defined as ‘easily frightened or lacking self-confidence’.

But while timid football players may lack self-confidence, they aren’t lacking in bravery. Indeed, timid players can also be the bravest – it needs real courage to go out on to the pitch when you’re frightened of getting hurt or letting yourself or your team mates down.

As a youth soccer coach you may not be able to turn a mouse into a tiger, but you do have it within your power to give a timid player confidence in their own abilities. And remember that the benefits of having a team full of self-confident players are not confined to improving your win:loss ratio.

A self-confident child who has enjoyed success on the soccer pitch will be more likely to succeed academically, and will have better relations with their peers and adults.

All you have to do is recognise that there are one key technique that, when mastered, will turn the most timid of children into a strong, confident player.

Heading the ball

How to remove the fear. Despite the fact that some football authorities recommend young children do not head the ball at all, I believe they are never too young to teach the right technique.

Step 1: Even children as young as four or five will enjoy keeping a balloon in the air with their head, and that’s a great starting point.

Make sure you teach the ‘mouth closed, eyes open’ technique from the start and encourage your players to jump up to meet the balloon on its way down.

You can also make it a fun team game. Have four or five children in each team and see which one can keep the balloon in the air the longest.

Step 2: When your players are a little older they can begin to head the ball with a small, soft ball or an indoor football. If they have been playing with a balloon for a while, they shouldn’t fear ball against head contact, but it’s still a good idea to take things slowly.

Have your players hold the ball in their hands and move their forehead to the ball (you want to ingrain the habit of meeting the ball with the head, not waiting for the ball to hit the head). Then ask them to throw the ball a couple of feet in the air and head it back into their hands.

Step 3: Now you need to introduce a purpose for heading the ball. Split your players into groups of three or four. Put three flat cones in front of each team and balance a ball on each cone.

One member from each team stands on one side of the cones about three feet away from them. His team mates stand about three feet away on the other side of the cones.

The single player tosses a ball to his team mates who attempt, in turn, to knock the balls off the cones in front of them with a header. The first team to knock the balls off the cones wins.

Step 4: The next step is to introduce movement. Put your players into groups of three and ask them to throw/head/catch the ball as they make their way up a football pitch. The first team to head their ball into the goal wins. If the ball is dropped they have to start again.

Step 5: Now combine heading with healthy aggression. Play a small-sided game (SSG) where every time the ball goes out of play you restart by throwing the ball in the air and awarding a point to the team whose player heads it first.

Don’t allow players to push each other to reach the ball. You’re looking for decisive jumping and a desire to get to the ball first. If the ball hits the ground before anyone heads it, throw it up again.

Playing simple heading games like these from an early age will stop your players having a fear of heading the ball from taking hold.

But if your players are not used to heading and are reluctant to begin, return to step 1 and gradually work through the sequence, only moving on when your players are confident and showing no fear.

This is a fun way to practice heading for all ages of players.

Objective: to be the first team to knock three balls off cones with a header.

Set up:

• Divide your players into teams of four or five.
• Each team apart from one player, the server, lines up about six feet away from a row of three, flat cones.
• The server stands on the other side of the cones, facing the rest of their team.
• A ball is balanced on top of each of the cones.

How to play:

• On your command, the servers throw a ball to the first player in their team’s line who attempts to knock a ball off one of the cones with a header.
• Hit or miss, the first player goes to the back of the line, the server collects the ball and throws it to the next player.
• The game continues until one team knocks all their balls off the cones.

Progression: modify the distance from the players to the cones and you can practise side-foot volleys, passes or even shots in the same way.

Objectives: To improve heading and shooting technique.

Age group: U9s and upwards.

Set up: Use a normal sized goal and penalty area marked by lines or cones. Divide your squad into two teams (X and Y) including two goalkeepers. The outfield players wait in two lines about 20 yards away from the goal.

Two coaches (C1 and C2) stand in the penalty area with a supply of balls.

How to play: The first player in team Y dribbles and has a shot on goal from beyond the penalty area.

The player then moves towards coach C1 who passes a ball for a one-time shot on goal.

The player then moves towards coach C2 who serves a ball for the player to head towards the goal.

Rules:

If you…

• score no goals from your three shots, you wait on the end of the line to be freed (see below).
• score one goal you stay in the game. Go back to your team and wait for your next turn.
• score two goals you free up a team mate who is waiting on the end line.
• score three goals you free all of your team mates!

The team that lasts the longest wins.

For more soccer coaching tips and products visit Soccer Coaching Club.

Coaching points

Contact with the ball should always be made with the forehead area.

From time to time, a player may use the top of their head to flick the football on from a long flighted pass or throw-in.

The eyes should always be open (at least until impact) and fixed on the ball and the body positioned in line.

The player’s mouth should be CLOSED!

To direct the ball downwards, the forehead must make contact with the top-half of the ball.

The side of the forehead can be used to glance headers on and the middle for more direct power headers. In a stationary position, the power comes from the legs, back and neck.

The player “rocks” backward and pushes his body forward to meet the ball.

Practise heading skills with throw, head catch:

How to play: players get into groups of three. One ball is needed. They get into a triangular shape. One person tosses the ball to another person who then heads it to the third person to catch. Every time someone is successful, they get a point.

There are two important aspects of good heading technique:

Accurate contact with the ball: Contact with the ball should always be made with the forehead area. From time to time, a player may use the top of their head to flick the football on from a long flighted pass or throw-in. The eyes should always be open (at least until impact) and fixed on the ball and the body positioned in line.

The player’s mouth should be CLOSED!

To direct the ball downwards, the forehead must make contact with the top-half of the ball. The side of the forehead can be used to glance headers on and the middle for more direct power headers. In a stationary position, the power comes from the legs, back and neck. The player “rocks” backward and pushes his body forward to meet the ball.

Attacking the ball: As mentioned earlier, this is an extremely important technique. To put power into a header, this requires successful co-ordination of different forces. To gain power, a player can run and jump off one leg to meet the ball. This requires good timing of the run as well as anticipation of where the ball will be placed. After take off, the upper body arches backwards and this momentum produces a snapping action where the body is propelled forward.

At the same time the neck is extended then snapped forward in synchronisation with the body to strike the ball with maximum power. The ball must be struck at the top of the jump, if the player jumps to early, he will touch the ball on the way down and lose all power. The ability to run and jump is useful in winning the ball in a crowd of players and should be practised to ensure perfect synchronisation of the action.

It is important to mention the technique for flicking the ball on which is often neglected by soccer coaching books. This technique involves jumping for the ball to play (or continue) it in more or less the same direction where it was played from.

Many teams will play a long flighted pass from the back to the centre-forward who will try to win the aerial challenge and flick the ball on to a team-mate running behind him. This requires good timing and the ability to jump high. The player jumps in the same way as mentioned earlier but drops his head slightly forwards before making a backwards flicking movement with the head to strike the ball (usually with the top of the head) and keep it moving forwards.

To build up heading technique, the coach may want to start with simple practices such as encouraging players to juggle the ball with their head. Gently throwing the ball in the air so the player can head it back to the thrower or to players positioned around the receiver (the receiver can be static to begin with then try attacking the ball) will allow the player to gain in confidence before moving onto more complex techniques. Once the basic technique has been acquired, then differently flighted balls can be played into the player to test and improve his ability (e.g. crosses to be headed into the goal or high balls to be cleared).
soccer coaching – heading the ball soccer coaching – heading the ball 2

Now it’s time for a little practice:

Progression 1: Set up in threes, two balls per trio, players in a triangle with about 3-5 yards between them. Working player receives underhand lobs alternately from partners. Lobs from partner A must be headed up to partner’s head; lobs from partner B must be headed to partner’s feet. Run for a minute and switch working player. Coach corrects the basics as above; emphasises good service. This progression may be too advanced for younger players, who tend to do better by learning one specific skill at a time (e.g., heading downward).

Progression 2: Move players farther apart (about 5-7 yards), and put one ball down. Player A serves underhand lob to B who heads to C. Player C serves A who heads to B, and so on. The difference here is that players are getting a ball coming from one direction and heading it in a different direction as opposed to the simple back-and-forth in the basic work. Emphasise moving entire body to enable powerful headers to be struck with the forehead. This progression, and the progressions which follow, probably will be too difficult for players under about age 10-11.

Progression 3: Groups of four children with two balls, players in a diamond with approx. 5 yards between players. Single working player receives underhand lob serve, locates a player without ball (other than server), and heads to her. Next lob comes immediately. This results in the working player having to deal with balls from a variety of angles, identify a target, and perform the header. As players improve, increase distance and allow non-working players to move around.

Progression 4: 6 players plus coach and assistant (or a couple of parents), each with a ball set up on the outside of an area about 20×20. Working players stand in the centre of the area. On “start”, working players make eye contact with outside player and run to them, receive underhand lob for attacking header, defensive header, leaping header, and diving header for more advanced players. The heading player continues round the outside of the server and re-enters the grid to look for another server with ball. Run for a minute and then have players switch roles.
Large Group Work

Put several players around the edges of a large circle, with about 2-3 players inside circle. All of outside players have balls. Inside player asks for service, then heads ball back to server, and moves to another server. Swap out and inside players after 5-6 headers.
End game

Option 1 (for younger players): Play a 4 v 4 game, but any goals scored by heading the ball count as 2 points. Alternatively, count ANY header as a 1 point. If you taught headers and chest traps consecutively, you might count either a chest trap or header as a goal.

Option 2 (for players 11+): Set up a field 30×40 yards with small cone goals, divide into two teams with different colour bibs and play “toss-head-catch” as follows: Sequence MUST be a “toss” followed by a “head” followed by a “catch”. Object is to move down field and score with a header. Ball is ‘lost’ if a player goes out of sequence or the ball is not caught from the header or the header is not done correctly.