Photo/Illutration A protective headband available under the Umbro sporting goods line (Tomohiko Kaneko)

A specialized headband is being touted to reduce the impact of heading the ball in soccer by 40 percent amid growing concerns over the possible long-term damage the technique can do to a player’s brain.

The global soccer community is increasingly moving toward stopping young people from hitting the ball with their heads as much as possible.

The headgear, created by Descente Japan Ltd., is designed to protect athletes while allowing them to still head the ball.

“Shocks can be alleviated while a certain level of repelling power is still available so the ball can be bounced back,” said Katsumi Sanka, a company representative involved in its development.

The headgear became commercially available on March 15 under the sporting goods maker’s Umbro line.

Its surface is made of knitted material, while a mesh fabric is applied to the wearer’s back to help keep sweat and water away. A shock absorber sits between the layers, creating a triple-layered structure.

The headband can be easily worn, even by elementary school students, with a hook-and-loop fastener.

An experiment using a mannequin reportedly showed donning the headgear can lower the shock to the head by 43 percent.

The headband is helpful as controlling a soccer ball with one’s head plays an important role in the game. Though players recovering from concussions at times rely on a kind of headgear to cover the entire head, the conventional item is apt to slip out of place.

Descente adopted the headband design after it dropped plans to develop a hat-like one as the protective strip was more likely to meet the sport’s rules.

HIGHER RISK OF DEMENTIA

The issue of brain injuries potentially caused by repeated headers, contact with opponents and tumbles on the pitch has emerged into the spotlight recently.

Countermeasures are being taken especially for elementary school children, who are vulnerable to injury in their earlier developmental stages.

Children 10 years old and younger were forbidden from heading in the United States both during practice and games in 2016.

The University of Glasgow in Britain released findings from a survey in 2019 that showed former professional players have a 3.5-times higher risk of dying of dementia and other neurodegenerative disorders than nonplaying individuals.

The results of a follow-up study on 6,000 people were presented this spring through a paper by a Swedish research institute that suggested top-level male players are 1.6 times more likely to develop dementia compared with the general public. 

The Football Association of England, the homeland of soccer, announced last summer that a rule was to be put in place on a trial basis with the aim of stopping children up to the age of 12 from heading during matches.

However, no clear evidence has been found connecting the dots between hitting the ball with one’s head and cerebral damage and other health risks.

The Japan Football Association in May 2021 unveiled guidelines to specify the recommended training programs for respective age groups, such as having those in the second grade or below use balloons or balls made of newspaper to practice heading. 

Instead of completely prohibiting heading, the guidelines are intended to call on athletes to “take risks into account in an appropriate fashion.”

Soccer teams comprising elementary school students in Japan are just beginning to take steps regarding the issue.

Jacpa Tokyo FC, a team of children selected from among the 7,600 members of soccer school operator Jacpa Co., which provides lessons primarily in the Kanto region around Tokyo, has started testing the Descente headband.

Hiroki Suzuki, the team’s coach, said he expects the headwear to help lessen the possibility of injuries and accidents while also mitigating students’ aversions to heading.

The Descente protective headband is available in medium and large sizes of 57 centimeters and 61 cm. It carries a price tag of 4,730 yen ($35) each, including tax.

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