It probably varies by area. Where I grew up, no one played soccer. There weren't even teams to try out for.
In the metroplex, there is as much compe ion to get to the top level of soccer than there is as football.
It probably varies by area. Where I grew up, no one played soccer. There weren't even teams to try out for.
I'm sure you're right. Even in some decent size cities, like Lubbock, Tyler, and Abilene, they have teams that drive to Dallas every weekend because there isn't enough compe ion.
I did let my boy play, but I would strongly advise against if we had it to do over again.
By his Sop re year he was 6'2", 230 (Playing weight - he wrestled at 215). Had long arms, so his bench wasn't that amazing ~350 - 375 Max, but he could squat over 800. He ran a 4.65 at camp prior to his Sr. season. 230 lbs running like that, he was a freight train, and he wasn't THAT unique. THEN, final scrimage that year, playing end, he came around the tackle, got the quarterbacks jersey with his left hand as he tried to slip out of the pocket, got the sack, and then the fullback fell backwards onto my boy's leg. No more ACL. No football, no wrestling (he was a state qualifier here in Pa his Junior year - a really big deal up here), AND no enlistment into the Navy - where he had qualified for their Nuclear program. After surgery it took two years to get the requisite waivers to actually get in (where he is now).
His senior year, out of 40 Varsity players, SEVEN went down with either concussions, or life-altering injuries to joints or backs. A single season -over 17% of the players! You multiply that by three or four years of varsity??? The chances of getting a SEVERE injury are very high. The actual benefit to him? Negligible. Sure he enjoyed himself, and made friends, but so has my daughter and other (younger) son - not a football player.
If professional athletes want to put their bodies out there; they understand the risks. I don't however, think we ought to be sanctioning this carnage in our public schools. If other sports have similar numbers (through personal experience I don't see it), then our children shouldn't be participating in those either.
Would you let your son watch a soccer game in an eastern European stadium?
Not me, even with a helmet and a gun.
WRONG! you would wear a helmet and panty hose and carry a water gun filled with wine cooler.
I would probably do the same. I wished I stayed in AYSO and went into soccer more than football and baseball. I wasn't going to be the next Pele but I think I would've gotten a small school scholarship out here in SoCal maybe at UC Irvine or Pepperdine. Perhaps that is even wishful thinking. But no harm in wanting to ensure your son(s) are safe. That post up above is a story told all too well.
Soccer is incredibly compe ive to play at the College or Pro level. Even in the US.
Don't let your son be a ing pussy... Beat his ass when he's bad and tuff him up. Feed the mother er and teach him to respect others.
Work out and hang out with him and teach him everything a man should know.
[QUOTE=Cry Havoc;7606223]I'll take heat for this on this forum for sure, but I'd encourage my kid to play soccer if any sport. There isn't as much compe ion, the level of contact is lower, being 260lbs can actively hinder you (thus taking away the incentive to dope for DEM GAINZ), and it's a sport that's due to explode in the US. It's already becoming one of the major sports in the Pacific NW, so I feel it's only a matter of time until it starts spreading.
You never get concussions in soccer. No way that a soccer ball traveling at 50+mph and the player uses a header will it injure him. No concussion
there . soccer supporters are living in some fantasy world..... And no blown out knees like football. The only thing that will injure soccer players
is the firecrackers and flares shot from the stands .......
Nah. Basketball seems to be the way to go.
Golf..could be the next Tiger
Definitely worth a try if I marry a Thai girl.
Holy false equivalency batman. Did you really just compare a non-sentient ball weighing under 10 pounds to a 280 pound lineman running at 20+ mph who's actually trying to maim you? So if you got your choice between taking 5 shots from a soccer ball and letting Ray Lewis tee off on you 5 times in a row, you'd take the former?
EVERY sport has injuries. If that's the argument you want to make you should never let your kid outside. The point of the discussion is at what point are the injury risks too severe or the compe ion too encouraging of a player to take altering substances to achieve higher levels of ability?
From that very article: Soccer is a physical game but rarely a violent one. Players sometimes collide or fall to the ground, but the most repeated blows to the head may come from the act of heading an airborne ball — to redirect it purposely — in games and practices.
Everything is a risk. Not playing sports or being active will almost certainly make a person obese, which is a health risk in and of itself. Are you really going to argue that you think it's better for your grey matter to put on pads and get hit by guys who way upwards of 300 pounds than hitting a ball with your head and the occasional bad collision?
I dunno that article seems kinda misleading. From the sound of it these three kids (RIP) weren't exactly healthy to begin with. It'd be a lot scarier if a perfectly healthy kid died directly from a collision--the sport would probably shutdown if something like that became a common occurrence so I don't think parents would have a choice.
Agreed, but in their particular cases how do you know they aren't healthy till they take a shot? If something is dormant or they're asymptomatic their whole life, there's really no way of knowing. They were just unlucky
It takes away some evidence to the hypothesis of soccer being a serious health risk for youth, though.
Those were bs deaths, tbh. An aneurysm? Yeah, the kid had a pre existing condition. like this has been going on forever, the only difference is that social media magnifies it in this day and age. Football merely precipitated these kids' deaths, they already had undiagnosed medical conditions going on to begin with...
Yeah its unfortunate. Football gets blamed which isn't fair IMO. , you can't diagnose an aneurysm until it ruptures. The few times they do catch them prior to them rupturing is by accident...
Are they all quarterbacks?
Yop, I prolly would. Though with all this recent info coming out I may have to think it over a bit more.
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