{"id":5236,"date":"2012-05-16T15:56:24","date_gmt":"2012-05-16T20:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlwpen.com\/?p=5236"},"modified":"2012-05-16T15:56:24","modified_gmt":"2012-05-16T20:56:24","slug":"girl-talk-the-concussion-crisis-in-girls-soccer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/2012\/05\/16\/girl-talk-the-concussion-crisis-in-girls-soccer\/","title":{"rendered":"GIRL TALK: The “Concussion Crisis” in Girls’ Soccer?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Talk about irony: the same week that Rock Center with Brian Williams<\/a> aired a story about a growing \u201cconcussion crisis\u201d in girls\u2019 soccer, I also got the curriculum for my 11-year-old daughter Maya\u2019s soccer practice: \u201cHeading (attacking and defensive situations, being brave).\u201d<\/p>\n

I definitely watched the Rock Center story with concern. Research shows that girls report twice as many concussions as boys in sports they both play.<\/p>\n

The report aired Wednesday, and Maya practiced heading on Thursday. On Sunday we sat on the sidelines watching Maya\u2019s team face off against a northern New Jersey opponent. The girls fought to control the ball, with neither team clearly dominating.<\/p>\n

Then, as if in slow motion, I watched the ball sail through the air toward Maya at midfield. She stepped into the ball, leaned forward, and headed it toward the goal. Of course, she was fine. I\u2019m sure she felt pleased with herself for putting the new technique into play in a game situation. To be honest, I was pleased myself, although anxious at the same time.<\/p>\n

And here are the questions I\u2019ve been turning over since the game: is this \u201ccrisis\u201d one that should change the game of youth soccer for girls? Should heading be banned? One expert in the Rock Center story, Bob Cantu, the director of sports medicine at Emerson Hospital in Concord, MA suggests that it should, because \u201cgirls as a group have far weaker necks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Naturally I take concussions seriously and would not want to do anything that could jeopardize Maya\u2019s health. But I\u2019m not sure I buy this so-called crisis.\u00a0 For one thing, the research<\/a> draws on data from high school athletes.\u00a0 How much can we generalize from that population to the nearly 1.5 million girls who play youth soccer in the US every year?<\/p>\n

What’s more, is this thinking about girls\u2019 weakness that much different from earlier arguments suggesting women shouldn\u2019t be educated because our brains are smaller than men\u2019s? Or that women shouldn\u2019t walk alone at night because we face the threat of rape?<\/p>\n

It seems to me that ideas about “protection” are often a guise for social constraints on women and girls.\u00a0 What athletic opportunities would we curtail in the name of \u201csafety\u201d for girls?<\/p>\n

For now, at least, I want Maya to practice \u201cbeing brave,\u201d and if that means heading the ball, I\u2019ll be cheering her on.<\/p>\n

But GWP readers, what do you think? How do you think about \u201crisk\u201d and \u201csafety\u201d for your daughters or sons?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Talk about irony: the same week that Rock Center with Brian Williams aired a story about a growing \u201cconcussion crisis\u201d in girls\u2019 soccer, I also got the curriculum for my 11-year-old daughter Maya\u2019s soccer practice: \u201cHeading (attacking and defensive situations, being brave).\u201d I definitely watched the Rock Center story with concern. Research shows that girls […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1905,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21103,1],"tags":[21395,129,3109,431],"class_list":["post-5236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-girl-talk","category-uncategorized","tag-girls","tag-media","tag-motherhood","tag-research"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1905"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5236\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}