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As you may know, soccer can be a dangerous sport , especially if not protected well. One of the biggest injuries are concussions, which could be prevented by following some healthy guidelines. For example, children twelve and under should not be allowed to do headers. Heading a soccer ball is the easiest way to get a concussion in the sport of soccer. Children are the biggest targets for concussions because of their weak neck muscles. This guideline should definitely be followed by more players and teams. Why?
Newton's first law states that an object at rest will remain at rest and an object in motion will remain in motion with a constant velocity unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. This certain guideline is explained by this one statement. In the guideline in paragraph one, it states that children playing soccer that are twelve years of age and younger should not learn/use the header technique. In this scenario, the soccer ball is the object in motion. It will not have a constant velocity because there are already unbalanced forces acting on the object: gravity and air resistance. But then add the force of your head on the ball. Lets take a closer look!
Newton's first law states that an object at rest will remain at rest and an object in motion will remain in motion with a constant velocity unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. This certain guideline is explained by this one statement. In the guideline in paragraph one, it states that children playing soccer that are twelve years of age and younger should not learn/use the header technique. In this scenario, the soccer ball is the object in motion. It will not have a constant velocity because there are already unbalanced forces acting on the object: gravity and air resistance. But then add the force of your head on the ball. Lets take a closer look!
As you can see, this short slideshow has everything to do with Newton's first law of motion. In the first two photographs, you will find that the goalie is punting the soccer ball across the field. The difference between the first two photographs is that in the second photograph, the forces of gravity, air resistance, and friction of the foot is the strongest. Next, the ball is in the air. In photograph four, the man is getting ready to head the ball. When the man actually heads the ball, his skull's force is strong enough to overcome the balls' inertia. The force that you exert on the ball (with your head) is too strong to not hurt a child ten or under. With the guideline of no heading twelve and under, I believe the concussion rate would soon reduce.