Reducing the risk of head injuries in PE Lessons

Student PE teachers discussed the merits of not teaching the technique of heading in physical education lessons and taking it out altogether in competitive football matches within lessons.

The student teachers were introduced to a range of small-sided conditioned games designed to improve ball skills and the understanding of the principals of Association Football without the need to head the ball. The games included four-goal football, end-zone football and a game that course leader Dr Gary Stidder first saw in California in the early nineties called ‘Pepitoball’.

Pepitoball is a variation of Association Football played between teams of four in a playing area one third the size of a regulation football pitch with three small goals at each end. A team wins when it has scored and “eliminated” all its opponent’s goals or by having scored the most goals at the end of the 20-minute game. Once a goal is scored in one of the three goals that goal becomes closed with an aim of scoring in each.  There are no goalkeepers and games that are draws are settled by penalty shootouts from the halfway line.

Teams cannot score inside their own half of the pitch and there is a two meter no go zone in front of the goals that neither attacking nor defending players can touch the ball in. If the defender touches the ball inside the end zone, they concede a penalty kick from the halfway line or if attacker touches the ball inside the no go zone, they concede a free kick to the defending side. Other games included ‘Omegaball’, a variation of association football where three teams of five compete at the same time on a circular pitch with three goals.

Dr Gary Stidder said: “The most dramatic change at grassroots school level could be the phasing out of heading in football. Heading the ball has been banned in the United States for children in certain age groups due to fears of concussion and future brain injury. It is something that schools in the UK need to consider in terms of what is taught in PE curriculum time lessons with respect to the game of football.

“Small-sided conditioned games are the foundation of all games teaching within Physical Education lessons in schools. You must remember that a child is not a little adult. In these types of modified football games children keep the ball below waist height and have no need to head the ball and these types of games match the teaching of skills, rules and intensity to their stages of development.

“They maximise individual participation of all pupils as fewer numbers produce more touches, less bunching, limits distractions, creates more space and maximises decision making experiences. In other words, all pupils are more involved. Smaller games without the need to head the ball are more fun, less complicated and easier to understand.”

Watch our students in action in this short video made by PGCE PE Student Rep Lee Moran:

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