Qman wrote:maxlion wrote:
Second reason is concussions. No responsible parent should allow their kids to play competitive football or contact hockey. Hockey could grow into a non-contact sport. Football can't. I don't care to watch soccer live or on TV, but my son is enrolled in minor soccer and will not be playing hockey or football.
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Thats the dumbest comment ever. It up to each parent to decide what level of contact is acceptable for their kids.
If you have an elite kid that might play professionally, i don't see any issue with putting you kid in contact hockey or football. Contact hockey is designed for kids that want/will to play PRO hockey. Same with football. Fall is contact season and spring is flag season. Its up to you as a parent.
If you son likes contact and plays at an acceptable level so he has the technique is good, I don't see any issue as well.
If your son likes hockey and but is only going to play beer league, he doesn't need to learn contact.
If you have a nose-picker, i'd stick to soccer and chess.
You can play non-contract hockey all the way up to 18yrs old if you want. Beer league as long as you want as an adult
You can play 5v5 spring flag football all the way up to 18yrs as well. 7v7 touch for as many years as you want as an adult.
you can be skinny or fat, athelete or nose-picker, slow or fast to play any of these sports --- its all house league.
Why deny your kid the love of sports that you like as well.
Actually, I don't think it is the dumbest comment ever. Ideas take root in a society and we then alter behaviour and laws accordingly. One of those ideas is that concussions are a serious risk to health, particularly in the case of children and young adults whose brains are still developing (ie, into their mid 20s). I don't have kids, but if I did I wouldn't let them play contact sports --based purely on the scientific evidence. That I played contact sports without (apparent) ill-effect is immaterial. We know more now than we did then, and the tide of public opinion is beginning to turn against contact sports. Just like it did for things like spanking, kids buying cigarettes (who else remembers being sent down to the corner store to buy a pack for some adult?), bullying, unsupervised activity, bike helmets, artificial sweeteners, lead paint, corporal punishment in schools, kid's boxing, toy guns, let alone firearms: (anyone else here old enough to have been given a .22 for Christmas?) etc. In thirty years I imagine admitting you lament being unable to watch your kids play contact sports will be akin to admitting you let your kids smoke on special occasions today. And just as in the vast majority of these issues I've listed, the issue of what's permitted will be decided by the state, not individual parents.
What's more, I can see football in particular being dropped from high schools because it's expensive both in terms of equipment and insurance, and we now know it's doing damage to the brains of the boys who play it. One major lawsuit and school boards, who are already squeezed financially, will cancel programs. All it took to drive boxing and gymnastics programs out of schools in the late 60's and 70's was a few accidents. Imagine what a scientific study (conducted by "nose-pickers" who went on to do doctorates in fields like neurology) examining the effects of high-school football on boys' brains would do to public opinion. (As a side note, I may be incorrect, but I believe that none of the public high schools in Vancouver-proper have football programs, and this district is notoriously pinched for funds; I'd expect to see similar patterns shift eastward in the lower mainland as demographics & attitudes toward how we should allocate school dollars change).
As to playing non-contact versions of these sports, the question is, "why bother?" Soccer is just as competitive as football with none (or far fewer) of the negative attributes. Baseball/softball is the same. Basketball. Volleyball. Cycling. Hiking. Golf. Racquet sports. Swimming. Who needs football & hockey? They're both hugely expensive sports (in terms of individual equipment and facilities) and dangerous. Who needs them?
Much as I love watching the CFL (and wouldn't FNF have been awesome last night?) I think we're fans of a dying sport. C'est la vie.
Cheers,
James