I have 9 year old boy/girl twins that play travel soccer (U10 (where is the time going?!)). They are both on B flight teams in a decent (not top) league. The girls (who I coached before my daughter moved to a different team) want nothing to do with heading balls that have any pace. They'll head a throw-in (and most would be happy not to), but they aren't going near a keeper punt. The boys, however, are already using solid technique with their head. They'll still trap a punt if they can, but they'll head punts, back-flick headers, and we've had a number of header goals off crosses this year (for and against us).
I'm a bit torn on the header issue. I don't want my kids to get hurt, and my son almost lost a couple teeth when a kid came underneath and butted him in the mouth on a 50/50 (hospital) ball. Thankfully he just spit some blood and felt tough. But it's going to be frustrating to the kids and will stunt later development. I also think that you're going to see a lot more high kicks that may have just as much impact on concussions. I've read that USSF is against the use of head protection because it makes kids more reckless and leads to additional concussions. This may have a similar impact. Finally, allowing them to head in practice, but not in games is going to lead to lots of problems and penalties.
I also hate what USSF is doing with the youth age groups. I'm taking this off topic a bit, and I know this board is more pro soccer oriented, but I think they are hurting youth soccer going forward. In an attempt to make the US more competitive internationally, they are changing from school year age groups to calendar year. This is going to result in kids born in August - December being moved up a year. My issues are:
- teams that have been together for a number of years will be broken up,
- One goal of youth soccer is to build a team that will be together for years and play together in high school. We have some elite (expensive) clubs by us, but most clubs are in a town or group of towns that funnel to the same high school. This will split them up.
- when those older kids are in 8th grade they may be without a club team prior to high school, and
- Purely social, it's breaking up friends that enjoy playing together.
None of these are deal breakers for a rule change, but the only counter I've heard is that they use calendar years in international competition and that getting rid of the older kids will benefit younger. First, 99.9% of kids will never do anything international, and the other argument is really stupid (you "get rid" of August - December, but pick up the younger August - December... someone has to be the youngest). For the record, my kids have a February birthday, so this isn't sour grapes. If anything, my kids will get a bit more competitive because very often, the best players are the older kids. I just don't see how this is good for US youth soccer. USSF is telling leagues this has to be in place by August 2016 with no grandfathering. Our club is still trying to figure out the best move. A few clubs plan on moving all of their kids up (so a current 05/06 team would move up the January to July kids and play as an 05 team next year).