Herrick at the coalface of efforts to reduce dangers posed by heading the ball

THE world of sport is starting to make a return, albeit on a slow, staggered basis. It is likely to be a very different world from pre-March 2020, and in one sport, the changes may not just be confined to the new buzz phrases of ‘cough etiquette’, ‘hand hygiene’ and ‘contact tracing’.

Back in February, as the world was learning more and more about a virus that seemed to be spreading from its source in February, the governing bodies for football in England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland made a landmark announcement.

The FAs of those three countries announced that heading was to be banned in training for children under the age of 11 – the recommendation did not extend as far as actual games, but that could be coming down the line. The FAI is believed to be waiting for guidelines from UEFA before deciding whether or not to follow suit.

One man who was not surprised by the announcement was Mark Herrick, the former Galway United and Cork City midfielder, as he has spent the last number of years developing a new system for teaching people, young and old, how to head a football properly: Headrite.

Headrite has developed a training aid for clubs on how to head a football, and the germ of the idea came from watching training footage 40-odd years ago of arguably the greatest player to ever play the game.

“I was very good at heading the ball. I developed that skill by suspending a football from something from above, having seen footage of Pele in the 1970s, training for Santos. I saw that he had a ball hanging from above, so this is an age-old training methodology, jumping to head a ball that’s swinging,” explains Herrick (47).

Headrite consists of foam footballs suspended from a frame, with instruction on how to jump, when to jump, and how to make contact with the ball. It is a simple enough concept, but one that could change the game of football globally.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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