Youth football ban in California

Thank God.

Ban it everywhere.

FWIW -

It may surprise parents to know that, at the youth level, organized football among 5- to 15-year-olds has 12% fewer injuries per player than organized soccer in the same age range, 50% fewer injuries than bicycle riding, and 74% fewer injuries than skateboarding. In general, football-related injuries tend to vary inversely with the players’ age (and associated size and force exerted through contact) in that youth players sustain less than one-third the injuries of high school football players, less than one-fifth the injuries of collegiate players, and less than one-ninth those seen in professional football players.

Despite the perception that the majority of football participants will eventually sustain an injury, a recent study by USA Football found that more than 90 percent of the youth players did not suffer an injury that restricted participation. Contusions were the most common injuries (35%), followed by ligament sprains (15%). Fewer than 4% of the youth players sustained a concussion. ...

CITE: orthoinfo.aaos.org/en/staying-healthy/ortho-pinion-football-injuries-in-young-athletes/#:~:text=It%20may%20surprise%20parents%20to,74%25%20fewer%20injuries%20than%20skateboarding.

Apparently, they don't watch 8-year-olds play football. It's more wrestling than hard-htting football.

But...they're probably against wrestling, too.

Yeah, Cali-formula (named because of the Meth labs and Pot dispensaries) will have to ban skateboards, kids climbing trees, Monkey Bars, swings, bike riding...anything that might give little Johnny a skinned knee. OH MY!

I agree, there isn't enough recess in schools today, much less nap time.

On the other hand I grew in the South and we played 'tackle' football beginning in the 1st grade.... and we were probably better coached than most HS programs today.

Weird take. This could inadvertently lead to an increase in participation at the older levels.

How?

They didn't have youth football when I was a kid and I couldn't wait to play HS ball. 

We only had 2 hand touch in Jr high and I quit after a couple games as an OL. I wasn't going to play in HS because of how miserable my experience in JFL was. I was basically kidnapped by the freshman coach the last week of Jr High and "forced" to play.

As a coach and especially a HC, I had 2xs more All Conference/All State players come from kids who never played football before HS or quit in JFL than I ever did from kids who played JFL. In fact, JFL "all stars" rarely even played 4 years let alone were any good.

The expansion of youth sports has done more damage to HS football and other sports than can ever be imagined.

I’d do tacklebar until 6th grade then give them 3 years of FC football in a grade by grade league

What are tacklebar and FC?

I'll be 70 in March.  Adult-organized football (tackle or otherwise) below high school was much less common for my generation, but the same was true of soccer, lacrosse, and hockey; baseball was the only adult-organized team sport for most children in the USA.  I don't think children play such games any more than we did, only that we didn't usually have adult supervision or equipment.  I think the boom is mostly because as humanity gets richer we can afford more.

At least in my experience, children's football and to a large extent other sports is a distinct crowd, a different phenomenon from interscholastic competition.  Many play as children and not teens, and others as teens and not children.  I don't think we should look for a continuity between these activities over a lifetime.  I don't think either much helps or hurts the other, with a few local exceptions.  We see for instance a huge disconnect between organized soccer for those under 10 YO and those older; I think some people were hoping children's soccer in North America would feed the game at higher levels, but at least a couple generations have shown it doesn't.  For an even starker example, see speedball, a century-old type of football home-grown in North America that's managed to stay popular as a summer camp and intramurals activity (even on college campuses) for pickup play but never grows into established clubs or teams.

I'm interested in experience from parts of the world where American football has been growing.  Is there more of a connection there between the children's game and that of adolescents or adults?

I don’t think I have ever agreed with Bob as much as I have in this thread.

The opinions of HS coaches thinking/feeling that sports for 5-13 year olds should all be in service to HS athletics has always been a pet peeve of mine. That “HS matters” but other levels really don’t has always been so surprising to me.

Agreed.  

There is currently legislation in Florida that has school systems pulling dictionaries and encyclopedias from the shelves to review them to make sure that they comply with new laws.   

We also currently have laws (Title IX for one) where many interpret the statues as requiring  that schools must treat students based on their gender identity even if their registration or identification documentation indicates a different sex.  

Regardless of ones thoughts on brain trauma, concussions, sub concussive cumulative affects etc., the fact that the two statement above can be made shows that there is definitely a non zero chance of HS FB being banned within the next 20-30 years.