Um… Okay… This is for a story I might write some day…
There are “corporate” soccer leagues, right? Where a team is recruited from various local companies. A big used-car dealership might field a team, or, if they aren’t big enough, a group of them might. Semi-formal games, corporate sponsored uniforms, the big rivalry between the Pepsi bottling plant and the County Roads and Highways dept., etc.
Do the guys on the field ever wear protective headgear? Is it ever a mixed kind of affair, where some do and some don’t?
I’m envisioning a scene where one guy wants to wear headgear, to protect against concussions, but everyone else thinks that’s being way too wimpy and sissy.
Is that the sort of thing that ever does happen, or could happen?
Would it ever happen in just loose informal “pick up” soccer, where a bunch of guys meet now and then after work or on weekends? One guy wants to wear headgear, and his mates all jeer at him?
(I played corporate softball for a very, very brief time. I got thrown off the team for not being any damn good at it… But they were very polite about it… It is entirely possible that my writing is equally incompetent…)
There are loal leagues in which teams from local companies compete, although pub teams seem to be more common. I’ve certainly never heard of any head protection being worn. You’ve got to be able to head the ball, anything that might interfere with that would be in contravention of the rules.
I know nothing about the state of affairs in local or corporate leagues, but in the professional game, head protection, though rare, is not completely unheard of. The most famous piece of soccer headgear is probably that which is permanently affixed to the noggin of Chelsea goalkeeper PetrČech, who has been sporting his trademark padded helmet ever since suffering a serious head injury in 2006. Inter defender ChristianChivu has also been wearing a similar contraption after a skull fracture in 2010. Other players may also wear something similar on occasion - here’s John Arne Riise giving the fashion a try in a pic from his Roma days.
Of course, if you’re a real manly man, you’ll go for the Terry Butcher look instead…
I can’t imagine it ever happening in an informal game in the UK. If it did, the man wanting to wear protective gear would definitely be teased. However, if he’d had a skull injury before and was very self-confident, he’d be able to get away with it at least in a defensive position.
Why do you want to write about soccer? Might it not be better to stick to a game you know?
Protective head gear in soccer amount to polypropylene head bands, which guard against skull-to-skull contact during heading. They may be effective in decreasing the likelihood of skull fractures, but not concussions (which are caused by translational and rotational acceleration).
Soccer players at any level don’t wear headgear and anyone wearing one without some serious pre-existing head condition would be looked upon as a right wimp.
The only professional player I know who routinely wears headgear is the golakeeper for Chelsea, Petr Čech, who gets a pass because he had a skull fracture.
Grin! Thank you for all the info, but, wow, especially for that last’n! That’s what my character is thinking of when he wants to wear protection!
Personal challenge; I’m trying to grow. I’m trying to learn. Doing research is the key to it, and part of my research is asking people who know.
If I only wrote about what I know personally…um… Well, that’s put an end to my science fiction and fantasy, right on the instant! I don’t personally know anything about aliens and magic!
It would be more likely to happen if they were women. My daughter played at a high level for years and it was common to see the headgear. My daughter wore one after a couple of head injuries. Sometimes entire teams would use them, and some high schools issue them to players.
I could see a player having the headgear in her bag with shin guards and socks and tape and put it on out of habit.
I totally understand about learning - it just depends on how much this learning will prevent you actually writing the story.
I guess it could happen. It’d be extremely unusual though, and the people teasing him wouldn’t be stereotypical jock bullies jumping on the chance to tease someone. Even those that didn’t tease him would think he was really odd or trying to be Petr Cech, unless he did have a previous head injury.
Soccer is - for fun playing - is not a sport that requires a lot of kit, and turning up with a lot of kit would make you look like a noob who cares more about the kit than the game and will probably drop out after a few practices.
I mean, when you get a bunch of people meeting up for soccer (it feels so wrong saying soccer instead of football) purely for fun, in the park or something, not all of them will even be wearing shinpads.
That might be different in the US, though. Hell, in the UK people will sometimes play football for fun without shinpads, football boots, uniforms or even a goal (“jumpers for goalposts” can even apply to adults) and still meet up at an assigned time every week and work out strategies, have assigned positions, do warm-ups and practice plays, and compete informally against other teams or just divide into teams to play against each other. This is usually five-a-side football, rather than 11-a-side.
If they play in a league of some sort (some pub teams play in amateur leagues, for example) they will of course have more kit. Though even then I’ve seen goalies without gloves.
I’m not saying you should drop the idea though. Just watch more football. In a corporate league I’d say it’s far more likely to happen, though still pretty unlikely.
I do figure, though, that the bit with the headgear is gonna have to go…
Would it make more sense if they teased him about shin pads or knee pads? Looking at YouTube, I see that not everyone wears these…
(Concept was character development. “I don’t want to get hurt.” “Yah, ya sissy, be a man, do you see us wearing armor?”)
(One of the times I played softball, I wasn’t wearing a groin-cup. Got a line drive right in the cojones. Holy ouch. I could distinctly feel my ureters…outlined in flame…)
Shin GUARDS… no, everyone wears them, other than sometimes at practice. In fact they are required equipment and you can be tossed off the pitch if not wearing them. Knee pads… I’ve never ever seen anyone wear them.
Head gear… I believe Pennsylvania now requires it for all youth league players. Overall, though not so common. My son got a serious concussion playing and did wear one for a few games but found it distracting. According to the doctor who treated him (also is the concussion doctor for the Colts) said that mouth guards are better at concussion prevention than head hear.
Bottom line though for your story, if he is a good player with a decent reason for wanting to wear it, no he probably wouldn’t be teased too much, but if he was someone who wanted to wear safety goggles, head gear, and who knows what else then he would be teased.
Just a little bit of advise… I hope you do continue on this path, but be aware that your lack of knowledge on a sport that is followed very seriously by some could take someone out of the story. I’m sure there are also regional variations, but something as simple as calling them shin pads rather than shin guards would tell me immediately that you weren’t knowledgeable about the game. Have someone who is a soccer fan proof read/edit before you publish.
Eh, I’d say it depends on the tone of your writing. Headgear would be good for a giggle (unless there’s a back story in which headgear is a logical choice for this character). If you want to keep it more realistic, mention knee pads. Shin guards are so common among rec leagues that no-one would comment on it. If anything, my impression was that dedicated, skilled players (well, for a rec league) were more likely to have shin guards, not less.
It also depends on whether this is intended to be a gentle ribbing among friends or something that is meant to humiliate the character. Or an example of the second is masquerading as the first… human interactions can be such head games.
Rugby is the closest thing that kinda fits the stereotype. I’ve never heard of a debate about headgear in soccer, but rugby–definitely. People get heated over headgear debates for adult rugby teams.
Yes, it could. Shin guards are normal… now… and wherever previous posters live, but back in counts on her fingers '04 and in Costa Rica, one of the players for a corporate / pickup game (all players were from the same company and the game had been set up in advance, but it wasn’t part of a competition) brought shin guards and the other guys, who were from half a dozen Spanish-speaking countries, started teasing him. He pointed to the soles of someone’s regulation shoes and said “nails” (ok, so the bumps are not properly nails, but that’s what they’re called in Spanish); then pointed to his shins and said “delicate. Got a problem?”
Nope. No problem.
I’ve seen goalies with knee pads.
True, although many people wear them in the forward pack, as head butting is frequent. It would be more unusual (and liable to teasing) for a back to wear one as they don’t take part in the scrum.
