The Department of Physical Education and Sports Science of the Democritus University of Thrace, and the scientific directors of the Programs are Professors of the Department of Physical Education and Sports Science of the Democritus University of Thrace who teach at thw Postgraduate Program Functional Rehabilitation of Injuries in Athletes and Trainees. Also, many students and graduates of the Postgraduate Program actively participate!

UEFA Project
“The burden and effect of heading in youth football in Europe”

UEFA, with Prof. Dr. Tim Meyer as Scientific Director, conducted a study entitled “The burden and effect of heading in youth football in Europe”, which was carried out in addition to Greece, in Germany, England, the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, Spain and Romania. 

The Therapeutic Exercise and Rehabilitation Laboratory was responsible for data collection in Greece, with Associate Professor Asimenia Gioftsidou as scientific director.

The purpose of this study was to record the headers made during an official match and a typical training session in male and female soccer players aged 9-16 years. The aim was to calculate the loads exerted by the headers (recording the distance the ball travels, the part of the head that comes into contact with the ball), as well as to record information on possible head injuries during the match or training session (injury mechanism, diagnosis, days of absence from training). In Greece, the recording of matches and training sessions took place in official championships organized by the Hellenic Football Association for the age categories U16 (boys – girls), U12 (boys) and U10 (boys) in a representative sample of teams in terms of level. For a team to participate in the research, a necessary condition was the systematic execution of training sessions. For the collection of data, it was necessary to record (with video) and analyze 10 matches per age category, that is, 30 matches (i.e. data for 60 different teams). In these 60 teams, a recording (with video) and one training session (60 training sessions) was also made. The data was collected on a special form for recording headers (during the match and training) regarding the type (distance, point of contact) and frequency of headers.

The UEFA Heading Study