Should Soccer Players Wear Shin Guards Research Paper

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Should soccer players be required to wear shin guards? With around 5 billion people watching the World Cup every 4 years, soccer is the most watched sport in the world. A large number of soccer players complain that shin guards interfere with their movement and play, and wonder if they are really protecting or just slowing them down.Although two professional soccer leagues were started in 1967, the United Soccer Association and the National Professional Soccer League, which merged to form the North American Soccer League in 1968, it wasn't until the 1990s that FIFA, the international governing body of football, made it mandatory for all players to wear shin pads during matches. The decision to make shin pads mandatory was driven by concerns …show more content…
The severity of these injuries varies. Cartilage tears and anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) sprains in the knee are some of the more common injuries that may require surgery. Other injuries include fractures and contusions from direct blows to the body. (“Soccer Injuries - Sports Medicine Program - UR Medicine, University of Rochester Medical Center - Rochester, NY”) I can relate to this because I had cartilage tears in both of my knees which both happened from playing soccer, and these injuries can take from 2 weeks to even a year or more to recover from. Although shin guards do keep you safe, many people complain that they also slow you down. Shin guards really don't slow you down because many Shin guards do not weigh more than 70g and the size of them can vary.Even though many argue that shin guards are very big and heavy, according to https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, the average weight of the 5 most used shin guards was 74.6 grams which is about.17lbs. Shin guards this weight should not affect your speed and do their job of protecting you just fine.As a soccer player, I have Nike shin guards and I do not even notice them half of the time while I am