The Football Association has outlawed heading in training for kids in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland aged 11 and under, following in the footsteps of the United States Soccer Federation which introduced a ban on headers for children under 10 in 2015.

It's sparked a major debate worldwide and three-time AWFA Star Player Cade Webb isn't convinced.

Webb now coaches Albury United's under-10 miniroos and also looks after the association's under-12 girls representative side.

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"I don't agree with it," Webb said.

"That's one of the basic skills you need. If a football is hit at you at shoulder height or above, are kids then going to shirk and pull away from a header?

"If they don't learn the basic skills, by the time they get older there's a chance they're going to hurt themselves if they don't get a header right.

"If they get to under-14s and a goalkeeper launches a ball long and they're standing under it, there's a chance they can actually hurt themselves.

"I was at a rep tournament two weeks ago and there were a couple of girls that headed a ball in a different game, but the referee actually gave free kicks against them for that.

"If the ball comes to you, you're going to stick your head there and header it back for your team. To penalise that, I think, is a little bit silly.

"When you get to senior level, you've got to know the right technique, whether it's an attacking header or a defensive header."

Former Boomers captain Dustin Patten supports the decision, having had his career cut short by concussion.

Patten was forced into an early retirement last season after experiencing concussion symptoms from heading the ball, particularly with long kicks by goalkeepers.

"From what I'm aware, the brain doesn't develop fully until you're around 25, so if you can take some of the head knocks and heading out of training at an early age and let the brain develop a little more, you can bring it in at a later stage," Patten said.

"I started playing at about five or six and heading was always involved at training, but I don't see it needing to be such a big thing in training when you're at that age.

"You can concentrate on the foot skills until the brain is a bit more developed.

"You're never going to be able to completely stop it, kids are still going to do it at home, they're going to do it at training by themselves, but at least it's in place now."

Patten added players can also pick up multiple head knocks during a game that largely go unnoticed.

"They talk about heading a lot with concussion, but there's the head clashes and after the head clash you might get two or three headers and it's after you've damaged some of the brain cells I guess," he said.

"You look at kids running around and they could be bumping into each other and doing headers as well. It all goes together doesn't it?"