The US took similar steps, I think about three years back, driven at least in part by litigation. But we went a step farther and banned heading in games with players 10 or younger--heading being considered a safety infraction (not an offense) that resulted in an IFK for the other team.
I think if you are going to ban training you should ban in games--I don't think it makes sense to say you can't teach kids to head the ball properly, but then let them do it untrained in games.
All in all, watching those young games, I think it has been a good thing for player development. Since they can't head the ball (and lets face it, young kids tended to head the ball to head it, not to accomplish anything), they are getting much better at using other body parts on balls in the air. And those skills stay with them at older ages. I've seen less drop off than I expected in heading skills once it's allowed--suggesting that kids weren't learning a lot about heading when they were younger anyway.
This has gotten rambly, but I'll add one more thing. These changes were based on research that indicated that kids brains were more susceptible to injury--concussion and below concussive harm--because of how the young brain sits in the skull. Concussions aren't caused, per se, by the outside contact, but by the way the contact makes the brain move inside the skull. And the US might be a bit more sensitive to the issue because of our other football, where studies are suggesting that a lot of the players who play for a long time have serious brain issues caused by repetitive below concussion level head contacts.
www.scottishfa.co.uk
