52. "Golf is good. Tennis is terrific. Table tennis is the world's best sport!"

"The American Academy of Pediatrics has warned that "on repetitive heading of soccer balls in young athletes, the bottom line is probably 'less is better.'" Heading drills, in which a child's head is knocked repeatedly, as happens with forward and defensive players, are of greater concern to pediatricians than is the occasional head-punt in a game. A pair of studies conducted in Norway and in the United States compared the mental functioning of large groups of adult soccer players to adults of similar age and circumstances who did not play soccer. Out of 106 soccer players in the Norwegian study, 81 percent had impairment of attention, concentration, memory, and judgment that ranged from mild to severe. In the U.S. study, attention and concentration deficits were significantly more common among those who "headed" the ball most often.

When it comes to brain injury, football is no better than soccer. Football players are struck in the head thirty to fifty times per game and regularly endure blows similar to those experienced in car crashes, according to a Virginia Tech study that fitted players' helmets with the same kinds of sensors that trigger auto airbags.

Golf is good. Tennis is terrific. Table tennis is the world's best sport! Football, boxing, and soccer are bad for the brain! As a society, we need to seriously rethink what we allow our children to do."

From "Making a Good Brain Great" by Daniel G. Amen, M.D., Three Rivers Press, New York