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Description
Ice hockey is well known for its fast paced and physical style of play that is reportedly putting participants at greater risk of injury compared to other sports. Cusimano et al. (2016) support this stating: “injuries are common in all contact sports, but those who play ice hockey are at particular injury risk” (p. 1). Head injury in particular is receiving greater attention, in part because of high profile cases of professional athletes suffering career ending/threatening concussions, and because of the increase in medical studies identifying how repeated head trauma can lead to long term health problems, most notably degenerative brain disease. These concerns are intensified for youth hockey in light of recent evidence which suggests that effects of head injury are worse for youth than they are for athletes in later stages of life. To better understand concussion injury rate trends in youth hockey our research group for the past seven years has been documenting head contact events across all levels of youth hockey to determine age related differences in frequency and the manner which head contact events occur. Through captured video of youth hockey games, this study examines if head contacts events are occurring as a result legal ice hockey play, or illegal contact that would warrant penalty. The purpose is to determine if injury prevention strategies should be targeting rule modification or focus more on the reduction of transgressive play to better protect players.
