Avoiding injuries during hockey season - Dr. Janna-Marie Doni

Do you enjoy a good game of pick-up hockey or belong to a league? Do your children participate in youth hockey?

Hockey is popular as a recreational sport for players of all ages and abilities, who enjoy the fitness and social benefits of a fast-paced team sport.

Due to the high speed and aggressive play involved, hockey can often cause injuries. Here is some information to help you develop preventive strategies to make the sport safer.

Common causes of hockey injuries:

Although sticks, pucks, and skate blades can do damage, most hockey-related injuries occur due to collisions with other players or the boards. Fatigue and low energy of players due to poor endurance, insufficient rest, or too much ice time can also make them more likely to get hurt.

Who gets hurt?

Nearly half of hockey-related emergency room visits involve recreational players between the ages of 12 and 17.

Worse still, players under the age of 20 account for half of all hockey-related spinal cord injuries, caused mainly by colliding with the boards after being checked from behind. Interestingly, studies show there is no significant difference in injury rates and causes between men’s and women’s hockey leagues.
What are the most common injuries?


Most hockey injuries involve the upper body, and can include fractures, sprains and strains of the collarbones, hands, arms, elbows, neck, and shoulders. Concussions are the most common type of head injury, followed by facial cuts, dental and eye injuries. Low back, groin, hip, knee, and ankle injuries also occur frequently.

Since hockey players are susceptible to such a wide range of injuries, you may be asking if there is anything you can do to minimize your risk of getting hurt?

Tips for keeping you on the ice:

Training

A good training program should involve cardiovascular, stretching, and strengthening exercises. Cardiovascular training will increase endurance and decrease fatigue, which has been linked to injuries. Even the fittest players should take breaks often to rest, drink fluids, and stretch stiff muscles. A comprehensive stretching program for the back, arms, shoulders, thighs, and legs should be performed both before and after games to keep muscles limber and prevent stiffness and soreness.

Strengthening programs have been shown to prevent muscle strains in professional hockey players. A study of fifty National League ice hockey players showed that players were 17 times more likely to experience debilitating groin pulls and inner thigh injuries if these muscles were significantly weaker than those of the outer thigh. A second study showed that a six-week strengthening program was effective in preventing groin injuries in professional players.

Finally, low levels of off-season hockey training predisposes players to injuries of the thighs and groin, so it’s wise to play hockey year-round, even if summer hockey is limited to pick-up games.

Equipment

Although hockey equipment is expensive, properly fitting gear, including helmets, mouth guards, shoulder, and elbow pads, can make a world of difference when it comes to avoiding injury. Helmets have a life span of three to five years, depending on how often they are used. When purchasing a helmet, make sure to choose one with a full face shield, since face shields have been proven to reduce the severity of concussions, regardless of the wearer’s experience level and position, when compared to visors alone.

Dr. Janna-Marie Doni is a local chiropractor who works at Barrydowne Family Chiropractic in New Sudbury and Koski Chiropractic in Chelmsford. For more information, contact her at 566-0723. This is the third in a series of six columns, which normally appear in the Sports Life section of Northern Life.