In recent years, ice hockey has been growing in popularity among both boys and girls. The American Academy of Pediatrics has classified hockey as a collision sport because of the intentional body contact, called body checking. Because collisions can occur at high speeds, participants are at risk for serious injury, says the AAP. In recent years, an increase in the number of serious head and neck injuries related to body checking has led to a reassessment of the practice.
A recent study of U.S. youth hockey players 9 to 15 years old found that head and neck injuries accounted for 23 percent of the total number of injuries and that body checking accounted for 86 percent of all injuries that occurred during games.
Young hockey players are grouped by age: Mite (8 and 9 years); Squirt (10 and 11); Peewee (12 and 13) and Bantam (14 and 15). But because kids grow at different rates, grouping by age can lead to dramatic differences in size and strength, resulting in injuries.
In its policy statement on the hazards of youth hockey, the AAP notes that the introduction of helmets and face masks in the 1960s resulted in a dramatic decrease in facial injuries. Unfortunately, doctors began seeing an increase in neck and spinal injuries that they attributed to players taking greater risks because they felt protected. (A similar phenomenon occurred in football.)
To reduce the number of injuries from body checking, the AAP is advocating for rules changes that would reward good sportsmanship over bad and reduce the amount of body checking and contact on the ice. One program, called Fair Play, which rewards teams and individual players with low penalties and punishes those with high penalties, has proven successful in reducing the number of collisions and injuries.
In August, long after the Olympic medals have been handed out, hockey players and officials will gather in another Canadian city, Toronto, at the Open Ice Summit to take a shot at improving the game's safety record, among other things. Now that's a worthy goal.
—Mary H.J. Farrell
More on sports injuries
I, too, have been concerned over the increase in violence in hockey, resulting in head and neck injuries. Hockey would be a much more exciting and beautiful game if it were not for the constant worry of someone becoming seriously injured by the reckless and deliberate attempt to injure/take out an opposing player. More and more young mothers are realizing this. We see that the proponent of this violence usually ends up being a "hero" in the eyes of his classmates, regardless of how badly he has injured an opposing player. I sincerely hope that common sense will prevail in the decision making to severely penalize players who persist in this violent hockey behavior.
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