John Leddy, M.D., a sports medicine physician and coauthor on the study, said the marked increase in injuries among 13-year-olds was troubling. "We think youth hockey leagues may need greater enforcement of the rules among these adolescents as they adjust to changes in their hormone levels," he said. Leddy is a UB clinical associate professor of orthopaedics and associate director of the UB Sports Medicine Institute.
Willer suggests that the key to injury prevention is increased skill development, plus a greater emphasis on learning to play "heads up" hockey. He suggests that body checking may be a key component of teaching this technique to skilled players.
"These younger kids are injured more often by falling into the boards or colliding with each other, in part because they haven't learned to skate or stop well. In addition, it's important to teach a child very early to learn to look toward where he wants to shoot the puck and to 'feel' the puck with his stick, instead of watching the puck. By watching where you are going, you learn to avoid collisions."
Willer noted that checking is not allowed in women's hockey, yet elite women players sustain as many injuries as male players.
The boys in this study were between the ages of 4 and 17 and were enrolled in a Burlington, Ontario, youth hockey program in 2002 through 2004. In addition to the findings on body checking, a primary end point of the study, results showed that injuries were four times more likely to occur in games than in practices.
Also, boys who played in the most advanced levels of competition (representative hockey) were six times more likely to be injured than the less skilled house-league players, primarily due to the speed and aggressiveness of play at the top level.
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Contact: Lois Baker
ljbaker@buffalo.edu
716-645-5000 x1417
University at Buffalo
2-Nov-2005