Ice hockey is a fast-paced and full contact sport whether you are in a body checking league or not. However with a full contact sports, concussions are unfortunately inevitable. There are numerous factors that play into the number of concussions in ice hockey. Body checking and numerous head impact injuries that occur in hockey are a huge reason for concussions. Although administrators are taking steps towards concussion prevention and education, this education is proving to be ineffective. This paper will take a look at the various injury mechanisms that contribute to concussions and other head-impact injuries in ice hockey, as well as discussing concussion education. A study called Head-Impact Mechanisms in Men's and Women's Collegiate Ice …show more content…
Men also had greater magnitudes of contact compared to their female counterparts. Unfortunately most injuries in ice hockey are from blunt force or direct contact. Concussions are the most common injury in men’s and women’s collegiate hockey. Interestingly enough is that women’s hockey showed a higher rate of concussions than men’s hockey. The study pointed out various options for head-impact mechanisms in ice hockey. The playing area is solid ice and the boards surrounding the area consist of rigid boards. Pucks, when shot, can go over the speed of 80mph. Players can possibly exceed speeds of 30mph. Lastly, because ice hockey is a full contact sport, players are purposefully trying to collide with one another. All of these issues are reasonable mechanisms of head-injuries. This article also references another article which classifies concussion mechanisms in ice hockey into seven categories. These seven categories are: contact with another player, contact with the ice, contact with the boards or glass, contact with a stick, contact with the puck, contact with the goal, and no apparent contact. In this article's study about half of recorded …show more content…
This study showed that there was a significant difference in the amount of concussions between these two leagues. There were 69 teams consisting of 829 players from Calgary and Edmonton that participated in this research. Both of these areas allow body checking. The leagues that didn’t allow body checking were from Kelowna and Vancouver. There were 33 teams and 379 players from these two areas that participated in the study. This study classifies severe concussions as greater than ten days time loss from being eligible to participate in hockey. The research showed that there were 83 concussions and 53 severe concussions in the body checking league. However there were only 15 concussions and 10 severe concussions in the non-body checking leagues. The researchers suggest that there is a 60% lower risk of having a concussion or severe concussion in these non-elite Bantam teams when body checking is not allowed based on local
Injuries are a huge part in professional sports. When playing a professional sport athletes do not always take into consideration that their bodies are vulnerable to injuries. One of the leading injuries that can end athlete’s career is concussion. According Kia Boriboon author of the article “Concussion Management In Football: Don 't Shake It Off” concussion occurs when the brain repeatedly collides with the skull. Concussions are serious and cannot be taken lightly they are detrimental to a person’s athletic career as well as life. Players who have suffered from a concussion or like symptoms of a concussion are at risk and should not continue playing their sport until cleared by a medical doctor, who is an expert in concussions. If concussions are not treated with the appropriate medical care, it can cause physical and mental health problems for athletes well after their professional career have ended. In
Millions of people are registered throughout North America for participation in Canada’s national sport and pastime, ice hockey. Most young hockey players have the dream of making it to the National Hockey League (NHL). Because of this incentive to keep striving towards their ultimate goal in their hockey career, they idolize the players in the NHL. Therefore, youth players may obtain certain habits from the elite, whether those habits are good or bad. Some cases are of bad influences, such as young players obtaining the dirty playing habits of the professionals. The primary action that influences the youthful population is body checking. With the thought of losing a game, it is no wonder why players have the urge to play rough and potentially hurt the opposing team in order to be victorious. For that reason, hockey is a strong collision sport that requires great skill and motivation. Although body checking is believed to be a useful tool in the winning of hockey games, it can be the cause that leads to injury among players. Because of the rougher play, lasting brain injuries are becoming a worry and too many players are exposed to the lasting effects of the head injury. According to Michael Cusimano July 22, 2003 the article entitled “Body Checking and Concussions” states, “With the rising incidence of traumatic brain injury in hockey, too many players are exposed to the lasting effects of such injuries, some of which are not fully realized until the brain completes its maturation.” For this reason, new equipment and regulations need to be devised for use in the near future.
The goal is to achieve and to attain certain knowledge of concussions and proper helmet safety and to propose new suggestions to help decrease the incidence of sports-related concussions.
Throughout the years, many sports have evolved from that of their beginning. Be it through rule changes, advances in the way people watch the game, advances in how they play the game, but this biggest one of all is the change in equipment. This is most commonly seen and heard about in American football. Due to all of the advances in the medical field and seeing the sports injuries that occur. Football had to adapt and change to the new standards of safety for the players with new and improved equipment to lessen the chance of long term damage.
The average speed of an indoor field hockey ball, when drag flicking, is upwards of 75 miles per hour. Avoiding the ball every time is almost impossible. Taking a ball to the head has the potential to shatter bones, or cause a serious brain injury. Dating back before ancient Olympic Games, field hockey is one of the oldest competitive sports; it has evolved tremendously since then. During ancient times, field hockey was considered too dangerous for women. Today, women play this thrilling game using stiff, composite, slightly curved sticks that range primarily from 35 to 39 inches long to hit a hard, plastic ball. For protection, all players must wear a mouth guard and shin guards. Many players choose to wear gloves, too, but they are not required. Over many years and numerous rule changes, women’s indoor field hockey has become a dangerous, yet exhilarating and fast-paced game. To play, each team uses six players at a time, usually five field players and a goalkeeper. Moving the ball down the field while keeping the ball on the ground is a huge challenge, but scoring and defending are, by far, the most important tasks of field hockey. Once near the goal, players are allowed to flick the ball into the air to try to hit the ball into the goal. Generally a passing game, it is likely that sticks will be high, and the ball always moves fast. In indoor field hockey, face masks should be required, to reduce external injuries, to prevent internal injuries, and to decrease liability for injury for the coaches and the venue.
From the year 2001 to 1005 children aged 5-18 accounted for 2.4 million emergency room visits due to sports related injuries. Of these visits around 6 percent involved a concussion(The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Every athlete that receives a concussion does not necessarily go to the emergency room. Athletic trainers, when available and certified, can oversee the recovery of an athlete without a trip to the emergency room. Some concussions go untreated altogether. While the percentage may seem low, looki...
How can a concussion be prevented? What is the minimum time an athlete needs to be out of the game after a concussion? What are the chances of an athlete suffering post-traumatic stress disorders after a blow to the head? In all sports athletes are prone to injuries, they can happen at any time and at any given moment. Nevertheless, people that have suffered from a head injury or concussion will also have problems dealing with their learning processes in the long run.
Recreational athletes, competitive athletes, high school athletes, college athletes, and professional athletes all have one thing in common: the risk of a concussion. It's impossible to go a season without one athlete from a team receiving a concussion. The more that these concussions are studied, the more we learn about them, such as their detrimental effects on athletes. Because of the risk of health issues and death that come with concussions, doctors, coaches, athletic trainers, and lawmakers are stepping in to protect athletes of all levels from receiving concussions. Concussions occur time after time throughout different sporting events and many are familiar with the word concussion, but what really is a concussion?
Football is one of the most popular sports in the world. It is played in a lot of different ways, fashions, and other countries. It can be a very brutal sport with players hitting at the intent to hurt one another. With these intents come great consequences. In recent years the head injuries involved with this brutal game play have been getting uncomfortably high. Many rules have had to be enforced for player safety, because of the increase of head injuries resulting in tragic effects on players both old and new. One of the injuries that have had the most devastating effects is the concussion.
The world of sports is filled with great memories, grand moments and at times complete mayhem. There are moments like hitting a Home Run in game 7 of the World Series or memories of scoring an overtime goal during the Stanley Cup finals. However, there are also incredibly low moments when mayhem occurs such as an action or incident that results in a concussion. An injury such as a concussion can ruin your sports career or potentially your ability to function normally in the future. Concussions are caused by blunt force trauma to the head, a fall or an injury that shakes the brain inside the skull. Recovering from a concussion can take weeks, months or even years to heal. For some, it can impair your mental or mobility functions for life.
It happens all too often, athletes are coming home complaining of dizziness, confusion, and a headache. “More than 1.6 million Americans suffer a sports-related concussion every year, and a growing number occur among high school and college athletes” (O’connor).
Concussions and the effect they have on people ranging from the young to the old has become a very popular discussion in recent years. Generally people watch sports for entertainment and then there are those who engage in high impact sports from a very young age on. The people at home know how fun playing in a sport is, however they may not know the brutal consequences for some participating in that sport. Injuries to the brain are a main concern among those in the world of high impact sports. Football, soccer, wrestling, lacrosse, and rugby are among sports that athletes receive injuries in. The injuries vary from sprains, to fractures, to torn MCL or ACL, and bruised organs. Concussions are a severe type of injury endured by athletes in the sports world and this life changing injury is one that people are becoming more aware of.
In the article “Hockey Hits Can Lead to Severe Traumatic Brain Injury." by ABC News, it states that “Blows to the head and body cause a series of changes in the brain, including mechanical injuries to brain cells and their connections, stress on cells that are not receiving enough oxygen, and, in more severe cases, damage to specific regions to the brain that are next to sharp interior surfaces of the skull, Doctor Turkstra explained.” (ABC News 1) Dr. Turkstra’s discovery has proved that the brain can easily get damaged during contact hockey. The brain can heal after some time for mild injuries, but not correctly. After multiple injuries, certain regions of the brain can get permanently damaged. Also in the article “Concussions in Hockey May Cause Brain Damage” by H. Laird, it talks about the occurrence of concussions in the sport of hockey. The article states that “Each year, more than 300,000 sports-related concussions (SRC) occur in the sports of hockey in the United States, according to a 2013 ‘Ice Hockey Summit II’” (Laird 1) Concussions have been occurring more and more often through the years in ice hockey, and the risk is increasing. Many neurologists advise that hits to the head be penalized for the safety of the
Following behind motor vehicle crashes, traumatic brain injury in sports is the second leading cause of traumatic brain injuries for people fifth-teen to twenty-four years of age. Immense concerns follows given that American football accounts for the highest incidence of concussions (Rowson and Duma 2130). In addition, th...
Many reasons for this big change in sports related head injuries, mostly has to do with the protective equipment used and the regulation...