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Injury fears affect hockey enrolment

Emile Therien, Edmonton Journal, January 2, 2012

Calgary and Edmonton are hosting the prestigious World Junior Hockey Championships. All eyes are on Canada as it skates to reclaim bragging rights as the world’s best junior hockey power. Yet the international success Canada has enjoyed for years in minor hockey has long masked problems that threaten the future of the game in this country.

First and foremost, hockey is plagued with serious injuries. Back in the 1970s the big safety issue was eye injuries, including loss of eyes. Now, more and more Canadians share concerns about body checking. The Canada Safety Council has been speaking out on this for more than 20 years. Others are at last breaking their silence on this critical national health-and-safety issue.

A five-year study of 3,000 boys aged four to 18 in a youth-hockey program in Burlington, Ont., found that 66 per cent of injuries were from accidents such as colliding with teammates, sliding into the boards or posts or getting hit with the puck. The researchers, from the University of Buffalo, attributed the remaining 34 per cent to players checking each other. Only injuries serious enough to keep players off the ice for at least 24 hours were counted.

A joint study by the University of Calgary, McGill University and the University of Laval tracked injuries to 2,200 Peewee players through the 2007-08 season. It revealed that 11- and 12-year-old hockey players in leagues that allow body checking are 2.5 times more likely to get hurt and 3.5 times more likely to suffer a concussion.

In Quebec, players do not bodycheck until Bantam (ages 13 to 14), and even then only at the elite levels. In Alberta, body checking begins at the Peewee level (ages 11 and 12).

The findings make a case for raising the body-checking age and for limiting body checking at all levels. One of the researchers, Dr. Carolyn Emery from the department of kinesiology at the University of Calgary, estimated a ban in Peewee hockey would eliminate over 1,000 injuries and 400 concussions annually among the nearly 9,000 Peewee players in Alberta.

Traumatic brain injuries from hits to the head can lead to severe and lifelong consequences. Research by Dr. Shree Bhalerao, director of medical psychiatry at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto and Deborah Pink, resident in psychiatry at the University of Toronto, have found they can cause post-concussive symptoms, cognitive disorders, depression, personality changes and substance abuse.

The Canadian Institute for Health Information reported 8,000 hockey-related injuries in Ontario hospital emergency rooms in the 2002-03 season. Among players 18 and under, 62 per cent of the injuries were a result of checking. Such injuries were the most common among 14- to 16-year-old players who had been exposed to body checking for several years.

The main reason kids play any sport is for fun and getting hurt is no fun. Hitting and the risk of serious injuries, including concussions, remove the motivation. More and more parents are simply not allowing their children to play.

Enrolment in Hockey Canada teams is currently 572,000 players, down more than 200,000 from its peak. And the prospects are grim. In the next decade, some say there could be 200,000 fewer kids playing the game. The Hockey News report (December 2010) suggests 30,000 fewer Canadians will play the game in the next five years. As the pool of talent dwindles, so does the quality and talent level of those who go on to represent Canada internationally.

The opposite trend is evident south of the border, where the number of players registered with USA Hockey rose from 195,000 in 1990-91 to 500,579 in 2010. More than 100,000 children under the age of nine registered to play hockey in the United States in 2010, a 15-per-cent increase from 2008.

The American system and players are better today than they have ever been. Their Program of Excellence has more elite athletes playing the sport. Currently more than 58 universities and colleges play Division I hockey; that number is growing. In addition, 74 colleges play NCAA Division II and Division III hockey, and 447 colleges have club hockey teams (men’s and women’s), including many of the large universities in the West and Southeast.

Canada has no comparable development programs. Our system is built on and caters exclusively to the Canadian Hockey League and its member teams, which are, in effect, commercial entities.

An RBC survey released on Dec. 6 found that 82 per cent of Canadians in hockey households believe corporations must do more to help the sport’s grassroots programs. Nonetheless, corporate support, however defined, is not the magic bullet that will solve all these problems.

A major overhaul of minor hockey is needed in Canada, and soon. Getting to the root of the problem is key. A detailed, systemic investigation of the issues confronting minor hockey is crucial.

http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2012/01/02/injury-fears-affect-hockey-enrolment/