laogaiguk
Joined: 06 Dec 2005
Location: somewhere in Korea
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 Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2006 4:17 am Post subject: Bodychecks ruining more than hockey |
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Bodychecks ruining more than hockey
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Bodychecks ruining more than hockey
Jul. 20, 2006. 01:00 AM
JIM COYLE
Studies tallying the cost of bodychecking in minor hockey are piled up now like, well, like little shinny players � eyes dopey or broken wrists cradled against tummies � in the emergency ward on any winter Saturday.
Not, of course, that any amount of such research seems to make much impression on the adults who make the rules.
Not in a land that takes pride in the motto "Canada is hockey and hockey is Canada." Not in a place where grade schoolers trot around arena lobbies wearing T-shirts that say "Give Blood, Play Hockey." Not where discussion of a youngster's size usually occupies at least as much time as assessment of his abilities.
Still, for those fond of keeping it simple and cutting to the chase, the types with no patience for calculated vagueness and practised obfuscation � the sort of folks, come to think of it, who find Don Cherry among this country's leading public intellectuals � Dr. Brent Hagel should be just their cup of tepid arena coffee.
The University of Calgary researcher reportedly said he set out to answer a simple question: Does bodychecking among young hockey players increase injury rates?
And, in findings published this week in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, he came up with a simple answer: Yes.
A Hockey Canada policy change two years ago that allowed 11-year-olds to bodycheck has resulted in a doubling of injuries in northern Alberta, Hagel found. And the more serious injuries � bone fractures and concussions � tripled.
His team had analyzed data from emergency rooms in Alberta's capital health region around Edmonton for the two years before and two years after the rule change that allowed bodychecking.
Naturally, a spokesman for the minor hockey association said it's unlikely bodychecking will be banned for 11-year-olds, but officials will seek other ways to reduce injuries. He said boards need to be made safer.
Medical experts have long said bodychecking is inappropriate for players at an age when they are going through rapid changes in body size and co-ordination, and where the discrepancy in height and weight among players can be significant.
It probably puts a person's citizenship in jeopardy to say so, but some of the best and, by the looks of it, most fun, games I've witnessed in recent years have been school games in which bodychecking is not allowed.
Bodychecking is defined as a defensive tactic intended "to separate the puck carrier from the puck." But anyone spending much time at all in hockey rinks around the land will find it is very much more than that.
It's a tool of intimidation � executed, as often as not, after the puck carrier has relinquished the disc, a procedure called finishing the check.
Only a believer in fairy tales could accept Hockey Canada's further assurances that bodychecking involves using "the hip or body from the front, diagonally from the front, or straight from the side," and does not see the issuer of same "take more than two fast steps in executing the check."
Oftentimes, the running around among youngsters becomes such that the rink resembles a pinball game, the puck entirely incidental to proceedings. Oftentimes, adults in the stands go wild in encouragement of rock 'em, sock 'em 11-year-olds in whom they have invested so much time, money and (not infrequently) fantasies.
Earlier this year, York University kinesiologist Alison Macpherson recommended that children should play in non-bodychecking leagues until at least age 14, after finding that from 1995 to 2002 young players in Ontario, where bodychecking was allowed, were twice as likely to suffer injuries that required hospital treatment as their counterparts in Quebec, where it wasn't.
Her research also found no support for the proposition frequently put forward by bodychecking advocates that starting younger keeps players safer when they are older and larger.
In 2003, Toronto researchers Dr. Michael Cusimano and Anthony Marchie found rising incidence of traumatic brain injury in hockey, with consequences in young players not even fully understood until their developing brain matures.
They said bodychecking was the most common cause of trauma, accounting for 86 per cent of all injuries among players 9 to 15 years old. Players in contact leagues were four times more likely to be injured and (among 12- and 13-year-olds) 12 times more likely to receive a fracture as players in noncontact leagues.
Moreover, of reported injuries among 9- to 15-year-olds, more than half the injuries were caused by what were judged legal checks.
They said bodychecking should be banned until at least age 17 or 18, when most physical growth is complete and players can make "a mature, informed choice" about the risks.
It's almost impossible to imagine that if equal research were compiled about the risks to young children in any other activity, there wouldn't be parental howls for change.
But it's a safe bet that by the time next hockey season starts, Brent Hagel's work will be as wholly forgotten as that of all his predecessors.
Jim Coyle usually appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. |
This is one of those things I am really not proud of. |
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