A study shows "significant decrease of all injury" when comparing peewee players who bodycheck with those who don't. (Kevin Light/CBC Sports)A joint university study suggests a case can be made for raising the bodychecking age and limiting bodychecking leagues across the board.
Using Alberta and Quebec as examples, the study shows that peewee hockey players in a checking league are more likely to get injured and even more likely to get a concussion than players in non-checking leagues.
“Essentially we’re seeing a significantly increased risk of all injury,” said Dr. Carolyn Emery, from the department of kinesiology at the University of Calgary.
Peewee, ages 11 and 12, is when bodychecking begins in Alberta — players in Quebec don’t bodycheck until bantam, and even then it's only introduced at the elite levels of the game.
Emery, along with colleagues from the University of Calgary, McGill University, and the University of Laval, tracked 2,200 peewee players from both provinces for the entire 2007-08 season to measure injury frequency.
What they found was that peewee players in Alberta were 2.5 times more likely to get hurt and 3.5 times more likely to suffer a concussion than the peewee players they tracked in Quebec. Albertans playing peewee hockey were also three times more likely to sustain injuries that kept them off the ice for more than a week.
Players were most likely to get hurt after a hit in Alberta, and as a result of incidental contact in Quebec.
“It’s exactly what we expected to find,” said Emery. “It’s consistent with the literature [out there].”
It adds up to more long-term effects for peewee players in checking leagues if they get caught with their head down.
“Having a concussion increases your risk significantly of another concussion,” Emery said. “And some kids are dropping out of hockey because of concussions, fractures and other severe injuries.”
Quebec model
The three-year study is only in its first year, so there isn’t enough data to make a formal recommendation, Emery said. But early findings point her to the Quebec model as perhaps the better system, and perhaps one that should be incorporated nationally.
“It’s possible that Quebec has it right — bodychecking not just by age group but by skill of play.”
If the injury results remain consistent between the two provinces at the bantam levels, Emery said, it might be enough for the group to make a recommendation for the Quebec model to be adopted nationally.
Perry Cavanagh, president of Hockey Calgary, wasn’t surprised by the findings.
“That’s the expectation we would have seen — there’s nothing shocking or revealing in the outcome,” he said. “The reality is, you put a bunch of kids together in a playing area, odds are the group that [hits] is going to have a higher injury rate.”
Cavanagh said it's too early to say whether the bodychecking age level should be moved higher — but right now, he thinks it’s where it should be.
“It’s the draft pool for the beginnings of the elite hockey system of our country — hockey becomes hockey at bantam. Physically, they’re better prepared to handle it [if they’re hitting at peewee],” he said.
Cavanagh also said that to prevent injuries, it’s important for kids just entering the checking age to be educated on how to hit.
“Parents and coaches and players need to understand that there’s a whole myriad of options available to them before they administer the full-blown bodycheck,” he said. “And they need to be focusing their efforts in those areas before this big 'Hollywood' check at centre ice takes place.”