Research shows young hockey players in leagues that allow bodychecking are more likely to be injured. (Kevin Light/ CBC Sports)Canadian research presented in St. John's suggests that allowing hockey players to bodycheck at a young age results in more serious head injuries and doesn't appear to prevent checking injuries later in a player's career.

Researchers at the University of Calgary looked at more than 2,000 teenagers and children playing minor hockey in Quebec and Alberta during the 2007-08 season.

Bodychecking is introduced in the Quebec teams at age 13, but is permitted for 11-year-old players in Alberta.

Among 11- and 12-year-olds allowed to check, "what we found is that there was a three- to four-fold increase risk of all injuries, specifically of concussion and severe concussion," said Carolyn Emery, a physiotherapist and professor at the University of Calgary, who presented the study at a national physiotherapy conference on Saturday.

Carolyn Emery presented research on youth hockey bodychecking at a national physiotherapy conference in St. John's. (CBC)It would seem to make sense intuitively — less body contact means fewer injuries — but for years many youth hockey organizers have argued that children who learn to take a check early are less likely to suffer injuries later if they continue to play hockey.

Emery said the 10 researchers she led studied that argument. "Because in the following season we followed the same number of kids in bantam ice hockey [where checking is permitted], and our preliminary findings, that have been published, suggest that there's no difference in injury risk with two years of body checking experience," she said.

Emery said the 11- and 12-year-old players she looked at ranged in size from 70 to 180 pounds. She believes the size difference at that age is simply too great to allow checking.

"These findings may have important implications for policy decisions related to body checking in youth ice hockey," the researchers concluded in the paper, whose preliminary findings were released late last year and which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in June.