Allowing body checks in Peewee hockey more than triples the risk that players will be badly hurt, finds a new study that will likely fuel the debate about whether kids should be allowed to check.
The study compared the rates of injury between players in Alberta Peewee leagues, which allow body checking, and Quebec leagues, which don't. All the players were 11 and 12 years old.
The study followed the top 74 Alberta teams (1,108 players) and the top 76 Quebec teams (1,046 players) for the entire 2007-2008 hockey season, recording how many injuries occurred during games and practices.
They found that Alberta Peewee players suffered almost three times as many injuries during games as Quebec players. (There was no difference between provinces for practice-related injuries.)
The study's lead author, Prof. Carolyn Emery, a sport epidemiologist, says she undertook the study to understand how checking changes the game for kids.
"The two leagues provided an excellent opportunity to study the public health impact of concussion and injury associated with body checking, and the facts speak for themselves," said Emery, who is a professor in the University of Calgary's Faculty of Kinesiology and Faculty of Medicine. She's also a coach and a hockey mom.
Her research team found that Alberta Peewee players suffered 209 game-related injuries during the '07-'08 season, compared to only 70 Quebec players. Those rates were similar for:
- severe injuries: 51 among Alberta players, compared to 16 among Quebec players
- concussions: 73 among Alberta players, compared to 20 Quebec players
- severe concussions that left players unable to play for more than 10 days: 14 among Alberta players, compared to four Quebec players.
Emery says if checking were eliminated in Peewee hockey in Alberta, over 1,000 game-related injuries could be avoided each year among the 8,826 players registered. As well, over 400 game-related concussions per year could be avoided.
The research, which was done in collaboration with researchers from McGill University and Laval University, will be published in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The debate over when to start allowing checking in kids' hockey is often a volatile one, with strong advocates on either side of the debate.
Last winter, Calgary Peewee hockey player Ash Kolstad was flattened by a blow to the head and sustained a severe concussion. Due to post-concussion symptoms, he has been unable to resume his normal life and only recently returned to school.
Despite this, his mother, Rosalie, an employee at the University of Calgary, wouldn't want to see bodychecking removed from the Peewee game.
"I don't think that bodychecking is the problem," Rosalie Kolstad said in a University of Calgary news release. "Bodychecking is part of the game. Part of the problem might be players not knowing how to bodycheck which results in headshots or hits from behind, and I'm disappointed that some coaches and parents in the stands cheer those kinds of hits."
