Hockey Injuries

[gman 0]

My wife and I just had a discussion. Our eldest son just said he wants to play pro hockey. THat is awesome news. I know full well the work and luck that is involved. I also know all about the competition and the odds against and all of that. He is young and there is a whole lifetime between now and then. I understand that.....

Our discussion revolved around career limiting injuries. In highschool I new guys who hurt thier necks wrestling right before they were to head to Iowa. I knew friends in college who blew knees playing football and others who played soccer did the same thing.

Please tell me what I can look foreword to and look out for in terms of hockey. It does not seem that knees are as frequently injured, though I have been keeping up with the ACL thread. What are the injuries that limit careers even before they start??

[BK 0]

Theres too many to list..

Vital bone breaks, Neck and spine injuries, concussions, hip injuries etc. The worst IMO is knee injuries, because even if you "heal", its just never the same.

A great workout plan is essential to preventing injuries. Nhl players spend almost as much time in the gym as they do on the ice. Building a strong body will PREVENT a lot of injuries, but a lot of time.. it all comes down to gods will.

[gman 0]

Well that is kind of what I figured. I am pretty sure I can handle the strong body aspect. But the rest will just have to be seen. Thanks.

[Dougie8 0]

How old is he right now?

[A_Steeves12 0]

like stated knee injurys another bad one IMO is shoulder injurys. of couarse there are broken bones and such too.

[Miike 1]

like stated knee injurys another bad one IMO is shoulder injurys. of couarse there are broken bones and such too.

broken arms especially eh

[Jason Harris 31]

Generally, very few injuries in hockey are career threatening.

However, something like 20-30 times a year throughout North America, players crash into the boards and snap their neck. One of the problems, apparently, is people intuitively turtle as they're sliding (or, worse, are pushed) into the boards, yet we're supposed to keep our head up to absorb the blow.

It's tragic but it's rare.

[gman 0]

How old is he right now?

He's only ten, hence the conversational tone of my wife's and my discussion. We have a very very long way to go and in all likelihood nothing will ever come of it. And that will be fine if that is how it turns out. It just sparked an interesting, I thought, topic and I thought I would post here to see what you all had to write about it.

I am very sorry to hear about the necks. I would have thought that football would be the major culprit of neck and spine injuries. I can deal with broken bones, but the joint injuries, and obviously the spinal ones, really concern me. Are most of the knee injuries from lateral contact or from "catching and edge" and twisting as in skiing??

How do the injuries compare between ice and roller?? I am sure there are more ice injuries as more people play it, but are there any studies comparing per player hour to injury?

Thanks again for everyone's input.

[Langenbrunner15 0]

Ice= much worse case senario injuries IMO..

At least in roller hockey when you go flying, you don't fly into the boards at topspeed, you just stop on the floor at rip your skin

[gman 0]

I can deal with ripped skin. I raced bicycles in college.... Bones can set and heal eventually. It is those pesky tendons, ligaments and cartilage that give me nightmares.

[jjtt99 0]

I can deal with ripped skin. I raced bicycles in college.... Bones can set and heal eventually. It is those pesky tendons, ligaments and cartilage that give me nightmares.

Your right -- bones and muscles can heal themselves. (Provided the bone is set correctly.) It's the ligaments, tendons and cartilage that are never the same after they're severly damaged.

Hence, knees, wrists, shoulder, and of course neck injuries are worrysome. Add concussions to that list as well.

Oh the good ole' hockey game!

[Harrycaray 0]

i was reading through this and had a bit of concern, i play high school hockey and hurt my hips quite a bit, it gets to the point where i couldnt reach out my window at the bank, is that a common injury. it has since passed and i havent had a problem in a few months but can it come back later in my life as a threat because of hockey?

thanks in advance

[teamriot38 0]

yeah some of the worst I've seen in roller has been broken collar bones or dislocated shoulders, non eof which are career threatening.

I have to say ice is much more injury prone, and my worst fear for children growing up are concussions. Their not that uncommon and if you get one to many of those you turn into the sloth from the goonies or worse. The knee injury part i can deal with. I have frayd ligaments in my knee right now and I need ortho for it whenever the season ends I just wear a brace right now and it's tolerable during games. I've had worse injury's though. A while back i got hit in the face with a hockey puck and shattered my orbital bone. That cost me a pretty penny, (www.myspace.com/codygengler) i am now a strong advocate of facemask wearing at all times. ;)

[biff44 0]

Me and my wife have had the same discussion. Basically what we came up with was the following 4 point plan, which has seemed to work pretty well so far for 4 years of junior hockey.

1) You need to be in good physical shape. Not just that you can play a full 60 minute game! But that your WHOLE BODY is in shape. There are plenty of muscles that a hockey player almost never uses. These are the muscles that inevitably come into play when he is hip checked into the boards and about to collide with a very hard thing.

How do you insure this? You sign him up for a full summer (3 or 4 sessions per week) with the best strength training coach you can find. He will evaluate your son and probably put him on a 3 step program. Step 1: fix those muscles that are weak and inflexible. After a month, Step 2: Work the whole body. and for the final month Step 3: really work on explosiveness, agility, etc.

Most hockey players have very poor back muscles, for instance, since they are doing everything in the front of their body.

2) Make sure he is looking around CONSTANTLY instead of staring at the puck. The top 10 most spectacular hits I have seen occurred when the player was staring at his feet and did not see the freight train coming! So, does he constantly look around, head on a swivel? If so, go to step 3. If not, get some sort of stickhandling ball, have his stick handle constantly, and every time he looks down at the ball give him a jolt with a cattle prod.

3) You have to know how to fall! Some people naturally know how to do it. My kid did not, so we stuck him in Judio class for 2 years. Eventually he gave up the judo, but he still remembers how to fall in around 50 different ways.

4) Take some boxing lessons! Eventually a pro will get into a fight, and if he turns turtle the scouts do not approve! If he stands and does not know how to fight, bravo, but it can be costly!

Fighting on the ice is pretty easy. Boxing on a mat requires all sorts of foot work. Boxing on the ice does not. You just want to stay up, know how to grab on, deflect some punches, and lay on the haymaker if your oponent is unskilled. There are plenty of borderline fighting moves that even pro fighting refs have trouble seeing but could save your butt. Get some private lessons with an experienced boxing coach in some dingy fighting hall!

Good luck.

[ktnumber13 0]

hmmm iv had a broken wrist and concussion in inline hockey. in ice iv sprained my ankel and really really messed up my knee. it is right what u say that knees never heal proper cos a year still on any new big impact on my knee and im out of action for a week and its affected my flexibility big style too. it still crunches as well.

but iv seen a lot more injuries in inline than ice, but i play inline to a much higher level then ice so maybe thats why.

[QandA 0]

So, my high school program isn't the greatest in the world, and well I was in grade 8 and I was a half decent, or so I'd like to think. Anyways, my brother was two years older and he played on the team. Well I was about 5'2" and no more than 85 pounds and somehow I managed to survive a season without getting hurt. Just learn to brace myself from hits, and took them right and I was good. Sure I got rocked, but it didn't hurt me at all.

[iceholes 0]

watched a guy on my team last nigh take a stick over the side of his helmet and shield then the blade proceeded to slice the skin between his Nostrils. In the ER they had to call a specialist ...ear nose and throat,.... took three attempts to get good stitching...three stitches...yank em out, two stitches, yank em out...get about 10 more ...all set... wasnt fun as the numbing was wearing off..

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.he bought a cage this morning

[twiztidwrista10 3]

Sprained my left ankle and knee pretty good last night. During races I caught an edge and went into the boards with my left leg first at top speed. Not fun. Any tips on healing quickly, recovery and all that.

[SR27 0]

Adding my two cents I can say that injuries aren´t a big factor for age groups under say 11 or 12 at least over here cause real competion starts at age 15 +/-). From then on it depends a lot on conditioning and work out as Biff44 already said.

When I played junior I was practicing daily (between 1 and 2 hours on ice and up to 1 hour off ice) and during summers we spend 4 hours a day doing sprints, various gymastics, basketball and other off ice stuff. Through that time I had no serious injuries other sthen stress related muscle strains and that sort of stuff. It started when I was focusing more on other things in life as well as school and my job later on. You slumb your workouts etc or don´t have enough time for them. When I stopped playing competitive hockey and was off for about 2~3 years and then started again, playing roller, ball and beer league the problems really began. Only 1 hour of practice per week which is mainly 5 minutes of warmups and then some scrimmages, etc. And maybe 2 games per month. Your body is out of shape and you get injured. In the last 5 years I had two knee surgeries, had a broken foot, a dislocated shoulder, back problems, a cast on my right wrists for 3 weeks and now a torn ACL. As you can see most of these injuries were caused by lack of supporting muscles. Pros spent a lot of time on shaping shaping their body and they got specialists that help them do the right things. That´s a real bonus and really important as you can see.