In the last 4 days alone, I’ve had 7 girls’ hockey parents email me with concussion concerns.  Some were worried that their daughter had one and others were scared they might end up with one.

It’s hockey season, which means it’s concussion season, so I thought I would send you some critical information about
the concussion problem in girls hockey and share my thoughts on some possible concussion solutions.

Did you know….

That girls’ hockey players are TWO TIMES more likely to suffer a concussion than male hockey players and almost THREE TIMES more likely than football players!

Last year, I shared these (and other) scary concussion statistics, as well as my own concussion story, with the media here in Toronto and the story spread like wildfire.

All that coverage sparked a great debate about WHY these injuries are happening and IF the research numbers are accurate.    It’s true that these stats came from a single study and don’t necessarily represent a trend across the entire female hockey world.  And after spending two years doing my master’s research on the brain activity of elite hockey
players, I know that researchers will sometimes skew their numbers towards the result they are looking for.

BUT the concussion stories that players, parents and coaches like you have shared with me tell me that these numbers are "bang-on":

I’ve heard heart-wrenching stories from parents who have had to help their 13 year-olds cope with the lingering effects of a head injury for over 6 months. I’ve heard from 16 year-olds who have had to quit hockey after suffering from
multiple concussions.  One university coach even told me that her team had 12 concussions in just 1 season!

These stats and stories tell me one thing…

==>  This is a problem that needs a solution NOW.

We can debate the statistics and the causes until we are blue in the face. But I am NOT willing to wait for more girls to sustain serious head injuries to support (or refute) the numbers before I start taking action.

And you shouldn’t wait either.

To tell you the truth, I am tired of talking about IF and WHY concussions are a problem in girls’ hockey.

They are.

So please read the important information below and please feel free to pass this along to any player, parent or coach who you think might benefit from reading it.

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What’s the most devastating injury in female hockey?

1) Knee injuries
2) Shoulder injuries
3) Back injuries

The answer is…

None of the above.

One injury has by far the most devastating effects of all.

Concussions are one the most common injuries in women’s hockey. In fact, the NCAA sport with the highest concussion rate (by far) iis women’s hockey. Not men’s hockey.  Not men’s football.

At the university level, female hockey players suffer 1 concussion for every 1000 "exposures" to the game - with each practice and game counting as one exposure. On a team of 20 players, that means 1 concussion every 50 exposures!

Female hockey players are TWO TIMES more likely to suffer a concussion than male hockey players and almost THREE TIMES more likely than football players.

Pretty amazing for a sport that doesn’t allow full body-checking, isn’t it?

Although statistics on younger players are harder to come by, I would guess that their concussion rate would be just as high (and maybe even higher) than with the women. Girls are having more exposures than ever to the sport - they compete on school teams, club teams, travel teams, Olympic development teams and weekend tournament teams.
Girls’ hockey players are playing just as much as the boys - but are getting hurt twice as often.

So what’s the solution?

* New helmets?
* Mouthguards?
* New rules?
* Neck exercises?

One injury researcher said that:

"If the numbers in women’s hockey are even close to correct, they should just stop playing until they figure out how to lower them".

I definitely wouldn’t go that far - but have to find a way to prevent these potentially devastating injuries from happening.

Knee, shoulder and back injuries can be devastating to a young player who wants nothing more than to play the sport they love at the highest level possible…But they rarely have the same long-term effects as a concussion.

=> So what’s the SOLUTION?

These are the 2 suggestions for prevention that I recommend
at all of the Concussion Clinics I run for teams and associations:

1)  Girls Have To Be Better Prepared Physically.

A lack of overall strength and conditioning is a big reason for the alarmingly high incidence of concussions in girls’ hockey.
The stronger a player is, the better she will be able to hold her ground when she is hit unexpectedly (which is how a large number of concussions happen in girls’ hockey).

By building better core stability, balance and overall strength, players are better able to control their bodies in space and
withstand the force of impact.

2)  Girls Need To Be Taught How To Take A Hit.

In every girls’ or women’s game I have ever watched or played, there is always at least one instance where I think,
"Good thing we don’t have full body-checking because that player would have been run-over".

The female game may not have full body-checking, but girls are going to get hit - and most of them have never been taught how to take a hit properly.  We are doing our players a great disservice by not teaching them how they can protect themselves if (and when) they do get hit.

If more coaches, teams and associations start showing girls how to take a hit properly, it will go a long way towards preventing concussions, as well as a whole slew of other injuries.

Bottom Line:

It is our responsibility to make sure that our players are prepared each and every time they step out on the ice.  If we don’t teach girls how to take a hit, or how to build strength and stability out on the ice, we can’t be surprised when they are getting hurt.
That’s why I’ve created a basic body-weight strength and stability program that players can use off the ice to make sure they are protected on the ice.  It will not only help prevent injuries, but also make the girls stronger, faster and better players.

To find out how this training program will help you "bullet-proof" your players, click on the link below:

==>  http://www.totalfemalehockey.com/strength.shtml

Work Hard, Dream BIG and Stay Safe.

Your friend and coach,

~ Coach Kim

Osgood Schlatter Disease (or O-S for short). This is a knee condition that many female hockey players deal with when going through their growth spurts and it can be very frustrating to deal with if not handled properly. The condition occurs in players aged 11-15, coinciding with periods of growth spurts. During a growth spurt, where the bones grow faster than the muscles and tendons do, there is increase stress on the patellar tendon that attaches the quadriceps muscle at the front of the thigh to the tibial tuberosity just below the knee.

Knee pain usually happens during running, jumping, squatting, and especially ascending or descending stairs and during kneeling. Initially the pain is mild and comes-and-goes but it can also be more severe and continuous. The symptoms usually go away with treatment, but may be ongoing for 12–24 months before the bones and muscles are finished maturing.

Enough of the medical mumbo-jumbo….how do we fix it?

First, the good news…

Although there is a lot of contact in hockey, it is technically not an impact sport. Girls with O-S usually have a lot of pain during running and jumping. This is because of the large amount of force that goes through the knee when they land on each stride or jump. Because hockey is a gliding sport, they don’t experience the same amount of impact with each stride. Many girls hockey players who feel pain from O-S when playing running-based sports will not feel pain while skating.

The bad news….

The recommended cure for the type of knee pain that results from Osgood-Schlatter disease is rest. Right….rest during the hockey season. I don’t know of many girls hockey players who are going to take a week or two off during the regular season to rest. Asking a young athlete to rest may be good for them physically, but it is absolute torture psychologically.

So what should a player do if her knee pain is preventing her from feeling and playing her best?

1. Stretch!

The quadriceps and hamstring muscles are going to be very tight in girls hockey players as they go through their growth spurts. Stretching these two muscle groups every single day (multiple times a day is preferable) is going to keep these muscles loose and decrease the amount of tension that is on the knee joint.

2. If it hurts, don’t do it (with exceptions)

When the pain is bad, try to avoid running and jumping as those are going to have a huge impact on the knee joint. However, players should still be able to participate in off-ice training. When players perform exercises like lunges and squats properly, there should be little pain through the knee.

Players must focus on keeping their weight through their heels when doing squatting and lunging movements instead of pushing up through their toes. This is tough for young hockey players to do since they play such a quad-dominant sport and athletes that are quad-dominant tend to push through their toes instead of their heels. Any good off-ice training specialist should be able to modify any squatting and lunging exercise so as to minimize the impact on a player’s knee.

There is no easy answer - but the key is going to be icing, rest (when appropriate), stretching and continuing to train off the ice.

For an off-ice training program that will keep you feeling and playing your best all season long, and will avoid putting too much pressure on injured knees, visit: http://www.totalfemalehockey.com/strength.shtml

Work Hard. Dream BIG. Train Smart.

~ Coach Kim

Most girls hockey players I know are just starting their off-season training (so if you’ve already been at it for a few months, you are way ahead of the game - and it will show in September). I have been receiving a lot of emails from girls who are coming off injuries or have just gotten hurt while playing summer hockey or another sport, looking for advice on how they can keep pace with their healthy teammates and still take their game to the next level this summer.

The first thing I always tell them is that you have to make the distinction between training THROUGH an injury and training WITH an injury. Let me explain…
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I spent this past weekend at a huge girls hockey prospects tournament and met hundreds of amazing young players who aspire to achieve great things on and off the ice. I also met a handful of players and their parents who had either recently sustained a concussion or suspected that they had a concussion, who were looking for guidance on when to return to the ice. This subject is near and dear to my heart as I have had 4 major concussions and have written about this topic many times over the past year. I always advise players and parents to air on the side of caution and stay away from the ice until they are symptom free. I am being 100% honest with them, but I also know that I am being a little bit hypocritical, having played through more than my fair share of suspected head injuries in my career. Back then, I knew it probably wasn’t the smartest decision, but that wouldn’t stop me from playing. Coincidentally enough, after spending the last 3 days taking about concussions with young players and their parents, today the New York Times reported on some new concussion guidelines that are causing some controversy.
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Girls hockey players who get injured during the season are constantly being given the same bad advice by their doctors. Telling an aspiring female hockey player to do this not only breaks the young athletes heart, but it is flat out wrong…
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In order to play hockey properly, you’ve got to have bad posture - but that doesn’t mean that you want to have bad posture away from the rink as well. In this video, I will show you why all girls hockey players need to have bad posture on the ice, but I am also going to show you 2 ways to fix it off the ice.

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The more girls hockey concussion stories that I hear, the more I realize how much players, parents and coaches are worried about coming back too fast after a concussion.  Here’s an email I got from a young player yesterday:

“I just suffered a concussion a week ago in a game last Friday.  I never thought that it was a problem with girls hockey.  I just hit my head really hard and thought that  it was weird for me to get one.  I am still having problems with post-concussive symptoms, and  the trainers told me I will be out of hockey for at least 2 weeks…and maybe longer.  Am I more prone to getting another concussion after this one has fully healed?

Girls hockey players aren’t just suffering from concussions at an alarmingly high rate.  They are also returning to the game too quickly and putting themselves at great risk for another concussion.  I came back too fast from a concussion back in college and it was one of the worst decisions I ever made.  

Here’s the advice I gave this player - the advice that I wish someone had given me…

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Would putting body checking back into girls’ hockey make it safer for players or would it do more harm than good?

Those who support body checking in girls’ hockey believe that this will teach girls to play with their heads up and prevent a lot of the serious injuries that are happening out on the ice from both accidental and intentional contact. Girls hockey players need to learn how to take a hit, but does that mean that they need to body check too?

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The concussion rate in girls hockey is downright scary. Studies have show that girls’ hockey players are 2 times more likely to suffer a concussion than male hockey players and almost 3 times more likely than football players.

I shared these numbers, and my own concussion story, with the local media and the story has spread like wildfire across North America. All this coverage has sparked a great debate about WHY these injuries are happening and IF the research numbers are accurate.

You can debate the statistics and the causes ‘til you are blue in the face.

But I am NOT willing to wait for more girls to sustain serious head injuries to support (or refute) the numbers before I start taking action. And you shouldn’t wait either.

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Girls hockey players know they are going to get hit out on the ice…but do they know how to protect themselves properly?

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