Zooming in on female ice sports: Video-analyses examining head contacts and suspected injuries in ringette and ice hockey

Abstract

This MSc thesis includes three video-analysis studies focused on ringette and female ice hockey players. The first study used video-analysis to compare rates of game-related player-to-player physical contacts (PCs) including bodychecking, head contacts (HC; direct HC1 and indirect HC2), and suspected injuries between university-level ringette and female ice hockey competition. The main results demonstrate that ringette had higher rates of bodychecking, HCs, and suspected injuries compared to female ice hockey. Despite prohibition of bodychecking and HC1s, the proportion of bodychecks and HC1s that were assessed as penalties were low for both sports. The second study evaluated the same PC metrics in the elite youth population of ringette (U16AA) and female ice hockey (U15AA). The main results again demonstrate higher rates of bodychecking, HCs, and suspected injuries in ringette compared to female ice hockey, with low proportions of bodychecks and HC1s penalized. The third and final study evaluated PC metrics in youth ringette across two age groups (U16 and U19), two levels of play (A and AA), and three game types (regular season, provincials, and nationals). Overall, high rates of bodychecking and HCs were found in this population, with low proportions of bodychecks and HC1s penalized. There were no differences in rates of bodychecks or HCs between age groups. A lower rate of HC2s were found in AA when comparing to A. When evaluating game type, higher rates of bodychecks were found in provincials and nationals compared to regular season, and higher rates of HCs were found in provincials compared to nationals. Bodychecking was the most common mechanisms for suspected concussions (primarily resulting in an HC2) and non-concussion injuries. Overall, these studies reported high rates of bodychecking, HCs, and suspected injuries (including concussions) in ringette resulting in significant opportunities for future injury prevention research.