Research Paper On Ice Hockey

Ice hockey is recognized as the national winter sport of Canada. It is a fast-paced, continually growing sport that requires courage, athletic ability, and determination to master. It is contended at various levels. Usually, any sport at the beginning starts with children playing amongst each other to have fun. At the highest level, the endless hours of hard training and practice are crucial for an athlete to perform to their full potential. Stickhandling, shooting, passing, skating and body-checking are some of the important skills required. Even at the novice level, hitting is considered to be the most important aspect of the game overweighing the importance of various other skills. This causes a ton of controversy amongst the young players.
Sport contributes to child’s psychological and social development. However, playing ice hockey involves many risks especially for young children. According to Marchie and Cusimano (2003), “Since most physical growth is not complete before a person is 17 or 18 years old, body checking and hitting should be banned until at least that age.” (p. 126). Body contacts in the game can start at the age of 11 or 12. At this age, the players are at the beginning of their growth spurt. Even though players of similar age contest in the game, the differences in their physical and athletic abilities can be huge, giving the bigger players a great advantage. At this stage, coaches and trainers should take responsibility to inform and encourage the children to focus on developing fundamental skills of ice hockey. While participating in an event, children discover their strengths and weaknesses by competing with the highly skilled athletes. It motivates them to push harder and perform to their full potential. It also helps them to become more socially active and develop mutual trust and friendship amongst their teammates. At least at the beginning of a player’s career which is below the age of 13, hockey should be seen as an opportunity to learn, practice and master skills rather than an opportunity to implement body-checking as a part of game
124). Concussions are caused as a result of a direct hit to the head or to the connecting veins to the brain, particularly the neck. Some coaches argue that checking is an important game strategy. It is a defensive tactic used to regain the possession of the puck. However, young athletes are still in the process of learning fundamental skills such as skating, shooting, and passing. Engaging them in the practice drills of body-checking can lead to the repeated mild brain injuries resulting in cumulative deficits and fatal lifetime consequences. These range from a brief period of neutral dysfunction to the loss of consciousness. Symptoms may include a headache, visual normalities, motor and sensory changes and seizures. A Young developing brain is at an even higher risk of injury. These repeated head hits can even lead to permanent learning disabilities and other neurological and psychiatric problems. Therefore, it is important to understand the seriousness of a head injury and monitor the consequences closely, before allowing any player to return to the