Reuters – Lisa Rapaport
“Concussion rates in youth hockey may be similar to the injury risk with other high-contact sports, though many of the collisions in hockey appear to result from illegal moves on the ice, a U.S. study suggests. Overall, the players experienced about 1.6 concussions for every 1,000 minutes of participation time, the study found. That amounts to around one injury for roughly every 10 hours of practice and competition. Players aged 12 to 14 years old were more than twice as likely to get concussions as teens aged 15 to 18, the study also found. This may be due to greater disparities in size, strength and speed among younger athletes as well as less familiarity with checking, or defensive hits designed to capture the puck, said lead author Anthony Kontos, a concussion researcher at the University of Pittsburgh.”(more)