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Is girls’ hockey too rough?

01/26/2018, 9:30am CST
By Kim McCullough, M.Sc, YCS

Coaches need to teach girls’ hockey players how to give and take contact properly.

For many years, people in the hockey world have thought of girls’ hockey as the “gentler” version of boys’ hockey. This is largely due to the fact that there is no full body checking in the female game and we don’t condone fighting either. However, with those two factors taken out, the games are remarkably similar. We have to look no further than the injury rates in both sports – which are statistically very similar – to know that the physical side of the game is both present and potentially dangerous to the sport.

As the girls participating in the female game become bigger, faster and stronger, the rate of injuries from collisions and contact will continue to grow. We’ve seen this in the male game, and it is certainly no different on the female side. However, I actually believe that players in the female game sustain a higher rate of injury from contact for two major reasons.

The first reason is that female players are rarely taught how to give and take contact properly. Since there is not “full” body checking, coaches believe that it is unnecessary to teach this physical aspect of the game. This is what is leading to such a high injury rate, in my opinion. Details like how to give contact safely close to the boards, how to angle properly in open ice and how to protect yourself in front of the net are rarely taught in the women’s game. If we aren’t taking the time to teach young female hockey players these critical skills, we can hardly be surprised if they aren’t able to execute them properly, and become injured as a result.

The second reason that the injury rate is so high in girls’ hockey, in my opinion, is that we have no way of slowing each other down. Let me give you a little background here. While there hasn’t been full body checking in the women’s game since 1990, we were allowed to obstruct and interfere with players on the ice. Things like setting a pick, hooking a players’ arm slightly and pushing people around in front of the net were legal. Then, when the NHL took out obstruction and interference in the mid 2000s, all of the minor hockey leagues, including the female leagues, did too. Luckily, on the boys’ side, you can still slow a player down by delivering a well-timed body check. One might argue that the loss of the ability to obstruct and interfere with players has improved the male game. I believe that the rule change has hurt the female game. 

If a female player has no way of slowing an opponent while in a race for or battle for the puck, what you really have is a game of “chicken.” Whoever gets to the space or puck first, wins that battle. The problem with this is that players now skate full speed to gain possession of the puck or the space, with very little regard to their own safety or the safety of their opponent. If we were still allowed to obstruct or interfere, I truly believe that many of these more serious injuries we are seeing in the female game from high speed collisions would be greatly reduced.   

I would venture to guess that the injury rate in women’s hockey has gone up since the rule change and that needs to be changed. And since the likelihood of going back to the old rules is low, coaches will need to do a much better job of teaching players how to give and take contact properly in order to keep the girls safe. 

 

To get complete access to articles, videos and secrets that addresses the specific needs of female hockey players, visit www.totalfemalehockey.com. Kim McCullough, MSc, YCS, is an expert in the development of aspiring female hockey players. She is a former NCAA Division I captain at Dartmouth and played in the National Women’s Hockey League for six years.  She is the Director & Founder of Total Female Hockey and the head coach of the Toronto-Leaside Junior Wildcats in the Provincial Women’s Hockey League (PWHL). 

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Tag(s): State Of Hockey  News  Kim McCullough