Date of Award
10-11-2024
Publication Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.Sc.
Department
Kinesiology
Supervisor
David Andrews
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
It has been hypothesized that repetitive, sub-concussive head impacts are more detrimental to youth athletes than adults. The majority of previous research to quantify the severity of head impacts in sport has focused on football, despite hockey having one of the highest concussion rates of any sport, and most studies have utilized sensor-based technologies, which have been shown to have concerns related to accuracy and reliability. It has also been hypothesized that by anticipating imminent collisions players may be better able to brace themselves and reduce head impact severity. Consequently, this study set out to collect in-field data on youth hockey players using seven GoPro Hero9 cameras to determine and describe the type (e.g., head-to-head, head-to-ice, head-to-body), frequency, cause (e.g., checking, attempted checking, collision, fighting), and location (e.g., sides, back, front, top) of head impacts and to quantify the anticipation response of players. Data were collected for 21 games at the U15C, U15A and U16A levels across the 2023-2024 hockey season. The primary cause, type, location and anticipatory response of impact was checking (50.4%), head-to-board impacts (55.6%), side impacts (63.1%) and unanticipated impacts (67.0%), respectively. Players at the higher levels of play experienced more impacts compared to lower-level players, however there were no differences in impacts experienced by players overall between the three periods within the games played. These descriptive findings provide crucial information regarding the extent of the head impacts that may be occurring in youth ice hockey, as well as how those impacts are occurring throughout a season. This knowledge can be utilized to develop head injury prevention strategies for youth hockey players.
Recommended Citation
Roberts, Emily, "Multi-camera video analysis of head impacts in youth hockey" (2024). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 9422.
https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/9422