Come on. Here we have a panel saying ban all blows to the head. Below it says "outlaw hits to the head." Never before has a time been so ripe for change in youth ice hockey. Someone in a position to make this change happen has to step forward. What are your waiting for? I only have a voice. READ THE FIRST PARAGRAPH. This is from last month.
Hockey Urged to Ban All Blows to Head by Concussions Panel
(use the link to get all the bells and whistles)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/21/sports/hockey/21concussions.html
By JEFF Z. KLEIN
Published: October 20, 2010
ROCHESTER, Minn. — A conference on reducing concussions in hockey recommended prohibiting contact to the head at every level of the game, including the N.H.L., and banning body checking by 11- and 12-year-olds to reduce the high rate of concussions among youth players.
Chris Pronger is featured in a video of what the N.H.L. calls a legal shoulder check to the head, a prime source of concussions.
Related
As Injuries Rise, Scant Oversight of Helmet Safety (October 21, 2010)
If it happens on ice and it involves hitting and scoring, The Times's Slap Shot blog is on it.
Go to the Slap Shot Blog“Behavioral change, cultural change won’t happen overnight,” said a conference organizer, Dr. Michael J. Stuart, the chief medical officer for USA Hockey and the father of three sons who played in the N.H.L.
“The clock is ticking,” he said. “If we say we need additional long-term injury research to validate any kind of recommendation, there will be a lot of athletes who’ll suffer. So we decided, let’s make a move to effect change.”
The conference — the Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine Center Ice Hockey Summit: Action on Concussion — is the latest in a series among medical specialists, researchers and hockey officials aimed at preventing and treating concussions. Hockey trails only football in the number of reported concussions.
The N.H.L. put a rule in place this season that penalizes blindside hits to the head and checks that target the head. But checks that strike the head from the front remain legal.
The conference urged the N.H.L. and its minor leagues to join the International Ice Hockey Federation, the N.C.A.A. and the Ontario Hockey League in outlawing contact to the head.
“My role is to bring this information back to the league,” Dr. Ruben Echemendia, a neuropsychologist who is chairman of the N.H.L.’s concussion working group, said. “It’s not to make a recommendation, but to inform the league of the decisions made here.”
The N.H.L. averages about 75 concussions a season, said Dr. Paul Comper, a Toronto neuropsychologist and consultant for the players association.
“In my opinion, really what you should do is get rid of all targeted head hits,” Comper said. He called the N.H.L.’s adoption of its current head-checking rule “a step in the right direction.”
Kerry Fraser, who retired as a referee in April after 29 seasons, said banning hits to the head was necessary.
“The N.H.L. must outlaw head hits,” said Fraser, who criticized an N.H.L. explanatory video showing what the league called “an example of a legal shoulder check to the head.” In the clip, Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger uses his shoulder to strike the Rangers’ Jody Shelley in the head, snapping Shelley’s head.
According to statistics in Comper’s study, 60 percent of N.H.L. concussions come from checks delivered with the shoulder to the head.
The conference also strongly urged youth hockey officials to delay the age at which body checking is introduced to 13, two years later than the current age across the United States and in some provinces in Canada.
Dr. Carolyn Emery of the University of Calgary contrasted the concussion rate among 11- and 12-year-olds in Alberta, where body checking is allowed at that age, and Quebec, where it is not. In a study of an equal number of players, the Alberta players sustained four times as many concussions.
She estimated that if Alberta moved back the age, the 9,000 11- and 12-year-olds playing hockey there would sustain 300 concussions a year rather than the current 700.
“The evidence is irrefutable that delaying body checking until age 13 has significant benefits to the health of young players,” Emery said of her four-year study.
The conference’s recommendations also included the further refinement of concussion treatment and return-to-play protocols; a requirement that amateur coaches pass an annual course on concussions to be recertified; and warnings to consumers that helmets and mouthguards have limited value in preventing concussions.
The conference also recommended banning fighting at all levels of hockey, including the N.H.L., where Comper said fights result in 6 percent of reported concussions. But there seemed little prospect of that.
“You can hear the sounds of change,” said James R. Whitehead, executive vice president of the American College of Sports Medicine. “Historic, game-changing, breakthrough change.”
The conference was attended by leading concussion and brain-trauma researchers from North America and Europe, and other officials from USA Hockey, Hockey Canada, the International Ice Hockey Federation and the N.H.L., and biometricians involved in helmet research.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/21/sports/hockey/21concussions.html
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