I. INTRODUCTION Ice hockey is a sport played on ice, often within the confines of a rink. The sport is played with two teams on skates who use sticks to shoot a puck at a net to score, only occurring when the puck gets past the goaltender. The game is played with usually five skaters on the ice, plus the goaltender. Three of these players are usually forwards, while two are defenders. This game moves at a fast pace where players are on the ice for usually 45 seconds at a time before a line change occurs, where the players on the ice come off and a new set of players go on [1]. The offensive line is on the ice to get the puck to the other team’s zone and shoot on the goaltender. The defensive line is on the ice to protect the goaltender and …show more content…
assist in preventing the other team from scoring. Often times a defensive move used by players is hitting or checking their opponent with the intent to disrupt the play and not injure the opponent. Biomechanics is the study of the structure and function of biological systems by means of the methods of mechanics, a branch of physics involving analysis of the actions of forces.
Biomechanics allows the study of ice hockey to occur. In terms of ice hockey, biomechanics can be used to study a players shot, a goaltenders movement, line changes where players jump over the boards to get on and off the ice, and impacts. Multiple options are available in regards to recording biomechanical values during ice hockey play. These options often include instruments with the player’s helmet, which do not disrupt the player’s movement. Other options being used are accelerometers attached to the players extremities. Currently studies in ice hockey are looking at head impacts and the injuries connected to those impacts. These impacts are often categorized between event type, impact location, and impact object. These categories are helpful in determining what happened to cause the impact, once the impact is determined biomechanics is used to determine liner and rotational accelerations. The values that are calculated for the linear and rotational accelerations can be used to determine if head injury is likely for similar events or if a head injury occurred during the event …show more content…
recorded. II. HEAD INJURY PREDICTORS Head injury occurs when exposure to loads that exceed load capacities of the natural body protection including, bone, soft tissue, and other protective substances within the body. Results of head injuries can be minor, severe, and even fatal [2]. Biomechanical studies are used to determine values of translational and rotational acceleration. Based off of the values for acceleration the stresses and strain on the brain can be calculated. Issues with these values include the change in acceleration and stress due to direct and indirect contact events. Translation and rotational acceleration can cause different injury types. Translational acceleration has been known to cause intracranial pressure gradients as well as skull fracture. Pressure gradients is a known cause for concussions, and skull fracture can only occur with translational acceleration and direct impact events. Rotational acceleration has proven to be able to cause many brain injuries except for skull fractures and epidural hematoma, which is where the brain bleeds and accumulates [2]. Rotational acceleration has been tied to cause many brain injuries. The brain has a naturally occurring viscoelastic material, used a dashpot that prevents rapid rotation of the brain during high rotational acceleration events [2]. Researchers often times will use head tissue level response to determine injury rather than kinematics. Stresses and strains, head tissues responses, are directly related to head injuries but are difficult to measure and impossible to measure noninvasively. Thresholds are available for the brain pressure that cause injuries, these values are not commonly agreed on yet though due to the immense research currently ongoing. Brain pressure can cause bleeding, concussions, and strokes. Shear stress is a common belief for brain injury and can be the most detrimental injury predictor. Injury predictors are being studied currently to determine how head injuries are occurring. Once these predictors are determined values and thresholds for these predictors can be recorded and published. Without predictors being determined first the values recorded for biomechanical models have no true meaning. III. MEASUREMENT & ANALYZATION OF BIOMECHANICS IN ICE HOCKEY There are many challenges that exist in numerical studies of ice hockey biomechanics. Some of these challenges include the motion of skating, and unique on-ice conditions. Researchers have studied skating mechanics through treadmill skating as well as synthetic ice settings. It is presumed that treadmill skting and on-ice skating is not identical as seen in treadmill and over ground running [3]. When performing analysis between treadmill and ice skating, there are difference in stride rate, stride length, and heart rate and movement is constantly linear. Ice hockey in game settings includes accelerations, direction changes, and sudden stopping and crossovers, which are impossible on a treadmill [3]. The study done by Buckeride and others required 18 skaters, nine varsity level players and nine recreational players. The player’s weight and height were similar while age was statistically different. All the skates used in the 15 repetitions of 30 m forward skating study were sharpened prior to the study by the same person. A 3D accelerometer was placed on the right skate, in the center where the skating edge is located, while the muscle activity of five muscle bellies in the right leg were recorded through surface electrodes. Placement of the electrodes were on the tibialis anterior, medial gastrocnemius, vastus medialis, vastus lateralis, and gluteus medius, where the skin was cleaned, shaved and a spacing of 22 mm between electrodes was used. Foot pressure was measured with instrumented insoles with 99 pressure sensors, and biaxial electrogoniometers was used to measure hip and knee flexion. All data was recorded in a backpack weighing 4 kg [3]. Data was analyzed for the 18 subjects where the second and sixth stride data was used for acceleration and steady state values respectively. This data was marked as accelerative and steady-state portions of forward skating, ice contact was determined via vibration recorded with maximum force production in the foot and muscle activity was greatest, as well as vibrational amplitudes in skate accelerometer. This shows just how hard it is for data to be collected in traditional on-ice hockey settings and the amount of equipment that must be used, equipment that cannot be used in a game setting. In a game setting accelerometers need to be incorporated into the helmet and not interfere with player activity, the issue being only head biomechanics is studied in this instance and no motion biomechanics of the player is recorded. IV. MEASUREMENT OF HEAD IMPACT KINEMATICS USING ICE HOCKEY HELMETS Helmet instrumentation is used to determine the biomechanics of head injury, mainly concussions the most common head injury in athletic settings. The issue with head injury is that repeated injury has recently proven to be fatal and thus the Center of Disease Control and Prevention has determined brain injury as a research priority. The most commonly used system for head biomechanics within a helmet is the head impact telemetry (HIT) system, for both football and hockey settings. A newer technology for measuring translational and rotational acceleration is the gFore Tracker (GFT) which uses a triaxial accelerometer and gyroscope [4]. The system was fit with four sensors to two different hockey helmets the Easton S9 and the Bauer RE-AKT and fit according to USA Hockey rules to an impact dummies head. The data recorded for the trial was stored on board the sensors and uploaded via USB after testing occurred. A pneumatic linear impactor was used to hit the helmet at 1.5, 2.5, 3.75, and 5 m/s on the four sides of the helmet. Data that was recorded was raw and did not get fit to a regression to account for the center of gravity for the head. The helmet is not attached directly to the head and thus a rigid body system cannot be used. Two regressions were used to estimate the center of gravity of the head, due to the importance of injury relation. The issue with using data that is not related to the center of gravity is the measured data is much higher than the brain experiences. The edge of the helmet is a distance from the center of gravity and thus has a moment arm and experience greater values, these values also do not account for energy dissipation of the helmet and some helmet movement increasing sensor error. The system did record rotational acceleration well though as the moment arm increases this value and can thus be used to estimate the values seen on the outer brain [4]. V. HEAD IMPACT BIOMECHANICS IN YOUTH HOCKEY As previously discussed repeated head injury can cause fatal results and thus researchers are trying to develop relation between head impact in youth hockey and head injury.
This study was completed using 52 Bantam and Midget hockey players, 13-14 years of age and 15-16 years of age respectively [5]. Players were required to were instrumented helmets for the duration of two seasons where data was captured for 12,253 head impacts. The system used to instrument the helmets was the HIT system, which uses an on-board algorithm to create the Head Impact Technology severity profile (HITsp) [5]. Data was collected for acceleration values, player position, event type, and head impact location. Six-single axis accelerometers, a battery pack, and the telemetry instrumentation was attached to either a Reebok RBK 6K, 8K, or Easton Stealth S9 hockey helmet which was checked for proper fit biweekly. All data was time stamped, encoded, stored locally, and transmitted wirelessly to a sideline
controller. Data was reduced using Matlab, using a cutoff of a linear acceleration threshold of 10 g. The HIT system records acceleration in both linear and rotational settings to calculate the HITsp. Impacts to the top of the head were defined at a 65° angle from the horizontal plane, front and rear head impacts were defined as a hit within 65° on either side of the sagittal plane. Within the 52 players, 35 forwards and 19 defensemen were recorded [5]. a. EFFECTS OF PLAYER POSITION There was no statistical difference observed for difference in player positon, this extends to defensemen and forwards, in regards to linear and rotational acceleration of the on-board calculation of HITsp [5]. b. EFFECTS OF EVENT TYPE When comparing youth hockey games and youth hockey practices there was a statistical difference in values. The rotational acceleration between the two event types was recorded, where impacts during games was higher than impacts recorded during practices. Similarly the same relationship was seen when comparing the values for the HITsp. There was no statistical difference recorded in translation acceleration [5]. c. EFFECTS OF HEAD IMPACT LOCATION Impacts recorded to the top of the head were greater statistically in terms of linear acceleration then to the back or side of the head, where rotational acceleration differed across all four regions. Contrasting these results, translation acceleration was greater on the front, back, or sides of the head than recorded at the top of the head [5].
OUTLINE Thesis: Although most hockey athletes believe that by wearing required equipment keeps them safe from injury, however I believe that these regulations should be stricter because of the severity of recent and past injuries. Introduction: Are equipment regulations enough to keep our hockey athletes safe? I. Injuries a. Richard Zednik b. Clint Malarchuk c. Bill Masterton II. History of Equipment a. Pre 1950 b. 1960-1970
Hockey is the game played with the curved stick and it is found in every culture. It has been a part of the Canadian and North American culture for over a hundred years. Hockey has developed from the original six to thirty teams, and many leagues. One thing that is prominent in hockey is the hit on the opposing player when he has the puck. Checking can be defined as using physical force to either gain possession of the puck or to disrupt the opposition’s play without breaking the rules. Checking has been a part of hockey since the beginning. Recently, there has been much controversy over whether or not checking in hockey should be banned. In the year 2005 and 2006 there were many rules and regulations added to checking that were not penalized before. Checking has made the hockey game more interesting game and also has given the opportunity to players to play more with minimal stoppage. I believe that checking should not be banned because medical science has gotten the ability to heal all injuries that occur in sports, players know in advance that there is high risk in the activity, and it allows a fan to sublimate his aggressive tendency.
2014 Issues Analysis By Dino Nuker Sport Safety: Should headgear be made mandatory for all contact sports? Injuries are common in most sports that have a contact component attached. Whether it’s at a professional level, or a school level, injuries are always bound to occur in contact sport. This analysis will look into the role headgear could, should and would play, and debates whether it should be made mandatory. Olympic sports such as Ice Hockey, Bicycle Riding and Baseball are just some examples that currently require athletes to wear a form of headgear.
American football is full of exciting competition, but do we realize the danger! Helmet safety in football remains an immense problem as the sport accounts for the highest incidence of concussions. Since leather football helmets, the technology for safer helmets has improved drastically and continue to improve. The development of newly designed helmets and technology has lowered the risk of head injuries for players. Furthermore, improvements in helmet testing methods have led to better understanding head injuries and the protectiveness of the helmet. In respect, football helmet safety still remains a challenge, such as a necessity of a proper categorization system to rank helmets and regulations to improve helmet safety. Regardless, standards and regulations attempt to address helmet safety through government intervention and a proper measuring system for football helmets. Despite the cultural perception of football, measures are taken to ensure safety, such as the reforms and education with regards to playing safer football. I intend to address the technological advances and regulation of football towards the discussion of helmet safety. Therefore the aggresivity in football’s culture should embrace stronger helmet standards and regulation that are promoted through improved testing methods and innovations because of the need to prevent further dangerous head injuries, especially concussions.
Millions of people are registered throughout North America for participation in Canada’s national sport and pastime, ice hockey. Most young hockey players have the dream of making it to the National Hockey League (NHL). Because of this incentive to keep striving towards their ultimate goal in their hockey career, they idolize the players in the NHL. Therefore, youth players may obtain certain habits from the elite, whether those habits are good or bad. Some cases are of bad influences, such as young players obtaining the dirty playing habits of the professionals. The primary action that influences the youthful population is body checking. With the thought of losing a game, it is no wonder why players have the urge to play rough and potentially hurt the opposing team in order to be victorious. For that reason, hockey is a strong collision sport that requires great skill and motivation. Although body checking is believed to be a useful tool in the winning of hockey games, it can be the cause that leads to injury among players. Because of the rougher play, lasting brain injuries are becoming a worry and too many players are exposed to the lasting effects of the head injury. According to Michael Cusimano July 22, 2003 the article entitled “Body Checking and Concussions” states, “With the rising incidence of traumatic brain injury in hockey, too many players are exposed to the lasting effects of such injuries, some of which are not fully realized until the brain completes its maturation.” For this reason, new equipment and regulations need to be devised for use in the near future.
The goal is to achieve and to attain certain knowledge of concussions and proper helmet safety and to propose new suggestions to help decrease the incidence of sports-related concussions.
("N.F.L. Players’ Union Weighs the Benefits and the Pitfalls of Helmet Sensors. This technology helps prevent a player with a concussion that he doesn’t know about from continuing to play during that game and cause more damage to his head that can last forever. Another good advancement is helmets that have a design that uses energy-managing materials and a facemask attachment system that disperses energy from frontal impacts. This helps prevent the head from taking the main part of the blow and disperses the energy to lessen the likelihood of becoming seriously injured from a hit. These types of helmets have a certain shelf life meaning you can only use them for so many years before they have to be replaced, this is beneficial so that the equipment stays up to the new standards of safety for the players as well as prevents them from becoming stressed over the years and breaking.
Men also had greater magnitudes of contact compared to their female counterparts. Unfortunately most injuries in ice hockey are from blunt force or direct contact. Concussions are the most common injury in men’s and women’s collegiate hockey. Interestingly enough is that women’s hockey showed a higher rate of concussions than men’s hockey. The study pointed out various options for head-impact mechanisms in ice hockey. The playing area is solid ice and the boards surrounding the area consist of rigid boards. Pucks, when shot, can go over the speed of 80mph. Players can possibly exceed speeds of 30mph. Lastly, because ice hockey is a full contact sport, players are purposefully trying to collide with one another. All of these issues are reasonable mechanisms of head-injuries. This article also references another article which classifies concussion mechanisms in ice hockey into seven categories. These seven categories are: contact with another player, contact with the ice, contact with the boards or glass, contact with a stick, contact with the puck, contact with the goal, and no apparent contact. In this article's study about half of recorded
Turning, stopping, and making lateral movements are extremely easy to do on ice, but roller hockey is completely different. In roller hockey there is no such thing as making a tight turn or stopping on a dime, because the wheels just slide out from underneath the player. The stopping technique for roller hockey is basically the same as ice hockey, but the player slides a little before coming to a complete halt.
Helmets drastically reduce the tremendous number of deaths caused by head injuries as well as reducing the severity of any ...
Across numerous sports in the world, helmets are a staple of safety. Assumed to be a benefit, most athletes do not consider the risks of a helmet; both mental and physical risks. Society tells us that no matter what; a helmet will be safer than being exposed to harmful elements. There is also the idea that helmets are beneficial, but the way athletes use them causes more injuries than if a helmet had not been used at all. This culture, using your helmet as a tool, encourages more risky behavior for helmet wearers. Adventure writer and pilot, Lane Wallace argues that football culture is to blame for current helmet use, and that helmets are beneficial in her article “Do Sports Helmets Help or Hurt?” In his article “Disposable Heroes”, Neurologist David Weisman reasons that the worst helmets might be a better solution than better helmets.
Hockey is a very physical sport. Players are skating on ice at fast speeds. Players have to be aggressive in this sport which causes frequent collisions. Most players experience concussions in practice, usually starting off as a headache. The younger the player, the more likely they are to suffer with from a concussion. Most of the time, if a player suffers a traumatic brain injury in hockey, its the result of an illegal hit. Former NHL player,
Even though the advantages of the helmet designs are extensive, the football players are put in dangerous and sometimes unexpected situations on the field. Players are running and hitting each other at full speed while not taking into consideration what they are doing, and considering the consequences. Sometimes with head related injuries, these players may not feel any symptoms until later on in the day, or even day...
each end is a cage, or goal which the players try to hit the puck into. They hit the pucks with wooden or graphite sticks with curved ends. The puck is a disc-like object made of black rubber.
Physics is everywhere. Consequently, physics is a part of sports and more specifically, hockey. As the scientific discoveries progressed with time, so did the advancements in the sport of hockey, reflecting on how important and influential science truly is. Physics takes part in the ice, the skates, the protective gear, the shots, goaltending, and all other aspects of ice hockey.