Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

Concussions in ice hockey occur to participants of all ages and all skill levels. Although many people get theseinjuries, the way in which they are injured differs between ages and skill levels, especially in youth ice hockeywhere body checking is not allowed. Body checking is known to result in head impacts causing concussiveinjuries in professional sports, however when this aspect is removed from the game the risks become different.This project is designed to provide a better understanding of how youth ice hockey players can sustain headinjuries. Using video field-data, head impact events can be captured and documented to establish the risksassociated with non-body checking hockey to help facilitate development of better protective strategies foryouth. The proposed research will cover a period of three years consisting of the following investigations:Project 1) video field-data collection covering different age groups and genders to capture head impact events;Project 2) video analysis of head impact events to document the differences in play style between ages andgenders, as well as establishing impact parameters unique to youth ice hockey, Project 3) reconstruction ofhead impact events to benchmark how youth are being hit in the head to understand the response in order toinform industry for innovations. This research will provide the manufacturer and the Canadian helmet industryunique technical information to support youth related innovations in helmet technology to improve headprotection against impacts experienced specifically in youth ice hockey.