Saturday, February 8, 2025

The hockey warm up that prepares players better and reduces injury

A new resource on non-contact hockey injury prevention has been created by Tom Johnston from Edinburgh Napier University

For most hockey players, and other winter sport players, the summer time is for rest and recovery from the season’s activities, maybe to do other activities as a change from the league, cup matches and training. 

Some continue to play, for the lucky talented players this maybe in internationals, training camps or fitness sessions, for others it may be in mixed matches or ‘bounce’ games to play with more of an element of fun. 

Some coaches may have planned some pre-season activities in preparation for the current season. One element that may be in a fitness programme are injury prevention exercises as well as the fitness.  

Hockey Injuries

Injuries in hockey are quite common with some being quite minor like being hit with a ball or a stick (contact injuries), some are without any contact at all (noncontact). These non contact injuries occur mainly to the lower extremity (hips downwards) with the knees, hamstrings and ankles most frequently.  

The reason why these injuries occur (the mechanism) is mainly through changing direction (particularly unanticipated changes in direction), landing/stopping and (de)acceleration which are all common activities during a hockey game. 

These injuries cause some soft tissue damage, often muscular or in the more severe cases, ligament damage. The good news is that this damage doesn’t always result in time away from playing hockey (‘no timeloss’) especially for those that play twice a week (i.e. one training session and one game a week). Some of these injuries may result in a few weeks off with very few resulting a month away from hockey. There are injuries that result in a longer recovery time such as Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) or ankle ligament damage. 

Other good news is that most of these injuries can be either reduced in frequency and/or reduced in severity with some easy to do exercises that can be done either separately or as part of a warm up before training or matches. 

Current warm up practice

Another contributing factor to non-contact injuries is the preparation prior to the activity, i.e. the warm up. Most people do a warm up before training and games which is good. However, the content of this warm up is important. Recent observations show that most, if not all teams warm up before training and games. 

These warm ups last for a good amount of time (20-25 mins) and often contain the right structure (a pulse raiser, stretching and some harder/faster activities like sprinting). 

There are a good number of warm ups that contain static stretching, others have extended periods of inactivity, some are very static and low intensity movements and activities in a straight line (hockey is normally multi-directional). 

So, there is an opportunity for improvement. Coaches have indicated that they would like to see a greater length and intensity in the warm up, more injury reduction or prevention exercises and more sport-specific exercises. 

Therefore, a warm up that counters these criticisms could prepare players better for playing hockey, reduce the chance of injury and improve performance should be welcomed. 

This is part one of a two-part series

Tom Johnston has collaborated with Scottish Hockey where you can download a copy of the Hockey Ready Warm Up.

If you would have any questions or would like a more scientific explanation, please contact Dr Tom Johnston

This is part one of a two-part series

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