Girls hockey has the one of highest concussion rates in all of team sports and the statistics are downright scary: 1 out of every 1000 times a girl is “exposed” to the game (either through practice or a game), they will get a concussion. That means on a team of 20 girls, there will be one concussion for every 50 “exposures”. With each girls’ hockey team averaging about 100 “exposures” per season, that works out to 2 concussions per team per season. This is not just a scary statistic – this is verging on an epidemic!

Enough of the doom and gloom already…Let’s talk about how we’re going to FIX the problem.

The solution to lowering the rate of concussions in girls hockey is to:

1) Teach girls how to take a hit on the ice.
2) Make the girls stronger and more stable off the ice.

Those two stability exercises alone will go a long way towards preventing injury. The more stable you are, the better able you are to protect yourself if you do happen to get hit.

The solution to decreasing the concussion rate in girls’ hockey isn’t fancy or complicated. It is simple and it works.

Try these exercises out and let me know how much stronger you feel out on the ice. The change isn’t going to happen overnight – but if you stick to it, the results will be amazing. I would love to hear how these two simple exercises change the way you play. Keep me posted by commenting below.

PS: You don’t need to wear your helmet while you are doing these exercises – unless you’ve had 3 concussions like me, in which case getting out of bed in the morning can be dangerous.

~ Coach Kim