The game of ice hockey is one that many people enjoy on a daily basis. All around the world men, women and children of all ages are known to partake in the sport. However, although hockey serves as a commonality that draws people together, the parallel is not as in sync as people may think. Men and women’s hockey do share the same size ice arenas, playing time and use of equipment but there are many differences prevalent in the history of hockey and they continue to rub against the grain to this day.
According to Julie Agel and Edward J. Harvey’s article in the Canadian Journal of Surgery, hockey itself began as a man’s sport in the mid-19th century with women picking up on it at the end of the 19th century but losing momentum and almost dying out while men’s hockey continued to build and thrive. The same story is apparent at the collegiate level as well. Agel and Harvey state: “Hockey was introduced competitively at the American collegiate level in 1948 for men but not until 2001 for women.” This uneven balance between landmarks in hockey for men and women is the same for boys and girls hockey as well as Olympic hockey (women did not receive medal status for hockey until 1998.) Additionally, http://www.faqs.org/sports-science/Us-Z-and-bibliography/Women-s-Ice-Hockey.html#b states that the United States, Canada, Finland and Sweden are the only nations to even support the women’s sport in terms of “national training camps or coaching hierarchy” for women’s hockey. While these may seem like dry statistics and groups of numbers, it’s important to see the common trend that is unfortunately so true and unbalanced in the world of hockey.
The physical aspect of the game is the most obvious difference for men and women. Body checking is legal for men’s hockey and is illegal for women’s hockey. However, the worst thing about this unequal treatment of the genders is that women share many of the same percentages of injuries. In fact, throughout many studies done on the sport of hockey, the findings showing that women obtained the same types of injuries has startled many researchers. According to Agel et al.’s article in the Journal of Athletic Training (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1941287/), even though body checking is illegal for women’s hockey, 50 percent of injuries that occur in games results from contact with another player.
Unsolved mystery? Not quite. Contact with other players in the game of hockey is inevitable. Because referees are supposed to call women on anything beyond brief contact, the resulting behavior is quick jabs and cheap shots at players behind the backs of the referees. Since a penalty puts one’s team in jeopardy, the general consensus that has evolved in women’s hockey is to still check and commit the same behavior as men (slashing, hooking, body checking etc.) but to do so in stealth mode. And once again, this is part of another chain of events. Incognito body checking means that the checks are often done incorrectly and put women in more danger than in they had been allowed to do a clean and planned check as opposed to pulling a fast-one behind the net or face losing possession or the game. While the seemingly obvious solution of allowing women to perform body checking in the same manner as men’s hockey leaves a bitter taste in many traditionalists’ mouths, the research done on hockey injuries in hockey for both genders is inarguable. In fact, many people (both men and women) have come to agree that body checking should be made legal in women’s hockey.
Only time and more research will tell the outcome of this new trend of evidence in the world of hockey. Until then, everyone can continue to enjoy in one of America’s favorite pastimes… hockey (not baseball). After all, hockey can be played year-round. But that battle is for another article. For more information on the comparison between men and women’s hockey, see http://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/Abstract/2000/08000/Epidemiology_of_women_s_recreational_ice_hockey.4.aspx, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2947117/ and http://www.hockeyforum.com/womens-hockey/57727-chief-difference-between-womens-mens-ice-hockey.html.
Comments