Friday, November 18, 2011

Heads Up...

Now I'm sure everyone is aware by now, but concussions in hockey are increasing. Now as a referee I see many hits that result in head injuries. Now everyone seems to have differing opinions on why concussions in hockey are on the rise. I got into a conversations with some of my officiating colleagues about it and one of them said to me "I don't understand how these kids get injured today with all this great equipment they where now." Now I did agree with him on the face that the equipment today is better. For example the Cascade M-11 helmet is said to the the VERY BEST helmet to wear against preventing concussions. And I think that's great and a bad thing all at the same time.

Now I don't play much anymore but I walk into pro shops such as Hockeygear.com and see the shoulder and elbow pads these players wear now and the first thing I say to myself is "this stuff is like body Armour" but that might not exactly be what's best for the game. Now "contact to the head" is a HUGE issue in hockey. They've even went as far as making harsher penalties for contact to the head at all levels of hockey. The NHL has it's new "rule 48" which makes any hit to the head a penalty. The NCAA has also changed the rule on hits to the head making it an automatic major plus game or major plus DQ penalty. Now I realize what they're trying to do, but at the same time as an on ice official I see a lot of these hits to be incidental, and not targeted head hits. ( the hits that really need to get out of hockey ) So it is of my opinion ( along with many others ) that most of these head injuries are a result of all this new "hi-tech" equipment that the players wear now.

Now when you're on the ice playing hockey, what's the most important thing your coaches tell you while you're on the ice? "KEEP YOUR HEAD UP" But as an official I'm seeing a very discouraging trend. While refereeing I see many of these players who pick the puck up and they have no awareness what so ever. No awareness of where they are on the ice, where their teammates are, and MOST IMPORTANTLY where the opposing team players are on the ice. Then there's a big hit, and there's an injury. All because the player never picked his head up. When I played hockey years ago, ( and I'm sure most people would agree with  me on this ) when I had the puck on my stick, not only did I know where I was on the ice, but I also new WHERE I was on the ice as well. Now I'm not saying I never got hit, but I never left myself open to get my head taken off the way players do now. Now as an official player safety is our number 1 priority, but how are we suppose to protect the players when they don't protect themselves?

I think this is all because of the equipment they wear now a days. They feel like they're super protected when in fact they're not protected at all. Hockey is a fast physical sport, injuries are going to happen and there's nothing you can do to change that. But when you put out a helmet that is said to "prevent" concussions, along with these new body Armour like shoulder and elbow pads players get a sense of invincibility while they're on the ice playing resulting in more injuries I think. USA hockey even went as far as taking checking out of the pee-wee age group because of all the injuries. My solution to this, cut down on all the body armour like equipment and you'll see the injuries scale back. The first thing I say to myself when I look at some of this equipment is "can you imagine getting hit in the head with this?" Even if it's only incidental, a blow to the head is a blow to the head. Another solution, how about educating the players of today to keep their heads up on the ice. I was refereeing a game a few weeks ago, and 2 players collided with each other. Just RAN INTO EACH OTHER with the puck being a good 40 feet away. Each player had no idea that each other was there and they collided resulting in one of them getting a concussion.

The thing that I don't like about the new rule concerning contact to the head is the fact that all the responsibility is on the player delivering the hit to NOT make contact with the opponents head. There is now ZERO responsibility on the player with the puck. When I used to play when I got hit I'd get yelled at for not having my head up, now the players with the puck have a free pass. This is not a good thing, and I feel that this will only result in more head injuries as we go down the road unless something changes. I'm aware that concussions are a big deal, and we know more about them now then we EVER did before, but the players do need to take some responsibility as well. Before each of my games, when we have our pre-game meeting with coaches and team captains I always say "make sure your players protect themselves at all times" hoping that maybe the message gets across. Concussions in hockey ( and the cause of them ) seem to be a heavy debate amongst our sport, but these are my opinions as to why we've had more and more as of late. What do you think? I think the only way to minimize them is to get the players to be more aware and to protect themselves but keeping their heads up while they're on the ice. Players put themselves in more vulnerable positions now than they EVER did before, and if it dosn't stop more of these injuries will occur. I feel that players read all this stuff about the great equipment and how "protective" it is, and feel they no longer need to protect themselves on the ice anymore. Hopefully they'll figure it out before it's to late that it dosn't matter how much, and what kind of equipment you wear, but if you don't protect yourself out there you'll get hurt no matter what.

Let me know your thoughts...