Injury Prevention in Ice Hockey

Ice hockey is a high-impact sport with a high risk of a wide variety of injuries. Several injury risk factors including high velocity on the ice, unintended collisions, rapid changes in direction and injuries from the board, puck and sticks can lead to player injuries. Although different extrinsic preventive strategies have been applied in ice hockey, intrinsic prevention strategies, e.g. exercise training programs, have scarcely been described. The overall objective of this thesis is to develop a protocol for a cluster-randomized feasibility study to evaluate an evidence-based injury prevention program for ice hockey players, addressing the most common overuse and traumatic injuries to the lower extremity. To achieve the overall objective, the available evidence of systematic reviews and meta-analyses on the effect of preventive exercise interventions for the lower extremity in team-sport athletes was synthesized; traumatic and overuse injuries of different Swiss professional ice hockey teams were assessed; and barriers and facilitators among players and staff members for adhering to an injury prevention program in professional male ice hockey teams were identified.