Ice Performance Lab · Hockey Medicine & Performance
Hockey Health
A practical way to recognize what deserves attention, prepare for hockey-specific demands and know when a medical assessment comes first.
← Back to the frameworkExplore Hockey Health
Choose a body region
Start with the region you want to understand, then follow the questions about symptoms, function and return to ice.
Priority before alphabet
What matters most?
The book organizes topics by hockey relevance: frequency, severity, time lost and the opportunity to prevent or modify harm. This helps decide what deserves a full chapter and a usable tool. It is an editorial framework, not a validated personal risk score.
Exposure changes across the season and between skaters, goalies and developing players. The right question is not only “What hurts?” but also “What was the player asked to do, and how did the body respond?”
Core hockey topics
Four areas to understand early.
The planned field guide gives these problems space for prevention, recognition, medical reasoning and return to play. These summaries introduce the questions; they do not diagnose an injury.
Groin & hip
Repeated skating and position-specific demands make capacity, symptoms and gradual exposure worth tracking. Goalies need their own lens.
Knee
Movement, strength and function matter alongside pain. A new injury or loss of stability needs an appropriate clinical assessment.
Shoulder & AC joint
Contact and boards change the question from everyday comfort to stability, force and readiness for contact.
Concussion
Recognize a possible brain injury, remove the player from exposure and arrange appropriate assessment. Game importance never overrides this pathway.
A useful rink-side sequence
Notice · Assess · Reassess
Know the baseline
Review previous problems, planned exposure and a player’s usual function before the season or a return.
Spot a change
Take a new symptom, functional loss or concerning event seriously; pause participation when needed.
Check the response
Record what happened and whether symptoms and function changed after the session or game.
Different players, different context. Youth growth, goalie hip and groin demands and female athlete health need specific attention without one-size-fits-all assumptions.
Further reading: International concussion consensus (Amsterdam 2022).