Muscle strains and more serious injuries are common in hockey players, particularly strains of the hip and groin. In fact, according to a study by The Steadman Philippon Research Institute, hockey players as young as 12 have shown early signs of arthritis in the hips. This comes from repeated injury to the area. These hockey hip injury prevention tips can help you minimize your injury risk while maximizing your playing potential.

Don’t Count on Stretching for Injury Prevention

Most hockey players are taught that stretching well before training, skating or playing will help prevent injuries. The opposite can be true, however. Recent research on flexibility and strength training shows several reasons why stretching already flexible muscle groups is not necessary.

• It is a popular belief that flexible muscles can better absorb force and impact better than tight muscles, and are therefore less likely to be injured. Not only is there no medical research that supports this, recent research is showing the opposite may be true.
• Most muscles are injured within a normal range of motion, so increasing the range of motion does nothing to prevent injury. The most common injuries, especially in hockey players, are injuries that are caused by  high velocity eccentric muscle contractions. This means that the muscle is being stretched longer but attempting to contract at the same time. This happens each stride on the ice, because it is how you swap legs as you skate.
• Weak, tired muscles are more likely to be injured. Stretching is an additional stress on the muscles and can make them tired before you ever begin to play.
• Any stretching causes the small, weak connective tissue in muscles to tear. While this helps to build stronger muscles in the long run, it causes damage immediately and can weaken performance and strength until the proteins are healed. This means stretching after play instead of before may be more beneficial.
• While the mechanism is not yet understood, studies show that stretching seems to increase a player’s tolerance to pain. This is why stretching seems to prevent pain. In fact, it could be just creating a damaged muscle that is not giving you signs that you are injured.

Hockey Hip Injury Prevention Tips: Stop Focusing on the Groin

Many hockey players spend a large percentage of their pregame warm-up stretching their groins, the adductor muscles on the inside of the hip. Studies show, however, that stretching the muscles on the outside of the hip may be better for both injury prevention and enhancing performance. Stretching the groin may actually be detrimental to heightened performance, in fact.

In many players, there is a significant imbalance between the muscles on the outside of the hip and those on the inside. The muscles on the outside, the hip abductors, are strong and powerful in most hockey players because skating propulsion forces these muscles to contract over and over again.

This makes the muscles stronger but tighter, meaning they need more stretching. The groin muscles, however, are not tightened through this process. Instead, the adductors are being stretched and lengthened constantly during skating. This makes these muscles more flexible but also more susceptible to pulls, strains and tears.

If you are concerned about the role stretching should play in your drills, games or workouts, Hockey OT can help. We offer online hockey training, strengthening and flexibility advice and hockey hip injury prevention tips.