A Collision Based Sport...

I've just been reading Tiny Sambo at her blog report a recent injury from the last seconds of an inline game.  She says she was hit by the opposite team's biggest skater, dislocated kneecap the result.  Sounds like it really hurt.  Keen on the rehab, she's hoping to back and competing come mid April. 

I don't know much about this type of injury. Hopefully I won't have to research it out of necessity one day.  Whatever the regular recovery times, it sounds like she's fortunate in that a previous car accident has left her knee cap thinner than is the norm, resulting in less damage in the present circumstances (and, presumably, quicker recovery).  Funny thing, fate.

Reading of her woes brought my mind back to the presence of risk and harm in our sport, bodily injury in particular.  It's an intrinsic part of our pursuit.  I read somewhere recently that something like 70% of injuries that prevent NHL players from one or more games are actually 'caused' by the skater themself.  No outside agency required.  That means that, in this model, 30% of moderate to serious injuries are caused by outside agency.  Generally speaking, an opponent.

If for convenience sake we remove 'fighting' from the categories of things an opponent can do to harm us, the next most easily thought of is putting on some form of bodycheck - and intentional hit with the body to the body.  In the bodychecking leagues (bantams (!), A grade and above in Adelaide) there are rules placing certain types of hit off limits (eg. late hits, hits to the head, boarding, cross checking).  Penalties become severe indeed.

In a 'non checking' game like inline hockey or ice hockey league (mine) there's still a lot of checking going on, just no bodychecks.  And all because there are no bodychecks doesn't mean there are no body contacts.  As they by definition can't be 'intentional' (or else they become a bodycheck of some type) they must always be a consequence of a legitimate move (everything from falling over to the battle of strength for the puck along the boards or position in the crease).  And whether racing for the puck or jostling for position, when contacts occur they are often more in the nature of a collision than mere 'contact'.  When I first heard the term 'collision based sport' applied to ice hockey, it rang true.  Methinks, to a lesser degree, inline hockey is also a collision based sport.  Spoken of in this manner, it is obvious that hurt will result.  One just hopes not too much harm.

I think, for example, that the closest I've come to 'harming' was in about my second game of ice hockey.  I was sliding on my arse, feet first, at high speed towards the boards behind the goals.  There were bodies everywhere.  Out of nowhere (actually, sliding in a path perpendicular to mine from behind the goals) a head appeared, inches in front of my upturned skate blade.  Somehow in the impossibly short time frames involved I realised that I was about to plough my blade into someone's face (beneath the visor) and managed to twist my ankle so that no contact occurred and we just crashed in a heap of bodies into the boards and no harm done.  I can't remember the face that I nearly hit as we were both on our feet and fighting for the puck again the next moment.  Perhaps that's a good thing, because it makes it hard to imagine the damage that could have happened had I blinked or closed my eyes.

Or, my second inline game, when I 'lost my edge' near the boards as tried to turn inside my opponent and sent us both crashing to the floor.  We didn't land on each other, but I saw her knee hit the rink from close quarters and it really hurt (she jokes about it now, but I think she can still feel it occasionally).

Accidents aside, there's plenty of push and shove in non body checking collision based sports.  When this happens at any speed, and especially at high speed and/or near the boards, it can take on many of the outward characteristics of a body check. The degree of physicality can be quite high, and as a result one or more of the competitors can find themselves off balance, on the ice, dazed or otherwise disturbed from the task at hand.  One truly hopes, though, no injuries.

Hits on open ice against stationary opponents, however, are not condoned.  Although I've not seen a fight in a game I've played in (except for an opposition player once pounding into one of his own supporters - season suspension), I'm pretty sure that such an act could well cause one.

It just shows how much we all rely on each other to so often get through this gig in one piece!