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Ice hockey is a popular sport in North America, but it's also dangerous; it accounts for 10% of all youth sports injuries in Canada. Body checking, in which one player purposely takes another out of a play with a block, accounts for a substantial portion of these injuries, including concussions. Among U.S. and Canadian youth leagues, the age at which body checking is allowed varies. Canadian investigators evaluated two youth leagues (11- and 12-year-old players), one of which allows body checking and one of which does not, and compared injury rates prospectively in 2154 players on 150 teams during a single season.
A standardized national injury surveillance system was used to collect detailed evaluations by sports physical therapists. Of 332…