In 2022, Sweden became the first country in the world to allow body checking in women’s ice hockey. Major hockey nations are now following Lund University’s research on the consequences of tougher plays on the ice. A first study shows that almost nine out of ten players in the Swedish women’s hockey league are in favor of body checking—regardless of their own size.

“We found that interesting. The body size of participants in the study ranged from just over 50 kilos to almost 90. But we saw no correlation between body weight or height and attitudes to body checking,” says Amanda Lahti, first author of the paper. that was published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research,

Medical registrar Lahti is a researcher in general medicine at Lund University and also works as a team doctor for the men’s team at football club Malmö FF. A few years ago, she was the team doctor for the Malmö Redhawks ice hockey team, where she got to know the goalkeeper Oscar Alsenfeldt. He went on to become Sports Director of the Swedish Women’s Hockey League, SDHL. When the authorized body checking rules were introduced in 2022, he contacted Lahti.

“He was almost despairing and said that ‘this is going to cause a lot of damage.’ But I said, ‘we don’t know that, this is something we have to look at scientifically,'” says Lahti.

Now that approach has resulted in a first article. The material for the study was collected in the form of a questionnaire. Of the 225 players in the Swedish Women’s Hockey League’s ten teams, 159 chose to answer.

Players were asked to provide their age, weight, height, hockey experience and playing position (netminder, forward, center or back). They also had to answer two questions about body checking: “What do you think about body checking now being allowed in the SDHL?” with the options “good, bad or don’t know.”

The second question was “Do you think the number of injuries in women’s hockey will increase after body checking are allowed?” (answer options: yes, no, don’t know). Eighty-eight percent said they were in favor of body checking. Sixty-four percent said they did not think there would be more injuries. Again, there was no difference in the response of lighter-built players compared to heavier players.

In the study, the authors speculate that players feel that body checking are something which can benefit women’s hockey in general—and therefore it may matter less whether they personally benefit or not. It’s a matter of “taking one for the team.”

Differing views about body checking on men and women

Before body checking was authorized in 2022, the debate swung back and forth. There are several ways to look at this from a gender equality perspective. Some people believe that girls in ice hockey should have the same conditions as boys—with the same toughness, resulting in a sport that many feel is more fun to watch. Others think that female hockey players, being less physically strong, should not be pressurized to follow in the footsteps of men in order to be elite athletes.

“But we might just as well ask ourselves ‘why aren’t we protecting the boys better?’—body checking can result in devastating injuries, especially to the head—also among male players,” says Lahti.

One fact, she adds, is that collisions (including body checking) are the most common cause of hockey injuries, among both men and women. Previous studies have shown that when body checking was not permitted in certain age ranges in North American male junior teams, the number of injuries roughly halved.

Female-specific factors associated with injuries

The research of Lahti and her colleagues is being closely followed, particularly by the North American hockey superpowers the US and Canada. The potential impact of body checking in Swedish women’s hockey could play a significant role in determining how those countries approach the introduction of women’s body checking themselves.

Now the Lund researchers are turning their attention to the injuries themselves: will they increase as a result of the body checking, and what kind of injuries are being reported?

“Concussions are not uncommon in hockey. The cruciate ligaments are not as vulnerable as in football, for example, but in women’s football, studies have shown a link between ACL injuries and the menstrual cycle. It is important to study the importance of female- specific factors linked to injuries,” says Lahti.

Unequal mapping of hockey in the past

Globally, women’s hockey is very young compared to the men’s game. There are a great many more male ice hockey players, and their physiques have been recorded and evaluated for decades. This has led, among other things, to heavier men’s players playing more often in a defensive back position and lighter players more often as forwards.

Lahti believes that this kind of physical evolution could also become a reality in the women’s game—if the sport continues to attract more and more people and is given more equal conditions compared to men’s hockey. She draws a comparison with women’s football, where just such development has clearly emerged in recent years.

“This study provides important reference values. They can form the basis of more research into the development of physical conditions in ice hockey,” says Lahti.