- Joined
- Jan 23, 2009
Concussions must be fairly common among elite skaters, but I wonder if anyone's even done any kind of survey to see how common they are for non elite skaters? Just anecdotally, I don't know THAT many people who would fit under the category of frequent skaters around the level of practicing double jumps, or doing silver dances, that have had one. Almost all of those I know who jump wear hip pads or padded shorts. In contrast, there are very few recreational hockey players I know (about the level of having played at a serious high school level) who have NOT had one. I don't know that many people who do synchro, but I can see how having to stay tight in formations might make it more dangerous than singles. I still think skating at the level that most people do might on average have less concussions than many of these other team sports, like soccer, hockey, and football. However, we don't really know if there hasn't been any study.
Figure skating is terribly unpopular, and skating coaches tend to not have collaborations with researchers. Which is why I'm skeptical when people say we gotta do more research. Like that's going to happen.
There's a study that included the top 20 sports at the high school level. It's behind an academic paywall so you'll have to take my word for it :scratch3: haha, kidding. If you want to read it, don't pay them $40, just pm me and I'll email you their pdf.
here they are, from highest rate of concussions received at competition:
an athlete exposure is one athlete at one competition/game/practice
- football (22.9 per 10,000 athlete exposures)
- boys' ice hockey (14.6 per 10,000 athlete exposures)
- boy's lacrosse (10.4 per 10,000 athlete exposures)
- girls' soccer
- girls' lacrosse (8.6 per 10,000 athlete exposures)
- girls' basketball
- boy's soccer
- boy's wrestling (4.8 per 10,000 athlete exposures)
- girls' field hockey
- boys' basketball
- girls' softball
- girls' gymnastics (2.4 per 10,000 athlete exposures, but gymnastics is "safe", only 3 reported concussions)
- cheerleading (artificially low here. 2 reported concussions at competition, but 21 during practice. If we used the practice stats, it'd be #3)
- boys' baseball
- girls' volleyball (1 per 10,000 athlete exposures)
- girls' swimming/diving
- girls' track/field
- boys' track/field
- boys' swimming/diving
- boys' volleyball (zero concussions reported)
They use a reporting system from the Uni of Denver
https://highschool.riostudies.com/Default.aspx