Blow the whistle: a cross-sectional video-analysis study examining bodychecking, suspected injuries and penalisation of illegal contacts in youth ringette

Objectives: To evaluate physical contact (PC), head contact (HC) and suspected injury incidence rates (IR) in youth ringette players across different age groups and levels of play, using video analysis. Methods: This is a cross-sectional video-analysis study of competitive youth ringette games (regular season, provincial and national tournaments) filmed during the 2021–22 season in a major Canadian city. Participants included under 16 years of age (U16; ages 14–15 years) and under 19 years of age (U19; ages 16–18 years) ringette players competing at the A and AA levels (top two most elite levels). A total of 35 games were analysed representing 3256 team-minutes.Primary outcomes included the IRs of bodychecking (illegal trunk PC) and HCs (direct—HC₁; indirect—HC₂). Secondary outcomes included suspected injury and concussion rates and the proportion of illegal contacts (bodychecks and HC₁s) penalised. Results: The bodychecking IR was 17.34/100 team-minutes (95% CI 14.80 to 20.33) and HC IR was 19.09/100 team-minutes (95% CI 16.74 to 21.78). Few bodychecks (29%) and HC₁s (7%) were penalised. There were no differences in bodychecking or HC rates between age groups or level of play. Higher bodychecking IRs were found in provincial games compared with regular season. The most common mechanism for suspected non-concussion injuries was bodychecking. Suspected concussions most often resulted from HC₂s (primarily following bodychecking). Conclusion: High rates of bodychecking and HCs were found across all ages and levels of play, despite rules prohibiting these actions in ringette. Injury prevention efforts should target reducing bodychecking and HC behaviours to improve player safety.