Groin injury in hockey players

It’s the most common injury in hockey, as it requires frequent and strong contraction along the thigh. The groin strain is the inner side of the thigh (adductor), which is activated when bringing leg towards the body.

Dr. Brian Abelson says:

"Statistically, groin strains account for about 10% of all injuries in the NHL.”

According to research the adductor longus is the most common muscle of the group.

To demonstrate when the groin is activated during skating, we will discuss the movement of skating biomechanics.

You can also see our video to know how the ice hockey stride works:

There are 5 main phases of a hockey stride:

1. Initial skate contact

2. Single support gliding

3. Single support propulsion

4. Terminal Stride (last point of skate contact)

5. Recovery (swing phase)

During the Recovery (swing phase) the groin is activated as the player bring the leg back to a neutral position. The movement will start from the first step again.

“In response to these actions, the groin muscles lengthen under tension (eccentrically contract) in order to maintain balance, absorb shock, and hames the kinetic energy used to flex the hip and pull the leg onwards (adduction) during the Swing Phase.”

Now you may ask yourself why hockey players tend to groin injuries during ice skating. They simply overlook their gluteal strength that compared to the groin muscle is stronger, which overpower them. During the skating stride where the adduction is required to counterbalance the outward leg motion, muscles will tear if they aren’t balanced.

A Study from Sweden shows that doing a “squeeze test” regularly dictates if players have a weak groin muscle which can lead to a future injury. Their research has shown that players adduction strength decreases during the season.

According to Thorberg et al. 2017, the squeeze test can indicate hip, groin weakness and even injuries.

The Study has shown that abduction strength has decreased through mid-season (0,009 nm/kg [95% Cl-0,02-0,16], p=0,0015) and an increase of abduction strength at the end of the season (0,07 nm/kg [95% Cl 0,02; 0,12], p=0,01).

This leads us to the next question:

How do we prevent groin injuries?

The first thing we can adjust is the warmup routine.

Which should indefinitely include:

Here you can see a video of a warmup routine to prevent groin injuries:

Here you have the exercises listed:

• Kneeling Adductor Squat x 5

• Adductor Rockbacks +

• Hip Swivel IR/ER Adductor Stretch X5

• Frog PAILs x5

• RAILs Squat to Stand x 5

Athletes need to strengthen their adductors:

1. Adductor med ball squeeze

2. Horse stand squad

3. Copenhagen plank

4. Groin slayer

5. Cossack squat

Here you have the exercises listed: