Post-performance Recovery And Musculoskeletal Injury Risk In Collegiate Women’S Hockey Players

Proper recovery after competition is crucial for athletes to allow the body to restore physiological and psychological processes, enabling the athlete to compete at an appropriate level without an increased risk of injury. Increased frequencies of high intensity training or competition within ice hockey may limit how recovery may take place. Self-reported recovery outcomes and training induced physiological deficits can all contribute to the risk of musculoskeletal injuries. PURPOSE: To determine how self-reported post-performance recovery outcomes can lead to increased risk of musculoskeletal injury in women’s hockey players. METHODS: A scaled self-reported well-being survey was conducted in 19 female (19.7 ± 1.1 yrs) collegiate hockey players each morning after training for a two-week period. Surveys guaged fatigue, mood, motivation, sleep quality, soreness and stress that ranged from 0 to 10 with fatigue, soreness, and stress being inverted. Injury risk was stratified based on performance outcome data via force plate balance and jump scans on a scale of one to five (low to high risk). Injury risk group comparisons were made using one-way ANOVA and post-performance data was analyzed using Pearson correlations. RESULTS: Jump height was significantly higher in the high injury risk group (16.9 ± 014 in., p < 0.01). Injury Risk classification was significantly correlated with jump height (r(18) = .762, p < 0.01), mood (r(18) = .466, p < 0.01), and sleep quality(r(18) = .46, p < 0.05). Post-performance fatigue was significantly correlated with sleep quality (r(18) = .502, p < 0.05) and soreness (r(18) = .613, p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Jump height correlations can be used as a high-risk indicator for musculoskeletal injuries in women’s hockey players. Mood and sleep quality can serve as moderately strong indicators to report injury risk. Post-performance fatigue can be used to moderately gauge sleep quality and soreness that can attribute to musculoskeletal injury risk.