Objective: Discover the impact force found at the medial knee during the butterfly movement of the ice hockey goaltender. Also, it will be determined if, and to what degree, supplemental padding will reduce the force on the... [ view full abstract ]
Objective: Discover the impact force found at the medial knee during the butterfly movement of the ice hockey goaltender. Also, it will be determined if, and to what degree, supplemental padding will reduce the force on the medial knee.
Design: This study is a crossover and exploratory design of a convenient sample in a controlled laboratory environment.
Participants: Ten male ice hockey goalies ranging in level from NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) DIII to ACHA (American Collegiate Hockey Association) DIII
Methods: Synthetic ice was utilized to mimic the ice surface of a hockey arena. For the determination of impact force on the medial knee, the Tekscan FlexiForce - Economical Load (ELF) and force pressure sensor (Tekscan Inc., South Boston, MA) was used and placed on the medial knee of each participant. Each participant will fall into the butterfly position three times for each of the three conditions (no, pad, pad 1, pad 2 your terms) for a total of nine trials. After each butterfly movement is completed, the participants will be presented with a perceived impact and perceived pain scale for participant interpretation of the conditional intervention.
Results: A one way ANOVA with repeated measures and post hoc will be utilized to determine force differences within subjects for each of the three padded conditions. In addition, a Pearson’s correlation will determine if there is a relationship between the participant’s perception of the impact and calculated impact force.
Conclusions: The current study hypothesizes that impact force found at the medial knee will be reduced the greatest by the use of the Bauer Elite knee guard when compared to the Bauer OD1N Sr. knee guard and the players own pad without any supplemental paddings. The current study also hypothesizes That the Bauer Elite knee guard will have a reduction in the goaltender's percieved pain and also a reduction in the goaltender's perceived contact with the goaltending pad.. Lastly, we hypothesize there will be a positive relationship between force calculated at the knee and the contact perceived by the participant.
