Your thoughts regarding athlete brain health and safety in sports in general:
In many sports, particularly at junior level, awareness of brain health and the recognition of related injuries are still developing. Situation is better in the elite level. I believe that the better we understand the situations that may lead to injury and their potential effect on an athlete’s career and everyday life, the better our opportunities are to prevent them. Protecting athletes’ health is a shared responsibility of the organisation and the athlete.
ACT is not new to the team but for you it is, what are your thoughts regarding?
I was very happy to take on the role of key user. Although I am generally not very good with technology, setting up and using both the app and the sensors has been extremely easy. It is also great to be involved in research that has the potential to provide significant practical benefits to the world of sport.
How are you using the data from ACT Head Impact Tracker?
When I am watching a game and something happens that may involve a potential brain-health-related injury, I can immediately see in the app information about the forces the player has been exposed to. Clinical assessment is, of course, always necessary, but the app provides valuable additional information, particularly in situations where the forces affecting the head and cervical spine may not have been obvious simply from watching the incident. Following the data and comparing it with what actually happened during games or training has broadened my understanding of the many different ways these forces can affect a player. The clear data provided also makes it much easier to educate players.
Body checking was introduced in women’s ice hockey this season, how did the team prepare for the rule change?
Regarding body checking, we received guidance from the Finnish Ice Hockey Association, and checking has been practised systematically since the very beginning of the summer training period. The aim was to ensure that, by the start of the season, we would be ready as a team to adapt to the new style of play as safely and skilfully as possible. To prepare players both to deliver and receive body checks, we train the upper body two to three times per week. Some players also have additional individual programmes if their upper-body strength has been identified as an area that needs improvement or has previously been a weakness. Exercises supporting the cervical spine have also been an important part of training.
Situational awareness on the ice is already trained as an integral part of the sport, but the introduction of body checking has further highlighted its importance. Fortunately, we have an excellent coaching team whose expertise in sport-specific training is reflected during the season in the low number of injuries occurring in checking situations. We keep a brain-injury recognition sheet in the medical bag that corresponds to the CRT pocket tool. Our team protocol also includes monitoring symptoms for 24 hours after an incident. At Stadin Gimmat, we have a low threshold for responding to any injury involving the head. For head injuries, we also have our own structured programme for returning to training and to the ice. Our lead physiotherapist follows the player’s condition together with them on a daily basis. This allows us to respond as quickly as possible and modify the rehabilitation process whenever necessary.
What would you like to see happening in sport in the future regarding brain health and safety?
In Finland’s Auroraliiga, we are already in a good position, as all teams have committed to using the sensors and the app. I have also spoken with colleagues working in combat sports and ball sports and shared my positive experiences with the sensors and the app.
In the short term, I would like to see greater awareness and concrete understanding of what head-impact and brain-related events are, and of the different ways in which they can affect an athlete’s career and later life. I would particularly like to see these issues taken seriously at junior and organisational levels.
In the medium term, I hope that recognising an acute brain-related injury, directing the athlete to appropriate care, and following structured return-to-sport protocols will become an automatic part of both junior and professional sport.
In the long term, I would like the prevention of brain-related injuries, athlete education, and consideration of brain health in training to become a normal part of everyday sport.
From the perspective of my own role as a mental performance coach, I pay a great deal of attention to the athlete’s overall load. In sport, physical load and physical recovery are usually monitored quite well. However, I would broaden load monitoring to include emotional and psychological load as well as social load. This is particularly important in connection with brain-related injuries, because these factors can contribute significantly to the athlete’s total load. Inadequate recovery in these areas can also slow down the return to normal everyday life and training.
In my ideal world, athletes would learn to recognise and monitor these factors as a normal part of being an athlete. In my own work, I often use very simple questions and tools, such as a traffic-light model or an “energy pie”, to help athletes recognise and assess how they are feeling and how much capacity they currently have. Once an athlete has learned to identify their emotional state and level of load, simple visual tools make it quick and easy to review their overall load, or individual components of it, at the end of each day.
Photo: HIFK