Hockey can be a very physical sport. Body checking is a technique players use to disrupt an opponent with possession of the puck, or separating them from the puck entirely. Teams use body checking as an offensive, defensive or intimidation technique. In order to make a good body check, a mix of momentum, speed and body position is required.
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Body Position:
The first major factor in order to deliver a good body check always starts with good body positioning. Body positioning is being able to angle and force your opponent in the direction that you want them to go. This is typically towards the boards or towards the outside of the angling player. Body positioning is the base of how body checks start because the hitter needs to allow no space for the opposing player to move and thus must take the hit. As it can be seen in this video, the hitter (PK Subban) angles off his opponent (Chris Neil) into the boards until Neil has nowhere else to go. This is when Subban comes in and delivers his crushing hit against the boards.
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Momentum & Force:
Another one of the major factors of a body check is how much momentum or force a player has. Momentum is described as the product of velocity multiplied by mass (p = mv). Similarly, force is described as the product of acceleration multiplied by mass (F = ma). Therefore, a player with a large amount of momentum/force is harder to stop than one with a small amount of momentum/force. Also, since a player's mass is constant, the only way a player can increase their momentum/force is by increasing their velocity. When a collision takes place on the ice, some or all of the hitter's momentum is transferred to the other player involved in the collision which increases the velocity of the opponent while reducing the velocity of the attacking player due to the Momentum Conservation Principle. The law states that for a collision occurring between object 1 and object 2 in an isolated system, the total momentum of the two objects before the collision is equal to the total momentum of the two objects after the collision. That is, the momentum lost by object 1 is equal to the momentum gained by object 2. This can be seen in the video here because when the hitter (Drew Doughty, 98 kg) body checks his opponent (Pavel Datsyuk, 90 kg), Doughty has both more weight and speed than Pavel Datsyuk and thus more momentum. Therefore, when the two collide, Doughty's momentum is transferred into Datsyuk's momentum, which causes Datsyuk to fall.
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Preventing the Effects of a Body Check:
In order to eliminate the impact caused by a body check players can brace themselves by pinning their body against the side of the boards. By doing this, it allows some of the impact to be absorbed by the boards. This is because of Newton's third law which states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Therefore, even though the player exerts a large force on the boards, the boards will exert the same force back onto the player. In this case, the player will significantly reduce the risk for injury because their body is not going to accelerate and collide into anything. As seen in figures 1 and 2 below, when the player pins himself along the boards than the effects of the body check are prevented because the boards absorb the hit, thus preventing the body to accelerate.
However, if the player fails to pin himself along the boards than the player will accelerate unless slowed down by something in its direct path. This is because of Newton's first law which states that an object in motion will stay in motion unless affected by an unbalanced force. The force a player will more than likely come crashing into is the ice or the boards. As seen in this video, the player getting checked (Patric Hornqvist) fails to pin himself along the boards and ultimately after being hit by Dion Phaneuf, accelerates until crashing -- head first -- into the boards.
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Physics Behind Hockey © 2015
Matthew Richards
Matthew Richards