‘Oh, we can do this?’: PWHL players adapt to body checking through martial arts and clinic visits

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The professional women’s hockey league has drawn plaudits for its fast, physical style of play, prompting conversations about physical strength at other levels of women’s and girls’ hockey.

Fans find it funny. PWHL players have the ability to perform more body checks than are allowed in international play. But growing pains mounted in its debut season as teams and referees learned to differentiate what would be punished in this new league. Players had varying levels of body checking experience. Some learned to throw or absorb blows by playing on men’s teams when they were young. Some who came to girls’ hockey say they learned on the fly.

“I remember going all out on Jaime Bourbonnais in the first ever PWHL game and expecting to get a penalty and not getting one and thinking, ‘Oh, can we do this?’ – recalls Toronto forward Emma Maltais. . “It was an adjustment for the referees, players and coaches. But in a year we should be at the point where we are used to it now.”

Bourbonnais, from New York, said the hit in the first game took her by surprise. She and Malta are teammates on the Canadian Olympic team and have competed in a lot of physical games, but body checking is usually punished in women’s international hockey, so it was instinctive for them. But the PWHL allows body checking within certain limits when there is a clear intent to play the puck.

“I didn’t expect it because we’d never seen anything like that before in our game,” Bourbonnais recalls of that first hit. “A lot of us played boys’ hockey, so some of us scored when we were younger, but I haven’t done that since I was 13. To be honest, I don’t think it’s that clear yet. I think we’re learning as we go.”

In preparation for puck drop on November 30th for Season 2, the PWHL announced clarifications to Rule 52.1 regarding body checking to help on-ice officials. Additionally, the PWHL will now impose severe fines and game violations for illegal hits to the head.

“I think the league is trying to get away from where you’re rolling in different directions and making contact,” said Toronto’s Renata Fast, one of the top hitters in the PWHL last year. “But if you’re driving in the same direction as the player, you’ve been given the green light.”

Some players did extra things in the offseason to prepare for physical hockey. Toronto Scepter rookie forward Julia Gosling, who was just drafted out of St. Lawrence University, added boxing training “just to help with balance and center of gravity before the punch happens” because she had just finished an NCAA game , in which she participated. I’m bodychecking.

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Sophomore Scepter striker Victoria Bach joined the MMA gym for sparring training, hoping to gain more confidence through physical strength. She also took skin-to-skin classes with a hockey skills coach and learned how to absorb shock.

“I played girls hockey growing up, so I wasn’t exposed to much,” Bach said. “I think working on these areas will really help me this season.”

It was a learning curve to figure out how to help players with body checking. Last year, Team Ottawa invited former NHL player Marc Meto to lead a session on the issue.

“The good thing is that it’s a fun and fast game. The downside is that there were probably more injuries in the first year than we wanted,” said Ottawa Charge coach Carla MacLeod, herself a Canadian Olympic gold medalist. “It brought a smile to the players’ faces when they played a game they were physically prepared for and when we got to last season it brought a lot of added value (with body testing). But we are learning. We don’t have a history of it being part of our game or a history of knowing how to train it.”

Daryl Watts, who played in Ottawa last season and Toronto this season, credits her days playing with the boys for the awareness she brings to the ice.

“I’ve always said that girls who have played men’s hockey have better vision on the ice,” Watts said. “Because when the impact occurs, you need to be more alert and keep your head up. I think hitting makes the game better.”

Minnesota coach Ken Klee remembers showing players films of them being vulnerable to hits.

“It was a long learning curve,” Klee said. “But by the time the playoffs rolled around, our team was very comfortable with the physicality of giving it and getting it.”

Minnesota Walter Cup MVP Taylor Hayes, last year’s first overall draft pick, entered the PWHL with the same mentality she had when she received the Patty Kazmaier Award from the University of Minnesota. She believed that she was bigger, faster and stronger than others and could just ride around them. In the NCAA, players were punished for checking her body, so it didn’t happen as often. However, this is not the case in the PWHL. Heise remembers seeing online videos of huge PWHL hits, “and four of them blew me away.

“Our league generated a lot of conversation and it was great to see how excited our fans were and it was great to be a part of it, but it also took a lot of getting used to,” Heise said. “I would say we all learned together and we will all understand it better this year. Sometimes in practice we would say, “This is illegal.” But wait, right? I’m not sure.'”

New New York Sirens coach Greg Fargo coached the women’s hockey team at Colgate University last year and says there has been a lot of talk about whether more body contact should be allowed in NCAA women’s hockey. This is the main source of talent in the PWHL.

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“Just like men’s college hockey is preparing their players to play in the NHL, there’s a lot more of that conversation happening now from women’s colleges because they want their players to move up in this league,” Fargo said. “Last year we started to see it bleed into the college game a little more. And I think over time that will become the standard in the women’s game.”

Physicality has been a common topic of conversation in the NCAA in recent years as women’s players have become faster, more fit and skilled. The issue was on the agenda at the American Hockey Coaches Association’s annual convention in Naples this past May.

“We want to prepare them properly for the next step so they’re protected,” said Nadine Muzerall, women’s hockey coach at Ohio State University, which selected eight players in the 2024 PWHL Draft. “It’s also a safety issue to prepare these women for success at the next level. I don’t want to throw the player into the water and hope it floats. I want to prepare her for this.”

There are a couple of U Sports players in PWHL training camps looking for roster spots. And nine players were just drafted into the PWHL from the Swedish Women’s Hockey League, which has body testing.

Players like Bach, who is back for a second season in the PWHL, reflect on what it would be like for women to learn body checking skills early in their playing careers.

“Maybe they’ll start earlier at the grassroots level so that by the time they become pros, they’ll be really familiar with how to use their body,” Bach said. “From a safety point of view, this is also very important. You don’t want people getting hurt.”