Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada Committee on Nov. 28th, 2018

[Matthew Chiarotto]

I think definitely they have the ability to do that, and they should, because a lot of games, especially games that I've participated in, get really out of hand, where there are kids getting suspended, people throwing wild hits, to the point where you can't really classify it as hockey anymore. In the league that I played in, it's non-contact and there are still penalties. You have an extra game sheet that you have to fill up. Definitely I think that some games should be shut down because they're just out of control.

[Darren Fisher]

Kathy, you started to say something when I moved off to Carter. Did you want to make a point?

[Kathy Leeder]

I just wanted to say that there's a great sense of self that gets lost for a kid who identifies with one sport. That was really hard, transitioning to something else where you're not going to end up with a concussion. I think our family suffers from post-concussion bubble-wrap syndrome, where we just literally want to take both the kids and wrap them up. We sent Matthew to a basketball camp and a kid lost his temper and shoved him against the wall and he came back with a bump on his head. It just builds.

But it is very difficult when you identify with a sport with all those things. When you lose it, trying to regain that sense back is tough.

[The Chair]

Thank you.

We're going to be moving over to the Conservatives, then the Liberals, and then the NDP. We're going to have some extra time, so if the members can starting thinking about one question they would want to ask the witnesses, as we conclude today at the end of our second session here, that would be great.

We're going to be moving over again to Mr. Kitchen.

[Robert Kitchen]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, again.

Kathy touched on it a bit just a second ago, on someone who puts their life into one sport. Matthew, did you ever play other sports besides hockey?

[Matthew Chiarotto]

Not really. I was really invested in hockey because I always had the dream of playing in the NHL and being this big superstar, but in the end it's not really realistic.

But I discovered a lot of other sports after I played hockey, which was my downfall, because hockey wasn't the sport that I really was meant to play. I found a lot of other sports, like basketball and tennis, which are really good for me, but I wish I had discovered them earlier because getting taken out of hockey was a really big blow. I would have loved to have something that would have cushioned my fall.

[Robert Kitchen]

Okay.

Ash.

[Ash Kolstad]

I played multiple sports. In summer and spring I'd play lacrosse and whatnot, and golf, which was fun. I was still able to play golf, but it was really in the winters that I wasn't able to play any sport because I wasn't cleared to play any type of contact sport. That's really when I wanted to take up coaching.

[Robert Kitchen]

Had your doctors cleared you for lacrosse?

[Ash Kolstad]

No, I didn't play lacrosse. I had to quit lacrosse, too. I wasn't as devastated because I still had golf.

[Robert Kitchen]

Did you play any other sports when you were playing hockey at that time, before your concussions?

[Ash Kolstad]

No, not in the winters.

[Robert Kitchen]

Hockey was basically all you focused on. Did you play soccer or baseball during the summertime or...?

[Ash Kolstad]

No.

[Robert Kitchen]

Carter.

[Carter Phair]

Yes, I played baseball until I was 11 or 12, and then stopped to play summer hockey.

[Robert Kitchen]

You just went to summer hockey, and then the hockey season melted into itself, day after day.

[Carter Phair]

Yes.

[Robert Kitchen]

Okay.

Do you play any other sports now, Carter, intramurals or...?

[Carter Phair]

I just play golf, really.

[Robert Kitchen]

The reason that I'm going with that is that there are some risks with other sports that are out there, and I was just wondering if you guys had any experience along those lines. Do you have any friends that maybe played volleyball and basically took a ball in the head? Can you comment on that?

[Ash Kolstad]

From my research lab that I'm part of.... There used to be a rule where in practice they would hit the ball over the net, and then run underneath the net to go get their ball, meanwhile the person behind them in line would also spike the ball down. That resulted in concussions, being hit in the back of the head with the ball, so there was a policy change last year, I believe, where now they're no longer allowed to run under the net. They have to stop and run around the net to go get their ball to try to reduce concussions.

One of my friends, who's the main researcher on that, has said that he's been hit in the head trying to get his ball.

[Robert Kitchen]

Thank you very much for that.

Kathy.

[Kathy Leeder]

We very much like meeting people and talking about concussions. We've met dancers, gymnasts, my nephew skiing, my niece skiing in a collision, falling off playground equipment. Even Matthew, in swimming, was kicked in the head by a kid doing laps. That has been our experience as far as meeting others.

[Robert Kitchen]

I remember, when I first took skiing we didn't wear helmets. Mind you, we were wearing wooden skis and strap bindings in those days, as well as lace-up boots. That was a few years ago, in the Maritimes.

As Ash pointed out, it's the sporting body that has made changes, for example in volleyball, to make sure we're seeing fewer injuries. How much pressure should we be placing on those sporting bodies to actually step up in this avenue and make those changes?