If you have been around hockey long enough, you’ve probably noticed: goalies and players tend to have sore hips or groins. It’s not just in your head. Research shows that nearly 70% of elite goalies experience hip or groin problems in a single season (Wörner et al., 2019). Even more eye-opening? Most of these issues don’t come from sudden injuries — they build up gradually, and players often keep grinding through them.

The Hidden Injury Problem

Traditionally, hockey injuries get tracked by games missed or “man games lost”. But that misses the bigger picture. In reality, most hip/groin issues don’t lead to surgery or even time off. They show up as nagging pain, reduced practice quality, missed training or a player who can’t explosively transition, pivot, get into post play positions or simply can’t play as well as well or much as they should.

One study in pro hockey found that hip/groin problems add up to 25 games missed per season per organization (Emery, 1999). But that’s only counting the severe cases. In pivoting and cutting sports, when researchers actually ask players directly about their symptoms, these numbers skyrocket — showing that for every one injury that causes missed games, there are two more where players are playing hurt (Harøy et al., 2017).

As Bolling et al. (2019) and Bahr (2009) put it: an injury isn’t just about time lost, it’s about performance lost. If your goalie or player can’t practice at full capacity, they can’t improve — and that impacts your whole team.

What the Research Says Specific To Goalies

Wörner and colleagues (2019) tracked elite goalies over a full season in Sweden:

• 69% reported hip/groin issues at some point. 
• 36% had substantial problems that directly affected their performance. 
• At any given time, about 1 in 4 goalies were dealing with hip/groin pain. 
• Over 80% of cases came from overuse, not one-off injuries. 

So yes — a lot of goalies are out there competing while managing hip and groin pain. And because these problems are usually overuse-related, they don’t just go away on their own.

What This Means for Coaches

The takeaway for coaches is clear: don’t wait until your goalie is sidelined to think about hip health.

• Look for performance cues – A goalie who suddenly looks stiff in their pushes, can’t get into post play positions well or can’t stay as long in their stance may be playing through pain. 
• Consider not playing your goalie on back to backs – do we need to say more about this?! 
• Simply talk with your performance staff on load management strategies – do the players really need to be doing a skate the day after a full weekend of games? 
• Don’t ignore “nagging” pain – Players often downplay it, but that’s when small problems become big ones. 
• Prioritize prevention – Strengthening key muscles (especially the adductors) has been shown to cut groin injury risk nearly in half (Ishøi et al., 2016). 

Where to Start: Very Simple Prevention Exercises

Here are a few evidence-based exercises you can build into warm-ups or off-ice sessions for your goalies:

1. Copenhagen Adduction Isometric – Strengthens the groin, a proven injury prevention drill. 

    

2. Tall Kneeling Adductor Slide– Builds adductor strength in a goalie specific position. 
3. Side Plank with Band Hip Abduction – Targets the lateral hip muscles for balance and support. 
4. 90/90 Hip Stretch – targets the hip rotators to regain hip range 

None of these take much time, but they could have a massive impact on keeping your goalie moving well all season.