Hockey and Hip Impingement: What I Realized in Hindsight

 My Experience as an Ice Hockey Goalie (and Occasional Defenseman)

I can't emphasize this enough.

Hockey was everything to me growing up. I didn't like being at home with my parents. There was always tension brewing. Heading out to play roller hockey on the street with friends or in a league game on a Saturday morning was always better than being at home. 

I felt free. I felt happy. I felt truly at home. 

I started playing roller hockey at age 10, moved to ice as a goalie in my teens, and kept going until about 20 when being a goalie just hurt too much. I kept skating out, even playing a little in a mens rec league in Japan. But nagging hip and knee pain finally forced me to stop skating out in my mid-twenties.

A few years later—after a lot of rehab and learning how to retrain my entire body—I got back to playing goalie and defense in rec leagues by the time I was 28.

I competed at the highest local rec league levels as a goalie in San Diego and later the San Francisco Bay Area. I stopped playing at 37.

I played a long time, and I've dedicated my life to understanding how the human body works (and doesn't!). Here's a quick overview of what I learned about my own hip pain and hip impingement symptoms with the benefit of hindsight. 

Why Hip Pain Happens in Hockey

Hip pain is extremely common in hockey players—but it’s not necessarily because your bones are "bad" or deformed. It’s about movement patterns and muscle imbalances.

Skating trains your hips to move in extension, abduction, and external rotation—a powerful combo on ice, but not ideal for everyday walking or hiking. That imbalance especially neglects the hip adductors, which often don’t get enough strength work.

For goalies, stretching opens the groin but rarely strengthens it—and that leads to pain. Strong quads can tilt the pelvis forward (anterior pelvic tilt), reducing mobility. Few players train hip rotation strength or flexibility—key when pivoting sharply or dropping into a butterfly.

How I Rebuilt My Hips

Recovering my hip function required a full-system approach:

• Massage to loosen chronically tight muscles
• Stretching to regain lost mobility
• Strengthening underworked muscles like adductors, glutes, hip flexors, and rotators
• Patience—learning what MY body needed each day

I had to take a lot of time off hockey before I felt well enough to play again. It took a lot of experimentation with weight lifting, stretching, and being creative with how I challenged my body. 

No single routine works for everyone; experiment, listen to your body, and adapt.

Taking Time Off

If you have chronic hip issues, give yourself a break from hockey while you try to figure things out—even just a few weeks might be enough. 

I took years off of hockey to rebuild my body. It had gotten to the point where I had no choice. 

It was so hard for me mentally to stop playing hockey. But there was no way I was going to get better by forcing myself back on the ice. I was just getting worse as a goalie and making my whole body feel worse every single time.

I couldn't lift my knees very high. My hips felt too tight in some positions and too loose in others. I had aching, popping, and snapping in my hips. I never felt comfortable. I wanted to crawl out of my skin. 

I would stop playing for months...then try again. Then feel bad again. Then take more time off...then try again.

But eventually I had to just stop. And if you've already been running on the hip pain treadmill you might be thinking it's time too. 

Trust me, it’s tough—but stepping off the ice gives your body the chance to reset and rebuild without constant stress. 

When you take time off hockey, don't expect that rest period alone to fix your hips. Fixing your hips requires work. You will need to stretch. You will need to strengthen. You will need to identify asymmetries. You will need to challenge all the limitation you discover. 

Being away from hockey gives you time to fix your body. It does not fix your body. So don't think you can just take three weeks off, then go back to the rink feeling just like new. 

Getting Back on the Ice

Once I started feeling ready (after YEARS of work), I didn't jump back in at three games a week. I took it slow. Everything felt weird. I had to get used to the feeling of ice. I had to get my hip muscles used to stabilizing while I was sliding around on my knees. 

I also had to pay attention to how my legs and hips felt during and after games. 

I had to maintain my body's function. I had to take it seriously. Rather than just assume things were just gonna magically work, I learned how my body responded to playing hockey. I learned that sitting on my butt all day did NOT prepare my hips to feel good later on the ice. 

I learned that stretching and strength training in a SMART way was no longer optional. 

So when you get back on the ice, remember to re-enter gradually. It'll save you from injury, and it'll help you get back to hockey in a healthy way. 

Leaving the Rink Behind...

I also learned at the age of 37 that the mental stress of playing goalie in my local leagues stopped being worth it. I had always played hockey for the fun, and dealing with beer leaguers spearing my hand like they were in game 7 of the conference finals just stopped being fun for me. 😅

In addition, the busyness of my adult life made it hard to maintain my body properly, and I knew we were going to have a baby on the way...

So I made the decision to put down my pads. I still daydream quite often about taking a puck to the chest. I still remember saves I made as a teenager. I remember some of the goals I scored when I skated out. I'm grateful hockey gave me the motivation to learn how to fix my own body, and I still occasionally skate out for some pickup roller hockey. But my days shlepping everything to the ice rink are behind me. 

And though I never dreamed I'd be able to live without hockey as a regular part of my life, I'm happier and healthier with the new outlets I've found (like biking, surfing, onewheeling, and dancing).

If you've got hip pain as a hockey player, I invite you to check out my hip program. It'll give you a simple but comprehensive approach to retraining your hips. It'll give you direction as you embark on this healing path. 

When I finally put a pause on hockey, I felt lost. I wasn't sure what to do to fix myself. I did a lot of wandering to find answers, and it took forever.

Now, I know a lot more. I won't say I have ALL the answers. And I definitely don't have ALL the answers that you need to find for your body, but I'm confident my program will help you find some of the answers. And it will lead you to even more of the answers you're searching for. 

You might also be interested in these articles about hip impingement / FAI...

FAI Bone Shapes and Hip Pain: https://www.uprighthealth.com/fai-bone-shapes
FAI and Labral Tears: https://www.uprighthealth.com/fai-labral-tears
Hip Impingement Tests: https://www.uprighthealth.com/fai-tests
Surgery for Hip Impingement: https://www.uprighthealth.com/fai-surgery