Is the ability to stay healthy a skill?

[kwhyte]

Maybe I missed it earlier in the thread, but has anyone done a year-to-year correlation for games played? This would give us some measure of how much luck is involved. It wouldn't be perfect since some injuries span more than one year and players can change style/role after an injury, but it would be a start. I don't even have a guess - it could be as close to zero as it is for things like PDO or quite high like for goals. It's easy to think up examples where it looks like someone is injury prone, but this is exactly the kind of situation where human intuition is terrible at seeing statistical truths.


It'll be a bit tricky, since it should be limited to players who would play all 82 games if healthy and that's not so easy to judge.

 

[Roo Mad Bro]

At a passing glance, my issue would come with the word "skill" - which might end up making it a semantic argument on my end. But the connotation of the word "skill" to me is something that is learned and crafted over time. I wouldn't necessarily call staying healthy a "skill" per se. Condition, trait, characteristic, I don't know the right word. But I don't feel if "skill" is the correct framework given the other things that are confidently defined as "skills", in my opinion.

Agreed. I think it's a trait.

I know first hand because I am a pretty injury prone person. Always have been that way, and it affected me a lot growing up playing sports. I just wasn't durable, and my coaches knew that.

 

[Beef Invictus]

I think it's a mix of both. You have players with excellent awareness who are able to avoid hits and contact and such, and that is definitely a skill that helps someone stay healthy.

Healthiness can also be something you're just born with, though. Some people are naturally more durable than others.

 

[Fish on The Sand]

If Koivu was better he wouldn't have gotten cancer.

 

[Bear of Bad News]

If Koivu was better he wouldn't have gotten cancer.

It's a pretty short thread - it's like it would be a burden to actually read it.

 

[Faltorvo]

Style of play has a lot to do with it.

Lindros and Sundin as examples, both huge Cs but very different styles and health outcomes.

Wendel Clark, another example of a burn out style of play.

 

[Garbs]

Durability is definitely a component of fitness/athleticism. I'd say it's something you're born with.