‘What happens in the room stays in the room’: conducting research with young men in the Canadian Hockey League

Abstract

In this paper, I examine the process by which I conducted interviews with 19 young elite-level ice hockey players who competed or were competing in the Canadian Hockey League (CHL). I explore some of the methodological issues that arose while conducting these interviews and engaging with the various gatekeepers that facilitated my access to these interviewees. I relate these issues to the broader field of qualitative methodologies and specifically work that examines the challenges when a woman researcher conducts interviews with men. Through this analysis, I investigate the ways that men’s elite-level hockey structures itself as a closed community allowing outsiders only restricted access to the institution and its players. I also discuss some of the contradictions in the research process, particularly as they pertain to access to players and what they will disclose during the interviews. By focusing on the interview process, I study the ways that a specific style of masculinity (and to a lesser extent, femininity) is produced through the interviews. I argue that one of the ways that a particular gender dynamic is produced within North American men’s and boys’ elite-level hockey is by allowing women (and others not associated with elite-level hockey) only limited and guarded participation.

Keywords:

• qualitative research
• interviews
• hockey
• masculinity
• gender
• feminist methodologies
• Canadian Hockey League

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Barbara Marshall, Mary Louise Adams, Meaghan Beaton and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper.

Notes

1. In the case of this research, the gatekeepers were generally CHL team contacts (administrative staff) who facilitated both access to the participants and arranged the time and location of the interviews.

2. Not unlike Connell and Messerschmidt (2005), Pringle and Hickey (2010) define hypermasculinity as ‘an idealised image of an extreme form of masculinity, that few if any, actually embody’ (p. 119).

3. All names of players have been changed to protect their anonymity and confidentiality.

4. The AHL is a development league for the NHL.

5. ‘Kills’ are the colloquial term for having casual heterosexual sex.

6. ‘Puck bunny’ is a derogatory term describing a woman whose primary interest in hockey is thought to be the sexual pursuit of its players.

7. The CHL is divided into three geographic leagues – the QMJHL, the OHL and the Western Hockey League (WHL).

8. As a young woman, my family billeted a Russian hockey player who played in the OHL.

9. The term ‘hockey operations’ refers to those people whose contact with a hockey player pertains to his on-ice performance – coaching staff, scouts, management, trainers and other health personnel.

10. This request was refused due issues of confidentiality.

11. Players may have been directed during their media training to ignore questions that made them uncomfortable.

12. When the interview dynamic is examined focusing on gender (i.e., Sean as a male participant and me as a female researcher), it does point to some problematic power relations.

13. Kangaroo court is a mock legal proceeding, used in this context to solve team disputes.