Hockey Alberta eliminates body checking in Pee Wee

[Buff]

As the thread title suggests, no more body checking for all of Pee Wee.

http://www.hockeyalberta.ca/index.ph...46/la_id/1.htm

I'm not really in the know, so I don't know if this is good or bad. However it seems like they are doing it for player safety, so you can't blame them for trying to protect the kids. Is this enough? Too much? Completely off base?

Discuss amongst yourselves.

[scobel]

In my opinion they went the opposite way on this. I don't make any sense to show kids how to hit when the are a couple years older, bigger and faster I believe more injury will occur because of this. I really think they should be learning body checking in atoms where the speed is less and the players are not so big and teach them the proper technique.

[Coach]

I think this is ridiculous. I have been coaching high level bantam for the past four years and to have kids come into this age group, which includes a large size difference between some players, without experience with contact is completely ridiculous to me. We will see a lot more serious injuries at the bantam level I think.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by MattyC

I think this is ridiculous. I have been coaching high level bantam for the past four years and to have kids come into this age group, which includes a large size difference between some players, without experience with contact is completely ridiculous to me. We will see a lot more serious injuries at the bantam level I think.

Good points.

I also think that many kids leave hockey early, because they are getting creamed by bigger kids that are the same age. That's why I left hockey around age 12.

If very few of the these players are going to play junior hockey, why do they need to hit at all, knowing what we do about concussions?

Maybe there can be two paths - one with hitting, and a more casual path without.

[valo403]

Originally Posted by troutman

Good points.

I also think that many kids leave hockey early, because they are getting creamed by bigger kids that are the same age. That's why I left hockey around age 12.

If very few of the these players aren't going to play junior hockey, why do they need to hit at all, knowing what we do about concussions.

Maybe there can be two paths - one with hitting, and a more casual path without.

When I was a kid there was hitting in pee-wee but only above a certain division, so lower skilled kids wouldn't have been in hitting leagues. That seems to make sense, the better players will be seeing high speed contact in a year or two, they should know how to take and receive a hit.

If they're going to remove hitting from games they should at the very least make sure that the fundamentals are being taught at practice, you can't just drop kids into bantam and expect them to know how to hit.

[CaptainCrunch]

Part of learning how to hit is learning how to take a hit.

taking it out of the game at that level and moving it up to a higher level isn't devastating however its something that they should be learning at that pee wee age.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Part of learning how to hit is learning how to take a hit.

taking it out of the game at that level and moving it up to a higher level isn't devastating however its something that they should be learning at that pee wee age.

Evidence is really clear that "learning" makes no difference later on in the kids hockey career. In fact, the only thing early body contact does is increase serious injuries. There is no demonstrable benefit to checking early

[johnnyrocket03]

This is pretty dumb but nowhere near as dumb as the various sports leagues around the city that dont keep score.

[DoubleK]

They have studied this to death. If this is the way the data suggests then so be it.

The only issue I have with making the change now, is that they haven't let the new head contact standard of play be around enough. I suspect that was the culprit and not so much the body checking itself.

[GGG]

Are there any recreational adult hockey leauges that are full contact? I dont know of any. So if adults arent willing to play full contact rec hockey why should kids. It is completely unecessary to subject kids to that risk for 1/10000 that play in the NHL.

[DoubleK]

Ranchlands is contact.

[mykalberta]

yah two leagues for hitting and non hitting might work these days especially in larger cities.

1 league is more geared toward possible hockey advancement in Junior or College and the other league is more a rec league.

[Canehdianman]

I'm torn on this. I can understand the reason why they are doing it, but I'm not sure it's going to solve the problem. As others have pointed out, it might just make things worse in Bantam.

I was (and still am) much larger than the other kids. I was hitting kids literally 1/2 my weight (with a few of them ending up injured). Almost all of those hits were them trying to knock down the big guy though. I rarely sought out someone to destroy (unless he deserved it - leave my goalie alone!)

Thing is, the size differential didn't get any smaller in Bantam..

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by troutman

Good points.

I also think that many kids leave hockey early, because they are getting creamed by bigger kids that are the same age. That's why I left hockey around age 12.

If very few of the these players are going to play junior hockey, why do they need to hit at all, knowing what we do about concussions?

Maybe there can be two paths - one with hitting, and a more casual path without.

This. 1000%

High level Rep hockey should have contact as all players have the same level of stability on the ice. How stable a kid is on the ice is far more a determinant for injuries than some vague "learning" of how to hit. I don't have the links anymore, but in a previous thread on the issue I provided lots of very clear evidence that peewee kids don't "learn" anything. They just get really hurt. The only case could be made for high level players.

My son recieved three concussions in one season. That was the only season they had hitting here. What did he or the kids who hit him from behind learn? Nothing. My son had bad headaches for 3 months after the last one. I asked myself why he needed to "learn" how to hit as I had been completely for it before. You know what? I couldn't think of a single reason. For kids not playing at a high level, the risk of head injuries is actually VERY high, and I cannot see what benefit is gained. They took hitting out the next year and the votes weren't even close. There were also a few fairly serious neck injuries and around 30% of kids were going to leave the sport of it wasn't taken out

[DoubleK]

Hockey Calgary has the Rec level of hockey that doesn't have hitting. This is for PeeWee through Junior.

[Mccree]

Originally Posted by mykalberta

yah two leagues for hitting and non hitting might work these days especially in larger cities.

1 league is more geared toward possible hockey advancement in Junior or College and the other league is more a rec league.

I think this is the answer. Why does a kid that will likely never play at high level risk injury because a check. If you are only ever going to play rec hockey do you even need to learn to hit?

[Northendzone]

i have only seen a total of about 20 minutes of games in the RHC and man if you want to see kids play with their head down that is the league......

at least the decision is coming from Hockey alberta so it will be uniform across the province.

[saskflames69]

I played full contact Pee-wee, hit my head pretty hard a couple of times but I turned out hockey.

[blankall]

Really poor decision. If they wanted to reduce contact, they should have instead instituted modified hitting rules. Reduce the situations where a player can get hit, while still building important fundamentals for this contact sport.

[Ashasx]

I think it's silly. So kids now have to learn how to hit in bantam? ie, how to play the sport how it is meant to be played, at 14 years of age? It's a joke.

You need to learn at a smaller size. Calgary is already awful at producing NHLers. This will pretty much eliminate it.