Hockey Alberta eliminates body checking in Pee Wee

[MelBridgeman]

Originally Posted by DoubleK

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

Studies also suggest there is higher percentages of injuries in female competitive hockey, where there is zero body checking.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by 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.

You're right. Scrambling brains of many kids is a small price to pay to somehow vaguely increase Calgary's NHL player production

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by MelBridgeman

Studies also suggest there is higher percentages of injuries in female competitive hockey, where there is zero body checking.

? I'm not sure what you're saying here...

[valo403]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

? I'm not sure what you're saying here...

That the presence or absence of contact may not be as definitive as it seems

[TopChed]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

You're right. Scrambling brains of many kids is a small price to pay to somehow vaguely increase Calgary's NHL player production

How much peewee/bantam hockey did you play?

[TheGrimm]

I don't remember a rash of injuries in Peewee hockey either, but I guess the statistics don't lie. My biggest "injuries" in hockey came from slashing, crosschecking to the neck and collisions with my own team mates.

Checking was one of the fun things I remember about Peewee hockey.

[Clever_Iggy]

Originally Posted by TopChed

How much peewee/bantam hockey did you play?

He said his kid had significant issues with concussions due to contact.

[J epworth]

This just screams concussions for any high level peewee players trying out for the Buffs/Royals etc in their first year bantam. They are going to have to make it so only second year bantams can play club hockey, it seriously will be dangerous for players who have never hit before going against elite players a year older who have had a year of hitting under their belts.

Can you imagine your first taste of hitting being a Tyler Myers (was about 6'4" in Bantam) coming at you in a Buffaloes tryout?

[johnnyrocket03]

Just read a decent exchange between Theo Fleury and Darren Dreger on Twitter.

Theo said he doesnt like it because it puts off teaching kids one of the most important skills in the game: keeping your head up.

Heads down=more concussions for sure. Theo also went on to say that minor hockey coaches are teaching too many systems and not enough skills. Valid point, IMO.

[J epworth]

Originally Posted by johnnyrocket03

Just read a decent exchange between Theo Fleury and Darren Dreger on Twitter.

Theo said he doesnt like it because it puts off teaching kids one of the most important skills in the game: keeping your head up.

Heads down=more concussions for sure. Theo also went on to say that minor hockey coaches are teaching too many systems and not enough skills. Valid point, IMO.

Definitely a valid point. There is no reason to learn about systems even at the Peewee 1 level yet, skill development should still be the number 1 priority. Until you get into higher level Bantam hockey should systems begin to be introduced, and even then should be just a supplement to skill development.

[Bend it like Bourgeois]

Originally Posted by J epworth kendal

This just screams concussions for any high level peewee players trying out for the Buffs/Royals etc in their first year bantam. They are going to have to make it so only second year bantams can play club hockey, it seriously will be dangerous for players who have never hit before going against elite players a year older who have had a year of hitting under their belts.

Can you imagine your first taste of hitting being a Tyler Myers (was about 6'4" in Bantam) coming at you in a Buffaloes tryout?

2 years from now in particular when a kid with no experience hitting is against kids with 2 or 3 years.

I still like it though. They should be able to mitigate rough spots for a few kids.

[undercoverbrother]

So is the issue that large kids are laying out smaller kids?

[The Ditch]

I don`t know about you guys but my kid is definitely going to be one of the 0.01% of Canadian kids to make it to the NHL, if you don`t want your kid injured then kept him out the way, real men suffer through injury to get what they want.

[Flamenspiel]

^^You mean construction workers and miners who have asbestosis? or hockey players like Reggie Fleming?

[ma-skis.com]

just curious, how are kids taught hitting now? who teaches them to do it properly in PeeWee? How is that governed?

[Northendzone]

the teams i have helped coach have continued to focus mostly on individual skills - the clsoest we got to a system was introducing the attack triangle.

i am sort of in the camp that hitting should be earlier, but i also think us adults have a duty to prevent kids from getting concussions.

to summarize, i am not sure what the right answer is.........

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by MelBridgeman

Studies also suggest there is higher percentages of injuries in female competitive hockey, where there is zero body checking.

Why is there no checking in Female hockey?

[automaton 3]

Originally Posted by The Ditch

I don`t know about you guys but my kid is definitely going to be one of the 0.01% of Canadian kids to make it to the NHL, if you don`t want your kid injured then kept him out the way, real men suffer through injury to get what they want.

I think this is green text but my sarcasm meter has been known to be off at times

Just for interest's sake:

http://www.totalsportsmgmt.com/pro-hockey/

In 1985, a study was done in Ontario, Canada for all 10 year-old hockey players. At this time, there were 22,000 10 year-olds playing hockey in Ontario. Of these players only 110 made it to the OHL (Ontario Hockey League) and 22 more received scholarships to Division 1 schools.

This means that only 132 out of those 22,000 made it into the top feeder leagues for the NHL. Of those 132 players, only 7 played in the NHL. Those are astonishing numbers.

[Cheerio]

So they're putting off hitting until bantam where the size difference is bigger and the players are faster? They need to focus on teaching players how to safely take and give a hit so there aren't kids skating with their head down 2 feet away from the boards.

[cam_wmh]

Originally Posted by 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.

Ok you're quick to criticize, then how do you propose to implement?

I will say, that the data that is out there shows, this is the safer way to go about it.

Data shows:
Non-Contact PeeWee players in Quebec have fewer injuries compared to Contact PeeWee players in the rest of the country. Those same players as well, have the same rate of injury in Bantam both between contact, & non.

This ultimately, benefits the younger kids. Until we have data to compare with kids learning to hit in Atom, it's purely conjecture.