Hockey Edmonton bans hitting at lower level Bantam/Midget

[undercoverbrother]

Interesting.

http://edmontonjournal.com/news/loca...f-minor-hockey

Effective for the 2016-17 season, there will be no body checking in all categories of bantam and midget hockey except for higher-tiered teams that compete in Hockey Alberta Provin

[drewtastic]

Nice to see the Oilers' example at work in the community...

(Seriously, though, I think it's an important issue, and likely a positive decision!)

[Bingo]

based on my experience coaching in a tournament up there in March it might be a good idea!

Calgary had Bantam tiered this season so the top three divisions had hitting, bottom 4 divisions did not. Seemed to work well.

Made it tough to move kids between divisions 3 and 4 for call ups though

[Bingo]

and I'm torn on this issue.

I'm not a brain expert at all and won't pretend to be. but in my experience it seems the more you make kids wait to hit ...

the more you get a huge difference in size between kids
and the more kids find it novel and make more dangerous hits

I guess I side to the maybe we're over legislating these things.

[Cleveland Steam Whistle]

Seems like a good call. Doesn't matter about making these kids waiting to hit, cause they never really need to know how to hit. By Bantam if you ar playing in the lower divisions, you arent going to play college or pro , or major junior. These are kids who always just going to play for fun (which is great) and just like their other skills not being at a high level, why wouldn't we assume their abilities on hitting and taking a hit to be the same? That's. When you get people hurt, when people who don't really know how to do it or take it, get told they can hit. Why risk a bunch of detestation head or neck injuries in what amounts to kids rec hockey. Melts just let them go out and compete and have fun without that risk.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by Bingo

and I'm torn on this issue.

I'm not a brain expert at all and won't pretend to be. but in my experience it seems the more you make kids wait to hit ...

the more you get a huge difference in size between kids
and the more kids find it novel and make more dangerous hits

I guess I side to the maybe we're over legislating these things.

The evidence says pretty clearly that no matter how long you wait to teach it there's no difference in injuries

[Sylvanfan]

I can think of two guys, Curtis Glencross and Mark Recchi who were both Bantam house league players, and ended up getting to the NHL. Granted in today's world where parents spend 350 grand to get their kids prepared to be NHL machines...I don't know if this still works.

I was a bad low level hockey player as a kid. I liked the hitting aspect of hockey, as much as anyone. I mean the games were pretty much slug fests where all you did was try to kill other guys throwing big hits because it's not like there was much skill at that level. But when I was midget aged and my only option to play was in a non hitting league....suddenly my skill level was forced to improve a fair bit because without hitting there wasn't much point playing the game if you couldn't stick handle, shoot, or pass.

We actually went to a couple of full hitting tournaments and our team ended up placing pretty well because rather than play the hit and kill everything game...we scored more goals than the other team and none of our guys got hurt because we had no clue how to hit against the players who did it all the time. Truthfully I improved more as a player between the ages of 16-19 and that was without any practice time.

[H2SO4(aq)]

Contact was a huge part of my childhood. I loved throwing hits and i loved getting hit, i loved the compete level and the toughness. I really think this jeopardizes the tenacity and courage of hockey. For me, hockey (and lacrosse) was about overcoming the fear of getting hurt, battling against my peers, and it taught me how to be courageous in life. I wouldnt be the person I am today if i never had to step on the ice and overcome the fear of being hurt to try and win. That internal confrontation is what makes hockey such an empowering sport, and i hope it is not lost on my children.

Sorry for the overly dramatic post, I just feel very strongly about how important violence was on my life. I needed it.

[CaptainCrunch]

Honestly I'm sorta fine with this, but at the same time, at some point these kids at the higher levels will have to learn how to hit properly, take a hit and have respect.

I think instead of banning it, the onus should be more on coaching it and introducing it at t level like Bantam that's more practice heavy.

If you ignore it and pass it down and leave it to the next level up and then try to engage the hitting aspect of the game, I think you'll get more injuries.

Just my two cents.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by H2SO4(aq)

Contact was a huge part of my childhood. I loved throwing hits and i loved getting hit, i loved the compete level and the toughness. I really think this jeopardizes the tenacity and courage of hockey. For me, hockey (and lacrosse) was about overcoming the fear of getting hurt, battling against my peers, and it taught me how to be courageous in life. I wouldnt be the person I am today if i never had to step on the ice and overcome the fear of being hurt to try and win. That internal confrontation is what makes hockey such an empowering sport, and i hope it is not lost on my children.

Sorry for the overly dramatic post, I just feel very strongly about how important violence was on my life. I needed it.

While I understand the importance of that lesson, I'm not sure it's worth kids losing a year of school, depression and months of headaches. This happened to me with my son. It was devastating

[Lanny_McDonald]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

The evidence says pretty clearly that no matter how long you wait to teach it there's no difference in injuries

I'd like to see those studies. Brain injuries during cognitive development are much more damaging, take longer to heal, and have longer lasting impacts on individuals based on the literature I read in school. This why there is such a big movement in the States to outlaw tackle football until high school.

[N-E-B]

I hate this garbage. Hey soccer moms, you don't like hitting? Put your kids in Rec hockey. It's there for a reason. People know the risks of hitting before putting their kids into it. This sport is going to poop and I'm glad I was able to grow up playing it before all this crap. How about we teach kids how to hit and receive a hit instead of removing it? Stupid people ruining a great game.

[TheSutterDynasty]

There are plenty of studies out on this now.

You either teach kids how to hit at an early age and properly to reduce injury rates.

Or you get rid of hitting entirely.

Looks like Edmonton is going for the latter. I used to love the competitiveness of hockey but looks like my future kids won't get to. Should have two leagues available, one non hitting for all the coddlers.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by N-E-B

I hate this garbage. Hey soccer moms, you don't like hitting? Put your kids in Rec hockey. It's there for a reason. People know the risks of hitting before putting their kids into it. This sport is going to poop and I'm glad I was able to grow up playing it before all this crap. How about we teach kids how to hit and receive a hit instead of removing it? Stupid people ruining a great game.

I hate this garbage.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by TheSutterDynasty

There are plenty of studies out on this now.

You either teach kids how to hit at an early age and properly to reduce injury rates.

Or you get rid of hitting entirely.

Looks like Edmonton is going for the latter. I used to love the competitiveness of hockey but looks like my future kids won't get to. Should have two leagues available, one non hitting for all the coddlers.

The studies contradict your second sentence

[Aarongavey]

Originally Posted by N-E-B

I hate this garbage. Hey soccer moms, you don't like hitting? Put your kids in Rec hockey. It's there for a reason. People know the risks of hitting before putting their kids into it. This sport is going to poop and I'm glad I was able to grow up playing it before all this crap. How about we teach kids how to hit and receive a hit instead of removing it? Stupid people ruining a great game.

This is for Rec hockey. This is for the boys who are not playing Elite hockey

[Aarongavey]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

I hate this garbage.

Are you against N-E-B's social darwanistic, knuckledragging commentary about the ficticous emasculation of the game of hockey? Me too.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by New Era

I'd like to see those studies. Brain injuries during cognitive development are much more damaging, take longer to heal, and have longer lasting impacts on individuals based on the literature I read in school. This why there is such a big movement in the States to outlaw tackle football until high school.

There's actually quite a few. Not a single source I can find shows early body contact reduces injuries later on. In fact, every single one shows the opposite.


https://www.sciencedaily.com/release...0712141935.htm

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by New Era

I'd like to see those studies. Brain injuries during cognitive development are much more damaging, take longer to heal, and have longer lasting impacts on individuals based on the literature I read in school. This why there is such a big movement in the States to outlaw tackle football until high school.

I saw this and I don't agree with this. One of the things that's been really emphasized for the last few years is teaching the kids in youth football safe contact, how to tackle properly and get your heads out of the play, and for example I saw two concussions this year, one had nothing to do with a hit, and the other was due to improper technique.

IF you leave teackle football to the high school level these kids will not go in with a fundamental understanding of hitting and the muscle memory to do it right, so you're basically going to be putting these kids in a worse position because of their age, size, speed and inexperience in how to throw a safe block or make a safe tackle.

If you take away about 6 years of proper teaching and development, I'm betting that you see head injuries increase.

However I will add that its on the coaches and especially at the head coach and coordinator level in the minor leagues to make sure that contact is taught and taught properly, and not only that but to ensure that they are up on player safety and concussion identification and protocol.

I'm convinced that a lot of head injuries also go from bad to worse because of misidentification of injuries and not properly following return to play protocols.

I also believe that player parents should be forced to take a course throughout peewee, bantam, midget and highschool that talks about concussions, and return to play when they sign their kids up.

Just my 2 cents.

Its far different know from when I played minor football and you were taught to use your helmet to leave a smoking hole in your opponents chest and to rub dirt on a headache or dizziness and get back out there because your team needs you.

[Samonadreau]

I'm just going to keep my mouth shut after this. We wonder why kids are muffins these days. This is why. We baby them. It's hockey for crying out loud. When they moved hitting from peewee to bantam that was OK but then kids didn't learn to take a check until they were big enough to absolutely crush each other. I don't know what's going these days. Maybe I'm just stubborn and naive but that is how I feel.