USAH to ban checking in pee-wee hockey

[old goalie85]

When we started out.[squirts, mid 70's] checking and slapshots were allowed. Small flimsy cooper helmets w/no facemask. I don't remember any parents telling us to hit, or not to hit just "to have fun". Now I do hear parents and kids my oldest[ Jr. in high school] for example tell my pee-wee you should have " lit that guy up " . Maybe these kids today want the big hits more because they can't check @ squirts. They can't wait for checking to begin. Why? because they arn't allowed to.

[HShockeywatcher]

I know you said rhetorical question but...It depends on the sport.

In the NFL football is entertainment, the networks pay huge sums of money to show the games, then get to charge companies a great deal of money to air their ads. The league allowed spearing to be come common place because big hits sell, they have rules to allow more offense, and have turned it away from what amateur football is and what the NFL was even 20 years ago. The game isn't about blocking and tackling, it's about big fat guys getting in the way and big hits, for every Antione winfield there are 3 James Harrisons. You could say the same thing about the NBA and NHL, rule changes are designed to get butts in the seats not make the game better.

MLB is of the major sports the most fundementally sound though expansion has made any left handed kid in the country a pitching prospect and the steroid era may have been a short term gain but a long term ill the game went through.

I wrote it rhetorically because I didn't want to cite a handful of examples and have everyone skim the paragraph and not read them.

-When I was working on my tennis game, my father and wife showed me videos of the pros and how they look at the ball as they hit, and after. This is the same principle with golf, baseball and I'm sure hockey.

-While I will agree that what Harrison is doing once he gets to that player is not correct, and allowed for the wrong reason as you point out, I'd bet good money that if you studied what he does before he gets to the hit, you'd learn a lot.

I could go on with a few other examples, traveling in basketball for example, and you are completely right about why, but generally the pros are pros for a reason. And the ones who improve, improve for a reason.

I've talked too a handful of players who, from how they talk about why they play hockey, would be just as useful on the ice without a stick. And that is something that bothers me.

[MNHockeyFan]

SiouxSuck, Checking used to begin in squirts so they raised the age, not lowered it.
Too bad they didn't track injuries when squirts could check compared to when they raised the checking age.

Not arguing one way or the other, but be aware that "WAY BACK WHEN" - in the 1960's - checking was very restricted in Minnesota high school. Checking was only allowed in your defensive zone - any check beyond your own blue line was a penalty!