What would you do if USA Hockey banned checking in PeeWees

[Concerned Hockey Coach]

I think you guys are making too big a deal over this... It's all speculation at this point as to negative OR positive affects on the game.

I completely disagree with this. Its not speculation. If you take checking out of the PeeWee game it becomes a glorified squirt game where the best players can skate around with their head down and not have to pass the puck. THIS is why all elite players' parents should CRINGE at the thought of their son not developing the aspect of their game that they need to develop most - team awareness and timely decision making.

THIS is also why the non-ELITE players should CRINGE at the thought of this implementation since their kids will absolutely 100% touch the puck less. Checking is the great equalizer in hockey. It's why a has-been high school glory hound can excel in Men's league hockey BUT never did anything in college or against good HS talent.

I've yet to see anyone make a coherent argument for the elimination of checking at the PeeWee level that CITES development purposes.

I DO think that it would be a wise decision to create non-checking PeeWee C leagues where those who are new to the game can start or completely develop their skills to allow them to best protect themselves on the ice (i.e. skate with head up and have the necessary control of their body to absorb hits and not leave their head and body exposed due to lack of skillset.) But that would be a rationale way to achieve the objective of allowing PeeWee age players to start hockey or players who just started in their last couple year's of squirts. Play a year in the non-checking league until you can skate properly and then choose to jump up to check to develop further.

Can someone (perhaps DMom it seems) justify the development PLUSES from taking Checking out of the PeeWee game???

Seriously I would enjoy considering them. Maybe I'm wrong.

[goaliewithfoggedglasses]

I know alot of kids would just go to Minnesota Made where checking would be allowed.

Hey Johnny which do you want to do?

- Play on a team with the same name as the high school team you've grown up watching.
- For the city you live in.
- Against teams like Edina, Eden Praire, Minnetonka, Wayzata, Jefferson, Burnsville, etc.
- Have a chance to play in Regions and State Tournaments
- Go to tournaments in cool places like Roseau

OR

Play in a house league at MM where the Blue Bombers play the Red Storm 6 times a year just like you did in Mites.

I don't see it.

[Concerned Hockey Coach]

I know alot of kids would just go to Minnesota Made where checking would be allowed.

Hey Johnny which do you want to do?

- Play on a team with the same name as the high school team you've grown up watching.
- For the city you live in.
- Against teams like Edina, Eden Praire, Minnetonka, Wayzata, Jefferson, Burnsville, etc.
- Have a chance to play in Regions and State Tournaments
- Go to tournaments in cool places like Roseau

OR

Play in a house league at MM where the Blue Bombers play the Red Storm 6 times a year just like you did in Mites.

I don't see it.

You forgot one choice...

OR

Do you want to play another two years of squirt hockey before being throw onto the ice with 170 lbs kids at Bantams and learn what checking is like for the first time?

[Neuuman]

I think you guys are making too big a deal over this... It's all speculation at this point as to negative OR positive affects on the game.

I completely disagree with this. Its not speculation. If you take checking out of the PeeWee game it becomes a glorified squirt game where the best players can skate around with their head down and not have to pass the puck. THIS is why all elite players' parents should CRINGE at the thought of their son not developing the aspect of their game that they need to develop most - team awareness and timely decision making.

THIS is also why the non-ELITE players should CRINGE at the thought of this implementation since their kids will absolutely 100% touch the puck less. Checking is the great equalizer in hockey. It's why a has-been high school glory hound can excel in Men's league hockey BUT never did anything in college or against good HS talent.

I've yet to see anyone make a coherent argument for the elimination of checking at the PeeWee level that CITES development purposes.

I DO think that it would be a wise decision to create non-checking PeeWee C leagues where those who are new to the game can start or completely develop their skills to allow them to best protect themselves on the ice (i.e. skate with head up and have the necessary control of their body to absorb hits and not leave their head and body exposed due to lack of skillset.) But that would be a rationale way to achieve the objective of allowing PeeWee age players to start hockey or players who just started in their last couple year's of squirts. Play a year in the non-checking league until you can skate properly and then choose to jump up to check to develop further.

Can someone (perhaps DMom it seems) justify the development PLUSES from taking Checking out of the PeeWee game???

Seriously I would enjoy considering them. Maybe I'm wrong.

THANK YOU!.

If everyone can agree that checking will be a part of boys/men's hockey at levels higher than PeeWee's, why would you want to put kids at the risk of being "checked" (or, more appropriately, "steamrolled") for the first time when it could be a 6'2, 195 lb. player delivering the hit? Having played youth hockey as a "small" player, I was extremely thankful to have been hit (steamrolled) by a player 5'7 and 165 lbs. for the first time at the PeeWee level vs. being pancaked by someone the size of Alexander Ovechkin. If you think I'm stretching the truth, you are wrong. At the Bantam level, there is a HUGE discrepancy in size. Some of the players are damn near grown men, and some are pre-pubescent children. I would sure hope that the children had a year or two to acclimate themselves to an environment where man sized opponents were tying to separate their heads from their bodies rahter than find that cold, hard, fact out in the emergency room with a severe concussion and swelling on the brain, putting at risk their entire future (sports AND anything else [like a normal life, which is what 99.9% of all youth hockey players should strive for]).

Just one man's opinion.

[muckandgrind]

I'm still waiting for someone to post a study that links legal checking to a rise in concussions/injuries in PeeWees. I don't want to see a study built around anectdotal evidence about shots to the head or checking from behind....which are already illegal.