Dan Replies:
Dear FiT: This is a hot button issue in Canada right now and we're sure it will become an issue in the US as well.
There are two schools of thought. One is that checking is a part of the game and it should be introduced at the lowest levels of youth hockey so players learn to do it, become accustomed to it, and it won't be the big deal is now when it gets introduced at later ages.
Others believe that while "checking" is a part of the game, it's becoming a lost art and being replaced by “hitting” and is now used to allow bigger, less skilled players to neutralize the impact of smaller skilled players and is driving skilled players out of the game for fear of injury.
We think this is a coaching issue. If coaches would emphasize the skill aspects of the game and control aggressive behavior, problems would be minimal. Because not all coaches have the best interest of their opponents, players, (and, in my opinion) the good of the game at heart, hitting and aggressive play in youth hockey will continue to cause problems – both in injuries and credibility for the sport.
I feel so strongly about this that at my hockey camp we don’t teach “hitting”, or even “checking”, rather we teach “angling” – not to be confused with fishing.
Every administrator, coach, and parent should read about the results of a recent study published in July, 2003, by the Canadian Medical Association Journal entitled, “Bodychecking and concussions in ice hockey: Should our youth pay the price?” You can link to the article here: www.cmaj.ca/cgi/reprint/169/2/124. The authors of this study suggest that hockey "has become a collision sport". That's not the hockey I played as a kid. It gave me pause to wonder how much I’m willing to expose my child to injury in a game that for him will most likely only be a pastime and play.
Hitting, aggressive play, and fighting were never an issue for my brothers and me because we knew for a certainty that if we engaged in that, before we got to the penalty box, our father would be personally escorting us off the ice by the nape of our necks. We would be taking our skates off in the car on the way home and certainly forfeiting our pride and most likely the rest of the season.
