Why There Should be Body Checking in Younger Ages of Hockey
I strongly disagree with Hockey Canada's recent decision to eliminate body checking in the Pee Wee age level. The Hockey Canada board explains that there research has found that many Pee Wee aged players are being injured because of body checking and it has become a safety issue. My opinion is that body checking should be brought in at an earlier age in the Atom level which is for kids playing at the 9 to 10 age level. I think it should be brought in earlier so that the players can learn how to hit properly when they begin playing competitive hockey. The real problem is that when these older kids start using body checking their skills haven't been developed and they don't know how to make a safe and legal hit. The other issue is that when kids start to hit at the 13 and 14 age there can be a huge difference between their height and weight. Many kids can almost be fully grown and up to six feet in height while others still haven't gone into puberty and are under five feet tall. This is the real problem because these developed kids can serious injure the players that are much smaller than them. For these reasons, I strongly believe that body checking should brought in at the Atom level across the country instead of the Bantam level.
