Hockey Canada’s decision to eliminate bodychecking for peewee players was met with support from executives at the Ontario Minor Hockey Association, but also raised passionate debate from grassroots coaches in Toronto.

“It’s not going to affect anything, it’s just going to put the process off for a year,” said Thomas Neal, who coaches peewee hockey for the Scarborough Young Bruins.

“All it’s going to do is get kids used to not hitting, it’s delaying the process.”

Neal and peewee coaches across Canada will coach a different game next season after Hockey Canada, at it’s annual general meeting in Charlottetown Saturday, unanimously voted to remove bodychecking from peewee level (11- and 12-year-olds) and below.

Full body contact will now re-enter the game at the minor bantam level.

That ruling came on the heels of similar decisions by provincial hockey bodies in Alberta, Quebec and Nova Scotia — and experts in Charlottetown and across Canada say it frees the game for the teaching of skills that will enable young players to better handle bodychecking.

“It doesn’t mean we’re taking contact out of the game,” said Ian Taylor, director of development programs for the OMHA, which already has a four-step program to introduce bodychecking to young players.

“It doesn’t mean there won’t be physicality, battles, contact … hockey is a collision sport. They say it’s a contact sport, but it’s a collision sport, especially with young players. I don’t think kids will lose out (by) having checking removed from this level. ...

“I don’t think kids should start out being taught bodychecking; there are so many other skills (they need), like picking the puck up along the boards on an angle, and skating, and other angling skills, so that they can put themselves in good positions for when bodychecking enters the game for them.”

Research that came out of Alberta last year showed there was a three-fold increase in the risk of injuries for peewee players who check in Alberta, compared to those in Quebec where bodychecking is not allowed until bantam, The Canadian Press reported.

Halifax Mooseheads coach Dominique Ducharme, who is in Saskatoon for the Memorial Cup, noted that 11- and 12-year-old kids can vary drastically in size.

“The more the players at a younger age can work on their skills, beside wondering about getting body checked and body weight and height difference, I think maybe (in) the long run it might just help develop players with even better skills,” he said.

Peewee coaches across Canada digested the ruling Saturday, and some at the Charlottetown meeting agreed with Neal that bodychecking should be kept in the game at the peewee level, or even earlier.

Kelly McClintock, general manager of the Saskatchewan Hockey Association, maintained that bodychecking is a skill that should be taught to children as young as 8 or 9.

“Our membership has always been very strongly in favour of having bodychecking as early as possible,” he said. “It’s always been a pretty emotional discussion.”

The changes from the Charlottetown meeting will take effect in the upcoming season, which begins in September.

Hockey Canada said the board has agreed to develop a bodychecking standard for coaching, to be implemented in the 2014-15 season.

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But Neal believes the governing bodies behind the decision are dramatically missing the point on bodychecking, and have failed coaches in general across Canada by not upgrading teaching skills.

“Hockey Canada has passed the buck, they leave it up to the coaches to teach bodychecking,” said Neal, who has two sons playing hockey in Toronto.

“They rail against concussions and yet they don’t teach coaches how to teach bodychecking. I play hockey, and I’ve coached for years at a lot of levels, but some coaches have not played much, or never played, and they can’t skate … and they’re out there teaching kids about hitting.

“We got to this point because Hockey Canada didn’t do what it takes to teach bodychecking. They have people spending $150 an hour on power skating, but I’ve never had anyone in hockey come up to me and say, ‘We’ll teach you how to teach bodychecking,’ they’ve never done it. You’d never run a business that way, and if you did, you’d be fired.”

Taylor stressed that the teaching of bodychecking won’t be entirely eliminated after the ruling. He said in addition to coaching clinics and programs at the national and provincial levels, coaches, like those in his Oakville hockey association, can control the teaching of bodychecking in peewee level practices so that players will have a feel and background for it when it returns at the minor bantam level.

“We’re consistently getting numbers back that say three times as many kids get hurt with bodychecking (at the peewee age) as opposed to those who don’t have it in the game,” Taylor said.

“I can tell you from coaching myself (in Oakville) that when we allowed bodychecking in atom at 10 years old, I fully supported it. I felt the earlier you expose kids the better … but in the 10 years since then, we have the data about injuries. …

“We have to teach kids how to give and take checks properly … before full contact. …When full contact is introduced … the kids will have the skills to handle it.”

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