Reasons Why Body Checks Were Banned In Ontario Youth Hockey

From the ice to the E.R.: Reasons Why Body Checks Were Banned in Ontario Youth Hockey by the OHF

Body checking plays a large part in the game of hockey. It is used to separate the player with the puck from the puck. Body checking is used in the NHL, in the minor leagues such as the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), Western Hockey League (WHL) and Quebec Minor Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), in minor travel hockey, and, up until the 2011-2012 season, it was used in house league divisions from Peewee and up all across Ontario. It is an integral part of the game; therefore, the question is compelling: why was bodychecking banned from house league hockey in the province of Ontario? My hypothesis includes the following three statements: over 70% of players in Ontario play house league hockey and up to 36 000 young

"It's not just the desire to play with better players, it's also the desire to play 'real' hockey, to feel what it's like to throw a hip check and have a guy cartwheel over you," said Peter Hoag, who coached in the George Bell Hockey Association. "As an adolescent male, you want to do that. You are not hitting to hurt someone, but you want to do it. It's the same reason you play rugby or football." In examples of leagues, Windsor Minor Hockey Association is fighting relentlessly to keep bodychecking within their rules. "I think it's ridiculous [that] they're taking it out," said Windsor Minor Hockey president Dean Lapierre. "Of course you're going to get injuries but you get injuries in any sport doing anything." Lapierre said body checking is "part of hockey." He said the problem isn't the act of bodychecking itself. "It's teaching the kids how to take a hit. Now they're not going to start checking until bantam, where you have players that went through puberty and others haven't, and they're going to be ... running around with all this built up aggression after not being able to check," he said.