Youth Ice Hockey: Teaching and Penalizing Checking Versus Removing or Delaying Checking

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Youth Ice Hockey: Teaching and Penalizing Checking versus Removing or Delaying Checking

by Gary Pilachik LCSW-C

I went to see a high school ice hockey team play last night. What I noticed, with some correlation to dental hygiene, weight, and hair bleaching products, were the repeated comments “Just hit them.” or “They’re scared. They won’t hit.” or “Hit the damn players!” The operative word was hit. It appeared to me there was little understanding about the use of a check in hockey. Now I have to say, the boys on the ice played a fast clean game. I’m not sure what the select few parents wanted. Did they mean check or truly hit? It made me think about whether or not players, parents, and coaches really understood the difference between hitting and checking. Where they thoroughly taught?

Checking and hitting are two different things. Part of the failure in lowering concussions and harm, is found in how and what youth ice hockey is teaching the players about checking.  They need to be taught about what the skill of checking is and does, how to do it, and that checking should be done with respect (another article). Checking is used to move the player off the puck so one can get the puck. It can also be used to slow or break up a play so one or someone from one’s team can get the puck. That is what checking is - when defined as a skill. There is no mention of harm or intimidation or bullying or abuse of one’s larger size over the smaller boys. Size variation in players is another topic for another article but it also relates to checking and more specifically to injury and harm. Youth ice hockey has to view checking differenlty then it has and teach it as a skill. They also have to look at hitting as a separate method to intimidate. Until USA Hockey, leagues, and clubs recognize the difference between the skill of checking and just hitting, our children will continue to get harmed with reckless hits.

Checking, defined as a skill to be used with respect is not what youth ice hockey players are fully taught when checking is introduced into the game. Hitting is often what 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 years are taught about checking. They don’t learn it as a skill. They learn it as hitting to intimidate. Some parents and coaches reinforce this as does the NHL. The hockey culture also reinforces it. We are all the current hockey culture. Where is the teaching of a skill? The actual teaching of checking to a significant degree, is not currently in our youth hockey programs. They are children not NHL players. Intimidation is fine in the NHL but not in youth ice hockey. The skill that can do the most harm and does the most harm is not taught well. That must be corrected to reduce the number of concussions and injuries in youth ice hockey. Extensive education, teaching and training for a skill that does them most harm must be the mantra.

Right now the epidemic of head and neck injuries are caused by the failure to  fully teach checking skills and sufficiently penalize illegal hits or typically “bad checks.” The youth players are essentially sent  out on the ice and told, “you can check now… go hit 'em.” Hockey is a physical sport and sending players out to just hit without significant training, makes hockey a reckless sport. The youth players don’t know how to check and don’t know how to protect themselves. You may or may not agree with this but hundred’s of games later, I am right.

So what is the solution to reduce the number of “bad checks” or illegal hits and prevent or reduce concussions and injury? I pointed out before that the punishment has to be significant and the penalty always called when a player makes contact to the head, neck, and back. This is not about intention but behavior. If you do the behavior of hitting someone in the neck, head, or back… you sit the rest of the game. One and done. It is what works for children.

In addition to consistent calls and sufficient penalties to stop unwanted behavior, you must teach the players how to check and how to protect themselves on the ice. Having to fully teach checking to players - is why the question should not be about whether or not to remove checking from the game or postpone checking. The question should be how do we better teach checking (at all youth ice hockey levels) as a way to reduce the number of harmful reckless hits. Hockey is a physical sport that fails to truly teach the youth players how to deal with the most physical aspects of the game – both checking and hitting. Thoroughly teach and significantly penalize the players. They will learn. You have to start with the Atoms to change the player culture.

On a side note, you have to also penalize the coaches if he or she can’t control the physical play of their team. That is right – the f word or forfeit. Give the coach a yellow card each time a player hits a player in the neck, head, or back. The third one is red and the game is over. Trust me. You want change, do this. (More about this in another article) The yellow card is a great visual tool for children to see and it put pressure on them not be responsible for a team forfeit. If you want checking to be in the game and done right... the yellow card is a powerful tool. This is about innovation, not history and old school hockey. Use what works.

Checking has to be introduced at all stages and ages, along with the penalty of being sat if you hit a player in the head, neck, or back. By doing this you will prepare the younger players to become checking Peewee players. Introducing checking without teaching or without stronger penalties, just prolongs the period of time before more injuries and harm come to the game. Instead of the period of increased injury being Peewee (11-12), it just becomes Bantam (13-14) if you were to only shift the introduction of checking. That is a good thing on one hand. It just is not the best method to reduce concussions and injuries to the lowest possible level.

Other methods, besides just delaying checking, can do more to reduce injuries and harm to our children. You still have to thoroughly teach checking and significantly penalize the players be it Peewee checking or Bantam checking. You also have to teach the coaches to manage the physical play of their players. Parents… I am not sure how you can teach them. I hope they learn from seeing the game change and by seeing how checking is taught, used and penalized in the game. More effort must go into teaching players how to respect each other, check each other, and how to protect themselves from checks and even collisions. Playing smart with your head up also prevents collisions.

The most physical aspect of youth ice hockey, checking or body hits, is the most under taught skill and under penalized skill (when done wrong) in the game. You can get two minutes for just hooking someone or two minutes for strongly elbowing someone in the head. You might even get two minutes for roughing for checking someone from the side of their head into the boards. Come on! We, as adults, can do better then that. That is how my son got his concussion. He sat out two weeks and the player that did it, missed two minutes of lost game time. My son missed 2 or 3 games and 2 practices. Fair? Hmmm.