Taking 10-14 year olds Weight and Height Disparities Into the Safety Mix

There are always options. Innovation and creativity can make the difference when it comes to reducing injuries to youth hockey players, our children.


To debate whether or not checking should be removed or when to introduce it, does not fully address the current problem. Reckless hits to the head occur in hockey. That problem can be addressed more fully by taking all angles into account. When to introducing checking, is one angle.

By decreasing the number of hits to the neck, head, and back – you decrease concussions and other injuries. Mandatory and significant penalties are needed to deter these hits in any age game - period. You can still hit someone in the head in a non checking league… you just get a penalty. If you move checking to start in Bantam versus Peewee… you can still hit someone in the head a year early.

That being said, another angle to look from to reduce the risk of harm, is by clearly viewing the huge disparity in height and weight for both Peewees and Bantams. Why do these 2 levels with such extreme height and weight differences have to be defined only by age? Why not by age but with height and weight stipulations?

No matter what you do with checking: move it, modify it, or remove it. You still have weight differences (more so then height) that can cause great harm to children. Hitting in the back or boarding has been illegal in youth ice hockey since the beginning. But hits (yes hits) still happen. A 120 pound player boarding a 70 pound player is a recipe for major harm. Intentional or not, 50 pounds is not defendable by a 70 pound player. Raise one player up or keep one player down a level.

One suggestion is to use weight and height as a modifier for placing the players in leagues. The basic idea:


Squirt (1st year): Based on age.

Squirt (2nd year) or Peewee (1st year): Based on age, weight and height (a player moves up)

Squirt (3rd year): Based on weight and height (a player could stay down)

Peewee (1st year): Based on age, weight and height

Peewee (2nd year) or Bantam (1st year): Based on age, weight and height. (a player moves up)

Peewee (3rd year) or Bantam (1st year): Based age, weight, and height. ( a player could stay down)

Bantam (2nd year): Based on age.

It is not as confusing as it looks. Basically you take a players weight and height into account, along with age. If they are on the low end of weight and height, they can stay longer in the lower age league. If they are on the high end of weight and height, they have to move up to the higher age league. Second year squirt through second year bantam become more balanced between weight and height. Two factors that impact risk of harm on our youth players are now addressed with a better safety standard.

You can create percentages for number of older players or younger players on teams. That is easily balanced.