Mayo Clinic Injury Reduction & Our Parent Skills and Scrimmage Clinic

A group of parents have purchased 20 blocks of ice for between season hockey. We wanted to provide an alternative method for hockey development between seasonal travel hockey play.We will be opening it to 20 players. The focus of our clinic is skill development and fun.

The players will receive 15 -20 minutes of skill coaching at the beginning of each session. The players will scrimmage for the remainder of the time. It will be a full game atmosphere without checking. Any player that hits to the neck, head, or back will have to sit for the remainder of the session. Hockey is about mental and physical skill development. Our clinic removes checking as a method to allow youth players the opportunity to focus on speed, stick skills, positioning, and other mental aspects of the game without having to worry about getting check. Removing 1 aspect (checking) allows youth players to fully focus on 4 different skill areas of hockey development. We fully believe this we help the youth players develop essential skills and make the better players.

I will present the full model in February.


Below is small cut from an extensive Mayo Clinic study. It is page 32. You can read the entire PDF at this link. The most relevant information to my concerns are pages 30 onward. Mayo Article On Changes to Prevent Youth Ice Hockey Injuries


D. What Needs to be Done?



For several years investigators have tried to catch the attention of hockey’s decision makers by
publishing on the increased risk of injury to children playing in checking leagues.(11, 48) The resistance to change relates to the culture of ice hockey and a fear that such a rule will result in an inferior quality of player. Some coaches in non-checking leagues report on amazing skill development that can occur when players are not afraid of the big hits, but are confident to “go to the net” with speed, finesse and with the puck on their stick. The exemplary work by Emery and colleagues should persuade decision makers to postpone body checking until 14 years of age.(50,51) Decreasing body checking in developmentally immature youngsters, who still lack control over their “on-ice” checking skills, is now an evidence based necessity to decrease concussions in youth hockey.(11,66)


In the breakout session for this sector, hopefully actions on rules, regulations and enforcement will take place.