Pee Wee A 2016-17

[6607]

Not so sure the "problem" began with letting Mites play up.  At the Pee Wee level, there used to be a disencentive/block to playing up.  It was called checking.  Not sure if kids were ever allowed to play up from a non checking division into a checking one.  Need some institutional memory from the board on this one.

[Tripod]

I agree with 6607 on this one.  One solution is to keeping body checking in PW.  That would keep the squirts in squirts where they can play mites.  The bigger issue is keeping the kids playing as they get older.  They should have been learning how to give/take/play a body checking game before their bodies get big which means more speed and mass (bigger hits and collisions).  Now, kids can wait till they are 13 before they start keeping their heads up and looking to pass.  They can dangle all day, not make passes and delay the development of their vision and hockey IQ as a 12 year old.  When they hit 13, they hold onto the puck too long and get run over and their developing bones get broken.  Most of the injuries will be forearm/wrist because kids don't see the hit coming till too late and reflexively, they try to absorb the hit with that part of their body.  All it takes is to miss 4-6 months because of a wrist injury (can't hold a stick with a cast on) and now your kid is a season behind in terms of development.  How things will change.  Parents having their squirts play up one year to parents hoping their kid makes the BantamAAA minor team instead of AA so he can keep playing with his own birth year (unless the kid is big and fast enough to hang with the Bantam majors).  Players like Gretzky and Crosby played up (in bantam/midget) because they learned about the hitting game as peewees and they developed their hockey vision/IQ so they moved the puck very well and would not be getting hit so often.  Kids playing up from mite to  squirt to peewee means nothing.  Let's see if they are doing that as bantam/midget where no one is talking about teams "playing up".

[area51]

I'd like to see checking for Peewee AA only. That would help keep under aged and sized players in Peewee A or below. I also think that Bantam B should be no check to help keep more kids in the game. There is no checking in beer league where most of these kids will end up one day.

[Pistonkev]

I'd like to see checking for Peewee AA only. That would help keep under aged and sized players in Peewee A or below. I also think that Bantam B should be no check to help keep more kids in the game. There is no checking in beer league where most of these kids will end up one day.

I like that especially the Bantam B kids that don't skate well and are big.

[BigDuke6]

I agree that checking should be part of peewee hockey.  By the time they are bantams the size difference can vary greatly and that's a tough way to learn about checking.

There are plenty of 4 foot something, 80-90 lbs bantams "learning" about checking with 6 foot +150 lbs bantams.

[Hockey sophist]

Excellent suggestion on Bantam B no checking.   But why only PWAAs with  checking.  There are two complete teams of '06s and last season same thing with '05s.   Plus there were '05s scattered around on other teams including GSE, Wildcats, and Saints.    Some of these playing up are under-sized and some big for their age.   CIF, the governing body for high school sports in S. California used to use a formula including age, weight and height to distribute lower class players in football.   A 110 lbs 10 year old is probably better off with older players and a 70 or 65 lb 12 year old may be quick enough and clever enough to avoid collisions and if not better to learn as a PW A, AA, or AAA than as a BN.   Protecting PWAs with no checking just to protect '96s creates inconsistent and sometimes had refereeing.   

[BigDuke6]

I see no reason to limit checking to certain levels.  Hockey is a contact sport.  I believe that it would be more beneficial for peewee players to have full checking, before kids really start growing.  Keeping your head up become very important.  I've seen many a small first year bantam, used to puck handling and dangling all over the place, get blown up because they don't keep their head up.

Can get ugly.

[Fowlmood]

My Bantam player agrees with checking at the PW AA level.

[Pistonkev]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMjl_A1ycos

On checking

[SkatingDad]

I'd like to see checking for Peewee AA only. That would help keep under aged and sized players in Peewee A or below. I also think that Bantam B should be no check to help keep more kids in the game. There is no checking in beer league where most of these kids will end up one day.

I do not agree with the AA vs A for checking. I believe they should leave the no contact cross / half ice BS in mites and let them check in squirts while they are not big enough to do any damage.  Let them learn the proper technique and let them learn how to play hockey.  BTW, The head down argument is only partially valid as a skilled player will recognize that the player has their head down and will attack the puck.


I do support the idea that B should be non checking starting in squirts.   In fact, I believe in Canada Bantam C is non checking.  If you only aspire to play in a beer league then why learn how to play the game of hockey? Any form of hockey that is non-checking should be called something else because it is not hockey.

[area51]

the best major peewee's should be the ones playing Peewee AA (not counting the elite AAA's), with the exception of the minor birth year teams, two teams max. These are the kids that need to be ready for checking. The average and beginning players should be working on basics still and not having to worry about getting crushed by the kid whose Dad rewards him for every check he throws. Canada Hockey and USA Hockey eliminated checking at peewee for a reason, they were losing too many players too young. I believe it's more important to keep kids playing the game, and not worrying about entertaining the few hockey parents that need to see their kids checking at such a young age. These are probably the same parents that don't like watching their kids play cross ice and have their kids play up. Hockey is a small ice game! watching 1 or 2 kids per team skating up and down the ice doesn't prepare them for peewee, but cross ice will help them learn to keep their heads up.

[Stanley]

I see no reason to limit checking to certain levels.  Hockey is a contact sport.  I believe that it would be more beneficial for peewee players to have full checking, before kids really start growing.  Keeping your head up become very important.  I've seen many a small first year bantam, used to puck handling and dangling all over the place, get blown up because they don't keep their head up.

Can get ugly.

Agree about keeping one's head up, and I think allowing checking earlier for the more highly skilled kids is a good idea, but I think the studies show clearly that the risk of serious injury is higher the earlier checking starts, and skill development and player retention is way lower if less skilled kids are just getting blown up below the age of 12. The trick is managing that transition from non-checking to checking at an awkward age when hormones are surging and turning most boys into teen idiots.

[SkatingDad]

the best major peewee's should be the ones playing Peewee AA (not counting the elite AAA's), with the exception of the minor birth year teams, two teams max. These are the kids that need to be ready for checking. The average and beginning players should be working on basics still and not having to worry about getting crushed by the kid whose Dad rewards him for every check he throws. Canada Hockey and USA Hockey eliminated checking at peewee for a reason, they were losing too many players too young. I believe it's more important to keep kids playing the game, and not worrying about entertaining the few hockey parents that need to see their kids checking at such a young age. These are probably the same parents that don't like watching their kids play cross ice and have their kids play up. Hockey is a small ice game! watching 1 or 2 kids per team skating up and down the ice doesn't prepare them for peewee, but cross ice will help them learn to keep their heads up.

The bigger kids are at a big disadvantage in non-checking leagues.  It is simple physics a larger kid does not yet have the strength to have the explosive first 3 steps that is required in hockey.  Once the bigger kids hit puberty they gain the strength to have those explosive first 3 steps but, in non-checking league they can not use their size and strength to offset the speed differential. If they would actually call the PeeWee games the way they should, there would only be a handful of kids playing up. The problem is they do not allow the same amount of body contact with a big and small kid as they do with two big kids or two small kids.  There should not be any difference, if your little Gretzky can bang with a kid 50lbs-75lbs pounds bigger than them, more power to them. Unfortunately, the refs do not call the contact correctly and then the big kids get conditioned to not go full speed against the smaller kids.  The smaller kids  (06 in this case) never have to check up or slow down so they appear to have more success than they actually are having.


If they allowed checking at the PWAA level many of the kids in PWAA would not be playing PWAA and some of the bigger kids in PWA would be playing PWAA.  The skill argument is not valid in non-checking leagues because checking is one of the major skills in a checking league.  Once there is checking the game comes to the bigger kids and the smaller kids usually stop playing. All you have to do is talk to some 03 parents or parents that have gone form non-checking to checking. The two types of play are nothing alike...

[Stanley]

"If you only aspire to play in a beer league then why learn how to play the game of hockey? Any form of hockey that is non-checking should be called something else because it is not hockey."

Personally I don't care what it's called.  Let's call it tiddlywinks on ice.  Or parcheesi on skates.  If it gets kids playing longer and developing athletic skill, instead of sitting around posting dick pics on snapchat, I'm all for it!

[justanotherhockeydad]

I don't really mind skilled 06 kids playing up vs 04/05 kids in PWAA. As the 06 kids we've played are fast and skilled and seem to be doing just fine. My issue is that some of these 06's are actually ultra aggressive and leaning, pushing and basically pushing the envelope to see what they can get away with. But when a physically bigger/taller 04/05 kid returns the favor, refs almost always give the smaller kids the breaks and the big kid ends up in the box. Refs really need to do a better job and call the game correctly.

I'm pretty sure the kids and coaches of the smaller teams are well aware of this and use it to their advantage.