Beginning this fall, bodychecking will not be part of the game for peewee aged hockey players in Canada.
Hockey Canada wrapped up its 94th annual two-day general meeting in Charlottetown, P.E.I. on Saturday with a modification to playing rule 6.2b that removes all bodychecking from peewee levels and below within leagues governed by Hockey Canada, beginning in 2013/14.
Speaking on behalf of the Burnaby Winter Club, minor hockey president Mark Rademaker said the club members support what Hockey Canada has done.
"The scientific data is pretty compelling," Rademaker said.
The New Westminster Minor Hockey Association has been on board with the idea of a ban for years.
Last year, the association voted to bind its delegates at the B.C. Hockey AGM, but the motion to delay bodychecking until bantam was defeated by a slim margin.
"I think it's long overdue," said New Westminster minor president Rob Nasato. "We've been in favour of this for a couple of years."
The AGM, attended by more than 250 delegates from across the country, approved the bodycheck-ing ban.
The move by the national body resulted in the Pacific Coast and B.C. associations taking the bodycheck question off the agenda for their subsequent AGMs.
Hockey Canada took the premptive move following a growing body of research that bodycheck-ing increases the frequency and severity of injuries, particularly concussions.
Evidence compiled on a B.C. government fact sheet suggested children under the age of 14 are especially vulnerable to injuries as a result of bodychecking.
A recent study found that in Alberta, where bodychecking was allowed, injury rates were 3.3 times higher and the frequency of concussions was almost four times higher for peewee-level players than in Quebec, where there is no bodychecking allowed.
The delegates included Hockey Canada board of directors, officers, life members, associate members and representation from all 13 branches, as well as from councils that oversee female hockey, junior hockey, minor hockey, senior hockey and hockey development.
In addition to the rule change, Hockey Canada formed a work group "to build a mandatory national checking and instructional resource program to support the progressive implementation of checking skills at the novice to peewee levels to better prepare players for body-checking at the bantam and midget levels," the release stated.
Nasato added that the New Westminster association has always provided hockey school-like instruction clinics on the progression to hitting as laid down in the Hockey Canada manual and will continue to provide the training to those who need it before entering the bantam level.
"We fully support it," said Nasato. "We'll continue to put in resources to teach the appropriate levels."
A driving factor towards the ban was the risk and liability going forward in light of the growing body of research that recommends postponing bodychecking until later in a child's physical development.
A ban on body checking at the peewee levels would allow young 11-and 12year-old players to develop without fear of injury, said Rademaker.
"You can't argue with the facts," he said.
Burnaby Minor Hockey spokesperson Larry Hayes also said the local association was in full support of the rule change. [email protected]
