A number of years ago I attended a spring AAA Minor Bantam game featuring many excellent players.
It was, I knew, one of the very first “checking-allowed” games for both teams.
As a longtime AAA bantam coach, I was expecting to see players who were more than anxious to “hit” - but without a clue about how to properly “check.”
But instead I was very pleasantly surprised.
Because this game featured two teams with very good checking skills.
I was surprised because in 40+ years of coaching, it was the first time I was able to watch such an “early” bantam game and say to myself:
“Okay, these players - from both teams - are getting it right and their peewee coaches definitely prepared them well for ‘check’ hockey.”
Hockey is the hardest sport to become even “bad” at.
Setting aside for now what it takes from the “thinking” side of the game, just look at all the challenging physical skills, each of which contains many sub-skills, that must be first learned and then mastered:
There are two main reasons for this:
1) practice ice time for most teams is so limited that it’s hard to dedicate enough time to properly teach the checking skills; and
2) many youth hockey coaches simply don’t know how to teach correct checking skills.
A positive development with USAH’s Coaching Education Programs has been an emphasis on teaching proper checking skills at the peewee and younger levels.
In addition, programs like 200 x 85’s upcoming Body Contact Clinics are an outstanding opportunity for young players to develop contact confidence while enhancing their checking skills.
A player who knows how to check can:
To become effective checkers, young players must first develop a certain level of “contact confidence.”
This is a particular area where USA Hockey's Coaching Education Program is doing a terrific job.
But more importantly, the players must learn and be able to execute the following skills and tactics:
And of course they must be able to execute these skills and tactics at game speed and, ideally, with balance and rhythm.
Checking in hockey should not be confused with hitting. The best checkers in the NHL are rarely big hitters.
A young player who develops outstanding checking skills will have a distinct advantage over those players who do not. He will have a much greater opportunity to move up the hockey pyramid to the higher levels of competition.
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