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Should USA Hockey move to weight classes?
Guest:
Hockey players come in all shapes and sizes. More importantly, hockey players all develop at different rates and at different ages.
Each year, a player will compete against a wider range of skill and size. Here are some numbers: According to the National Center for Health Statistics, 12 year old boys have a 24 pound gap between the 25th and 75th percentiles for Weight-to-Age. It grows to 28lbs for 13 year olds and 30lbs for 14 year olds. Even if a 13 year old first year bantam is highly skilled, how can we expect them to fully perform and improve while playing against 14 year olds who have a 40 lb advantage? On the flip side, a player who is an early-bloomer, taller and heavier then every other player his own age also is short-changed. How can we expect them to be tested when they can simply push around the other players without relying on skill. Is it fair for a December-born player to be locked into a division where they will always be the youngest? It is fully documented that hockey's age-based divisions extremely favor early birthdays. USA Hockey has stated their focus is player safety and player development. I think great strides have been taken with the ADM program, but maybe more can be done?
I suggest that USA Hockey moves to a weight class system with more flexible age restrictions. Here's an example:
LEVEL - WEIGHT - MAX AGE
Atom - <50 lbs - 7
Mite - <70 lbs - 9
Squirt - <90 lbs - 11
Peewee - <110 lbs - 13
Bantam - <130 lbs - 15
Players would be organized by weight, but players over the MAX AGE would need to play in the next division.
Ex 1: An 85lb 12 year old would be placed in the peewee division. Even though they weigh in for the squirt division, the max age for squirts is 11.
Ex 2: A 95lb 10 year old would also be placed in the peewee division. The MAX weight for a squirt is 90lbs. There is no minimum age for divisions.
Weight classes don't make a perfect game. But if they can help prevent concussions and improve player development, USAH should do their due diligence and fully research moving to a weight class system.
What do you think?
Weight for Age Percentiles for Boys (2-20 years) Calculator
Study suggests NHL has bias in favour of players born earlier in the year |
ADMIN Edited: Image added by administrator 11:28am 10/9/2019
Guest:
Terrible idea, and that's coming from with a son who is very small for his age.
It's also coming from someone that played at elite level when I was younger and played in college, and was just 5'5 125 lbs at 17 years old.
Hockey is a skill game. Does size help? Yes. Is it more important than skating and skill? No.
Guest:
--- Quote from: Guest on October 09, 2019, 11:40:04 AM ---Terrible idea, and that's coming from with a son who is very small for his age.
It's also coming from someone that played at elite level when I was younger and played in college, and was just 5'5 125 lbs at 17 years old.
Hockey is a skill game. Does size help? Yes. Is it more important than skating and skill? No.
--- End quote ---
Why is it a terrible idea? Skill is obviously more important than size. That is exactly why this was posted. Players are handicapped because they are smaller and less developed.
tree408:
--- Quote from: Guest on October 09, 2019, 11:49:38 AM ---
Why is it a terrible idea? Skill is obviously more important than size. That is exactly why this was posted. Players are handicapped because they are smaller and less developed.
--- End quote ---
How about the 10 y/o who hits that early growth spurt and it much larger than his peers, suddenly he's playing at bantam with 14 y/o kids.
bardown:
Wouldn't work because you'd have kids who are genetically different who grow or put on weight faster than others and vice versa. You could easily 12 yr olds playing with 15-16 yr olds. While the weight might match the skill level will be so erratic and out of synch that there wouldn't be an measurable learning curve.
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