Bodycheck ban 'ridiculous,' says Windsor Minor Hockey

The president of Windsor Minor Hockey says it's "ridiculous" that Hockey Canada has banned bodychecking from the peewee level.

The ban will soon take place for 11- and 12-year-old boys across Canada.

The decision by the governing body was made after a weekend vote by Hockey Canada.

Hockey Canada's board of directors overwhelmingly voted to eliminate bodychecking for peewee players at its annual general meeting in Charlottetown on Saturday, with only the Saskatchewan Hockey Association voting against.

The decision comes in the same month that both Hockey Alberta and Hockey Nova Scotia did away with bodychecking for its peewee players, who are usually 11- and 12-years-old. Quebec had also previously banned it.

"I think it's ridiculous [that] they're taking it out," Windsor Minor Hockey president Dean Lapierre. "Of course you're going to get injuries but you get injuries in any sport doing anything."

Lapierre said bodychecking is "part of hockey." He said the problem isn't the act of bodychecking itself.

"It's teaching the kids how to take a hit. Now they're not going to start checking until bantam, where you have players that went through puberty and others haven't, and they're going to be ... running around with all this built up aggression after not being able to check," he said.

But research that came out of Alberta last year showed there was a three-fold increase in the risk of injuries for peewee players who check in Alberta, compared to those in Quebec where bodychecking is not allowed until bantam.