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My thought is that age 13 is the absolute worst time to bring in body checking. I taught jr. high for 22 of my 34 years of teaching. At ages 12-13 you have the biggest difference in size between children than you ever will have. I have had 6'4" – 193 cm. 13 year old boy's with 5' – 153 cm, classmates/ The growth difference is +/- 3 years (sometimes more). So one boy can have the body of a 16 year old while another has the body of a 10 year old. The boy with the 16 year old body is also coming into puberty and the testosterone is flowing and increasing the aggressiveness. (I do 2 practices a week with 11-14 year olds now and see the huge difference in physical maturity)

They have got to be kidding.

I remember my son, who didn't grow until he was 17 lining up at the face off dot in the bantam championship game vs a boy who was bigger than my asst. coach (who was a 6'3" 220 lb. former NHL defenseman). That was 12 years ago and the rule then was body checking starting at age 13.

The people running hockey need to either have body checking from the start, and teach good technique and eliminate charging and boarding which passes off as body checking in minor hockey, OR and I think this is better, introduce body checking at age 15 when the growth differences have evened off a lot. There was always checking when I grew up and it wasn't the focus but now with a starting age it is such a big deal that hitting becomes the game instead of the "game".

You can learn this game with body contact, as in angling, riding off, blocking without the hitting. I have seen too many players quit because they are afraid (i.e. boys playing vs men) and too many minor hockey games that look more like roller ball than hockey, with players running around crashing into opponents with no angles or defensive side considerations.

Brendan Shannahan played with no body checking while growing up and was one of the toughest skilled forwards to ever play the game and promotes no hitting in youth hockey while demonstrating through his carreer that it isn't important at an early age. The kid's need to learn contact from the D side hockey; not collision hockey.