I can confirm Dave Hendrickson's point that there are very few
marginal skaters in the MBHL since it is essentially an elite league
sanctioned by NAHAA.   If a kid is not *very* fast for his age group,
he simply gets cut in the spring tryout.   This is not an everybody
plays equal time league.
 
     Until this year when AHAUS (er, USA Hockey) lowered the age groupings
by six months,  I would have agreed that the MBHL method of allowing
checking at the earliest ages made more sense.   Waiting until kids get
big enough to really hurt themselves (and at precisely the time when many
start through a slightly awkward phase,  to say nothing of great differences
in the timing of their growth spurts) -- as AHAUS used to do it --
was really nonsensical.   This year,  though,  PeeWee A looks like
Squirt A with checking.
 
     I've had kids who skated both Div. I AHAUS in CT and in the MBHL.  I
can't get wrapped around the axel either way about which is superior.
I *DO* know which requires more driving, however -- at least for someone
in CT. :-)
 
     A far more interesting question is the long term effect on the college
game of having a *LOT* of checking in youth hockey (MBHL) versus very little
(Canada).   Since there are plenty of players from both backgrounds now
playing in college,  it would be interesting to see a comparison sometime
during mid-season.   Last spring,  I was interested to hear from someone
on the list who mentioned a player (I think from NMU) who found recently that
checking in the NHL without face protection was a whole lot different than
college hockey -- less "squared-up" hitting and a lot more shoulder to
shoulder.   The prevalence of poke checking by defensemen is also a good
indication that the game is changing.   Apparently the Canadians have
made the conscious decision that checking slows the game down, and that
to be successful in the international arena they have to train kids
WITHOUT checking in the program.
 
     These are all cross-currents in a fascinating subject for discussion.
I would be really happy if we could spend some time on this sort of
subject rather than comparing band policies this year.
 
     -- Dick Tuthill