Body checking has been the most talked about subject in the field of ice hockey for the past years. National ice hockey associations have lately reviewed their body checking rules, one of them being USA Hockey, second largest national association in the hockey world. USA Hockey saw a noticeable dropout rate in the age categories where body checking was introduced and allowed (12 and under). For the season 2011-2012, USA Hockey decided to remove body checking from 12U ice hockey, still allowing body contact, raising the age of "full contact"(body checking) hockey to 14U. The goal of the rule change was, gradually introduce body checking to the players and retaining young athletes in the sport, focusing on educating the players and coaches, but at the same time keeping certain level of physicality in the game. USA Hockey wanted to do a research to find out if the players are used to the new rules and if the game is still physical, whitin the new rules. Data was recorded at the end of the season in the National tournaments in 2012, comparing the severity of contact and the rate of change of puck possession, in both 12U and 14U, hoping to see the effects of the rule change. After the data was analyzed, the results showed that at both of the age groups, there was a similar amount of contact situations recorded, with the main finding being that the players in 12U were used to the newly implemented rules, performing less severe contact with the opponent. USA Hockey is really pleased with the effects of the rule change, as in the following years they have seen increase in retaining the players in the sport, as well as insurance companies being happier with having to handle fewer injuries in the age groups.
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