Blog: Is Your Child 12 or 12AA Years Old?

In a post on Let's Play Hockey, Christopher B. Leahy poses the the question that gets to the issue of travel players being expected to be more mature than their age simply because of the level of hockey that they play.

This biting article may challenge coaches to look at why they coach, or parents to look at the way they accept those things that come with competitive youth hockey:  short benches, harsh words, and tough 'life lessons'.


Christopher Leahy sets up the piece with this statement:

There is an unfortunately well established, though woefully miscalculated, chronological meter in youth hockey for kids, with sub classifications for the likes of 11-, 12-, 13- and 14-year-olds that include 11A, 11AA, 12A, 12AAA and so on. Depending on where a child falls at any particular time on this arbitrary continuum, they are assumed to be mentally and physically different, and therefore able to respond to, or handle, things differently than a child of the same chronological age on a different team classification. This assumption is ridiculous in many respects. 

He goes on to elaborate in a way that inspires painful self examination by the reader.  I feel it is an exercise that is worthwhile if you have a player who is '12AA'.  The full article can be found here:

http://www.letsplayhockey.com/1038leahy.html










You should follow me on twitter here.