1st Year Checking

There is a lot of debate as to when is the right age to introduce the violence of check hockey to youth players in the United States. I have coached players going into their first year of checking for three years and at first I thought it was just unfair, but when my daughter played it for a year with boys, I realized how dangerous it really is. So when my son, Grayson, an undersized 12 year old was going to into his first year of checking, I decided to document the year. We interviewed experts from The Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and shot in Pennsylvania, California, Detroit, Buffalo and Toronto as Grayson and his teammates faced their fears.