The biggest worry about moving up from Pee Wee rep hockey to Bantam is that it’s the first year that body checking is allowed.
A free clinic this Thursday night for Pee Wees planning to try out for the Cochrane Bantam Blues in the fall is designed to take the worry out of it.
It’s being conducted by minor hockey past president and longtime coach Marc Klis.
“We’ll run some drills and get the kids’ confidence up. It’s all about confidence, right?” he says. “Basically, not teaching them how to hit, but also teaching them how to take a hit, which is very important.”
Klis says he’ll use different techniques to instill confidence in the players.
“Angling, and you have your stick checking as well and there’s little games you can play with them on the ice in order to get them thinking about it.”
Klis hopes that after the clinic, the players can concentrate again on their hockey skills… without worrying about body checking.
It runs from 7:00pm to 9:00pm Thursday on the ice at the Tim Horton Event Centre.