When it comes to sports women can take a hit.
Women’s sports involve athleticism, passion and hard-nosed competition, just like men’s sports. Yet for some reason there is a belief rules must be construed to protect women from physical play.
This is most pronounced in women’s hockey, where body checking and realistically most body contact is disallowed. If a woman accidentally skates into a competitor during a hockey game, it very well could be called a penalty.
The argument goes that a woman’s body is different from that of a man. Men are built to work and to be physical, while women are more domesticated. Perhaps the language isn’t put as bluntly, but that is certainly the thought process.
Further, proponents of the ban on body checking say it is needed so as to protect smaller players from being roughed up by physically bigger women.
But in men’s hockey there are big players and smaller players and yet they find a way to co-exist. Martin St. Louis of the Tampa Bay Lightning stands at five foot nine and is covered by defender Zdeno Chara of the Boston Bruins who stands at six foot nine, but you don’t see St. Louis complaining. In fact St. Louis is one of the best players in the NHL.
Still, it is said the rule barring body checking is needed in order to protect women from injury.
This is the argument and this has been the argument since women’s hockey started emerging as a legitimate sport.
It is now a full-fledged Olympic competition and women’s hockey teams are becoming staples at universities across the nation.
Physical play is one of the things, which makes hockey fun to watch. A clean body check is a perfectly legitimate play in men’s hockey and there is no reason it should not be part of the women’s game. But because of the no body checking rule, the sport sometimes resembles figure skating with hockey sticks.
Body checking not only makes the game safer but also makes it more entertaining by adding a new dimension to the competition and help keep the attention of the audience.
One of the reasons body checking is a key part of hockey is that it allows for the release of aggression through a safe and legal means.
With no body checking players are forced to settle scores through less savoury methods, like hooking and hacking opponents. However, a player is less likely to slash someone if they know a body check may be coming their way down the road.
The most compelling reason to allow body checking in women’s hockey is the simple fact that hockey is a physical game.
Players should not get a penalty for “illegal body contact” because they accidentally run into another player.
Body checking will force players to be more aware on the ice and to take better care of themselves.
By allowing body checking, the profile of women’s hockey will grow in this country and around the world. Let them play by the same rules as men so it will stop being seen as a second tier sport.
Let them play by the same rules and then watch the profile of women’s hockey grow.