No seriously, if safety is your main concern then you should drop down to AAA…let’s be honest your son probably plays on one of the lower tier teams anyway so there won’t be much of a difference.
I was the poster about safety. Actually my son plays on a top 5 nationally ranked team and has no problem playing against holdbacks but it isn’t safe. Fully developed holdbacks who are 15 years old are an unwitting danger to 13 year olds who haven’t reached puberty. I unfortunately predict a permanent injury one day which will lead to a major lawsuit and national media attention that will end this holdback era for good. It is sad that nothing will likely change until a tragedy like that.
I couldn't agree more. I come from a family of tall people, and my wife is of above average height. Our kids are bigger than most kids of the same age - always the tallest kids in their class. My son is a foot taller than many boys his age (6 foot/165 pounds at 14), and entered puberty sooner than most of his peers. To have pre-pubescent boys playing with kids who are a foot taller and outweigh them by 50 pounds (or more) is flat-out unsafe.
My son also plays hockey, and a couple years ago a kid skated off the bench during a line change as my son was skating by with the puck - moving too fast to avoid the collision. When they collided, the on-age but much smaller boy bounced off my son, pivoting at his feet, and his head hit the ice so hard he was out cold for close to a minute. Thankfully, the boy came around and recovered, but it could have been much worse - and that was in an on-age hockey game. Hockey uses on-age rules, but with the two-year age groupings there are still unsafe situations.
USA Lacrosse could put a stop to all this, but the club system that encourages holdbacks is like the tobacco lobby when it comes to USA Lacrosse exercising some common sense.
Maybe the answer is to implement an on-age system for kids through a certain age - like USA Hockey prohibiting checking until kids reach age 13 - and that doesn't go far enough. The American Academy of Pediatrics' policy is that body checking in hockey should be prohibited until age 15 to significantly reduce injuries, including concussions. I hold out hope that USA Hockey sees the light and follows the science.
Once boys reach HS age, there will be fewer mismatches, so maybe implement an on-age policy through age 14 - that would be a good start.
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