AHAI's site announced the following restrictions for the number of games allowed for each level.



AHAI Announces New Mandatory Game Limits Policy!

AHAI has announced a new policy on game limits. The intent of this rule is to increase the practice to game ratio of all AHAI affiliate teams and to emulate the introduction of the USA Hockey American Development Model.   Accordingly, commencing with the 2009 - 2010 season, AHAI has imposed team game limits at all USA Hockey age divisions. Game limits will be as follows.

    Mite                    Girls U 8         = 35 games maximum
    Squirt                 Girls U10        = 40 games maximum
    Pee Wee             Girls U12       = 45 games maximum
    Bantam                Girls U14      = 50 games maximum
    Midget Minor       Girls U16      = 60 games maximum
    Midget Major       Girls U 19     = 60 games maximum
    High School                           = 60 games maximum

Game limits include all league, tournament and practice games. All playoff games for League, State and National competition do not count toward the team game limits. The AHAI team game limits shall be mandatory for  High School, Tier II and Tier III / House / Recreation teams and recommended for Tier I teams.

Any team violating the AHAI mandatory team game limits will be subject to disciplinary action at the AHAI Rules & Ethics Committee.  Penalty may include suspension of the offending team from State tournament play, suspension of the coach and possible forfeiture of an organization's  affiliate membership or its Tier I, Tier II or Tier III status.

Has this limitation been set for girls teams only? Plz clarify.

Reading is a skill. Two rows. One for boys team and the other for girls teams.

Stop and think about what is happening.
After X number of games, AHAI is demanding children not play hockey.

To play X amount of games AHAI is making sure your kid knows how to play. As for you I guess you will have to start cheering at practice.

I tend to agree with the new program but this is something that should have been published for comment. There are no minutes discussing the program. It seems to model the USA development program that will be implemented eventually, but how was this policy change decided?

it says it is recommended for tier 1 so this doesnt necessarily apply for aaa

It doesn't apply to AAA and probably won't be mandatory until next year when the Fed's(USA HOCKEY) starts telling everybody what to do.I'm not sure what's worse the buttholes at AHAI
or the douche bags at USA hockey telling u what to do.Either way were all mindless assholes and their not.

nice posting, to bads its a phucking useless post. But I expect it. Its the same garbage on this site. WTF Larry, you must be proude of these postings? What a useless site! Bring back logging in!

Ya WTF Larry I can't believe you make guys like Mr. Posting Police come on the site and read this stuff.Are you Larry part of some new secret government agency that has the power to subject random phuck-heads like Mr.Posting Police to read things he doesn't want to? How do you guys do that?

No one is "making sure" the kids can play.
They aren't even requiring practices.
They are just limiting the opportunity for children to play a game.

This I call the "Obamanization of Hockey". Watch them restrict YOUR CHOICES as a Parent!

Rise up and Wise up, people. The SS Domestic Police is next.

Amen to that BlackHawk Fan.

I've been in this game for quite a bit as a player,coach and a parent and have yet to feel that the kids have been over burdened by games.I'm sure there are those who feel differently but I don't recall anyone making any serious objections about it.What I don't want is some Hockeycrats who think they know everything becuase they jumbled a few numbers together and then offering it as proof that they can lead us to Hockey nirvana.

There seems to be a whole lot of that going around these days.

is to hold down the # of games, so that you practice more since you presumably already have contracted ice. Ask yourself if another 25-35 hours of practice would hurt, or help, your child's development.

The problem, as posted above, is that there was NO communication/discussion from AHAI, just a typical, cram it down your throat ..."this is what we're doing" that rubs people the wrong way. I was once told to listen to the message, not the messenger. I kindof like the idea of holding down the # of games and as a coach, it forces me (us) to get a little more creative since it takes work to run a practice.

First, it doesn't apply to Tier I so its business as usual.

Second, any team that went over the game limitation (which is high) probably was doing it by doing lots of tournaments. So, basically, you just cut down the number of tournaments a few teams take. In other words, teams will have the exact same number of practices as before.

The only thing this will cut down is the number of tourney's a team plays, which is probably the most fun the kids have in hockey. Your team ice slots will not increase, and your league games won't decrease.

I understand the purpose is to hold down the number of games Snoop and if you choose to do that as a coach that's fine.If that path fits you and the families on your team then more power too ya.What I don't want is some know-it-all"s telling everybody how,when and why
we have to do things.It's the message for me not the messenger although I'm not shocked by who the messenger is.Every reasonable hockey person would love to have some more pracice time but as Big Daddy points out that probably isn't happening in any significant way.

Let the organizations figure it out and don't give us any finite restrictions that limit the personal choices of all those involved.

Like it or not, this is going to happen when USA Hockey institutes the HPC Program. Think about this, we have 10-18 year old kids playing 17 minute periods at the Tier 1 level. That is only 3 minutes per period shorter than the pros. We also have many/most teams playing in excess of 60 games per season and most playing over 70 games. I have seen some around the country playing more than 80 games.

In Michigan I believe the rule is no more than 50 games and in Minnesota I believe it is 35 games. I could be off on those numbers but I know I am not far off the mark. There is no question in my mind that 60+ games per season is too many for these kids. They absolutely need more practice time. Every year I see the kids getting worn down after the holidays because of the number of games they play with no break. And when their play does not improve, parents and coaches all get upset. Yet the kids may only be practicing at most 2 days per week while the weekends are reserved for games.

Yes the games are fun and the kids love the tournaments (and so do us parents). But reality is, at 60+ games per season and 17 minute periods (15 typically for tourneys), it is a bit much. Not saying we should be at 35 games. But I have no issue with a 50 game limitation.

You may not like AHAI or USA Hockey. I am not saying I am a fan of all their decisions. But unlike every other travel sport (i.e. baseball, football, basketball, soccer etc) at least Hockey is governed and monitored. You hear about so much crap in those other so called travel sports which are nothing more than a group of people putting all their kids friends on one team and calling it travel. There are no governing bodies watching out for the overwhelming best interest of the kids like Hockey does. Yes I know Hockey is about the all mighty dollar. But there is no such thing as a perfect scenario. I will take Hockey over all those other sports because when you compare all the pros and cons of each sport and how they operate, Hockey wins out because of all the rules and regulations.

Everyone here is upset about cutting maybe 10 games or so out of their schedule. So what! The extra practice and/or rest for the kids will be fine. They will not be worse players because they played 10 fewer games.

Games don't wear out the players. They're on the bench for 2/3rds to 3/4ths of the game. A practice has everyone on the ice for the whole hour.

What is dumb about the edict is that the problem isn't too many games; it's too little practice. But instead of doing the logical thing which would be to mandate a proper ratio of practices per game, they put a hard limit on games.

As was said this may have no effect on the number of practices for many teams. So how does the same number of practices and fewer games help the players?

I do support more practices especially at the AA and AAA levels. But this edict may not accomplish that and AAA is excluded altogether. My experience is that this will put a burden on many coaches who can't be creative or effective with the practices they have now. Many even AAA coaches do the same one or two practices over and over.

"I do support more practices especially at the AA and AAA levels. But this edict may not accomplish that and AAA is excluded altogether. My experience is that this will put a burden on many coaches who can't be creative or effective with the practices they have now. Many even AAA coaches do the same one or two practices over and over."

This is the essence of the problem with youth hockey right now. Fix or improve the coaching, particularly the fundamentals and teach the love of the game and all will be well.

Right idea, wrong way to police it. Minimum amounts of practice should be mandatory, not maximum games limits. No teams will get additional practice ice as a result of this change and that seems to be the intent here. Its hard to get a full team at practice but usually we have a full bench for games. Limiting hockey does not seem like a winning approach when we are trying to promote hockey. Has anyone given any thought that semi finals and championships in tournaments could be a bad thing.

if you cut down the games will the fees go down then... Ice slots seem to be the big $$$

No question about it....if your kid is on a good team that is fortunate enough to play in a few finals or semi-finals of tournaments your screwed.What...do you plan to lose in a tourney so you can comply with some arbitrary number set by AHAI and/or USA hockey? Is their argument that those experiences don't help to develop kids more than the few practices they replace?

Like it or not, hockey like a lot of other sports has become at least a 10/mo if not a 12/mo sport.Do these guidelines even consider all the extra ice,and it's mostly practice,that the kids get in the spring and summer time? What about off-ice,camps and privates.Isn't that part of the developement process and shouldn't that be a factor in determining the proper mix?

These kids get more ice and better coaching then I ever dreamed of.The system as it stands right now isn't that busted and it certainly isn't busted enough for them to go Obama on us.

A game means around a third of an hour of individual ice, when you subtract bench time, a practice means at least an hour of ice time.

For every pair of games (1 home and 1 away) that is replaced by 1 practice, your kid gets more individual ice time and you save time and money not traveling to that away game (although some of you parents without a life live for that). If your organization can put more than one team on the ice during that practice slot, then the you are at least doubling this factor.

More ice time for your kid, less time and cost travelling. What do you want, an 82 game pro season?

Hey, Prof, your logic is flawed. The rule restricts games. It does not require, guarantee or even hint that there will be any more practices. It's backa$$words.

Grad Student:

I have simplified assumptions in trading off games for practices by assumming the organization buys the SAME amount of ice time it, it simply exchanges the loss the home game for a practice slot. The ice expense stays the same in the illustration of the point. Of course actual implementation may vary.

Then don't limit tournament play. This is the begining of the Gastopo tactics in hockey.

Game limits? why? What is the end game for 99% of all players in Illinois? Mens League is your answer. Let the kids have fun. Hockey is too expensive to practice 4 times per game. Bronze level players will quit before they practice that much.

I agree with the above post. The % of kids making it to D1 ot higher is so small, why waste all of the time with practices? It should be about the kids having fun. Kids enjoy the games much more than practice. As a parent, watching the games is more enjoyable than watching practice.

Mostly games with limited practice = House League (and in some cases Tier II organizations)

When you are in AAA, you need the practice to perform/compete in the games. If you want more games and less practices, then AAA is simply not for you. You are 100% correct that most kids will not make it to Juniors or D1, but that does not mean that AAA should throw its hands in the air and say oh well, lets just play games and forget the practices. How many days per week do you think Junior/D1/Pro teams practice? If you think about it, the higher you play, the more you practice. The same should hold true at the youth level.

AHAI is putting this plan in place in advance of HPC because it is coming. And with less AAA teams around, the competition to make those teams will get stiffer.

Will it be fun when the kids are losing 80% of their games each year because they are not practicing enough?

What you sais sounds fine. But if you know the issue you would know that AAA is excluded from the game restriction. The only level you feel needs more practice won't have it. The levels where it doesn't matter are restricted in games.

You are correct. But as you and I both know, Tier 1 will have to fall into line very soon. I have heard some teams already saying they will reduce games in favor of practice.

And let me clarify one thing. Tier II needs the increased practice time as well as this is the feeder to Tier 1 hockey. Especially at the Mite/Squirt/PW levels.