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Coaches required to wear helmets


pro17

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A coach can fall over and crack their heads on the ice as well as any of their players. Of course, they're not skating around as much as the players, but there's still risk. I'm not going to research it but they've probably had an incident or 2 like that. I don't know, but if USA Hockey is providing any insurance, or something like that, well, then there you are.

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USA Hockey passed a mandatory rule that all coaches must wear helmets during practice. I don't like the idea. Any thoughts?

I'm all for players, coaches and refs in helmets (minus coaches during games). I'd also like to see eye or face shields. There have been way to many injuries to not wear one. The players are going from wearing face shields in college (not sure about minor leagues), so why all of a sudden do they think that they dont need one? Really...are they that bad?

I did see a pro coach (dont remember which one right now) get hit with a puck during a game. Had some medical attention, then went right back to coaching the game.

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As a victim of having a player slide into me from behind three separate times while coaching kids, I can certainly understand the rule. Twice my head hit the ice, and the third time I got my hand back there in time so all I did was sprain a thumb. None of the three times was a pleasant experience. Looking back at it now, it would have been a smart thing to be wearing a helmet.

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There is a golf course in Colorado that offers designer "hard" hats to its customers.

Hidden shell liners. Optional batting helmets with designer colors and logos.

Same with guys mowing their lawns and trimming the trees. Helmets are everywhere,

or soon will be.

Some Pa and fine coach in Duluth bought the farm on a head injury recently. I think it was during

a practice. Seatbelts save lives. So do helmets. So do, sometimes, guns.

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In five years of coaching I never hit my head on the ice. I did have a skate across the neck (16 stitches) and a stick in the lip (8 stitches), neither would have been prevented by a helmet, unless i had a full face mask on.

I am guessing this rule has more to do with USA Hockey's insurance premiums than anything else. Some sections of USA Hockey have required coaches to wear helmets for a couple of years, so this is not something completely new.

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As a helath care provider for more years than some of your ages, I have more head injury stories than there are reasons for not wearing a helmut. Most of them were due to 'freak' accidents while biking, hiking, skating, etc. and almost all changed the lives of young/middle aged/elderly, independent, able bodied, intelligent persons and turned them into dependent, old beyond their years, mentally inpaired persons. Unfortunately, the needs of many of these unfortunates have resulted in their families having to place them in special needs residents and the financial burdon to the families can and has been astronomical.

There is no way to foresee if just walking down the street and tripping on a crack could result in a head injury and no, we don't and can't live in a bubble. BUT, why not wear a helmut doing activities where the risk of a head injury is a no brainer (pun intended).

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Absurd. How does USA Hockey intend to enforce this rule? There is no way they can send a representative to all the different rinks where teams practice. I suppose that the only real way they can enforce it is by not providing insurance coverage if a coach cracks his head during practice and was not wearing a helmet. Jloos I think you have hit the nail on the head.

Almost all coaches in the USA Hockey system are adults, at least in the techincal sense of the word, and I would guess that they all know that there is a chance of falling while on the ice. I would also guess that most of them, if they thought about it for even a few seconds, could tell you that there would be a good chance that they could get a booboo on their head if they fell and hit it on the ice. Yet many, probably most, don't wear helmets. It seems to me they are making an informed decision...

I can't think of a single hockey player or coach that I know that would wear a helmet while coaching, unless they were participating in drills. Even then, they probably wouldn't wear a helmet. I know I wouldn't

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I think the audience, including TV viewers, should also wear helmets, visors and Kevlar vests. God forbid a puck gets past the netting, or somebody drops a brat on the guy in front of them. If people are afraid of getting hurt, they should take up soccer, or spelling bees.

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Post of the Week

I agree, also who are these people and how much power do they think they have. A fricken helment on the bench that is stupid. If I was a coach I would take the chance that someone may or maynot come to tell me to put my helment. Then I am going to tell them where they can stick the helment. Now it seems that adults can't make decisions for them selves anymore. That is rediculous.

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