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Half-ice hockey has recently been declared as the new standard for youth hockey. In fact, both USA Hockey and Hockey Canada have ruled that novice leagues and players are now required to institute the half-ice playing style. If you’re a parent, or a student yourself, you likely have some questions about this change.

Parental Concerns

By far, one of the most common concerns parents have voiced since these changes have been announced is: “How is this real hockey? 

This is a question best answered by the studies that prove young children (8 and under) need to focus on having fun and developing key skills. They will be learning a range of valuable skills in half-ice hockey on a rink layout that’s better suited to their pace, size, and skill level.

Some game changes will promote more play time as well, fostering interest in the sport of hockey. 

Like any sporting venue, baseball fields hold certain safety standards in order to keep players and spectators safe during games. When it comes to a baseball diamond’s safety standards, certain padding placement is needed to maintain safe gameplay.

The Outfield

Probably one of the most key areas for padding to be placed is along outfield fences. Here, padding on the walls and fences is very much a necessity in order to keep players safe as they chase stray balls.

While the MLB doesn’t yet mandate outfield padding, many agree that they should and most smaller stadiums are already going the extra mile to ensure padding is present. Far too many professionals and amateurs have collided with the outfield fences and been injured as a result of insufficient padding.

As writer Adam Moss wrote, there has been a “history of painful encounters with a non-padded wall in baseball.” When it comes to your stadium, you should see outfield fence padding as an absolute must-have for the sake of your players.

Designed to offer students a place completely void of outside distractions, quiet rooms, sensory rooms and de-escalation rooms are now commonplace in many academic institutions across Canada and the United States.

Depending on their exact purpose, these types of rooms can be outfitted with equipment used to help stimulate the senses or can have nothing at all and simply serve as a quiet place for students who simply need some time alone. Constructed entirely using our custom padding department, these rooms often feature wall padding including custom cut-outs, door padding and customized floor padding to ensure the environment is also a safe one for those who use them.

There are plenty of gadgets out there today, all created with the goal of helping hockey players become the best on their team, but what’s really necessary?

Out of all the techniques and tactics being employed today to help young hockey players prove their worth in the rink, cross-ice hockey is among the most successful of them all.

Why Cross-Ice Hockey?

For younger players, cross-ice hockey came to the forefront back in the 1970s although it wasn’t adopted into American and Canadian hockey leagues until just recently. It sprouted from a study that realized for amateur youth hockey games, players had an average of .5 shots per game.

As the year progresses and the colder months approach, the need for winterization and protection of athletic fields and equipment must be considered. Regardless of the field’s purpose, be it football, baseball, soccer or any other athletic use, anyone in the athletic industry knows the importance of being vigilant and actively planning and preparing for the winter months is crucial in protecting and prolonging the life of outdoor athletic areas and equipment.

While a large majority of the products on athletic fields are designed to withstand the harsh winter temperatures, there are steps that should be taken to further protect some items.

The playing field itself is one of the most important for outdoor sports venues. Any groundskeeper or coach realizes the need for a field to be kept in optimal condition whether during peak season or any other time. The additional maintenance and investment will pay off.

Administering Roman Catholic schools scattered throughout the western portion of eastern Ontario, the Algonquin Lakeshore Catholic District School Board is comprised of over 30 elementary schools and 11 secondary schools in the region.

As part of their equitable and inclusive education standards, the schools residing within the board are built on the foundations of discipleship, scholarship, and stewardship. As such, a number of the schools are equipped with specialized rooms that allow for a quiet or safe place for students who sometimes thrive by being temporarily removed from the often noisy and busy environments characteristic of the classroom.

Taking a different approach to traditional child care, Children of America is education-focused in caring for the next generation. Following structured curriculum, Children of America has grown to become the number-one preschool in the United States and currently serves children and families in 12 states across 64 individual locations.

During the winter months of 2018, our team was in contact with key stakeholders from within the organization as they were in the market for some durable and safe wall padding for their location in Woodbridge, Virginia. The location had a specialized playroom for children that had become a slight safety concern as the room contained a variety of corners and pillars that could pose potential hazards for children at play.

A facility founded firmly on the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) value of interrelatedness, Step by Step Child and Family Centre on the southern banks of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec provides care for children between the ages of 12 months and 6 years.

Utilizing a holistic approach to both child care and development, the facility has been aiding the community since its inception. With emphasis placed on each and every child who enters their programming, Step By Step always aims to be completely inclusive, believing that every child has the right to be a part of the mainstream and a contributing member of society.

One of our recent projects landed us in coastal New England, home of chowder, warm hospitality and some of the world’s most formidable sports franchises. While the region spans a total of six diverse U.S. states, this project took place in the picturesque state of Maine.

Located in Westbrook, a suburb of Portland, is the Spring Harbor Hospital, a 100-bed non-profit psychiatric hospital offering services for both children and adults.

Part of Maine Behavioral Healthcare, the facility has three adult units totalling 60 beds, a child unit with 14 beds, an adolescent unit with 14 beds and a 12-bed unit for patients with developmental disorders.

After some unfortunate water damage to certain areas of the hospital, the facility was undergoing some fairly heavy-duty renovations. During the process, stakeholders from within the organization got in contact with members of our team in search of fire-rated wall padding for one of the rooms in the hospital.

With campuses in both Vancouver and Kelowna, the University of British Columbia (UBC) is the province’s oldest and most established post-secondary institution. With a strong background in scientific advancements, the Vancouver campus is located a mere 10km from downtown and is home to roughly 65,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students across its two campuses.

In addition to housing the world’s largest cyclotron in the school’s national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics, it is also home to the Thunderbirds, representing UBC’s student athletes, with teams in football, basketball, soccer, rugby, swimming and baseball. As part of a complete redesign to the Thunderbirds’ baseball park, our team was enlisted through our partners at RecTec Industries to lend a hand with the seating and customized padding for the stadium.