I watched Frank get knocked head over heels the other day, and I did nothing about it. Then I watched him try to knock down another kid, and I only smiled. The hits came in hockey practice, the first practice for him at which coaches taught the skills involved in both giving and taking checks. For those who aren’t hockey fans, checking more or less means running into a player, using your body to knock him or her away from the puck. There are rules involved — no elbows, no hits to the head, no checking in the back, no checking a player who doesn’t have the puck — but the kids involved are 10-12 years old, and they don’t always have the physical control to stop in time. No wonder Frank’s last set of hockey pads came with a consumer warning saying that hockey is an inherently dangerous sport, and, basically, don’t blame the equipment if your son or daughter gets hurt. The coaches taught the kids how to take a check — keep your head up and your feet moving — and then had them practice on one another, over and over again. This is Frank’s first year at this level, and he’s one of the youngest and smallest on the team, but he didn’t seem to have any problem, even when he got labeled by a girl on the team and ended up flat on his back. He popped back up and was ready for the next one. I was pretty ready too. It’s just a little strange, watching the child I have tried to keep safe, the child I have tried to teach to be gentle and to be a gentleman, putting on what amounts to body armor and doing battle over a rubber disk. But he’s having fun, learning to be aggressive within the rules, learning to deal with other people being aggressive with him. The issue most likely will go away for a couple of years this summer, when USA Hockey is expected to vote to delay full-body checking until Bantams, the next level up. However, they will encourage PeeWees — those at Frank’s level — to learn to check in practice so they are ready when they do it in the speed of a game. I’ll keep saying my prayers, crossing my fingers and reminding Frank to keep his head up and his feet moving.