This weekend will mark the 4th weekend of hockey practice for the boy. The lass will enter into a 4th weekend of learn-to-skate. But she isn’t suiting up with pads and a stick… yet.
Anyway, I’ve been meaning to write something up about the hockey experience. The problem is- I can’t really think of anything interesting to say about it.
It makes for long weekends where it seems like I’m living at the rink. The Saturday session is an hour long and the Sunday session is 10 minutes longer. The practices have drawn rave reviews from all the parents watching. The coaches setup 6 stations where they drill the kids through different skill sets from stick handling to skating skills to teamwork(passing and improvised games). The kids all come off the ice with smiles on their faces and it sure looks like every one of them has improved from the 1st week.
Certainly the boy has. His skating in particular. He’s still a little wobbly when skating at speed. But he’s learning the cross-over step when turning, can skate backwards a little, and is even working on stopping. Considering where he was last year skill wise, it’s not even a comparison.
Having played football, I can say that hockey players have it all over football players when it comes to padding and getting dressed. There’s pretty much no chance the average 6 year old can put on his/her own hockey gear. First there’s the knee/shin pads; then the hockey pants; then the velcro shorts that have a cup and hold up the socks; next there’s the skates which take about 5 minutes to get on because they have to be laced up tight; then there’s the elbow pads; next comes the shoulder pads and a jersey; then a neck guard; and finally (I think) a helmet. Oops. Forgot the gloves and optional mouthpiece. Contrast that with knee and thigh pads, cleats, shoulder pads, helmet and mouth piece in football. Not even close. Frankly, the need for all that protective gear makes one wonder why you’d encourage a youngster to play hockey at all!
But other than the amount of gear and the impressive organization behind the practices; there isn’t much else to report. There haven’t been any games yet- mainly little scrimmages where the coaches evaluate. There are no goalies at the boy’s current level of play either (wonder what it’s like to get them suited up?)
So, with that, hockey is on the board. We’ll see what this weekend brings.