Being a Hockey Parent

[Ahbroody]

No but he was skating about 4 times a week and has had them for approaching a year. I accidentally bought them a touch big. Not realizing how big the 370s run. He could probably move to a bigger skate, but He skated in them all summer league and this season he was often averaging four days a week and I was averaging once a week.

Someone commented that the kids steel is really soft. He just seems to trash them after 4-5 skates. Not to mention the ice was really bad at the pond place we were skating at sundays. I know a lot of parents were getting done a lot when we were skating at the pond. I dont know 4 skates a week many times on bad ice once a week for almost a year. Guess I will try to get him to go longer between sharpenings. This summer though he will be on the ice most weeks 4 -5 days a week.

He does think the new ccm u+ crazy lights are "the hotness " imagine they are lighter. The issue is he cant wear bauer or easton the boot cut is wrong. That leaves the Grafs whos fit he loves or the CCM which may or may not fit. The boots seem to vary some years. No body around here has a decent kids selection either. Everything is mail order. Maybe I will grab him the new U+ CL from total hockey and see how it goes.

His feet match his Skates Al. Little boat anchors. Would be neat to see if a lighter skate made him faster.

[Ahbroody]

Just to kind of explain. Micah has a wide, tall foot, with no arch.
Look at how shallow the bauer is. It also has an arch which he doesnt means it cramps the bottom and bites the top.


Easton has a little less arch and a little more depth but not enough. Also the holder on these is $hit it really is as tall as it looks in the pic. Like skating on stilts id imagine


Graf 370


I actually think the CCM U+CL would work but my wife is wondering why I want to mess with his skates after we finally found a skate that he has zero issues with.


He did thar Black Stars development practice last night. Burned some older kids with his boat anchors. I do wonder if lighter skates would make him noticeably faster. That would be interesting.

[E.J.]

IMHO, I don't think that there would be enough noticeable difference in weight in a YTH/JR sized skate to ever make that part of the conversation. I could be wrong???

I'd also take fit over weight all day long.... Though that is not to say that the CCM's are not going to fit great...

I still want to see weights of the highest end skates.... Total One, APX, CL, G Series, EQ50's, 11k's bla..bla..bla...in a Mens 9/10ish... I really wonder about how much weight we are talking.... Like I said before, I can hold a TO and G5 in my hand and tell the TO is lighter....

[Ahbroody]

E.J. i think Al was poking me a bit. I agree that comfort is generally more important then weight. Having been through the pain of finding the right skate I can say when the kids feet hurt they cant focus on skating.

[E.J.]

No, I'm also not discounting the weight difference. I am generally interested to see how much less the others weigh. It is apparent in some, which would be neat to see what that noticeable difference is...and then what the difference in the less noticeable is as well...

If that makes sense...


Hell, I don't get to make the choices for the Little Man anymore, he makes the gear decisions now. I actually went with the Bauers for the Little One, though that was because it is what they had in stock and once she put them on....I had a hard time getting her to take them off.

[Ahbroody]

Last night I didnt have work for once. I took l Micah to the Cupertino rink where they have the U10 league. Usually practice on friday nights. No practice because of the holiday. There was a private lesson on half the rink. The guy who runs the mite travel team let the boy and a few other boys out on the other half of the sheet for a little puck and stick time.


The schedule for the next few months will be
Sunday Hawks skate 1.5 hrs
Tuesday Cougars skate 1.5 hrs
Thursday Black Stars skate 1.5 hrs

These are all development practice/scrim sessions organized by the clubs for kids hoping to make the club. We have decided to not have him tryout for tge Hawks or Stars and just do the Cougars. The othee clubs generally wont take younger kids and I dont think hes quiet ready. He will gwt a lot of ice with the cougars and will help him develop a lot

He wants to play games only on Saturdays in the house league, my wife wants this also because its his fun time for him. The Thursday practice is the furthest and likely the one we will skip occasionally if he wants a break. He has a mini mite / mite cross ice tourney next sunday. His headcoach stacked his team. I laughed its a 5-7 & 8-9 year old divisions. He set up his team with Micah and his teamate who both score a lot then two kids that play D well and a kid who plays goal well. The other team formed from our team is much weaker. I offered to put micah on the weak team but he said no. Dad has learned to keep his mouth shut at the rink this year so I let it go.

[E.J.]

Had our first private lesson for the Little Man today(his request).... It was interesting to see him work on his stride and edging. Crazy how bad he looked....

We went during the last hour of school and the rink was empty, the instructor and Jackson had it to themselves.

I was kind of worried, watching, that when he was done, he may think it was too much work and not be interesting in continuing. When they were finished, he stayed on the ice by himself for 15ish minutes and worked on a drill that he struggled with. As soon as he came off, he was asking when he was doing it again.

I talked with the instructor and we will get a regular schedule for a bit.... This is going to take a bite out of my cigar budget.....


Also, got the message, have our first Summer Season hockey meeting on Thursday... Back at it!!!!!

[E.J.]

So went tonight to the first HS Hockey Summer league kid/parent meeting.... It is so fun being part of this, I couldn't get the smile off my face watching the kids getting excited to get back on the ice after leaving with a loss February 27th.

Truth be told, I'm pretty excited myself....

Also got the Little One signed up for a Summer skills session that covers weekly ice time in May & then another weekly clinic that covers the rest of the Summer(June, July and August).

I am not 100% sure why, but I think Summer hockey may be my favorite as a parent in the stands.... There is something special about going to the rink in shorts and flip flops, possibly with the boat hooked to the the truck in the parking lot, waiting to hit the road for a weekend at the lake.... It is the best of everything....

[Ahbroody]

Summer hockey is love/hate here. I love how good he is getting at transitions, edges and backwards skating. My wallet is crying and I hate it. His hands are getting a little better.

Well there are 3 mite travel teams in the area (40 mile radius) and he has now been offered a spot on two. Its funny the coach of the Stars had him out for a practice and was positive. Then he went to the Hawks skate and watched him in a scrim. The next day we got an email asking if we were going to have him tryout as he could make the Stars. I advised we really only wanted him to redshirt as while physically read we dont believe him to be mentally ready. Yesterday after the Stars practice the assistant coach who invited us out talked with me saying extremely nice things about micahs abilities and that he was able to play up. I explained that I just dont think hes ready mentally for that. As long as he gets to practice with a club or two I think he will benefit greatly this season.

I think most would agree. There are only 5 tournaments they play in, but why rush him this early.

[Eleven]

Originally Posted by Ahbroody

Yesterday after the Stars practice the assistant coach who invited us out talked with me saying extremely nice things about micahs abilities and that he was able to play up. I explained that I just dont think hes ready mentally for that. As long as he gets to practice with a club or two I think he will benefit greatly this season.

I think most would agree. There are only 5 tournaments they play in, but why rush him this early.

We were told this as well, about the same age. Our son played up from that point on, until his first peewee year, so he actually played 3 years at squirt. The last of those was Squirt Travel.

We believe that he benefited mentally by being around slightly older players for 4 years, so for that reason I would recommend Micah playing up.

We ran into his coach from his first year of squirt, he asked how Cam was doing, how big he was getting etc etc. I told him and he then said 'Ah good to hear, I think the only thing holding him back was his size'...later that night I was trying to figure out why he said that. Although my kid isn't huge, he is very average for his age. Then I remembered at that time, this coach had 2nd year Squirts (96's), and my son was technically a 2nd year Mite (98) playing with them. Most were 2 full calendar years older.

At age 6 or 7, playing with 8 and 9 year olds does make a difference. Good or bad, you do mature a little faster, even if you don't physically grow faster.

Not to mention how they are physically pushed harder, they have to skate faster and be smart playing with older kids. We truly believe that playing up was the best thing we could for Cameron, and it's paying off.

His team is registering Tier 1 this next year, they have always played high level teams, but played Tier 2 the last 2 years. Now that they are moving to Bantam, the coach felt it was time and that all the players were ready to take the step to Tier 1.

Just my

[Ahbroody]

Thanks for the feedback Scott.
In a way I want to push him because hes a gamer and fearless, but he is a young 5. He is a late October birth. He will be 5 when the season starts. Playing against kids atleast 7 as you know. He still has a year of minimite eligibility. He started while still 3. We held him out of Kindergarten this year as he was still 4 when school started and studies show boys do better if you hold them out vs putting them in early. So he will be a kindergartener playing against 2nd and 3rd graders.

Physically I have learned not to worry because he has become very tough on the ice and will take some punishment to get that goal. Holstrom would be proud of how he screens the goalies. But he is a young heart, the kid still watches focking Barney sometimes with his sisters. The other day he shoulder checked a kid. When I asked him why he said the kid said something mean. He didnt understand him, but knew it was meant to be mean.

I will let him play house mite as has played those boys the last two years. Everyone knows him. But the travel boys are that next level as you know. He will already be allowed to redshirt for atleast one of the clubs, getting all the benefit of practice with the better boys, I just wont let him do the 5-6 weekend tournaments. I am just wonderimg if the gain of 5-6 tournaments is worth my concearns. Hes not small, he is the size of most 6 year olds, but has not made that big growth jump yet. I think this year he will mentally develop a lot as we are seeing it start. He also appears to be growing so he may get there. I just wonder as he will be allowed to practice and scrim with atleast one club how much benefit he will get from the tournaments. There is just such a mental difference between a kindergartner and a second grader. Thats part of the comedy of it. In practice drills that are complex he will screw them up and look his age, then when they scrim or play a game he just understands the game and looks legit. Its partly because at 5.5 its hard for them to care about practice.

Perfect example on monday we tried a private skate lesson with a very good instructor. After 20 minutes he started to cry because he just couldnt grasp what the guy wanted him to do. The instructor said skill wise hes almost a 7 year old travel mite and should be there by end of summer. Mentally hes what he is a 5 year old about to start kindergarten.

[E.J.]

I always enjoy reading what is going on with Micah.... I think you could not be handling it better, Mike.

Great feedback, Scott. I also love the updates on Cameron's team...

Originally Posted by Eleven

His team is registering Tier 1 this next year, they have always played high level teams, but played Tier 2 the last 2 years. Now that they are moving to Bantam, the coach felt it was time and that all the players were ready to take the step to Tier 1.

I'm excited to hear how that goes!


What are we doing today, yep hockey....

[Ahbroody]

Micah has a cross ice tournament this weekend. Had to leave before the first game. Wearing his Jersey from last year. The front is covered in signatures.



I hear you E.J. we have been at a rink most days this week. This morning he was so jacked up for the tourney we asked if he wanted to go play roller hockey. Yup! So yeah he's a junky.

[E.J.]

Where's the "8"?

[Ahbroody]

Didn't get 8 last year, but 1+7= ehhhhhhh

In helmet nightmare right now. He is using a youth helmet, but want to move him up to a high end helmet maybe even messier project. His cage shield combo which he loves is a Jr. With the speed he plays out and how hard he goes to the net he gets bumped around a lot. The XSmall fit head okay, but not Jr cage and adult cages are loose.

Fak!

Damn coach who put the team together is not texting me game updates. Jackass!

[E.J.]

Mini-Hockey Camp the past 2 days... The Little Man had a good time & that is what counts....

[E.J.]

Originally Posted by Ahbroody

Didn't get 8 last year, but 1+7= ehhhhhhh

In helmet nightmare right now. He is using a youth helmet, but want to move him up to a high end helmet maybe even messier project. His cage shield combo which he loves is a Jr. With the speed he plays out and how hard he goes to the net he gets bumped around a lot. The XSmall fit head okay, but not Jr cage and adult cages are loose.

Picked up Abby an 8K from the Monkey on closeout for cheap.... Under $100 w/ cage...which was like 1/2 of what her brothers bucket/shield(Bauer 9900 w/ Bauer fishbowl) cost. She doesn't even want a fishbowl like her brother, which is more cost effective.

Messier helmet = POS IMHO.

After Mitch's umpteenth concuss I bought him one of those. Would have made me feel better to just flush the money down the toilet

Just one mans opinion.

Did I say It's a POS?

[Ahbroody]

Wait are you saying they are crap?

After his tourney ends tomorrow we have 6 hours till his Hawks Sunday skate. They are having it late because of tourney. I am thinking about taking him to a large shop 20 min away and have a helmet fitting day. They have most the helmets. He has a RBK 8k but it doesn't fit his Jr combo. May have to make the switch to cage. He just hates bars in front of his eyes.



Yeah Al I know you hate Plexiglas, but during the college tournament I saw plenty of kids wearing full plexi.

On Thursday against a 9 year old learning goalie. He beat him a few times. Huge size difference.

All BS aside, that Messier POS was thin plastic and the friggin padding just fell out!

All I'm sayin is you get more style points with a cage.

Mitch always liked the white cages when we could find um. Said he could see the puck better. Jr. always wore black. I say, whatever makes um happy. Hockey players are a strange bunch they are!