Being a Hockey Parent

[Ahbroody]

I thought it was crazy that they instituted this rule. In the end we couod just use my parents address so its not really a big thing.

Is the boundry thing common in other areas. They have it here for baseball, but its never been an issue in hockey. My thing is it could end up being a headache in the end and he could get stuck playing on a team he doesnt want to be on. He has repeatedly said he wants to play for the Hawks all summer so I figure why needlessly create a possible situation.

[E.J.]

Good night....I'm tired.

Little One scored the only goal on either side during her scrimmage.



Varsity pulled the win, 4-3. Little Man only pulled 5 shifts, but was a +1 and worked his tail off.

[E.J.]

Originally Posted by Ahbroody

http://www.cdc.gov/concussion/HeadsUp/youth.html

Have another kid out for a minimum of 2 weeks with a concussion.....

We still have the one out, who has in reality played one game in the past 4 months. Then got word today that a kid that got dinged last night, went to the ER after and he's out 2 weeks, then reevaluate.....

[Ahbroody]

Nice pics.

See the concussion thing is the other reason we are waffling on what to do with him this year. That and everyones confusion over the new boundry rule. We want him in the practices we dont want him in the games. Today he did drills with the Cougars that as house coaches we wont even attempt next year as it will be disaster for house mites.

My wife said maybe we are just unavailable some weekends for him to play. . He has Stars on thursday. I will talk to that coach again about redshirting.

[E.J.]

So another game and another loss in the Olympic Oval D3 Summer League..... We played against the Air Pirates, which is a team of US Army Army Reserve National Guard guys... These 14-16 year old kids REALLY are struggling with the adult teams this year. Last year, playing in D4, their skating could make up for the maturity difference....D3, not so much....

I think they may have beat this team playing at full strength, but as Summer goes, we were missing some kids for vacation and one floater(plays JV and Varsity) kid that has a concussion. Played with 3 D - 5 up front... The Little Man had jello legs at the end, playing 2 shifts on/one off all game....

These pics were taken through the glass, in what could be described as DIFFICULT lighting....so the results are what they are...

Little Man throwing a puck at the net...





Down 3-0 in the middle of the 3rd, the boys stormed back, this was the celebration of the goal that left them down 1, with about 3 minutes and change to go. Unfortunatly, they got no closer than that....

[E.J.]

Great stick and puck session with both kids today.... My God I am getting old...

Fortunately Michelle doesn't skate, it assures that I will never be the worst skater in the family....

[Ahbroody]

Worked till midnight bed around 1am. Up at 6am to give wife some help with the baby. Pushed out the door with the boy and his two sisters to go to roller hockey at the wifes request to give her a few hours rest.
Feeling awesome for 5 hrs sleep. Sure I will hit the wall at work tonight.

On Wednesday he played in a Hawks scrim practice one squirt goalie one shooter tudor switching every 15 min. They had two shifts mites second shift was squirts and peewees. He played in the mite group. He walked into the locker room ahead of me came walking back out after seeing some peewees and said "no way Im playing against those kids." Then he saw a few kids he knew and settled down. He scored one from his stomach against the shooter tudor but that was more because everyone watched the shot to see if it would go. He did beat the one squirt goalie once by banging in a rebound.
Stars scrimmage early this afternoon against trivalley.

[E.J.]

Mike,

Is Micah doing all day camp? There is a 8:30-4:00 M-Th/8:30-Noon F camp local that a guy I know is running. I can get a smoking deal, Jackson is in, but I am considering having Abby do it. I know she'd say yes, but I wonder about her attention span for that long.... I really question getting into day 3-4....not so much the on ice stuff(twice daily), but all the off ice stuff.....




Yesterday was a good day, both kids playing back to back.... Ab's was AWESOME, was passing the puck REALLY well and scored a few times. Working with her at S&P twice over the holiday really seemed to give her a little bump.

On the flip side, the Little Man is seeing his varsity minutes drop to nothing. 3 shifts last night.... Wasn't on the ice long enough to even give a report on how he played... I know he is frustrated, but he is going to be a Soph on a team that is stacked deep. Still missing 2 of our top players, but when everyone else is there....minutes are nonexistent for the LM. The coach even said as much, apparently singled him out in the locker room after the game, paraphrased "I know your pissed & you'd be playing for any other team in the State, but we're loaded and your time will come."

He'll get enough minutes in the JV game tonight to put a smile on his fact.... Now let's hope they can sneak a win against the old men....

[Ahbroody]

The camp is from 9am to 12 its 3 hrs and only 12-15 minutes is off ice break time at the midway point.
The camp is really well run and he is skating almost constantly in one way or another. I dont think at his age I would attempt an all day camp. When hes 8 maybe.

He is the youngest camper by a year, but kicking some a$$. Today he won an Event for his team. They were doing the gauntlet drill where all 7 coaches use the sticks to shot cones at the kids as they skate through the nuetral zone. He out lasted everyone 25+ kids age 10 and under. Jumping and dodging cones like a champ. He got mobbed after he won and the smile on his face made the whole camp worth it. I think when it was just him and the other kid left the coaches went after the older kid harder. Still. very impressive. The second time they did the drill he made it to the final four.

He was getting lazy with his stride, but this camp and his competitive nature to win are fixing his stride because of his desire to win different races.

[E.J.]

Few from yesterday....nothing great, but a few pics all the same....








JV got their asses handed to them tonight.... Close game that was blown open in the third... Lost by 3, but it didn't seem that close.

[Ahbroody]

Day 5 of hockey camp.
So far we have also done practices/scrims on tuesday (cougars) and thursday (hawks) nights.
Last night he played about 1.5 hrs on the ice between the scrim and the improvised Gretzky hour after the scrim and only left the ice when the Zamboni came out.. That was on top of over 3 hours at camp. When we got home he looked at me and said thanks dad I had a lot of fun today.

Hes learning to work with a coach he doesnt like. The coach who made him cry in the private skate lesson months ago is one of the main coaches. He is spending a lot of time working with Micah. Ive had to explain to Micah that while he may not like a coach and they may be mean he has to listen and repsect the coach because they are trying to help. He said hello to the coach he hates this morning.

[E.J.]

...and the skate weights are in..... Skate weighed were apparently an 8D unless otherwise specified... All information is from the totalhockey.com website. If my math skills are working(I am no engineer), in parentheses is the total % weight difference from the lightest skate, the Bauer Total One.

.5 lbs doesn't sound like a big deal, but 25% difference in the weight does....

Bauer APX - 1.62 lbs (6%)
Bauer X7 - 1.80 (15%)
Bauer Total One - 1.53
Bauer One 100 - 1.88 (size 9) (19%)
Bauer X:50 - 1.84 (17%)
CCM Crazy Lights - 1.88 (19%)
CCM U12 - 1.84 (17%)
Easton EQ50 - 1.96 (size 9) (22%)
Easton S17 - 1.74 (12%)
Graf G5 - 1.98 (23%)
Graf G5 XI - 1.96 (22%)
Graf G75 - 1.90 (19%)
Graf G35x - 2.08 (26%)
Reebok 11K - 1.98 (23%)
Reebok 10K - 1.90 (size 7) (19%)


How is that for a slow Saturday afternoon....

Did have a nice drop in session for the Little One this morning.... Her brother starts camp on Monday....

[Ahbroody]

We banned micah from hockey today. He has been on the ice roughly 20 hours since sunday. He kept trying to get into the garage to shot pucks so we went out and bought some seedlings for our garden and he helped me plant. He wants to play tomorrow morning in Cupertino. Got hockey camp all next week with optional skates with the Cougars on tuesday, Hawks wednesday, and Stars thursday. Tryouts for the clubs are all the last weekend of the month.

Talked to a lot of travel parents at the camp and as Al and I have talked most are on Als side. Many said travel mites is largely not worth it if I can get him to redshirt and many felt even if not just have him do small group lessons. This throws a wrench in the plan. The Stars coach seems my best bet for a red shirt and Micah really likes him. If not will just do house mites with the optional weekly extra skills skate. He will now a lot of the boys in that.

Update on the protech dent mouthguards. Micah and I both really like them and its great for speaking and drinking.


Because I know this will get a rise out of a couple of you and may result in Al actually posting to call me a nut bag. Behold. Fairly certain one of the only if not the only custom youth 11 Graf conversions in the US. In talking to the guy who wedges his skates we were discussing the radius on the Grafs and how the holders just seem undersized. Enter a pair of cheap Bauers.

The guy swapped them for free basically and now.


Hes been skating on them for 2 weeks and loves them. Yes they are wedged. To give an idea of how big the Graf boot is I really could have fit a Bauer/tuuk size 12 holder on. While the Graf boot is awesome the youth holders are extremely undersized. He is a lot more comfortable skating backwards and has not lost any speed.

I fully expect Als wrath. Maybe Scotts.

[E.J.]

Those mouth-guards look crazy.... Are they as thin as they look? You just bite on them???


As I said before, I think the Tuuk conversion was awesome and I am confident you hold the Western United states record, if not the US record for smallest Graf/Tuuk conversion....

[E.J.]

Just watched their(protech dent mouthguards) video clip on the website...

I didn't look further, but do they mention reduced concussion severity or the like?

[Ahbroody]

Yup they are that thin. You heat them up bite down run your fingers around the front and side to shape then place your tongue against the back and suck in. Doesnt fall out. Purpose is only for concussions as wearing a cage. Science behind it says it does the job.

I may be the record holder. Im good with that.

[Ahbroody]

Hows the blade on your daughters total one holding up.
What I have found is that the cheap youth sticks have cheap blades that get chewed up fast exposing the fiberglass. The Easton yth S19 has a true basket weave blade as does the warrior widow, but the cheap sticks dont. He digs in the corners and in front of the net so much he trashes the blades on the cheap sticks pretty quick.

[E.J.]

Originally Posted by Ahbroody

Hows the blade on your daughters total one holding up.

Needed a new tape job, so I figured I'd let you decide. Almost 5 months, conservative estimate, 30 ice sessions. I cleaned everything off that stick, what you see is stick.

[E.J.]

Forgot to mention yesterday, that I may end up coaching the Little One. Ran into an old friend at the ice center. We started chatting and he ask if I wanted to coach with him. His youngest son will be a second year mite. He has been an assistant for years with his older son and said he'd "throw his hat" into the ring and take the head job, if I sign on.

Anyway, he said he'd have to get it cleared, as he will continue to be an assistant for his older son. But if it is a go, sounds like I'm going to do my first hockey coaching..... I'd already sort of had thoughts of offering up my help to whoever was her coach, but it will be nice to have that guy be a friend I have known for 25 years.

[E.J.]

Speaking of sticks.... LM wanted a TotalOne and needed a new stick anyway, so I ordered the TO & figured the X60 could become his back-up. "SNAP" goes the X60 the day before the TO gets here....

Now I need to get another back up.... I wait...and wait, well....because I just dropped $230 on a damn hockey stick.... During this time, the LM's slap shot has gone to chit. It is the different kick point on the TO and he cannot figure it out.... "Dad, I need the X60 back."

Dad orders an X60, comes in the mail earlier this week. LM has now figured out the TO and his slap shot has never been better..... Life of a Hockey Parent....