Being a Hockey Parent

[Ahbroody]

Wish I knew why my phone keeps double posting.

SPOS!

[E.J.]

Originally Posted by Ahbroody

Ouch 1-6 no bueno.

Caught a break today with the Cougar mite skate fees. $200 he gets tuesday mite skate, friday U10 practice, sunday U10 games after Hawks MASS ends through summer, and he can skate in another regular hockey class before the tuesday mite skate if he wants. They definitely want him so I am sure thats why.

Tball tomorrow night.

Thursday blackstars skate.

This weekend is the norcal cup rollerhockey championships
He got recruited to play on a U7 team. May have to miss tball game saturday.

Yea, it was not a banner night for the Spartans.... Hopefully Thursday night goes better.

Good news on the fees!

I look forward to hearing about the weekend rollerhockey....keep me updated & good luck to Micah!

[E.J.]

Much better night with the Varsity tonight.... 7-3 win. Played forward, which is different, but had a few nice chances. Here are a few photos...

[E.J.]

Recently found an OUTSTANDING online shop http://www.icewarehouse.com/ Have ordered twice, both times orders were processed same day and shipped. To me, that means standard shipping is two days.

No processing fees and shipping is free over $100. Also, if you join the IW Club or whatever it is(one time purchase of a $10 t-shirt), all orders are 10% off....

Long story short, I have been doing this for 8ish years and it is the best online shop I have dealt with.....

[J0eybb]

Originally Posted by E.J.

Recently found an OUTSTANDING online shop http://www.icewarehouse.com/ Have ordered twice, both times orders were processed same day and shipped. To me, that means standard shipping is two days.

No processing fees and shipping is free over $100. Also, if you join the IW Club or whatever it is(one time purchase of a $10 t-shirt), all orders are 10% off....

Long story short, I have been doing this for 8ish years and it is the best online shop I have dealt with.....

I use their inline section all the time.

[Ahbroody]

Well he did the roller tourney today. There were four teams. They should have taken second, but the team that finished second had a ringer. They lost 7-3 or something and the kid scored all their goals. They did okay for a house formed team that never practiced together. But against the Quakes travel team who won out it was very obvious it was house kids.

Micah scored a fair number of goals, but at times just tried to stay back and play D. They got a medal so he had fun and was proud. He also got recruited by the coach of the house team who is forming a U8 team in the fall. The coach is a really great guy.

Micah is second from left and his buddy Alex who hes been playing ice with for two years and did the ice tourney with is behind him. Second row fourth in. They hung out all day and had a lot of fun.

[Ahbroody]

Forgot to mention. He got the messier project helmet and liked it a lot. Got the one with the cage and when he saw it he said he wanted to wear a cage like everyone else now. He wore it all day yesterday. At the end of the day he implied he may still want to wear his 50/50 sometimes.

[E.J.]

Hockey last night for the girl, hockey tonight for the boy(crossing my fingers that the JV squad has a better outing)....

Private powerskating lesson tomorrow for the boy. I send them both out, because it is "free skate". Ab's goes to the other side of the rink and tries to mimic what they are doing....

[E.J.]

You know I have been noticing it more and more on the ice and now when we went in to get new shoulder pads, we went another direction. It seems like kids are out there looking like they are wearing football shoulder pads.

We have been waiting for the 11K’s to hit the shelves here and they came yesterday. We drove down to pick some up and first think I noticed was the weight, they are HEAVY. The Little Man put them on and first thing he said, “I feel like a tank.” I kept pushing the shoulder cap down, we tried on a different size, bla…bla..bla…

Grabbed the CCM U+ Pro’s and put them on, ahhhhh….that is what a shoulder pad is supposed to look like. MUCH, MUCH lighter…. Has to be half the weight, maybe more? I am sure there is some sacrifice in protection, but????

Anyway, as it has become now….it was not my decision anyway and after going back and forth a few times, the CCM’s went to the counter…along with a new bag(last one was literally falling apart).

[Ahbroody]

Very cool about Abby trying to copy. Thats great she has that passion. Its funny how they suprise you. As the off season has progressed and Micah is now practicing with the three clubs I have noticed he prefers the better tougher practices and wants to go to those the most. As I mentioned in the text he almost pulled off the spinorama during shootout practice tuesday. The coaches went nuts. Then on the way home he keeps talking about how he needs to practice in the garage more to get the move right.

As to the shoulder pads they are out of control. Its proven people use them as a weapon.

[Ahbroody]

Kind of a spin on that we were talking about the checking age being raised by USA Hockey.
Scott said its a done deal. Having atleast one boy this will affect and possibly two I am okay with it.

I went out and got the boy a new helmet. We went with the Messier project helmet. Al isnt a fan of it and felt it was flimsy. I will say the rear lower section of the helmet has more play then I expected. It seems designed that way. The upper section seems well made. The helmet is also very heavy even with just a cage and it suprised me. It weighed noticeably more then his youth itech with a 50/50 cage. Its also a pretty big helmet size wise. We decided he really needed an upgraded helmet as he is playing with kids often a foot taller. Now I am wondering though if it was the wrong helmet. Last thing we want is him getting his bell rung this early. You can hit the helmet much harder then the Itech and he says it doesnt hurt.

Hoping Scott and Al chime in on the checking age issue as to pros and cons. As a whole I think its a good thing. I dont see much benefit in rushing checking.

Hell, its been so many years I don't even know what age they start checking anymore.

I do remember I wished it was younger.

[Ahbroody]

Micah likes the contact and hitting a little already. I just dont see the point. The age was 11 and they appear to be moving it to 13. I cant see younger then 11 benefiting from checking.

I may not stick with the M11. Will likely have him checkout the Bauer 9900 before the season starts to see what he prefers.

[E.J.]

I watched a segment on ESPN's "Between the Lines" re: this. Seems like the players that they talked to, can't remember who they were, both said they were not in favor or the later checking age, saying kids need to learn how to do it and the sooner the better.... Think they were also concerned with not learning to keep your head up, making sure you weren't going to get hit...

Later you start worrying about that, the harder it is to teach or something.... I can't remember, other than them both being against raising the age.

Both sides made a rational argument.

Found the piece....

http://search.espn.go.com/outside-th...ockey/videos/6

[E.J.]

Here is the discussion with Messier, Barnaby and King....

http://www.ovguide.com/video/are-con...117d36eef89c9f



....and speaking of Messier, take a look at him and then this mug...

At 11 or 12 or whatever they are bigger, stronger, faster. They have watched the older boys and pro's and can't wait to start checking. The problem is they don't know the first thing about giving a check or more importantly how to take, absorb or avoid one. For years they play with no knowledge of what checking is like then one day Johnny comes across the blue line with his head down and gets plastered by some big kid going 100 miles an hour just looking to clean his clock because he's waited years to do it. If they are taught early it wouldn't be such a "big deal" it would be just part of the game that they have learned like skating and stick handling.

Now, I'll open an even bigger can of worms, fighting. I think fighting should be taught as well, not so much the hitting but how to protect yourself. Kids that are talented can play at the Jr. level at sixteen playing against guys that are 20-21. Your kid is gonna fight if he wants to or not, it's going to happen. A sixteen year old getting his helmet ripped off and hammered by a 20 year old is not a pretty site. I had the boys work with a close friend that played for Boston College and played semi-pro on how to keep their balance, where to grab, how to clutch, how to fall, what to look for as far as what hand is going to be thrown etc. All in an effort to protect them from getting their a$$ handed to them. Mitch's first real fight was against a 20 year old and he was sixteen. He held his own, got in a couple and I would have called it a draw (I'm his dad ). The point is he didn't get killed because he knew the basics of how to protect himself. He turned into a solid fighter that fought when he needed to protect himself or a team mate. I'm not saying I liked it, I'm just saying that I'm glad he learned the basics early.

If checking and fighting are "part of the game" they need to be taught, early.

[Ahbroody]

Good points Al. Good video links EJ.

I know Micahs age is likely affecting my view on checking. I dont know why I worry when he seems to enjoy the physical side of the game. I know they have checking clinics locally and they will let younger kids in on a case by case basis, but I think 7 turning 8 if very good and big enough was the earliest they will let them in. I know of one 7 year old who participated atleast in part of one. Not sure if any of the clubs work on it as well pretty sure his mite club wont.

Its funny the videos drive home the point and Al said this also, but kids skate with their head down too much. They also mentioned turning into the boards (like Sedin did the other night), as well as racing to the boards for the puck seemingly not worried about the forechecker or Dman whos coming right behind. My wife and I have been preaching to him about always keeping his head up. Practicing with the older kids these past months, and getting flattened a couple of times seems to have been huge for his understanding the importance. Oddly its when hes off the puck he has traditionaly had an issue. When he has it he seems to keep his head up looking for space. He works with the ball in the garage and its helped him to have pretty good puck control so hes not looking down. Today at the Stars practice the coach mentioned hes doing really well finding space with and without the puck by keeping his head up. He got one of his teams three goals in the scrim. So I am hoping all dads talks and getting nailed a couple of times by not looking around has helped. Will have to see if he develoos the other to habits so far he doesnt

Given hes already playing up and at the travel level I know there is a fair chance if he keeps the passion that he could play at some point where he may need to be able to fight. I know that will be tough for me. I actually thought about starting to work with him on balance while grappling on rollerblades in the garage. Never had a fight on the ice though only some grappling because only ever played beer league and wouldnt want to teach him something wrong. Wonder what age to start that at.

[E.J.]

@ the bottom of the page here http://www.usahockey.com//Template_U...T_03&ID=299508 you can take a survey about the proposed checking rules and then give any thoughts at the end...if you so choose.

[E.J.]

Few from tonights game(3-1) loss. He was pretty disappointed that he missed this...

[E.J.]

Going through the photos for the team and popped these off.




...and one more of a teammate... Looks good, but is went left...