Being a Hockey Parent

[E.J.]

I'm off to another game.... Second round of the playoffs!

[E.J.]

Well....that didn't work out the way we planned.... Guess we have to make it through the losers bracket... Dropped them to 1-1 in the playoffs....

[Ahbroody]

Holy crap!!!!
Number 12 is wearing Bauer 2000's I think from 03 and those Nike Ignites number 9 has are from 2001. Sorry gear whore took over.

Sorry about the Loss.
Love the Fishbowl. Micahs is scratched pretty good after one year I need to get him a new one.

[Ahbroody]

I have definetly found something that is frustrating about the minimite level. Peoples shiiiiitass kids.

Some of you I spoke with privately about a kid we had in the league who sucked and instead of trying to play would skate around running kids from behind and boarding them. He was little and weak on his skates so even though he was dangerous he wasnt to dangerous. An anonymous email was sent to the league head and the child and father were called in and told they would be banned if it occurred again. This child has now been much better.

That said a new kid has decided to start crosschecking kids from behind. Again another poor skater. Today his mom who is clearly a model citizen was filming her kid and a group of us decided to discuss some kids issues with crosschecking. She gave a dirty look. After the boy went after Micah I called him over and right infront of her said "hey if that boy keeps crosschecking you its okay for you to defend yourself" . This women gave me a very dirty look. After the game she again scowled at me when she walked by.

Looking back I am kind of regreting this. I generally tell Micah just skate harder if someone bothers him. I know these kids tend to get weeded out naturaley, but its just irritating. Clearly Micah being so young and not understanding why the kid crosschecked him and how to handle it adds to my frustration as his parent. I guess this is the downside of having your kids start so young and play with 6-7 year olds. next year I know this wont be an issue.

You dads with experience how did you address it

[macsauce13]

OK, im not a parent, nor do I know much about hockey (so basically completely unqualified for this), but I am a second generation college baseball player, and I can tell you that from YOUR end of the deal, IMO you should teach him to be CONSTANTLY above reproach. He's going to figure out what he can get away with and how he can handle things on the ice, what he needs is for you to teach him the honor and the respect that will not only shape his hockey career, but will extend deep into his life.

Tell him to get good, clean, hard checks and to NEVER allow himself to make a single dirty play. Its about integrity, about doing it the right way, and being better than everyone else without stooping low.

YMMV

[Ahbroody]

Mac I will be having a talk with him tomorrow, to tell him dad was wrong, but mainly because hes too young to understand what I was telling him. I knew right after I did it I shouldnt have. I think I partly did to jack the mom up.

I played bball through H.S. and played rec hockey as an adult. The games are very different. There is a lot of self policing in hockey. The game is more fluid and there is a lot of roughousing(sp) on the ice as kids try to establish a pecking order. You wouldnt think little kids would do this, but trust me. Just as in school and life some kids try to bully other kids. The coaches largely let this go as its kind of part of the game. Unless it becomes dangerous. You need to learn to deal with it. Its part of why hockey is one of the best sports to have kids play. So really the issue becomes how you want your kid to deal with someone bullying them. As I said though Micah is really to young to grasp whats going on and I should not have told him to go back after the kid.
Al had told me last year having him start playing at 3 may not be a good idea. I suspect this may have been part of the reason. While he improved greatly skill wise he doesnt grasp everything going on at times. I am sure toward the end of the comming season things like this wont be an issue as he will turn 5 and figure some of this out. But hey this is the hockey parent banter and a good lesson for people with little ones.

[Ahbroody]

http://www.hockeymonkey.com/weekend-blowout.html
Some good deals especailly if out of state of CA and not paying taxes.

[E.J.]

Originally Posted by Ahbroody

I have definetly found something that is frustrating about the minimite level. Peoples shiiiiitass kids.

Some of you I spoke with privately about a kid we had in the league who sucked and instead of trying to play would skate around running kids from behind and boarding them. He was little and weak on his skates so even though he was dangerous he wasnt to dangerous. An anonymous email was sent to the league head and the child and father were called in and told they would be banned if it occurred again. This child has now been much better.

That said a new kid has decided to start crosschecking kids from behind. Again another poor skater. Today his mom who is clearly a model citizen was filming her kid and a group of us decided to discuss some kids issues with crosschecking. She gave a dirty look. After the boy went after Micah I called him over and right infront of her said "hey if that boy keeps crosschecking you its okay for you to defend yourself" . This women gave me a very dirty look. After the game she again scowled at me when she walked by.

Looking back I am kind of regreting this. I generally tell Micah just skate harder if someone bothers him. I know these kids tend to get weeded out naturaley, but its just irritating. Clearly Micah being so young and not understanding why the kid crosschecked him and how to handle it adds to my frustration as his parent. I guess this is the downside of having your kids start so young and play with 6-7 year olds. next year I know this wont be an issue.

You dads with experience how did you address it

Are the leagues no check? Kids can’t check here until Pee Wee(11-12 Y/O). IMO, though I think there can be blame shared with parents, I think the offending kids coach should be shouldering the majority of the bame here. The issue should be addressed with the coach, first from the ref on the ice and if it continued, from the president of the league.

Coaches at this age are there to teach the kids the game, not win. If there are kids that are not playing the game as it should be played, it is 100% their responsibility to change that. If they have problems, they should address it with the parents and come to an understanding that if the kid cannot play the game within the rules, he/she will not see the ice.

I never have had much issue with this type of stuff. 2 years ago the Little Man did get suspended a game for addressing an issue on the ice. In a perfect world, it wouldn’t have happened, but I was not mad at him, nor embarrassed at the behavior….

[Ahbroody]

Couple of things.
This really seems to be more of an issue at the minimite level as the kids dont follow directions as well, dont stay focused, and well some of them just need to have some actual parenting done.

Its no check as I dont know a league in the country that allows checks prior to Pee Wee. Your league may be different but out here the games often resemble a bunch of monkeys trying to fock a football. There is minimal refing and in the summer the league actually doesnt have dads for coaches, but instead the 20 year old kids run the practices and games. So things definelty are poorly run. During the regular season we were very active in actively controling the kids.

I was pretty proud of micah today they had 1/2hr practice 1/2hr game. In practice the kid was skating around looking for someone to bother. At one point during line drills he skated over towards Micah. Micah said something to him and skated over to some friends. During the game he got a pretty nice breakaway goal.

Fees were released today. $1045 for the season. Just seems wrong to pay that much for a 4 year old to play ice hockey.

[E.J.]

Originally Posted by Ahbroody

Fees were released today. $1045 for the season. Just seems wrong to pay that much for a 4 year old to play ice hockey.

OUCH....

I'll consider myself lucky to be at $750 total for Bantam Rec and High School......


Just back from a game tonight(scrimmage against another local HS JV team).... Good tie if there is one.... Down 4-1 going into the third and pulled it to 4-4. Little Man was +2....

No games on the schedule for at least 3-4 weeks..... Word is the HS are trying to secure ice time and will have dryland training 3 * a week starting the 30th....... Assume rec will start in a month....

[E.J.]

The Little Man has a new toy in the back yard... Some synthetic ice and a radar gun to gauge your slap shot speed....



...and if you have a few too many cups out of the keg & try to get the slap shot MPH record, you may end up like this.....

[J0eybb]

Who's rocking the snake boots?

[E.J.]

Originally Posted by J0eybb

Who's rocking the snake boots?

The Little Man's "friend".....

1st preseason drop of the puck in 36 minutes!

[J0eybb]

My daughter's first day of hockey.






Actually just my new bag.

[Ahbroody]

I know where you bought that bag.

Going to sign Micah up for Roller Hockey. He wants to play more so I figured I would let him do that also. As opposed to Ice Hockey here Roller hockey for kids 7 and under is 99.00 for the whole year.
http://www.silvercreeksportsplex.com/partners/hockey/
Will be interesting to see if he wants to play the games on Saturday at 10am as he has Ice games from 8-9. Practices are friday night which I think he will have a lot of fun with.

[E.J.]

Laughed out loud at that last pic Joe..... Good stuff...

[Ahbroody]

By the way awesome setup EJ. Would love to get something like that going eventually.

[Ahbroody]

Going to have the little guy rock this one when the season starts back up.
Debating on 28, 12, 8, 17
Domi, Marleau, Pavelski, his number kast year
Love ebay. Hand stitched everything. 25 shipped.

[sikk50]

Cherish this though, I know he does.

When I was a pup playing peewee my dad was workin in the homicide devision at the time, being that we lived in a large county in SoCal someone was always dying so he was always gone. But to this day one of the best memories I have of my old man is how no matter how swamped he was he'd show up just before my games and tue my skates up good and tight. Even when he couldn't stay for the game.