our hockey association had a "learn to skate" program, which ran from Sept to March, with full hockey gear. It was a pre-requisite to timbits and taught kids how to skate for 75% of the program, with 25% of the program geared towards basic hockey skills and mini scrimmages. It was a parent and tot program. It was great because it was set times (Saturdays, and every other Sunday)
My younger son did that when he was 4.5 and it was a struggle for most weeks, but by the end, he was a much better skater than my older son, who basically started timbits only knowing how to skate forwards (kind of.. he was pushing off of one skate, like he was on a skateboard).
My older son started timbits at 5, but because he was born in 2015, and because of covid, he only played 1 year in U7 (timbits) and made the jump to U9 in his 2nd year. By the time he was finished his first year in timbits, he was able to skate forwards, backwards, stop, crossover, and transition from front to back and back to front.
I also put him in a spring hockey program, where it was mostly power skating for the first spring, and a tucker hockey program more on stickhandling/puck control.
Both boys have shown interest in rollerblading, so we've been going to the outdoor rinks in the summertime evenings to practice that. They are both in hockey camps in the last week of August to prepare them for evaluations in September.
Good point about getting skate blades profiled. I bought my older son a new pair of skates and need to get them profiled, as I feel like he's not the fastest kid out there, so hopefully the skates/blade profile can help him a bit.
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