getting my kids into hockey - skating first, or just dive in?

[Ice]

Seems the older they get, the more expensive it gets. By the time my son got to Pee Wee, we were shelling out 8-10 grand per season.

Politics is frustrating, to be sure. I'm not one of those super involved parents checking ice time and comparing it to other kids or trying to kiss the coaches butt or anything so for the most part I don't care. My biggest beef is the way some coaches don't have any regard for the message they send to the kids.

My son didn't play club hockey until his first year of Pee Wee. He was very raw but the coaches saw something and said if he promised to listen to them and do what they told him, they wanted to offer him a spot on the A team. He progressed a lot. His first game he played 4 minutes but by the end of the season he was second line center, first power play unit, and an awesome penalty killer. He learned a lot and it was a great year.

About two months before the season is over the AA coach wanted my son to start practicing with the Tier AA team. Hey, extra ice time for free? Heck yeah, my kid loves to be on the ice. They start telling him he must try out for AA, he's an AA player and is wasting his time in A. During the summer we pay for secret private ice time with the kids they wanted. Mind you, my son wanted to stay in Pee Wee A with his friends but the coaches convinced him that he needed to play AA hockey. He goes to the tryout, everyone is talking about how well he did. We get a phone call the night before the last tryout day asking if my son will be there the next day with it being Fathers Day. We say yes, and are told they want him on the team and will give him his offer letter tomrrow. After practice, no offer letter, no decline letter, nothing. We are asked to go upstairs where we are told that they will call us and are sorting out the final roster. We never heard back. So my son played A hockey last year and I can't count how many people from the AA team asked me why my son didn't try out for the AA team. Then we found out that in order to lure a coach to our club, a spot had to be promised to his kid, and another kids dad said if his son made the team he'd pay for the tournament fees, so done. The worst part isn't even that my kid got screwed out of his spot on the AA team, but that they NEVER gave him an answer.

This summer, tryouts for AA start and my son wouldn't try out because he thinks he's not good enough for AA hockey. We had a conversation about the difference between not being good enough, or not making a team because you don't fit what they need, or not making a team because of politics. I figure he'll try out for many teams and not make it, but he should never let anyone make him think he's not good enough to try out.

Even with all the crap, as long as we, as parents, keep our perspective and remember to let our kids have fun, they rarely need to be aware of the politics. I know the situation last summer with the AA team bothered me much more than it did my kid. He joined his A team and moved on. I think that's the key. He just wants to play hockey and that's the thing I always try to remember.

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by Ice

My son didn't play club hockey until his first year of Pee Wee. He was very raw but the coaches saw something and said if he promised to listen to them and do what they told him, they wanted to offer him a spot on the A team. He progressed a lot. His first game he played 4 minutes but by the end of the season he was second line center, first power play unit, and an awesome penalty killer. He learned a lot and it was a great year.

About two months before the season is over the AA coach wanted my son to start practicing with the Tier AA team. Hey, extra ice time for free? Heck yeah, my kid loves to be on the ice. They start telling him he must try out for AA, he's an AA player and is wasting his time in A. During the summer we pay for secret private ice time with the kids they wanted. Mind you, my son wanted to stay in Pee Wee A with his friends but the coaches convinced him that he needed to play AA hockey. He goes to the tryout, everyone is talking about how well he did. We get a phone call the night before the last tryout day asking if my son will be there the next day with it being Fathers Day. We say yes, and are told they want him on the team and will give him his offer letter tomrrow. After practice, no offer letter, no decline letter, nothing. We are asked to go upstairs where we are told that they will call us and are sorting out the final roster. We never heard back. So my son played A hockey last year and I can't count how many people from the AA team asked me why my son didn't try out for the AA team. Then we found out that in order to lure a coach to our club, a spot had to be promised to his kid, and another kids dad said if his son made the team he'd pay for the tournament fees, so done. The worst part isn't even that my kid got screwed out of his spot on the AA team, but that they NEVER gave him an answer.

4 minutes a game in PeeWee? Offer letters and secret icetime?

Geez, this is serious business in SoCal. Certainly there is politics and whatnot here, but I don't think we have quite that level of intrigue.

[Sample00]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

4 minutes a game in PeeWee? Offer letters and secret icetime?

Geez, this is serious business in SoCal. Certainly there is politics and whatnot here, but I don't think we have quite that level of intrigue.

that kinda stuff is insanity.
I think I would lose my mind as a parent in a situation like this.
However, some kids are cut out for it, and others arent.

[Ice]

Well, there are rules about when you can start practicing as a team, usually 2-3 weeks before the pre-season starts. But you can have "clinics" prior to that. The thing about clinics is that they have to be open to everyone in that birth year to join. So, the way around it is to plan your team practice, then once everyone is signed up, you publish the clinic, but now its full so non-roster players can legally be turned away.

I call the secret ice time the ice reserved by a private party, and I'd get a message on my cell phone inviting my son, from some random dad, not a coach or anyone affiliated with the club that ended with "if this isn't [kids name's] parents please disregard this call." Of course it was reserved by a private party, but we all paid our 60 bucks in order for our kids to skate and you look in the warm room and there's the AA coach with nothing better to do than stop by the rink and observe the private ice time.

Yeah, shady things happen. Like I said, if they want my kid there, and he wants to be there, he's there. I try to stay out of the politics as much as possible. We were lured to a new club this year. I'm curious to see if the politics are as rampant there or if its something unique to my local rink.

Offer letters are basically just your offer to sign for the club. Since we don't have districts down here, its not unusual for kids to try out for as many as four clubs so they want you inked as soon as possible. The top players get what we refer to as first letters. That means the first tryout, they identify players they don't want to tryout at another rink and have you commit them that day. Once you sign with a club, you can't be released without cause. It keeps kids from club jumping two months into the season. To be honest, I'd rather have districts where if you live here, you play there. No ifs ands or buts about it. But I don't see it ever happening.

[pope04]

I'd say fire him right in there. I put my boys in skating lessons and grassroots hockey, but I wish I put them straight into hockey.

[Matata]

Put him in Hockey and teach him about skating yourself. You both get bonding time and he should progress into one of the better skaters on his team.