Starting your child in Hockey

[Mccree]

Originally Posted by Derek Sutton

I’m going to disagree a bit with this. There is a difference between hockey and skating. If I’m coaching I’m not spending an hour every week picking kids up off the ice. And by you’re putting your kid behind from the start if you’re dropping them into hockey without having skated.

Signing your kid up for skating/ power skating lessons would be the best option. If it is a time/ commitment/ financial concerns, you are better off skipping hockey for the first year or two or more, and focusing on skating. If your child cannot skate, hockey is simply a waste of time.

My sons first time on skates was his very first Timbit skate. Once he learned to get up by himself he hasn't looked back. Has played Team 1/2 every since and is entering is second year at U18. Good coaches are what really make the difference.

[me_dennis]

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.

[dubc80]

Originally Posted by the-rasta-masta

I have a 5 year old son, and while I have suggested getting him started in skating lessons for the last few years, a few trips with some skates to the outdoor rink over the last few winters hadn't resulted in much desire from him so we've been focusing on swimming and golf instead.

All of a sudden he has taken some interest in the game while playing street hockey with his cousins this summer, and I'm curious if there are any recommendations on the best way to introduce him to the game. His cousins live in Cochrane and they took some skating lessons where they wore full hockey equipment, and I've thought that made a lot of sense and have been looking for something similar in Calgary.

Any recommendations on best approaches would be helpful since I figure he needs to get comfortable on skates before signing up for Timbits or anything like that?

My son was your kid's age when we did an "Intro to Hockey" program at South Fish Creek. It was full equipment, once a week on Saturday mornings. Pretty sure other rinks, YMCA, City of Calgary run similar programs.

It was not "real" hockey, but who cares at that age. They still did drills, scrimmages with the group, etc.

The best part was the initial commitment was only 6 or 7 weeks and they ran consecutive sessions through the winter. So, you could enroll in one, then see how it went, then enroll into the next one, etc. We ended up doing that one whole winter until Covid happened.

I feel like that was a really good move before we enrolled him the next year into Timbits, but that was just personal family preference.

I coached Timbits and U9 the last few years and there certainly are kids who are taking the price tags off their gear and just learning to skate at the first practice, so dont be discouraged if you just sign him up cold turkey.

My main comment is to follow your kids lead and dont get caught up in all the hubbub which you will likely experience. Its crazy what the "elite" families are into, but hey, thats their life.

They will all end up playing at 10:30pm in Chestermere and have parking lot beers together afterwards anyways.

[heep223]

Originally Posted by troutman

My only advice - they should want to play more than you want them to play.

I don’t think this is good advice for this age group. Most 5 year olds have no idea what they want to play or not play, they need to try a whole bunch of new things to figure that out. Hockey in particular really sucks to learn - few kids that age want to get out of bed at 530 in the morning, put on a bunch of uncomfortable gear, go out in the cold and fall all over the place.

If you have a passion and want them to play hockey - you may have to force it for a season or two until they actually learn and can decide for themselves. Within reason of course. I have lots of friends whose kids hated it at first and are now obsessed with it at 7 or 8, all their friends are from hockey, etc.

[habernac]

They don’t need to know how to skate. My kid fell 100 times his first practice. He learned how to get up. If you do take them skating early, make sure they have hockey pants and shin pads on to cushion the falls.

[Vox]

I'm late to the thread, hopefully not too late. My son at 5-6 liked to watch hockey and go to games, but he didn't want to play because he was nervous to skate. We put him in ball hockey one year and he absolutely loved it. The passion kicked in the first day. At the end of ball hockey he told us the he would like to learn to skate after all, and he has never looked back. The ball hockey was tons of fun, btw.

[loob job]

Originally Posted by billybob123

Just put him straight in timbits. Neither of my kids could skate when they started, it took about two weeks and they were skating far better. By the end of the first season, they could skate forwards, backwards, stop, and turn.

If you still want to get out to get used to standing up on skates, there usually are public skate times at the rinks that still have ice in. Might cost a dollar or five but it's something.

Both kids have finally quit hockey, I really miss the timbits days.

Do This, he'll improve everytime he goes on the ice, skating lessons at that age are useless, I did the lessons and then went to hockey after a year with my son and he was way behind.