Let the hockey begin

I have been to a lot of college hockey games.  My inlaws have season tickets, and there are a lot of games that happen during the week that are hard for them to get to.  I enjoy watching hockey live. Even if you are not paying attention to the game, there is a beauty to watching the players skate around.  They are very fluid and look like dancers.  I like all the crazy things that the crowd chants.  I like that the crowd dances during zamboni time.  I like that they always let my son ride the zamboni.  I like that they used to feature my son on their website.

Click on the picture if you can't see the boy.

Through attending these games, I have noticed that the percentage of red heads in the crowd, is much greater than the percentage of red heads in the general population.  My hypothesis is that red heads love hockey.  So far this has been supported by the fact that my read headed son and daughter also love going to the games.  This might be the reason that we do hockey now.

My son declared that he is going to be a Michigan hockey player for his job when he grows up.  I am not going to burst his bubble and tell him that they don't get paid.  He told me that since this is going to be his job, he needed to start hockey lessons.  I signed him up.

I am dumb.  I signed him up for hockey lessons, not learn to skate lessons.  Learn to skate lessons are cheaper and require less equipment.  They also help you to be successful in hockey lessons.  My husband noticed this and intended to take the boy to as many open skates as possible to get him ready for hockey.  We were a little thwarted in this attempt by a foot of snow, record low temperatures, a case of the pukes, and a broken zamboni.  He managed to practice a little, but he has not conquered the skill.

Today was the first hockey lesson.  I was really worried it would turn into 3 year old soccer.  When we tried 3 year old soccer, the boy ran out onto the field once, saw that some of the other kids knew what they were doing, then cried for the remainder of the season.

Things started out great.  He went with daddy to get all his gear on and went right onto the ice.  They gathered all of the kids to the center of the ice.  It was so cute.  Then they told the kids to skate to the other side of the rink.  This separated the skaters from the non skaters.  But I will brag that my boy was the best non skater.  He could stand like a champ and could even move really slowly.  One of the other non skaters fell to his knees and couldn't get up, so he started shuffling on his knees to the other side of the ice.  He was moving faster than my boy, so my boy dropped to his knees as well to keep up.  Through all this he was not discouraged.  Once they figured out who could skate and who couldn't, the coaches worked with the kids on their skills.

The coach working with my boy was confused about what equipment was required and yelled to us that we needed to get him some knee pads immediately and brought the boy off the ice.  We got the knee pads, but it was too late.  The boy thought he was in trouble and the tears started.  They lasted for 45 minutes as he refused to go back on the ice.  We tried everything, and about 10 minutes before the class was over, we lifted him up, dumped him on the ice, and shut the door behind him.  This resulted in him sitting and crying on the ice instead.  The lady in charge of the program had been working with us the whole time, and with one minute left of class, she got him to stand up and start shooting at the goal.  He loved it.  Even after the class was over, she kept him out there for about 15 minutes and now we have a boy who can't wait to go back next week.  His skating got amazingly better in just the short time he was out there.

I have taken the children to many events, and at each of the events there is a different level of parent interaction.  Sometimes no one talks to you, sometimes you run into someone friendly.  But let me tell you, hockey has the FRIENDLIEST people ever.  Multiple people offered me knee pads when the boy was taken off the ice.  One man rushed after my husband to stop him from buying any at the expensive store.  All the coaches came by to try to talk the boy back onto the ice.  The lady in charge spent over an hour coaxing the boy back onto the ice and eventually got him to enjoy it.  The nice mom with the cool purple highlight, sat by me and we traded stories about how our boys couldn't skate.  Hers was trying to escape, but mine was causing so much of a commotion by the door, that he was blocked.  When I told her how stubborn mine was, she said hers was too, and then said that even though it was frustrating, she was glad because it would help him later in life.  That is what I always try to tell myself as well.  These people were so friendly and inclusive.  I am very impressed.  Maybe I understand a little bit how people become hockey moms.

Are you some sort of sport or activity mom?  Does it take over your whole life?  Is there anything I need to be on the look out for?