r/youthhockey

Curious other’s opinion in different areas… at what age are you stopping tying skates? I understand kids are learning later to tie based on the fact that slip on shoes and velco make it not as accessible to learn but they can learn on their skates, no? We made a point prior to starting in 10u to learn.

The amount of 10u majors and 12u I see walking out of the locker room to get their skates tied is mind blowing.

Not a coach for her, she’s been playing for 4 years. She’s a mad dog off the ice. And loves to skate. I don’t wanna be that dad that makes her hate it.

For anyone who’s been a team manager, what ends up falling on you during the season? I always assumed coaches handled most things, but it sounds like managers do a lot more behind the scenes than I realized.

Has anyone done a local corporate sponsorship for a youth team? I am a manager trying to reduce overall out of pocket costs and had considered this as an option.

My questions are:
- How much did you ask for?
- What did you provide in return to the local company? (Email about them, speaker at a team meeting?)
- Jersey logos?

I have done corporate sponsorships for large events before so foot traffic is the return and placement on flyers etc. But I’m at a bit of a creative loss for a hockey team.

It was my first year coaching (assistant) this year, age group 13. The other 2 coaches were goalies growing up and had no clue what to do with players and kind of left it to me. I did my best, but feel I could have done way better. They equip you with a hockey Canada app for drills year one, but it’s very underwhelming and then it becomes paid. I feel there’s better apps/sites for the money.

Luckily, we had a rich kid who’s dad kept getting is different power skating coaches. One thing I noticed is these coaches always had the same drills. The practices would only vary by one drill depending on what I would ask them to focus on.

My question here is, is there an app or site that these AA / power skating coaches use? I love coaching and just want to equip myself properly to help development. Any insight would be helpful!

My son has a large blister on his heel and a hot spot on the other after wearing Gear Halo hockey socks for the first time. He usually wears a typical sock you would buy at Wal-Mart without issue. Has anyone experienced blistering from hockey socks?

He is 12 years old and he got new skates in mid July. He was sized as a 5.5 Fit 1, and we walked out with a size 6 Fit 1 Bauer Vapour Velocity (moved up to a size 6 because of tightness on top of the foot near the toes). Skates were baked, he has waxed laces and superfeet.

He had a hockey camp and developed a blister on the right instep where that protruding bone is in front of the ankle. I had those spots on both skates punched out after the camp. No issues at the heels, no hot spots, redness or blisters. No issues anywhere else on the feet.

Fast forward to this Monday and the start of another camp. It was his first time wearing the skates after having them punched. Up to this point he has had 11 ice times (approximately 10.5 hours of ice time). It was also the first time he has tried hockey socks, this is the only thing that was different from the last time he wore them, other than the punching. First hour went well, he said they felt great. He came off the ice after the second hour long skate limping. He has a large blister on his right heel, and a hot spot on his left. Unfortunately, he did not get off when they started to hurt because he wanted to keep playing. He did say that his heels were moving up and down with the new socks.

My thought is the change of socks led to the blisters. I chatted with our local sports store (did not buy the skates there, we are from an isolated city so I can't return the skates where I bought them) and their head hockey guy doesn't think its a sizing issue. He thinks it was caused by the switch in socks. I know hockey socks are supposed to do the opposite. Has anyone had a similar experience switching to a specific hockey sock?

I have an 8U boy who is just starting “travel” hockey. They practice for one hour twice a week Monday Tuesday, and have one jamboree a month. He also does stick handling once a week for 45 minutes and does skating lessons once a week for 30 minutes.

He was doing in-house rec hockey before this travel season and at the end of the 8U season the rec director moved him to 10u and they have practice Fridays and weekly games on Saturday.

He is also starting soccer but doesn’t really care for it… 1 practice a week with game on most Saturdays .

My question is,

1. should we have him just do travel with the stick handling and skating…

2. should we add in soccer so he can do a different sport…

3. should we add in rec hockey so he can get more time playing hockey which he truly enjoys.

4. Do we try to squeeze in travel, soccer, and rec hockey?

I have an older son who pretty much specialized in soccer from a young age and now it’s super hard to add in other sports because we’re in too deep with soccer.

I also don’t want to burn out my hockey kid, but don’t want him to feel like he’s specializing in hockey so young…

I bought my girls (8 and 10) a radar gun to "gamify" their basement shooting. I'd like to be able to give them an idea of what is slow, average, and fast so they can benchmark as they go and stop asking me "is that fast?" after every shot. Thanks in advance for any data/insights, or just anecdotes about your own kids.

10u travel. Play a double header every other weekend. On the off weekends travel out of state for tournaments once a month. Practices Tuesday thru Friday. 60 games per year minimum. I get it, this is the best team around but at what cost? Aren't these kids just getting burnt out? I as a parent am burnt out thinking about it. No, my kid isn't on this team as I would never sign up for that sort of commitment at this age. I mean we haven't even reached puberty yet. Maybe if they were 14/15 years old and elite level I could better understand but I didn't grow up with this game so I don't get it. What am I missing?

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