Trophies for Teens – Is There a Better Alternative?
Mites love medals and the faux-metal trophies, but even an 11-year-old Squirt can be a little jaded to enjoy a trophy. And teenagers won’t bother to hide the eye-rolling if you present them with bobble-head hockey player trophies. PeeWees, Bantams and Midgets, however, do admit to wanting a memento of the team and recognition from the coach at year end. How can you impress, rather than embarrass, a teen hockey player? Read more
What’s That Call: Roughing
Everything you need to know about hockey calls but are embarrassed to ask... You’ve probably seen roughing penalties as early as Mite-D, when they pretend to just be clumsy. In a sport that’s already a little rough, what makes a little pushing and shoving transcend from aggressive, physical play to a roughing penalty? In other words, how rough is too rough?
How to Choose the Best Hockey Camp for Your Player
When bombarded with information about off-season hockey camps, it’s easy to feel panic and think, “If I don’t get organized, get him signed up—and pay!—for these camps today, I’m holding him back!” Dreams of the NHL, the college scholarship or maybe just an A team fizzle before your eyes as you contemplate putting your tax refund toward more hockey. How do you evaluate all the information and decide what’s right for your player? We asked Angelo Ricci, a skills and stickhandling coach with more than 20 years experience, for help.
What NOT to Yell During Hockey Games
“Foul!”
What’s That Call: GOAL or No Goal?
Everything you need to know about hockey calls but are embarrassed to ask.
Top 10 Gifts to Give a Coach: Beyond the Gift Card
What do you think happened to that thoughtful gift card to the hockey store you gave the coach last year? Well, the coach already has his own hockey gear and is not likely to outgrow it anytime soon. So the coach probably spent it on stuff for her own kid. Or he spent it on stuff for the team. You might as well have given the coach the little pile of cash you collected for all she gets out of it.
What’s That Call: About Tripping
Everything you need to know about hockey calls but are embarrassed to ask. Tripping: Watch — or play in — enough U8 games and you start to yearn for the days when the refs will call penalties. Because at some point, those little cuties go from accidentally falling and losing control of their sticks to purposefully diving and swinging their sticks in any direction that stops the player with the puck. But will this eventually generate a tripping call? Let’s see.
5 Skate-Sharpening Secrets from a Seasoned Pro
Skate sharpening — an art perfected by pros over the years or a craft any teen at the rink can do? I’d never even heard of skate sharpening when my son started playing hockey. And several years into his hockey career, all I knew was that skates needed to be sharpened after skating on a pond (aka, outside). But I picked up a few things here and there—like it costs or and they need sharpened about once a month. I would just pop into the hockey store nearby, where we had a prepaid sharpening card, and wait for the teenager at the counter to run them through a machine.
Parents and Coaches: What’s That Call? About Icing
Everything you need to know about hockey calls but are embarrassed to ask. Icing – “Ice it!” Spectators yell this all the time when the team just needs to get the puck out of there. Last year, this led my son’s PeeWee coach to give all the parents and players on the team a 12-page test on hockey rules and ref signals. Why? Because most of the time when you yell “Ice it!” what you really mean is “Clear it!”
Parents and Coaches: What’s That Call? About Icing
Everything you need to know about hockey calls but are embarrassed to ask.
Icing
“Ice it!” Spectators yell this all the time when the team just needs to get the puck out of there. Last year, this led my son’s PeeWee coach to give all the parents and players on the team a 12-page test on hockey rules and ref signals. Why? Because most of the time when you yell “Ice it!” what you really mean is “Clear it!”
