Forum > General Youth Hockey Info
Hard time staying on his feet
Guest:
Hi yall,
Got a quick question, my son is 8 years old and loves playing hockey. He has been skating since I could get him into Learn to Skate, about 4 years old. He is a very aggressive skater, no fear, and has great strength and power in his legs. However he is still falling much more frequently than most of the other players....
He is still one of the better players on the team since he is bigger and more athletic than most. I get him as much ice time as I can, he plays all year round....skates 5 days a week. He loves to play and has dreams of playing in the NHL. I would just love to see him playing hockey throughout his childhood, being a part of a team, and learning the life lessons that organized sports provides.
I know he is still young, but my fear is that he may be missing some skating/balance talent that will eventually catch up to him. I never played hockey as a kid and can barely ice skate so I can't really relate.
My question is, am I worrying about this too soon or is this a bad sign? Is there anything I can do to help him?
Thanks
Guest:
Get his skates sharpened and make sure they’re level!
Guest:
It will absolutely catch up with him. You can only teach skating skills until about 13 years old. After that, it's very, very difficult to learn new skating skills. You can do it, but it takes way more time and effort that most people don't have, not even college players trying to make it to NHL. Between ages 9-13 is a prime window to teach all the finer skills, skating, stick handling.
Find a figure skating coach and take at least one private or semi-private lesson a week, with two more ice sessions devoted only to practicing what he learned with the coach that week.
Skating fast forward is easy, any kid can do that and kids who are smaller now will someday catch up to bigger, "athletic" kids, so having size and strength as an 8yo is meaningless at 18 when everyone has size and strength, or when the bigger kids who stop growing at 16 get outpaced by kids who are still growing at 18.
If he hasn't gone through all six levels of Learn To Skate, do that first, even the jumping and spinning. Then, find a figure skating coach and work on turning on one foot on left and right, forward and backwards. Work on edges, and turns like mohawks, choctaws, brackets. Work on skating backwards. You kid should be able to do everything he does forward, backwards and with the same speed and precision and on each foot before bantam.
At this age, at least 50% of his time should be spent just on skating skills and 50% on stick skills. If money is an issue, play only rec and put your money into skating lessons instead of travel fees. In Russian pro league schools, the kids spend two years on skating skills before being allowed to pick up a stick.
Again, by 13, it's too late to learn skating skills. Get a good figure skating coach. It's not too soon to start becoming a proficient skater. In five years, it will be too late.
Also, make sure his skates fit well. I'd also go for a doctor's visit to make sure there is nothing going on with ankles/knees/posture. If a kid is overcompensating for something like a turned-in ankle, it's going to be an uphill battle unless it's fixed with physical therapy or skate inserts.
Guest:
Stop with the constant ice time for hockey and let the kid be a kid. You say he loves the game but i bet he's burned out and doesn't care about it all by 13. Most of the kids playing have dreams of being in the NHL and let him dream, the percentages tell you its just that a dream. Let him fall all over the place I've seen countless numbers of kids at that age and up to 10 who did exactly that and wound up playing AA and AAA later. If hes still falling all over by 12 take him to a figure skating instructor where all he will do is work on balance, no hockey, no pucks or shooting just skating. If you are deciding his future I guarantee he will hate playing by his teens and he wont care about how he plays at all.
Guest:
How can you possibly say that at age 13 you wont learn how to get better as a skater?? That is clearly one of the dumbest posts I have seen on here. For what seems to be a well thought out post, to say you cant get better at skating past 13 just astounds me.
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