badger_14

A few sessions coaching 8U will make you more agile than you ever imagined. Or it'll put you in the hospital.

I'm so glad it's worked out for the both of you! Enjoy the season. 🙂

I'd caution you not to bust a gut, but it's clearly too late for that.

I think I've got a temporary fix for ya:

Am I clear in reading that they're - if not disallowing - then discouraging you from taking him off the team? Sounds like they want to cash your checks. It sounds like other folks are having similar issues with the coach's behavior. (Cussing out U10s is not appropriate behavior for an adult. It just isn't.) I wouldn't suggest your son talk to the coach. He's 8, after all - he's still at an age where it's the adults' responsibility to make a majority of the choices and set the example for appropriate boundaries and behavior. That's way too heavy a position to put the kid in. But it's clear he's not having fun, he isn't enjoying or looking forward to hockey time, and as long as the determining factor (the coach) remains, that's not going to change, no matter how much he likes the other kids. (And kids will put up with a *lot* if they think it pleases the adults they look up to). I think at this point I would tell the organization "listen, this team is just not a good fit for our family right now, we've decided to switch." Be clear and firm, but phrasing it that way keeps it neutral. Is this an area where this specific organization is all there is? Are there other options around - town programs, house leagues? Are you financially sunk or do you need a release from this team to play on another team in the same league?

Crappy ice. In particular, crappy ice that leads to (minor) injury.

Oh, the towns around me do have bantam and midget (most are half or split season midget, because high school is big here), but it's in the same travel league with all the other town teams, so it's still 2-3 practices and 1-2 games per week. The No-Check league and the LTP programs are the only really "in-house" opportunities I know of for 12+. I have no experience with or much knowledge of the private programs, so I can't say anything on that count.

I cannot necessarily take credit for "Root Beer League". I could've sworn it came from someone on here. There's a "No-Check Hockey League" in my area that (functionally) helps fill the recreational void for the tweens/teens - aside from a 1 practice/1 game per week league, they have regular weekly pick-up games for kids and it seems to be very well attended. The company that operates the state-owned rinks also offers learn-to-play for 12+, as does one of the town leagues up in the Merrimack Valley. Those are, as far as I know, the only available opportunities in an hour radius of Boston. I think CigarScott is right that soccer may be better in that regard than hockey, baseball, or American football, although there was a really great article recently in The Atlantic about how US Soccer expends a lot of time and effort into the travel system and funneling kids into their Development Academies. It also brings up (once again) the point that early specialization is physically hard on, if not outright damaging to, growing and developing bodies.

It feels like to me, even in season, that youth sport is much more of a time sink than it might have been when I was growing up, even at the younger levels. I mean, think of two practices and a game a weekend - it's an hour on the ice, 10-20mins to get dressed/undressed, travel time (in the local league, the furthest travel time to a game is 45mins - 1hr one-way, and the practice rink is probably 20mins at max from any given point in the city). For a practice that's more than two hours of time. And the sports league asks that of people two, three times a week depending on the level, plus a game or two. And then it gets worse as the kids get older - there's no 'beer league' (root beer league?) for the 12 - 18 year old set, you've specialized and gone to the "elite" levels or you're out by 11 or 12. We had a bantam-age kid one time who just wanted hockey as his second fall/winter sport (with football) as he'd started playing about two years before and wasn't into the high-level commitment, but there was just no place for him. By comparison, as an adult, I can be involved in at least three different sports at one time - hockey, horseback riding, and softball - because there isn't a huge time sink and it's all recreational. Several of my regular teammates at pickup are parents, and four of the kids play with us on a regular-ish basis. One of the dads grew up playing hockey, I don't believe he ever played at a super-high level, but he's good. He also, at some point, realized that he cannot/should not coach his kids, whether on the ice or in general, and turned their hockey development to other people. He talks to them on ice the same way he talks to any other teammate. The other dad did not grow up playing hockey, and is not a very skilled player. He has not yet realized that he should leave the coaching up to others, especially at pickup (in fact, never "coach" your children at pickup). I think it's very easy for a parent to get very involved - they want the best for their kid - but in the same way it's very easy to go overboard, and it happens in all sports. It's also harder, I think, for folks who didn't play (x) sport growing up to have a sense of distance. Parents who grew up playing something are maybe better at saying "yeah, kids make mistakes, that's sport, let's move on". (or, like my dad, who participated in approximately nothing organized, has no serious emotional investment in sport at all). I can be worse in certain sports, because they're expensive, or because they're a closed, insular environment, or whatever reason, I think it can be worse, but it absolutely happens everywhere. For kids, talking to parents can be hard, especially if it's about things that upset them. Parents are the responsible party, but kids are egocentric little beings and interpret everything said as being personal. For example, if a parent says of something a child did in a game: "That was stupid." what the kid hears is: "I was stupid". When a parent is angry, the kid interprets the anger as being toward them. Younger kids (even bigger kids) often lack words to describe how they feel and rely on parents/trusted adults to help them find the vocabulary. If a kid slams their stick, you can tell them that's not an appropriate response, but also, "it seems like something made you very angry, that you slammed your stick like that. Can you tell me what it was?" and it sounds therapist-y as hell, I realize, but it's giving them a) concrete words for feelings b) a chance to acknowledge emotions instead of burying them and c) an opening to talk about it. adam14 and chk hrd make two good points: adam's dad offered options, not solutions (in this situation, what are some things you can do?) which is good coaching, and chk hrd waited to give them kid time to come down from the game, which is a great strategy for a lot of kids, especially ones who put themselves under a lot of pressure.

My mom has been sick - well, it's been a series of medical crises on a loosely annual basis for about 6 years. This time, the cancer came back and chemo wasn't going to do anything. She took a sharp turn for the worse on Wednesday, and died sometime Saturday night (naturally, when neither my dad nor I were in the room). I don't know if it's quite hit me yet, it's a lot of emotions, and a lot of non-emotions at the same time. My brothers are coming in today, and my uncle is coming tomorrow. Things are odd without her.

Giving a startling new meaning to the phrase "bag skate".

Thank you! The official word posted on the NREMT yesterday. I am fortunate to already have a good therapist of my own. I know several of the medics at my current job and they're good folks. A nice mix of pleasantly nuts, which I think helps survive the job.

I'm a paramedic now! 🚑🚑🚑🚑🚑 (Though must wait on "official" word from the national registry, I have now passed both written and practical.)

That doesn't make any sense. Not for what I'm describing anyway. If I had been having trouble moving and getting bite with the dull skates, that does make sense. But I haven't been having any trouble at all. (I actually don't remember having this much trouble last time I had them done, which was at a different shop). Whatever they did now (I asked them for 3/4". Did they really do it? Not sure now) it's far too much bite - feeling like I'm digging in so hard I'll trip or bend my ankle in a direction it's not meant to go.

One of my cowlings broke (not sure why or how) so I had to get them replaced. Ironically, if they'd just had my size, I could have simply scored a new pair of the exact same skate for <$50. (no foolin'. Deep discount on the low-end skates here). Anyhoo, replacement is fine but they had to sharpen the new blades and ... And guys, I am not into sharpening my skates. I get it done at best twice per year, and really more like once, depending on the ice I'm on and how much I'm skating. I've gotten them at 3/4" before and either they didn't do that, or it has been way, way too long since I've had it done, because it felt *awful*, much too deep, and now I feel like I need to skate once a day for an entire week just to make them feel right again. Or walk on concrete. Or tap them against the posts. Something. Ugh. It felt better by the end of today but jeez.

Don't worry, when it comes to humor, I'm sure you've got this in the bag. 😉

Fear not, my friend, I have a buttload of crappy jokes. 👍

Is it cool to make a "wow, what a shitty situation" joke or nah? (kidding. That's rough. I hope there are not as many stories like this in your future as you think!)

After nearly 2 solid days of panic, the results came in Monday and I passed the written. \o/ Next stop: the practical.

At last, school is over. My written exam is tomorrow and the practical is on the 29th. I am half between "I got this" and "oh god what if I fail". But excited to be almost there.

I take horseback riding lessons, and on Friday my horse and I finally achieved this particularly tricky move (called a sidepass - imagine a horse doing crossovers on a line without going forward - its origins are in cavalry exercises) together, and we did it well, and even if it was just a few steps we really did it.

We knew he was going. Sunday was the final call. Unfortunately, not the first time we've had to do it. My dad's already putting in our application to the poodle rescue (last two dogs were standard poodles). Not that we're over Charley - but we need a dog in our lives again.

We had to put my dog to sleep on Sunday. :( The cancer caught up to him. It's so empty in the house without our dog.

I've had to switch ride time sites (for various reasons) which means a brief hold while a new schedule is sorted out; plus my mom is in the hospital (again); and my dog has maybe a couple more days to live. Trying to figure out a plan to sneak my mom down to the hospital entrance to see the pup, but who knows. Why does this all have to happen at once?

I spent the past two weeks utterly frantic that I would go to ride time (part of paramedic school - riding 3rd as a student medic on an ambulance) and completely fall apart and end up with nothing to show for it. Well, Wednesday was my first day, and our very first call was to meet up with a FD ambulance for a heart attack patient. We had to do everything on the move (literally: moving ambulance), including starting an IV, giving meds, and getting an EKG. Hell of a way to start off, but I did well according to my preceptor, and I feel a whole lot better about things now. Even having to get up at 4:30 in the morning seems worth it.