How did you start hockey?

[kovalchuk71 212]

It had to be a kid down my street that played ice and roller, and I played street hockey all the time with him. Then when I went skating for the first time since I was like 7 I was like "this rules!" lol and thats how I started....I was 12 then, but played hockey with my dad in the garage a lot,but that was when I started competitive hockey....And its been incredible from there :P :P

How did you guys start? What made you get into it? How old were you?

**I didnt know if this belonged here or in the Misc. Section (since this is about hockey)

[Steve 0]

I built my first hockey stick with this stick and this like thin 2x4 thing. I hit around a tennis ball for a while-- so touching. I eventually got a $12 Franklin and played around and then I started rec. I played rec for a while. I think I started around when I was like 9 or 10. Yayyy, now I play on a house team.

[ryno 0]

Started out with a CCM stick, a pair of Cooper gloves, and a hand me down Mike Bossy Islanders jersey from my cousin. I was about 6 at the time and started out like most, playing street hockey.

[LarrieNation9 0]

No roller hockey around my area unfortunatly. I went public skating one day with a friend and couldnt do anything but apparently I enjoyed falling. Talked my basketball family into signing me up lol. Quit basketball in 8th grade for the high school team and never looked back.

[J-Shera 0]

My dad pretty much forced me into playing hockey when I was 3 and I fell in love with it, been playing ever since.

[Dan_The_Man_16 0]

Started when I was 8, I couldn't even skate. I had to beg my parents to play and luckily my mom said OK. End up they both enjoyed me playing and wish I would have started earlier. I know I'm gunna make sure my kids start young, even though I only missed a little, it's still gunna haunt me a little, knowing I could have developed a little more.

[Jbone 0]

I dont know but I've been playing since I was 6.

[Eazy_b97 1]

They have pictures of me before I could even stand uo. Little skates that were like shoes with two blades along the outside. My dad coached so I started VERY young. I started hockey school a few years early. Roller, my aunt ran a league around here which she let go of a couple years ago. I'd say I was 10 when I started, it was the leagues 2nd year.

[MNdgame 0]

I moved to Minnesota...basically had to start playing. I started when I was like 9..?

[LetsGoWings13 0]

started when i was 9 my sister married a hockey player when i was 8 and thats how i started

[Shorthanded67 0]

Back when I was about 8 I used to goof around in the garage with my uncle's old stuff (one stick was a "Bobby Orr" CCM). The following Christmas I received some Cooper shinguards and gloves and my own stick. I'd goof around in the garage shooting pucks in my tennis shoes but I lost interest (just like most 8 year olds do.)

I didn't really start playing until I was 16. I went to Catholic high school so a bunch of guys would get big roller hockey games going at an outdoor rink on our Catholic holidays when we were off school. After we graduated (ughhhh...that 10 year reunion is coming up fast....), most of them stopped playing on a regular basis but I continued to play roller hockey.

Kind of funny actually. They just started playing in a house league again after 9 years and asked me to play. I was the worst one back when I was 16 (and heard about it ), and now I tell stories in the lockerroom about all the travel tournaments, great players I've played with over the years, etc..... Sweet revenge. :P

[MDE3 0]

nice....."so let me tell you........" LOL.

Started skating at 3 in back yard rink.....played as soon as I could stand on skates..played goal for 5 years in house and travel leagues, then "d" through late High School and some college. Caught a slap-shot in warm-ups before a game and before they used masks commonly (am old fart)..shattered my nose, my cheekbone and my confidence....I new about the confidence right away, but never new about the true facial damage till about 20 years later when I had facial ex-rays for a major sinus infection lol.

Not quite the same as today's youth hockey...there would have been three paramedics and an ambulance. My coach came out, wiped off the blood with an old towel and said "can you play?" I was too embarrassed to say how hurt I was and said sure. However I had such a good team in front of me it didn't really matter. But from that point I was like a turtle when anyone fired a high shot...... :( Could really appreciate the courage of those old school goalies though.......

[Jim A 4]

my dad got into a real bad car accident when i was a kid (he received last rites and wasn't expected to make it through the night)...he pulled through somehow..and after recovering from 2 broken legs, lost spleen, 10 broken ribs and more..began working on getting back into shape and doing some new things...

when i was 5/6...the man from the bronx decided we'd go ice skating and check out some hockey at a rink, we both started the next week...of course a few weeks later i was mad that i couldn't see my Sat AM cartoons...he turned around when we were just about at the rink..and kept me from playing for another 2...I learned not to complain about missing those cartoons and he never bitched about missing the next 13 Super Bowls because I had a game..

it was great..if he had worked a 4-12 (ie 4pm to midnight) he'd come home.grab some sleep..and we'd hit the pond sometimes before school in the winter...truly some of my best memories

[MDE3 0]

Great story

[Kovy_Ribs_Fedo 3]

my dad got into a real bad car accident when i was a kid (he received last rites and wasn't expected to make it through the night)...he pulled through somehow..and after recovering from 2 broken legs, lost spleen, 10 broken ribs and more..began working on getting back into shape and doing some new things...

when i was 5/6...the man from the bronx decided we'd go ice skating and check out some hockey at a rink, we both started the next week...of course a few weeks later i was mad that i couldn't see my Sat AM cartoons...he turned around when we were just about at the rink..and kept me from playing for another 2...I learned not to complain about missing those cartoons and he never bitched about missing the next 13 Super Bowls because I had a game..

it was great..if he had worked a 4-12 (ie 4pm to midnight) he'd come home.grab some sleep..and we'd hit the pond sometimes before school in the winter...truly some of my best memories

I second MDE, great story...

[asdfa 0]

when i came to canada from australia, when i was about...7, i saw some kids at school playing street hockey, so i sort of joined in. everyone was about 20 times better than me, and i couldn't figure out why, so when i was around 9/10 i asked them, how did they get so good? so they tell me they play ice hockey. so when i was 11, i asked a friend where he played, and i signed up for house league. i was barely keeping up through my first year, but i got pretty good after that. unfotunately, i didn't even know what competitive hockey was, so i was stuck in house league for 3 years, until i moved, then i joined an arena with select, A and AA teams. It's been a great journey with good memories, i just wish i could have started earlier :(

[EndBoards 0]

I've lived in Texas my whole life, so I didn't really get any exposure to hockey till I was in my 20's..

In 2000, I got hooked watching the Stars vs. Devils in the finals. Game 5, 3OT tied 0-0.. Even though the Stars lost that series and haven't been back to the big dance since, I fell in love with the sport and haven't looked back..

About a year later, I bought some rollerblades and started goofing around with a roller hockey ball and cheap-o stick.. I didn't really get serious for a few more months..

The town I live it doesn't have a year round rink, but we do have a minor league team. A buddy of mine knew a guy that could get some ice time and he invited me to go play during lunch one day. I bought some gloves and shinpads off eBay, and rented some skates.. I could barely stand up but I had a blast..

I bought the rest of my equipment and started playing drop-ins & stick/pucks when I went out of town. I struggled with my skating until I did a clinic. One of the guys there taught me to stop, and reccomended that I watch myself on videotape. Those two things helped me out like crazy.

Last year, I took the plunge and started playing in our local men's league during the fall & spring. In my first session, I played D and had 0 goals, 0 assists.. The next session, I played wing and got 2 empty net goals... This past session, I split time between wing and defense, and had 3 goals & 4 assists..

Those numbers are tiny, but we've only got enough players for one league, so there are some really good players out there. One guy played top-level juniors and went to the Canucks' training camp one year. Having only played for two years and not starting till I was 25, I feel pretty good getting on the scoresheet and improving each session when there are players like that out there...

[joshy207 15]

Some good stories, boys.

I grew up around hockey. My dad played fairly-competitive seniors in the late 70s, when I was little, and I'd go watch him. I pretty much became obsessed with the game. At age 5, I started in a clinic (IP now) and was put on a mite team my dad coached halfway through the year. I played house league through age 12, but I quit because I was getting burned out. I sat out for 3 years before I decided to start playing again at 16 and joined a midget house team. I've been playing ever since, only missing time because of injuries (2 torn ACLs, broken orbital bone). This year I'm playing on 3 teams, 4 nights a week. I also play on at least 1 spring team and 1 summer team, as well as a few tournaments.

[sherwood21 0]

I was maybe 2 tops when I started skating. We built a rink outside of my house and I would skate out there for like 5 hours a day. I started playing competitive when I was 5 and it went from there. I was pretty much forced (I wouldn't call it forced now, because its the best game ever) but thats how I started to play. Not sure if I would have had the incentive to have gone out and get size -15 skates when I was 2...

[Crescent Fresh 0]

I started playing in Rollerblades in a mall parking lot when I was 20 years old. Not exactly on a Canadian pond but still a start. I had never even ice skated until I was 19. My buddy and I started playing in a beginner inline league located in an old skating rink with wood floors and wooden boards. That rink couldn't have been more than 120' x 45'. I also played on an outdoor concrete rink (had nice boards and glass though) at Colorado State.

Someone built a new inline rink a few years later and we played there for three years until I started playing ice hockey one and a half years ago. I've never had any formal coaching or training. I'm never going to be a top-level house league player but intermediate league is still fun and I hold my own. Sometimes I think back to playing on that asphalt parking lot and can't believe I am so so addicted to hockey!

[Aussie Joe 0]

First Saw the Mighty Ducks Movie, cried when I found the nearest Ice Rink was an hour drive accross the city.

4 years later I bought my first Street stick

6 months after playing on the local basketball court I joined the local team

3 years passed and I made Victoria State team. We lost in the Bronze medal overtime period 5-4.

2 years passed feel out with management of first club, Changed from FIRS based league to higher skilled IIHF Inline league in Aus.

3 years passed and Im finally getting a game in a pro division come 17th January.

In conclusion I coach Jnrs, play Senior A (2nd highest level in Aus) and cannot be happier playing with the mates I have now for life or at the best club I've ever seen. The grandest day will be when Im finally able to say I have played Senior State and that I can now begin to learn from my jnrs rather than the other way around.

[chippa13 1844]

Both of my brothers played and I was put on skates at 3 because I wanted to play too. Been playing ever since. Basically, I can't remember not playing except for a few months at a time in college.

[CaseyJones_86 0]

I became aware that a relative played professionally, and at that time I became obsessed with hockey, still am.

[Kirsch 1]

I started playing inline when I was in 4th grade and haven't stopped since.

[Stampeder 2]

Started playing mini-sticks when I was about 1 and started skating on those 4 bladed skates around the same time. Started playing Squirts at 4.