Helping brand new young kids

[marka 526]

Howdy,

I'm helping out with a local Learn to Play program (the Sidney Crosby Little Penguins program... Great program. 8 (?? I think) sessions of instruction plus full gear, plus a USA Hockey membership for ~$200).

Anyway, a few of the kids have never been on the ice before. As in, it would probably take them a half hour or more to circle the rink once and they really struggle to get back up on the ice when they fall over.

I'm looking for ideas on what to do with them. The one kid in particular is really young (I'm guessing around 4) and isn't particularly focused, etc.

At the last session, I worked with him one on one. Worked on marching and how to stand up. Keeping him focused and non-distracted is a real challenge, but the trick I eventually figured out was that he likes to "knock me over", so I'd get in front of him a ways and when he marched over to me he'd tap my skate with his stick and I'd fall over. This apparently was great fun. :-) I will say I'm not all that excited about teaching him to hook / trip people, but I was kinda at my wits end to come up with motivation.

From watching a few youtube videos, it looks like some next skating steps would be to do marching into a glide, then maybe teaching a push/stroke. And holding onto the boards and shaving ice.

I would like to come up with some stuff to do with the puck though. Perhaps just have him whack a puck toward me, with emphasis on holding his stick properly? Space is pretty limited for us to work in, as the ice is really being taken up six stations for kids who can skate at a beginner level to work on more normal hockey stuff.

Also interested in any fun small space games you all have found that work well with really young, really can't skate kids, to hold their interest / motivate them.

Thanks!

Mark

(it's a bit weird to be trying to help him at all, given how new _I_ am!)

[pylon 2]

Stick with the fundamentals. If you cant skate, you cant play ice hockey.

Kids that age like tag "cops and robbers" This helps with skating, speed, and eventually will help with changing direction and stops and starts.

Try some supermans to teach the kid to get up quicker. Make a vame out of it to see how far they can slide.

I got nothin as far as short attention spans go. The kids 4, its like hearding kittens... just try and keep em moving or they'll lose interest quick.

[shoot_the_goalie 281]

Howdy,

I'm helping out with a local Learn to Play program (the Sidney Crosby Little Penguins program... Great program. 8 (?? I think) sessions of instruction plus full gear, plus a USA Hockey membership for ~$200).

Anyway, a few of the kids have never been on the ice before. As in, it would probably take them a half hour or more to circle the rink once and they really struggle to get back up on the ice when they fall over.

I'm looking for ideas on what to do with them. The one kid in particular is really young (I'm guessing around 4) and isn't particularly focused, etc.

At the last session, I worked with him one on one. Worked on marching and how to stand up. Keeping him focused and non-distracted is a real challenge, but the trick I eventually figured out was that he likes to "knock me over", so I'd get in front of him a ways and when he marched over to me he'd tap my skate with his stick and I'd fall over. This apparently was great fun. :-) I will say I'm not all that excited about teaching him to hook / trip people, but I was kinda at my wits end to come up with motivation.

From watching a few youtube videos, it looks like some next skating steps would be to do marching into a glide, then maybe teaching a push/stroke. And holding onto the boards and shaving ice.

I would like to come up with some stuff to do with the puck though. Perhaps just have him whack a puck toward me, with emphasis on holding his stick properly? Space is pretty limited for us to work in, as the ice is really being taken up six stations for kids who can skate at a beginner level to work on more normal hockey stuff.

Also interested in any fun small space games you all have found that work well with really young, really can't skate kids, to hold their interest / motivate them.

Thanks!

Mark

(it's a bit weird to be trying to help him at all, given how new _I_ am!)

Yeah...just keep in mind that kids that young have a hard time focusing on anything...lol. The real goal when they're that young is to have them just enjoy being on the ice and make sure they're having fun. I always found that young kids really progressed when playing/skating with their peers. Drills that are built as "games" like you mentioned are great, but nothing motivates another kid like other kids.

[badger_14 601]

Pylon's suggestions are great.

4 year olds really don't, developmentally speaking, have the capacity for an attention span beyond 5 minutes. They're at an age where they're taking in a lot of information and also beginning to have a greater capability (than a toddler or 3 year old) of expressing it, so basically the world is still incredibly shiny and new and they want to tell you all about it. Or tell the wall. They can also be really particular about doing things exactly the right way and are prone to giving you a lecture if things don't go exactly the right way.

How this is relevant to hockey:

One, in hockey, think about how many skills you have to incorporate at once in order to be successful. Consider Brendan Shanahan's quote about "Is hockey hard?" The kid has to stand up on ice, in weird shoes (skates), in heavy padding, maneuver him or herself without falling, carry a stick, catch something roughly the size of a fried egg on said stick, move the puck around the ice without losing it, pass it, shoot it, and not only that remember when to do all those things - it's a lot of thought processes to put together. It's good to focus on one thing at a time - skating should be a vast majority of the focus with kids new to hockey. They're developing gross motor skills, so it's good to get them into games that get them moving but also not focusing so hard on the fact that they're on ice, in skates. The games like dodgeball, tag, and soccer are great for that - they get so into the primary focus of the game that they forget about how hard it is to skate. Sometimes, when they can't do things exactly the right way, they freak out about it.

Two, they're not really developmentally capable of strategy at this age, and that's okay. They also have a hard time following sequential directions. If you tell them "take the puck, skate around the cone 3 times, hop over the stick, and shoot on the goal" they get lost somewhere around "cone". Break things down into tiny pieces. Kids this age are great mimics and pick up incredible quantities of information through observation - if you are a positive, appealing figure, they want to do things just like you. Ideally, a station drill has 3 coaches - one to demonstrate, one to explain, and one to herd the line. One of the local associations frequently invites the high school players down - not as coaches, per se, but to take part in the mite-age practices. Full gear, they hop right in line, and the mites are utterly enthralled because cool high school players are skating with them.

Since they're not good with strategy or sequential directions, keeping things fairly open-ended is a good idea. Drop a puck or two into a mass of mites and let them go at it. It's sort of the lego/duplo theory of hockey. Start a practice with gross-motor skating, work on a bit of fine motor skills (pucks, sticks), and the last part of it is letting them take this new information and play with it, as they would if you gave them a bin of legos to play with.

I can't think of a lot of drills that worked well with the 4 year olds I've coached. They're just not really old enough for organized sports. For older kids, toward 6 and up, one drill I liked was having everyone around a face off circle, and we'd start with a puck and pass it to someone across the circle, announcing the recipient's name first. If they lose a puck, just give them a new one. Net-pushing is fun, especially when you pile kids onto the net, or have pairs race each other. Adapt field games to hockey (soccer, dodgeball, tag, red light/green light, octopus tag, sharks and minnows).

[marka 526]

Howdy,

Thanks for the thoughts.

For this kid in particular though, I'm talking about no skating ability _at all_. Like just standing there, he's apt to fall down and saying "skate over here" 15' away it will likely take him minutes to get there (and during those minutes, because it takes a while, he'll get distracted).

There's really only one kid like this. The others do a decent bit better, so doing a group thing doesn't work that well. Plus I'm just one guy helping out and the rest of the ice is broken up into 6 stations doing drills more like what some of you are suggesting.

So I guess I'm looking for advice on what I can have him do that will help him get comfortable being on the ice and moving around.

Worst case, I'll just let him "knock me over" some more, if he can catch me (moving very slowly). I'll also grab a puck and see if he likes whacking it with his stick, we never did that last time.

I'm most concerned that he have a good time and learn a little bit.

Appreciate the feedback so far!

Mark

[GreatestAmericanBeardo 258]

Howdy,

Thanks for the thoughts.

For this kid in particular though, I'm talking about no skating ability _at all_. Like just standing there, he's apt to fall down and saying "skate over here" 15' away it will likely take him minutes to get there (and during those minutes, because it takes a while, he'll get distracted).

There's really only one kid like this. The others do a decent bit better, so doing a group thing doesn't work that well. Plus I'm just one guy helping out and the rest of the ice is broken up into 6 stations doing drills more like what some of you are suggesting.

So I guess I'm looking for advice on what I can have him do that will help him get comfortable being on the ice and moving around.

Worst case, I'll just let him "knock me over" some more, if he can catch me (moving very slowly). I'll also grab a puck and see if he likes whacking it with his stick, we never did that last time.

I'm most concerned that he have a good time and learn a little bit.

Appreciate the feedback so far!

Mark

i have 2, sometimes 3 or 4 kids like this in our groups. we usually break them out into the different groups. usually, we have them grab the end of our sticks and drag them around (sometimes on their skates, but sometimes on their belly) they like it either way. sometimes i make them my helper in the beginning keeping them close to me until i can get the rest of the group moving, then i can focus on the little guy. I usually do the "get the puck from me" game with the little guys to get them going forward while I S L O W L Y skate backwards.

when i do the stick handling drill with the cones sometimes theres too many distractions for them to follow along. i'll do a "follow my stick, not me game" i'll skate backwards through the cones, telling them to follow MY STICK not me. i'll bring my stick out around the cones while going the other way. The first few kids will follow me, but the squad gets it pretty quickly. i try not to do it the same way twice to keep them on their toes. its seems to be working.

[pylon 2]

The way its done at our program is that its split into 3 stages. Learn to Skate (kids like you are describing, no sticks just skating games) Stick side (beginner hockey) then Mini Mites (on the fence between beginner hockey and mites) We have over 150 kids in the programs combined. It can get pretty hectic, especially when someone decides a Learn to stake kid is ready to hockey when in reality they are not.

I have a few 4 year olds in the mix. They just aren't able to do certain things at their age, its that simple. Sometimes you'll be talking to them about how to skate and they be like "my mommy is going to take me to a movie tonight!" or "I have a toy pony. He takes big shits" Ya gotta cut these kids a bit of slack, but at the same time you need to make sure the older kids aren't affected by this. It can be a hassle sometimes.

One thing I stopped doing is picking the kids up when they fall down. Once they know that you won't do it they will start getting up on their own and see that they CAN infact do it on their own.

[GreatestAmericanBeardo 258]

"I have a toy pony. He takes big shits"

One thing I stopped doing is picking the kids up when they fall down. Once they know that you won't do it they will start getting up on their own and see that they CAN infact do it on their own.

oh man, truly, the stuff kids want to tell you is CRAZY!!!

we usually do a 10 min scrimmage at the end of every L2S/P and the rule is: if you fall you have to freeze there until the whistle blows then we start al over again. less and less falling every time!!

[badger_14 601]

Howdy,

Thanks for the thoughts.

For this kid in particular though, I'm talking about no skating ability _at all_. Like just standing there, he's apt to fall down and saying "skate over here" 15' away it will likely take him minutes to get there (and during those minutes, because it takes a while, he'll get distracted).

There's really only one kid like this. The others do a decent bit better, so doing a group thing doesn't work that well. Plus I'm just one guy helping out and the rest of the ice is broken up into 6 stations doing drills more like what some of you are suggesting.

It sounds from what you're describing like he's basically still stuck in this association of moving --> falling, so he's holding himself very rigidly, and more apt to fall and also moves very slowly. For the non-skaters I've done things like take a big marker (like a BIG marker, you want it visible, and don't freak out, the zamboni will scrape it right up) and do things like draw a bunch of ants and say "okay we have to stomp on all the ants now, don't let the ants get away" or different shapes and have him move from shape to shape. "Simon says" and "captain's calling" and suchlike are good games for non-skaters who are still freaking out about OMGICE, and good in general for getting kids moving their bodies more on ice without being afraid of falling - both games you can incorporate falling and getting up into, raising your hands, jumping, standing on one foot, etc. They don't really have to skate, they just have to get comfortable moving and being on the ice. So even for the better skaters, it's helpful. (it's also kind of a nice brain-break from hockey skills).

edit: One other thing I've seen with non-skaters is using things like stuffed animals and tossing them and having the kids go after them. You can definitely adapt this to better skaters, too. It's a penguins program, so find a few stuffed penguins if you can and have them "rescue" the penguins from an "iceberg" (put them in a circle of cones). They've got to go grab the penguin and bring it back to the start. The less-experienced skaters just skate. More experienced, you can add obstacles. or even other kids - one skates backward "guarding" the penguin and trying to stop the "rescuer", sort of a fuzzy, icy version of "kick the can".