Jaxon continued to do his regular skating lessons until the last week of the month. He had a stomach bug coming up on his final day so we decided to be good parents and reschedule his lesson to the following Saturday to keep the bug within us and not other kids...This is where the revelation came.
While at that skate, nobody had ever seen him and didn't know why he was there. One instructor skated to me and thru the glass, said, "Is this one yours?", I said "yes", and she said, "what is he doing here and not in the learn to play hockey classes?"
We talked briefly and I told her that we wanted him to get his feet under him with some basic instructions and were looking into that but didn't know if he was ready. She stopped me and said the words I had hoped for, "Oh, he is ready". Game on, again!!!
The next day was Sunday, "HOCKEY DAY"... Jaxon was amped up and ready, waking up in the morning telling us lets go, it's time to go play hockey.... He just couldn't wait. History was in the making, heck I didn't start playing until I was 5, he is only 3 1/2..
This is him right before he got on the ice for the first time.
Jaxon did great all practice, doing different drills with all the other boys. He sized up ok, but I think all the other boys have at least a year on him.
Cruising around.
Getting instructions from the coach.
This was his favorite drill. They started out by having to jump over a stick, skating and then diving under the "bridge" on their bellies and getting back up to jump over another stick. All good drills to help with what you will go thru in any game time situation. Laura, Alicyn, Grandma, Pop and I all got a kick out of these little fearless people having to do all of this drill. Jaxon was too funny. When he would dive under the bridge he would just stop due to lack of speed, determined, he would get up to give it another try.
This drill was another good skill builder. Play soccer with skates on! Helps build footwork. The competitive nature really came out of all the little guys when this was played. At one point there was 3 of them playing goalie, but that meant no one out to score. After a little discussion amongst them and convincing of the coach's they all headed after the ball to score.
Practicing the pass with a coach.
First sweaty head. He couldn't understand the wet hair. "what the heck, my head is all sweaty, Dad?" All I could say is, "Yep, that's what happens when you practice hard, keep it up, buddy"
One funny note: there was a boy who was wearing a Boston Bruins jersey (Jaxon and I were rooting for them in the playoffs for the Stanley Cup that is going on right now). Well, their hopes of another Stanley Cup was cut short just a few days earlier.
Jaxon told us that he had skated over to that boy (not meaning anything by it) and told him that the Boston Bruins had lost and were now playing GOLF!! (I have told him that teams that loose go play golf after they loose 4 games in a best of 7 series, I guess you could say he has just ran with it). Laura had asked him what he said to the boy, and when he told us, we couldn't help, but laugh...
Honesty, passion for hockey, and our son, the hockey player..
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