Page 50 of Fear of Love
“Okay, boys. We’re going to work on handling the pucks as well as our feet. See these cones?” I gestured to the ones Emily helped put out earlier. “Each of you will take a puck from one end of the rink to the other while weaving in and out of the cones. We want fast feet and fast handling.”
As I spoke, I grabbed a stick and a puck. I didn’t play professionally, but I knew my way around the ice. The boys watched as I skated in and out of the cones all while moving the puck over the ice. Reaching the end of the cones, I brought my arm back and snapped it forward, sending the black circular disk into the net.
I held back a grin as the boys yelled behind me. Skating back over to the group, I leaned against my stick.
“Easy peasy. Hudson, how about you start us off? The rest of you line up behind him.” While Nathan stood with the boys on the other end, I went by the net to get a better look at how they did.
“Ready?” I called out. Lifting my whistle to my lips again, I gave them all another second to get ready before blowing.
Like a rocket, Hudson took off. Ice flew from his skates as he pushed the puck in front of him while skating around the cones.He had great foot work—could use a little work on his turns but that came with practice. When he got to the end, he sent the puck into the net with a snap of his wrist.
“Good job, Hudson.” His fist hit mine before skating to the back of the line. “Next!”
One by one, the others went down the line. I gave tips as they went, Nathan doing the same as they stood in line. I could see them getting more confident with each round and how they took our advice seriously.
Blowing the whistle, I gave the boys a water break while grabbing the cones to move them out of the way.
“We’re going to work on the fly formation next. We might switch some people around so get in position,” I instructed. While the six players stayed on the ice, the rest of the team moved off to the sideboards.
We rotated players to practice the formation every twenty minutes like in an actual game. I liked to try and let all the kids play during a game so we had multiple sets of the same position.
Getting everyone in the spot they needed, I stayed off to the side as Nathan blew his whistle to start. I watched closely as all six moved.
The fly formation was something Nathan and I came up with a bit ago. It was a way to spread out the players while keeping them within passing distance. That way if the opposing team tried to gang up on one player, there would be another there to help them.
We were doing well with it, but it wasn’t meshing as well as Nathan and I hoped. Hence, the practice. Instead of letting the other players play offense, I wanted to see these six move on their own. I’d already been wondering if we needed to switch some kids around to play different positions.
After a minute, I blew my whistle to pause everyone.
“Marcus.” I skated toward our left defender. “How do you feel moving to right defender for a few minutes?”
“Um, okay?” He looked at me like I was crazy but agreed.
“Chris.” I gestured to our other left defender on the sidelines. “Adam,” I said to the kid in front of me on the ice, “switch with Chris. I’ll bring you back out in a minute.” The poor kid looked confused as he skated off the ice and traded places with Chris.
“Let’s try it again—this time with Chris as left defender and Marcus as right.” Clapping my hands, I moved back to the side of the rink.
As the kids started again, I could instantly tell it was the right move. Marcus was already skating down the ice better, even though he was originally a right defender. It would take him a few practices to get the hang of the new position, but it was already a success.
After letting them skate around for a bit and get a feel for the new change, I had them stop again.
“Good job, boys!” I sent them all a grin. “Let’s do a small scrimmage.”
As they all got in position to play, I moved off the ice. Leaning my forearms against the boards, I watched as they played, mentally taking notes for next practice. Nathan stayed on the ice to make sure the boys didn’t take the scrimmage too seriously. The last thing we needed was them getting hurt at practice.
Practice flew by, and slowly, the benches filled with family members to pick up their kids or to drop off much smaller ones for Little League.
“Great practice everyone.” I looked at each kid as I spoke. “Remember, our next game is Tuesday. Be here at three o’clock at the latest! I repeat, three o’clock!”
I got a chorus of, “Yes, Coach,” before they skated off to greet their parents, taking their gear off as they went.
Nodding to a few parents who waved from the side of the rink, I got to work on cleaning up the cones and pucks before next practice. Time for the little kids.
I enjoyed coachingthe older kids, but if I was being completely honest with myself, it was the young kids I liked teaching more. Seeing their little bodies on skates, wobbling around like newborn deer, small hands trying to grip the hockey sticks. It was comical and adorable at the same time.
The kids today were between the ages of six and ten. Sometimes we’d get a few older children, but the youngest kids I’d let skate was six. I had a few parents get mad at me for not allowing their four year old to skate, but I wasn’t about to let some small ass kid cut themselves with the skates or fall and break something.
This was more of a beginner class than anything else. Just a way to teach kids the basics. Whether that be for hockey, figure skating, or in general.
