Burning Out?

A couple of days ago, I thought one of my biggest nightmares was coming to fruition, and that was our kids burning out on hockey. Not so much because I love hockey (I do), but more so because I think it’s a great sport for our kids and this whole hockey endeavor is about working hard, meeting a challenge, and not giving up, not to mention meeting new friends.

Now I know I’ve mentioned this to the point where it makes people want to throw up, but this is N’s first year playing hockey, and he’s at a disadvantage in the sense that most, if not all, of his teammates in that everyone else has at least one year under their belt, some with several. It’s all about ice time, the more he can get, the better.

The only problem is, too much ice time could lead to burn out, and we had a glimpse of that the other day. The truth is, we were partly, if not wholly, to blame. I had LTP that morning, and R brought the kids over for kid’s open stick, which lasted for about two hours. Then, N also had practice that night. It was too much. Sure, I could have skated all day, but at some point N said he didn’t want to go to practice. Yikes! That was a first.

I didn’t want to force him, but he is also prone to saying things out of anticipation rather than experience. I told him the season was about to end, and soon it would be all over so he should consider going to practice. He didn’t argue, and I left it at that. I figure a few hours of cooling down would do him some good.

By late afternoon, when it was time to go, he had regained his enthusiasm, and went to practice and he had a great time. It reminded me, however, that I can’t push the agenda too hard. Sure, he benefits from experience, but the key is having fun, and once that’s missing, what’s the point?

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to blu X graphics for the pic.