Ice Hockey

You may consider ice skating instead. All you need in the beginning is a pair of skates which you can rent at the rink. Or you can buy cheaper once or even a pair of used ones at the beginning.Your son can start with group lessons and you can go from there. If your son will skate seriously you will need more expensive skates and blades, costumes for competitions and pay more fees for ice time and the coach. Or he may end up just skating recreationaly... you never know.
I do not like ice hockey because it is a contact sport with many injuries happening and like you noticed a lot of training time with the team when the time is scheduled for you. I also have a friend whose son plays it for a long time now but he is very small and as you can imagine it is a bit of a problem....
Ice skating is a sport where the child can have individual goals and work on them at his own pace.

Both of my boys skate. My older one has no special love for it but likes to skate recreationaly. My little guy started at 2.5 with me and started lessons with the coach at 3. Now he is going to be 4 in a couple of months and we are considering more training because he loves it, skates without brake for 2-2.5 hours straight 2-3 times a week, follows coaches' instructions, has a good ear for music and very good coordination and ballance (he is also in gymnastics). You never have to ask him twice to go to the rink. He is very excited about skating, has great speed and no fear.
Ice skating is not just for girls!
Hope you consider it for your son.

My 4 year old wants to play hockey. He is awesome on skates and asks to go every day. He is going to be starting lessons soon so he can learn to stop better and skate backwards. For the lessons I will be getting him the hockey helmet and hockey gloves. I would start small and works my way up.

Hi:

My eleven year old has been playing ice hockey for the past five years. The first thing you need to do is take lessons. At Sharksice in San Jose, there are many classes and I am sure it is the same thing at your nearby rink. You need to find the beginning classes that eventually gear themselves towards hockey. Make sure that your son wears hockey ice skates. There are two types and how you learn to skate depends on what you have on. Each session cost less than one hundred dollars.

Once my child was comfortable on the ice skating, for him about two sessions, we then signed up for the 'in-house league'. Costs around a thousand for the entire season. This league is less expensive than the traveling teams. They play against the other in house teams at their level. When they are really little, there are less teams but as they get bigger there are more teams to play against. This year there are ten leagues in our level.

The other expense is the gear. It's about $3 to 400.00 for all the gear. He needs a helmet, elbow, knee pads, etc.....

It is a wonderful sport. I am always happy to see him play and the other players' families have become our friends. You don't ever have to go to the traveling teams. There is a pristege about it. You are picked for these teams during tryouts where the in house teams, everyone, as long as they are in the right age group, can join.

If there is a used equipment store definitely take advantage of it. There is usually a practice and a game a week. The season is very long from September to the end of April ish.

There are camps during the summer that help with skills. Definitely worth it because some kids have private coaches and take advantage of every class available like speed skating and puck handling.

Good luck...if you have any additional question feel free to private message me. My baby is crying so I have to end this post.:)

I would start with simple skating lessons so he learns more of the basics of skating first and see how committed he is to going to the rink. I am sure hockey varies from city to town as to how it is managed, especially for price and travelling. My daughter plays ringette, similar to hockey except they use a ring instead of a puck. This is her first year playing and the equipment was about $500 not including skates. Because we live in a small city, they have to travel about an hour for most of their games. The first year you play is more expensive with equipment, but keep in mind with you son so young, he will outgrow equipment very quickly, buying it second hand will help for sure, but we really prefer new skates. My daughter got a pair from her cousin while she saved to but herself a new pair which cost her $150 on sale. You should be able to find a league without checking so it is much less rough. Hockey is an expensive sport compared to most things. My 8 year old son plays basketball, a cost of $120 a year and sneakers, no travel unless they want to do 1 tournament a year.

S.
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