First Practice

On Tuesday March 29th, 2011 Gabe had his first official hockey practice!!!! Just to give everyone an idea on how the groups work for the BP they have different colors that are taped to there helmet to let the coaches know where they are placed. Orange is for group 1, the beginners, Green is for group 2, and Yellow for group 3. This is Gabe's first time in BP so he is automatically in orange but at any point can move up.

I wish I could say he did absolutely amazing and that he is the best hockey player out there but sadly no such luck, but what can you expect for your first practice :-) However we couldn't be more proud and excited for our little guy, from the moment we were putting his gear on to the moment he started crying because we had to leave, he had a big smile on his face. (Even while laying on the ice because he couldn't get up)

I think we will start with the things that didn't go so well at practice and then get to the good stuff. As I mentioned above Gabe was having some serious trouble getting back on his skates after falling down. We couldn't tell if his gear was too big, or if he wasn't strong enough,  or just wasn't getting it, and realized that we need to figure this out before it becomes a issue and he stops wanting to play. The other thing is for those of you that know Gabe, then you know he is incredibly shy when it comes to new people, so he spent alot of time on the ice just watching everyone do what the coaches said and he just stared back at them with his look of "I don't know you, why are you telling me to fall on the ice and drop my stick, just give me a puck so I can score a goal." (And that is probably exactly what was going through his head) :-) But now Ashley and I know what we need to work on with him and as time goes on he will warm up to his coaches and teammates.

Now for the good stuff that happened at practice. First off I want to say that the coaches are great!!! They easily recognize which kids need a little extra attention and give them one on one help to get them going and keep them encouraged to keep getting better. I know I don't have that much patience for Gabe sometimes :-) I look forward to how quickly he will learn from them teaching him. They next thing is that even though he had some hard times getting up after falling, he was staying up on his skates more then most of the kids in the class. When they had the kids skate from one end to the other most of the kids would take off flying and would fall once, twice, even three times on their way over, while Gabe would just skate at his pace and stay on his skates the whole time. And the last thing I noticed is that Gabe is pretty darn good with a puck on his stick. From trapping passes, one timing passes back, and stick handling to the goal to score, I felt he did great and think it'll be one of the strong points of his game, but we'll see. If anyone saw anything else then feel free to comment.





All in all it was a great practice and we couldn't be more proud of our little hockey star and look forward to much more to come in the future.