Ultimate Blog Challenge - 10 Reasons to support your Kid to play Hockey

Welcome back to the Ultimate Blog Challenge and happy Sunday!

As I'm typing this, we're supposed to cheer on Colin and his hockey team. Unfortunately when he got up, he - just like yesterday - complained about a sore throat and a headache. Unlike yesterday, however, he tested positive this morning.

So the trouble shooting continues. Call his coach, inform his teacher, get tested myself and hubby. For now we're negative, but I'm not holding my breath. Drove to a drug store that is open on a Sundays to get more home test kits and some Lozenges and antipyretics. Plus smoothies. 

Tomorrow I'll have to cancel his dentist's and hair appointment.

Today I'm writing this blog post though. The assignment is to come up with a list as in "the top five locations to ski" or "seven web tools you can't miss" or "ten random things about me".

True to my blog's name I' talking about hockey. 

Bear with me, I swear I won't talk you up about offside rules, shootouts or what to look for in the ideal hockey pants. I will simply talk about reasons I support my son's playing hockey even though it's expensive, time consuming and somewhat dangerous. 

He's passionate about it - has been since age two. thanks to his interest in all things hockey, he taught himself to read the sports pages before he turned four. No matter what the passion is about though, I am happy I don't have a kid who's bored out of his mind and doesn't know what to do with himself, especially considering he's an only child.

While everything else - like succeeding in school and making friends - in life has come easy to him, he had to work hard for hockey. Learning to skate was no walk in the park, and neither was making the team. Now that you're part of the chosen ones, you still need to confirm your spot by doing a good job at practice, or else you will not be called up for the games.

It's a team sport. Enough said, right? Like in life, you're not the center of the universe. You have to work together to make things happen. Better yet, you should actively contribute to a positive spirit and look out for each other. Road trips are great for bonding. 

Now that he's a teenager, this is is becoming increasingly important to me: his teammate friends are juggling the same priorities: school, practice, fun. Since they're athletes, their idea of fun is less likely to be smoking, drinking and exploring drugs. 

What looks like a gigantic disadvantage is a good thing at the same time: all those hours he spends driving back and forth, training and playing, he won't spend in front of screens. There's still plenty of opportunities to play video games.

A hockey coach plays an important role in the life of the boys and young men. They may not listen to their parents and school teachers, but being encouraged, scolded or benched by the coach will stick! Don't forget there's the good old penalty box for those who don't play nice ;-) No helicopter parent can prevent their offspring from sitting it out. Or have you ever seen them walk on the ice requesting a ref to reverse his decision?

Playing short-handed teaches you about staffing resources in the working world. Most likely at some point in your life, you will benefit from your experience of getting the job done with too few people. 

They learn to lose. They may simply be the team that is less strong, less skilled, less fast. It happens. In this age category the difference in height and weight really makes a difference. The ref may have messed up by annulling the decisive goal, or a penalty was imposed unjustly, but let's be honest and look in the mirror: you could have done better! Be more alert, more coordinated, more communicative! The match Colin missed today can be looked at as a learning opportunity. His team lost 4 : 7. But in the end - there's a handshake and no hard feelings.

Speaking of skills and coordination: they deserve a paragraph on their own. Hockey is fast-paced. You need to be on your toes. Skates, I mean. Forward, backward, sideways, knowing where your teammates are, avoiding where your opponents are, handling your stick, handling your puck, fooling the goalie, it all needs to be done, and all you have are a few seconds. Tetris may give you a preview, but now you're on the ice, and it's, well, icy!

So many competences may be strengthened: decision making, bearing the consequences of your actions, sticking together, confidence, persistence,reliability and many more.

I'm sure there's more, but a list of ten seems like a good amount of items. 

What do you think, do you agree?