3rd Time on Skates

Yesterday was Charlie's 3rd hockey class. Don't think it should be called a class since its really just ice time. There's no drills or anthing just about 6 kids (1 girl in the bunch too) that are trying to stand on skates and move around.

Today Charlie stepped onto the ice for the first time with his hockey stick. This stick must be magic since he didn't ask for nor even want the skating bar. Once on the ice he just wanted to hit the pucks.

To me this was amazing (Eileen didn't come this time). He was able to pull himself up off the ice immediately as well. He'd only used the bar in the past and now, we had practiced how to get up at home, and he was able to put the motion together to get up on his own. The first 3 or 4 times he did it I was excited be on all. But of course he'd done it a good 20 or 30 times thoughout the hour so he was just plain good at it by the end.

He did manage to walk a little on the ice but he's better at short steps so you have to make sure the puck is close to him.

Coach Charlie did pass the puck with him and he did really really well. He didn't fall with slapshots and he was extremely stable on his feet. Coach Charlie asked if he was 4 1/2 years old and said, nope, he was 3. Turns out that Coach Charlie started skating at 4 and 1/2 so that's why he thought he was around that age.

Coach Charlie is a young man, and after asking if I was speaking polish to Charlie then commented how Charlie was a natural at this stuff. They passed the puck back and forth and charlie was able to reach out and was surpisingly good as long as he was focused on the puck not thinking of himself.

Trying to skate across the rink was more fun. First the motivation is typically to get to the penalty box. He loves that thing (is this a foreshadowing?).

But getting a bit of speed is scaring him so he tends to fall 10 feet after take-off. Still he's a pro at getting up so really he's able to do it. He's very comfortible for having only spent 3 hours on the ice so far.

It's kinda late in the day at 5:45 to 6:45 pm and he gets darn hungry at the end but he does love talking to the other boys and the coach as much as he can while he's out there.

I brought my skates and I did get out onto the rink as well. That made it more fun for me as well so I didn't have to just watch from the sidelines but rather I could skate around him. I never helped him up since that would be cheating and I can see that letting him do the whole thing on his own makes him much more independant faster.