When compared to most other sports, ice hockey is somewhat distinctive. Many parents and youth hockey players dream of their child playing at the highest level of hockey, such as juniors, college, and eventually professional hockey. Many parents and young hockey players believe that their children should leave home when they are fifteen or sixteen years old. Is this correct?
How can hockey benefit your child
In fact, whether or not having a hockey player leave home in their early teen years is good to that child’s development as a hockey player and as a person is questionable. While many hockey players who live in hockey hotbed areas will probably not have to worry about moving too far away from home, there are countless other hockey players who will have to decide at some point whether or not moving away from home will help them advance their young careers by giving them more exposure and possibly better training and coaching.
Drawbacks of allowing your child to play hockey
In the vast majority of circumstances, I believe it is not a smart idea for your child to leave home to play hockey somewhere before graduating from high school. I believe that spending one’s high school years at the same school as all of one’s childhood pals is critical for a hockey player’s personal growth. Wait till your child has graduated from high school to send them out to play juniors, as provided as they have a reasonable level of competition in their hometown.
If your child, on the other hand, plays hockey at a high level and has enough skill to play in the top junior hockey leagues in North America while still being able to produce and be an elite player at that level, it may be a good idea to allow them to leave home before graduating from high school in order to further develop their hockey skills at a high level. I cannot emphasize enough how tiny the percentage of players who would be affected by this is.
Helping your child to get into hockey
While many young hockey players want to be professional players, the chances of that occurring are quite small. When your child is playing hockey, the most important thing for him or her to remember is to have fun. When everything is said and done, if your child has matured into an outstanding hockey player who can have his education paid for or perhaps make money playing hockey, that should be the cherry on top.
It is your responsibility as a parent to ensure that your child has fun and not to push them. Hockey is an incredibly fun sport in so many ways, from the hockey equipment and goalie masks to the early morning practices and holiday hockey tournaments, it is critical for your child to enjoy the journey of playing youth hockey, which will not only help them develop into better hockey players each year but will also help them develop into better people if they take the proper approach to hockey and have fun. Do not hurry your child’s growth, and if they are to leave home to seek out greater competition in order to accelerate their development, you must be certain that this is what your child desires at this point in their life.