Being a Hockey Parent

[E.J.]

Originally Posted by Ahbroody

Wow well if she can wear Bauer stay away from the ccm U+. Even in kids sizes it is more like the old tacks. Wide, deep, low to no arch. High volume boot. Exact opposite of Bauer. Micah can't even get his foot into a Bauer usually and lacing them doesn't happen. Between the arch and shallower depth his foot cramps at the bottom and goes numb on the top from lace bite.

I would definitely recommend radius and profile Bauer's are very neutral. I can't wear them, but have skated in them a few times and felt like I was going to fall backwards.

Side note I thought my G35s in wide were comfortable until I tried on a pair of 709s. Ooooooo baby. Me and my hobit feet were in heaven. Definitely my next boot. Of course its their biggest boot and apparently it was a wide also. May want to have Jackson try them out. Felt like sneakers no joke. Definitely not the lightest boot, but all I do is help coach now so what do I care.

We always get his G5's wide sized and he seems to be good as gold....

Ab's was compaining about the side of the boot on her L foot when we got off the ice today, though I am hoping that a few more times on the ice will push that out a bit....

They both have my feet.... Which are unfortunatly VERY long and VERY WIDE. My old 12E 1052 Tacks still cramp the sides of my feet a bit...

[E.J.]

Last day of Start Smart III. I was off to dog day with friends, but wanted to watch them scrimmage. They kept doing drills, so I finally got up to leave(mom was staying), but as I was leaving the rink, they split up and started. It took about 8 seconds for her to take the face off, skate down and put the puck in the net..... That was enough for me, I was off to smoke a H.Up#2.....

Keep the pics of the little ones coming!! It's awesome to follow along as they grow!

[Ahbroody]

Nice EJ!
micah got one at the hawks practice he got tripped infront of the net hes on the ice when a kid shoots puck off the stick, up and in.
Tomorrow is his last minimite house game. Going to get a picture of him screening the goalie.

[Eleven]

Love those pictures! Reminds me of the good ol days.

My kid went to USA Hockey Mid-Am tryouts in Columbus this weekend, my boy is an average size '98 but my goodness they grow them big in other areas. Kids from Cleveland and Pittsburgh were there too. There were '98 boys as tall as me.

[Ahbroody]

So proud of the little man. His team is down a goal with a minute left. He gets moved up so he can skate the last shift. Right before the change I tell him I need him to skate as fast as he can and get a goal. He and his buddy come of the bench like two kids possesed. His buddy gets a shot through to the net he crashes getting the his buddies rebound his first shot is blocked he gets his own rebound and beats the goalie. 20 seconds left. they get the tie. He was jacked up after the goal as was his buddy. Last game of the season.

From the other day


Earlier in the game tonight crashing the net like usual.

[E.J.]

EXCELLENT!!! Tell Micah GREAT JOB!

[Ahbroody]

So pissed my wife let me take her slr. I had the settings all wrong so almost all the pics came out bad. Had some good ones to. Stupid autofocus thingy. Apparently I hit a button and screwed it all up. Forgot to mention. Yesterday hes skating up ice and one of the older boys comes over and says something to him. He didnt like what was said and puts his shoulder into the kid and gives him a good shot knocking the kid of balance. Too much NHL network.

On sunday at the Hawks skate was talking to a dad who was an assistant coach for another mite travel team in the area called the blackstars. They were restarted last year and beat everyone in the area but the Hawks. We got to talking about Micah. The Stars have a development program like the Hawks sunday skate. Micah will be trying it out this Thursday. .

Kind of lame, but the boy got his first award the other day voted on by the parents.
There were two awards given MVP and Most improved player. He was given MIP. I think it was lame. Basically the other boy got MVP because he scored more. The parents wanted Micah to get an award so they gave him MIP. The kid scored a hat trick in the first game so not to sure how he improved. It was cool he got recognized though.

[Gophernut]

Very cool to be recoginzed! Congrats to Micah!

[E.J.]

Nice hardwear!

[Ahbroody]

Pretty sure you are not supposed to wear out the blades before the kid out grows the skate.


Toe is getting to small and seems finding new holders will be near impossible. Didnt want to buy new boots yet as he still has a few months left in these and I am a stickler for skating in proper sized skates. Dont want to buy another pair for a few months. Given all the skating he is doing this summer got to do something.

He has a mite clinic skate with a different team tonight. Was told I have a few more sharpenings and its already an issue as is.
Got an email in to graf and Brunos Hockey Shop to see if they can source me a new pair of holders. If anyone has any ideas lmk.

[J0eybb]

EJ, I showed my 4 year, about to be 5 old daughter, your pics in the other thread. I asked her what she wanted to do, and she said softball, because she was wearing pink. LoL....

[E.J.]

Holy smokes Mike, are you sharpening after every skate...

Originally Posted by J0eybb

EJ, I showed my 4 year, about to be 5 old daughter, your pics in the other thread. I asked her what she wanted to do, and she said softball, because she was wearing pink. LoL....

Nice!

[Eleven]

Originally Posted by E.J.

Holy smokes Mike, are you sharpening after every skate...

I was gonna ask that as well.

I can't see how skates for such a small kid could be ground down like that, except for over-sharpening. You would think he would outgrow the skates faster than he would need them sharpened

There is a kid on my son's team, who thinks his skates need sharpened after every time on the ice. They go through a couple sets of blades a season. On the other hand, my son got his skates last October, and he has only had them sharpened about 4 or 5 times, IIRC.

Hell Mike Grafs won't even be broken in by the time he out grows um!

Mitch wore Grafs for years. I tried to get him into a lighter skate for years but what did I know. Then one day he says, " I gotta get a lighter skate". Who would of thought. Anyway get him out of those boat anchors and into something that will let him really show you how fast he is.

Al used Bauer 4000 series for years. Light, comfy and wore like iron.

Just a thought by a semi-retired hockey dad.

[Ahbroody]

No but he was skating about 4 times a week and has had them for approaching a year. I accidentally bought them a touch big. Not realizing how big the 370s run. He could probably move to a bigger skate, but He skated in them all summer league and this season he was often averaging four days a week and I was averaging once a week.

Someone commented that the kids steel is really soft. He just seems to trash them after 4-5 skates. Not to mention the ice was really bad at the pond place we were skating at sundays. I know a lot of parents were getting done a lot when we were skating at the pond. I dont know 4 skates a week many times on bad ice once a week for almost a year. Guess I will try to get him to go longer between sharpenings. This summer though he will be on the ice most weeks 4 -5 days a week.

He does think the new ccm u+ crazy lights are "the hotness " imagine they are lighter. The issue is he cant wear bauer or easton the boot cut is wrong. That leaves the Grafs whos fit he loves or the CCM which may or may not fit. The boots seem to vary some years. No body around here has a decent kids selection either. Everything is mail order. Maybe I will grab him the new U+ CL from total hockey and see how it goes.

His feet match his Skates Al. Little boat anchors. Would be neat to see if a lighter skate made him faster.

[Ahbroody]

Just to kind of explain. Micah has a wide, tall foot, with no arch.
Look at how shallow the bauer is. It also has an arch which he doesnt means it cramps the bottom and bites the top.


Easton has a little less arch and a little more depth but not enough. Also the holder on these is $hit it really is as tall as it looks in the pic. Like skating on stilts id imagine


Graf 370


I actually think the CCM U+CL would work but my wife is wondering why I want to mess with his skates after we finally found a skate that he has zero issues with.


He did thar Black Stars development practice last night. Burned some older kids with his boat anchors. I do wonder if lighter skates would make him noticeably faster. That would be interesting.

[E.J.]

IMHO, I don't think that there would be enough noticeable difference in weight in a YTH/JR sized skate to ever make that part of the conversation. I could be wrong???

I'd also take fit over weight all day long.... Though that is not to say that the CCM's are not going to fit great...

I still want to see weights of the highest end skates.... Total One, APX, CL, G Series, EQ50's, 11k's bla..bla..bla...in a Mens 9/10ish... I really wonder about how much weight we are talking.... Like I said before, I can hold a TO and G5 in my hand and tell the TO is lighter....

[Ahbroody]

E.J. i think Al was poking me a bit. I agree that comfort is generally more important then weight. Having been through the pain of finding the right skate I can say when the kids feet hurt they cant focus on skating.

[E.J.]

No, I'm also not discounting the weight difference. I am generally interested to see how much less the others weigh. It is apparent in some, which would be neat to see what that noticeable difference is...and then what the difference in the less noticeable is as well...

If that makes sense...


Hell, I don't get to make the choices for the Little Man anymore, he makes the gear decisions now. I actually went with the Bauers for the Little One, though that was because it is what they had in stock and once she put them on....I had a hard time getting her to take them off.