Size Doesn't Matter

There are a lot of kids in The Boy's hockey group. Most of them are older than him. Therefore, most of them are bigger than him. The organizers do group them as best they can by first year, second year, and third year. Skill levels are all over the place. The Boy is grouped with first year, obviously, even though one boy in his group can barely stand on skates at all and one other literally cried the entire first practice.

Monday night was fun. They got to skate with their sticks and play the puck for the first time.

Bear in mind, we've been playing kitchen, patio, and pond hockey for more than two years. We've watched a lot of hockey. And, we've had hockey players coaching The Boy for nearly that same amount of time.

I was watching the kids skate around the rink. A boy that is one head taller than The Boy skated up next to him, stuck his stick out, and tripped him.

My son got up, squared up, and threw his shoulder into tall kid, knocking him down.

This, my friends, is called a body check.

And, it's illegal until you are about 12 years old.

He was scolded.

I was laughing on the sidelines.

It took everything I had not to yell out, "Nice hit!"