Isabella the Future Hockey Star

My daughter, Isabella, is her own person. She needs things to switch up a lot, is naturally fidgety and is very vocal and competitive. She doesn’t put up with any long-term B.S. – in fact, we have been called a couple times to the school when things have gotten physical between her and someone teasing her (almost always a boy). I recently bought a pair of pants for Hunter that were a bit too big for him, so Isabella wears them now and they are her fave pants because they have the most pockets for collecting rocks and specimens to put under her microscope.

As a result, it was hard to find a sport that she liked. I have only put her in recreational sports at our community centers so far. They are shorter sessions and soooo much cheaper, so if she ends up HATING it (as she would say, since she is all about the drama lately), then it isn’t such a big deal and not as hard on my pocketbook. I make her finish out the sessions and on we go to trying something else.

This year, I was lucky enough to look early and found a beginner recreational hockey course. Now,  most of the time Isabella takes to sports quite easily. If she doesn’t, I have found she gets easily discouraged. We encourage her to keep trying and give her examples of pro sports heroes that had to work through difficult spots. That usually helps her power through to the end of the course, but often she doesn’t continue in it. With hockey, she was at an advantage because she is a full-on natural in skates (like me!) but she was at a disadvantage because she hadn’t done as much puck and stick handling as the other kids. The first day of class, they let the kids jump right in. In that hour they did a lot of drills that included handling the puck and skating around obstacles. Isabella was a little slower than the other kids but that only made her try harder. I swear my heart swelled three times it’s original size that day, with pride. I could see her comparing herself to the bigger kids (the class is 6 years old and up) and to the more advanced kids and I thought that would discourage and frustrate her. Not in this case! Game face on, she only tried harder, falling occasionally as she pushed herself. Literally picking herself right back up she soldiered on and kept up with the others. After her class, when we went to pick her up and help her out of her gear (hockey has the MOST gear), her eyes were shining with excitement. Now she lives for Sunday mornings. I can’t wait until they play a bonafide game. Never thought I would be a hockey mom, but it looks like eventually I’ll have to put her in a more serious hockey class and spend half my time at a rink. Worth it to see Isabella so happy!

Since she became so enamoured so quickly with her class, Josh took her to a local hockey game with our Calgary team (Go, Local Sports Team! HAHA). Josh got tickets to a Calgary Hitmen game and took Isabella last Sunday. She had the best time ever. She loved the game, the merch, the free face painting and the food. The experience as a whole made her so happy and she was excited to see where all the hockey drills she does could be headed. Not only that, but their mascot is a fox, which just happens to be her current animal obsession.  She is now a huge fan of the Hitmen and is counting the days to the next game (which is awhile!). I am so glad we found her passion and that it’s a place that can nurture her competitive spirit in a productive way.

 

Do you have a kid in a sport?

What was your fave sport as a kid? Do you still play it?

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