The world of minor / youth hockey creates so many valuable moments for your child. There’s a huge amount of parental pride that comes from seeing your child form friendships with their teammates, seeing them celebrate scoring a goal and helping their team win, or seeing them be proud of their own improvement as they continue to persevere and apply themselves.
Overall, it simply feels amazing as a parent to see your child engaged in something that they’re passionate about, and what comes with that amazing feeling is the desire to help grow your child’s passion for hockey. However, it can be difficult to figure out exactly how you as a parent can do that, especially if you don’t know a lot about hockey yourself.
Here are a few ways you can help grow their passion for the great game:
Attend as Many Practices and Games as You Can
This one might be obvious, but if you want to help your kid fall in love with hockey, you should attend as many games and practices as possible. You’re a comforting presence to your child. You’re a source of motivation for them to skate a little faster and shoot a little harder (so that you’ll be proud of them!). Whether they let you know it or not, your child loves to be able to look into the stands and see you there.
Of course, there are some circumstances where it’s impossible for you to make the game—life happens. Just try your best to be there. Ask your boss to move the meeting. Tell your friends you’ll have to miss the get-together so you can be with your daughter at practice.
Even better, try to always focus on your child when they’re on the ice. There’s a huge difference between your kid looking at the stands and seeing you with your head buried in your phone vs. seeing you with your hands in the air cheering them on.
Your presence and attention can give your child a lot of spirit and motivation.
Create Family Hockey Traditions
Another great way to make your child more passionate about hockey is to create traditions based around the sport. The more positive associations they have with the game, the better, because there are times when hockey can be tough, and it may not feel like it’s worth playing anymore.
Take your kid to get an ice cream after every game. Create a special family chant that you always shout while they’re on the ice. Reward them by playing their favorite board game with them when they come home from practice.
Having hockey-related family traditions takes the sport from a simple activity and turns it into a culture—a lifestyle that your child will be proud to be a part of.
Talk to Them About the Game
Being able to talk about something plays a huge part in developing a passion. Talking to your child about hockey validates their enjoyment of the sport and shows them that you’re interested in their passion too, which increases the value of being passionate about hockey.
When they get in the car after a game or a practice, ask them how it went. If you already always ask them that question, try to think of some more specific questions to ask them that will get them talking about their time on the ice. What was your favorite part about the game? What are three things you learned at practice? How do you think you did, and where can you improve?
It also helps if you can talk about specific details of the game or practice with your kid—it shows them that you were paying attention to them. If you see them make a good play, mention it to them. If you see them fall or encounter another sort of challenge, tell them that it’s okay and that it happens to the best.
Watch Games with Them
This is a specific family hockey tradition, but it’s an important one, so it deserves a separate spot on the list. If you really want to bond over hockey with your kid and you can spare the time, then make some popcorn, get comfy, and watch an NHL game together.
Watching professional athletes is a great way to develop motivation for a sport. It’s also a great way to learn about a sport. It’s especially helpful if, while you’re watching a game with your child, you point out things that are relevant to their own hockey experiences. If you see a player score a cool goal, tell your kid that it reminds you of the time you saw them score a great goal a few weeks ago. If you know your child needs to work on a specific hockey skill and you see one of the players in the game doing it well, point it out and suggest that your kid watch and make mental notes.
Watching NHL games and relating them to your child’s minor hockey experiences increases their positive exposure to the sport, thus helping to develop their passion.
Give Them Hockey-Related Gifts
To be specific, I’m not just saying, “spend a lot of money on your kid.”
This suggestion is about the fact that it can feel good to own some special hockey-related items, whether it’s a jersey of their favorite player, a set of hockey cards, or a bobblehead that they can keep on their nightstand.
Of course, it’s already very expensive to buy your child all the gear they need to play—hockey can be enough of a financial burden without any extra toys or gifts. However, these hockey-related gifts don’t necessarily need to be purchases. A scrapbook of photos of your child with their team at games and practices can be more meaningful than anything you could buy them.
If you can spare the time, money, and/or effort, get your kid some tangible things that represent their love for the sport. On the plus side, whether they stick with hockey in the long run or not, they’ll cherish a jersey or a bobblehead when they’re older.
