Episode 368 Parents: The Surprising Place We Can Work on Routines

NHL Sense Arena feature interview coming up. First, Stop It Goaltending U, the app parent segment.

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Magazine. Hutch.

Last week, I talked about routines and then went in a bit of a different direction. So I want to get back now to where we started last week because September is when this really matters. Whatever habits your family falls into over the next few weeks, well, probably going to be the same ones that you have in March and we're trying to build a foundation here but the cement is still wet so we have time to work it. I wanna come at this though from a different direction than you might be expecting. When we talk about routines in hockey, we almost always mean game day.

There's a whole industry of advice out there about pregame meals, pregame naps, the playlist, you name it. Here's the thing, your kid is gonna go to more practices than games, I hope. If you're gonna build routines, you wanna build them where the reps are actually happening and frankly, when they're predictable. See practices on a schedule, Tuesday at five all season long, same rinks, same drive, game day moves, different rinks, tournaments, maybe a 6AM draw that appears out of nowhere. You can't teach a kid to own a routine that changes every week, So teach it on the one that doesn't and one that once they've got it there, well, then we can talk about carrying it over to the days that are harder.

Now before I start handing out jobs for your kids, a quick word to the parents. This isn't another thing for your plate. If you've got three kids and two jobs, the midweek logistics are already a chore and nobody's asking you to take, turning your goalie into a fully self managing adult on top of that. What we're doing is the opposite, just gently handing a little bit of time to your kids so that they learn. So a few seasons from now, practice night runs itself and you're just the ride.

There are really two routines in fact on a practice day. There's getting to the rink and there's what happens once you're there. So let's start with the first one. The youngest ones can pack their own bag. Yep.

Even the youngest ones. You might have to supervise, you might have to support, but look, it's the same bag, same night, every week, it's the whole assignment. Little tip here for you, have your kids pack the bag in the same order every time so nothing's forgotten. Even as an adult for me, it was imagining putting everything on in order and then that is the order I placed them into the bag. That way I don't forget anything as long as I remember to put it on.

Now, after that with your kids, they know what time practice is. Can they work backwards from it? As they get a little bit older? Ask them to calculate when it's time to eat, when it's time to leave and eventually, you get to where we we got to just asking our kid, what time do you need us in the car? And he ran everything else.

You're still supervising the whole way of course, you're just doing it more and more quietly, doing it for them, then checking that it's done and then eventually trusting that it's done. The hard part of course is that last step. Now at the rink, there's a second routine and this is the one I really want you to hear about. We've been in rinks with guys like Dylan Garand, Joel Hofer, and many others when they were kids, long before anybody knew their names. And what we saw even then was a goalie who'd built his own thing.

The stretching, the eye work, the ball work in the hallway, and even a skating pattern the moment they hit the ice before a coach had said a word. Self directed, even if it's Saturday morning at 8AM with nobody watching. Then they became pros and we see the exact same thing. It didn't get installed when they turned pro, it was already there. The ownership showed up years before the skates did and that's part you can start now.

Your nine year old of course doesn't need a full pro's routine, but they can have one thing that's theirs. The easiest place is to find it in the hallway before they go on with ball work. That catch with a purpose, a tennis ball off the wall while they wait for the ice. Two of them maybe if they're feeling brave. They'll do that for fun long before they understand why it works and it's theirs from day one.

Now when they're ready for a second thing, take it onto the ice. We've got Garand's and Wolf's skates from the first few minutes of practice up at InGoal, Link's in the description. Go check them out together and let your goalie pick one piece that looks cool to them. Just one. That can be their thing.

And if they picked it, it's theirs. If you assigned it, it's a chore with your name on it. One rule here from me, never make it a condition of getting on the ice. The moment it becomes you can't skate until you've done your warm up, you've taken it back, it's yours again. If they drop it for a few weeks, let them.

It has to be allowed to lapse or it really was never theirs. Because one day, they're gonna be at a camp or billeting on a long road trip and nobody's gonna be asking them anything. You want that to feel like an ordinary Tuesday routine. All of this is for the days that go to plan. What happens when they don't, when the schedule blows up, when the routine goes with it, that'll come next week.

We're gonna pick up right where we left off last week, making the bumps in the road your superpower. See you then. I think my favorite part of that was the gear check. Yeah. Because that's one place you could make a mistake?

Like, you I'll literally be in the garage pulling my pants up. Get pants, neck protector, chest, helmet, gloves, stick, pads. Like it's It like literally I'm I'm like a mime getting dressed in my garage as I walk

100% know that. I did the exact same thing. There's one flaw in it. Some pieces of equipment don't fit in your bag and I literally went to a game once for getting my pads. I have no idea how I did that.

As an adult, thank God I lived about three minutes from the rink so it was okay. But

What do you think the most forgotten piece of equipment

Cup. Knee pads, something like that. Something small, something you'd never think about. We know Woody's forgotten his cup before. Yep.

Yep.

Mask?

Yep. Our kid forgot it once when he was younger. That was the hard lesson day when he wasn't allowed to go on the ice because he forgot it.

I definitely, definitely forgot the mask once. I've I've panicked called my wife more than once to come bring a mask.

And she said, Kevin, it's time you learned your lesson. I'm not bringing it.

No. She No. She brought it. Although she as I told you guys earlier, she didn't bring the cup. She said we got enough kids.

I've heard people forgetting sticks too.

Oh, yeah. At least at least then you could beg beg one from the other guy, so

Something Hutch has done.