Crazy Hockey Dads Podcast

A masterclass in pretending not to care (while caring way too much).

This week, Scott and Jamie hit that weird in-between space every hockey parent knows: when you want to scream into the glass… but don’t. You stay cool. You say the right things. You nod at the coach and smile at the other parents. But inside? You’re spiraling.

In this episode:
  • That quiet guilt when your kid’s ice time sucks and you’re trying to be chill
  • Holding back post-game… but still accidentally making it weird
  • Telling yourself not to care - and realizing you definitely still do
  • Why the hardest part of hockey parenting isn’t what you say - it’s what you don’t
If you’ve ever sat through a bad shift pretending to scroll your phone, this one’s for you.

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What is Crazy Hockey Dads Podcast?

A relatable and honest podcast about the highs and lows of being a youth hockey parent. Join us as we share real stories, struggles, and wins from the rink, offering insights and support for parents navigating the world of youth hockey.

Jamie:

Alright everybody, welcome back to the Crazy Hockey Dads podcast, the unfiltered podcast for hockey parents. No politics, no sugarcoating, just real talk for hockey parents in the trenches.

Scott:

And yes, we are.

Jamie:

Welcome to episode 24.

Scott:

Welcome back, sir. Good to see

Jamie:

you again. You too, pal. The hockey season is like Getting started. Bowling down. Oh,

Scott:

boy.

Jamie:

Parents are starting to freak out already.

Scott:

Myself included. Are you? Well, I mean

Jamie:

Are you are you nervous?

Scott:

No. Well, my nerves are centered around excitement.

Jamie:

I think everybody is, right, because everybody's kinda getting back in the swing.

Scott:

But I also had a mini meltdown

Jamie:

Oh, at

Scott:

his first

Jamie:

You did.

Scott:

At his first practice.

Jamie:

We should talk about that. We should. We definitely should talk about I I totally mean, I don't know.

Scott:

You have your own stuff. Yeah. Yeah. I

Jamie:

Well, Dominus first practiced yesterday, and I was fine.

Scott:

Well, how much of it did you watch, honestly? So Because you know our advice is always to not watch. So how much did you watch?

Jamie:

So total transparency. And normally, I do not watch, like I have said on this podcast numerous times.

Scott:

But this time

Jamie:

I am not going to lie. I actually watched the entire thing just because I wanted to see if the new kids were any good. Not kidding. I watched because I don't know any of them. I saw them in tryouts briefly, but I didn't watch any spring practice.

Jamie:

So I watched because I was curious what we're going to look like this year.

Scott:

Okay, that's reasonable.

Jamie:

Yeah. I was in there. So I think I told you, it was a game slot. We actually had a game slot that they were going to try to fill. But since everybody's gone and still on vacation, it wasn't a bunch of a game slot.

Jamie:

So we just had practice. So we had an hour and twenty minutes, hour and a half.

Scott:

And you watched the whole thing,

Jamie:

I was in there.

Scott:

Was just of and out a

Jamie:

little bit. De essing with the parents from our team from last year. So I wasn't watching the entire time. My eyes weren't fixed on the ice the entire time.

Scott:

Yeah, get you.

Jamie:

But I was curious to see what the new kids look like.

Scott:

Okay. Yeah. So that makes sense.

Jamie:

That I did do. I'm not gonna lie.

Scott:

So you weren't in there to watch Dom specifically?

Jamie:

No. Obviously, I saw him and his new shiny gloves.

Scott:

Well, it is the beginning of the season. There are many new shiny things on the ice.

Jamie:

Yeah. You know, so that's true by the way. Everybody new skates. Well, Most people skates. Most people had

Scott:

new Yeah. Yeah. New skates. I mean, but people grow. I mean, children tend to grow in the spring, summer months.

Scott:

I think that's

Jamie:

that's Oh, boy. Did they ever. Everybody's enormous now.

Scott:

They're much bigger.

Jamie:

Yes. I will say this, though. Dominic is not the shortest on his team anymore. Wow.

Scott:

How about that?

Jamie:

He's taller than, like, four or five kids now.

Scott:

No way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How about that?

Jamie:

He's growing out of his everything.

Scott:

That's awesome. Skates, unfortunately. The ones that the the $1,400 I just spent last month are actually for naught. It's terrible. I need a new pair.

Jamie:

Yeah. But it's funny too because this morning, he actually said to me he got dressed. We were going we were going out this morning. And he goes, dad, he goes, I need longer shirts. He's crying at everything.

Jamie:

Okay. His shorts and his shirt well, you see him.

Scott:

Yeah. Yeah. He's definitely taller. A 100% He

Jamie:

just keeps growing out of things.

Scott:

Yeah.

Jamie:

It's not a bad thing.

Scott:

Good.

Jamie:

I'll take it.

Scott:

Yo. Let's go.

Jamie:

More than he's my wife, taller than my mother-in-law now.

Scott:

Maybe he's gonna surprise all of you and just be extra taller than

Jamie:

It'd it'd be wonderful.

Scott:

Yeah. Okay.

Jamie:

I'll take five eight at this point.

Scott:

Listen, maybe you're gonna get five eight. I mean, he'll be five eight on skates.

Jamie:

Yes, he will be. That is true. He will be. I'd kill for five ten.

Scott:

Oh, wow. Alright.

Jamie:

So bad.

Scott:

It's terrible. Listen. Yeah. All good. Okay.

Scott:

So you watched a little bit. I did. I wanted to see other kids.

Jamie:

I did.

Scott:

And so how did that go for you? So me a little bit of the therapy talk on this one. In

Jamie:

prior years, I would have broken his chops for like all right, so they practiced. They did a lot of it got very physical. Oh,

Scott:

right, because they're checking.

Jamie:

From the beginning, they got

Scott:

Kids are into it, They

Jamie:

did not mess around. His coaches literally had battle drills starting practice.

Scott:

Yeah.

Jamie:

It was very cool. Very cool to see them go at it.

Scott:

How did he stack up on that? He did very well. Your son's a little bit of an animal. I will say this He did very well. Side note.

Jamie:

Yeah. Better than I expected. You know what

Scott:

I mean?

Jamie:

It looked it looked it looked right.

Scott:

It looked right. Good. Yeah. Good. That's the way I felt when I saw Otto when he was in, like, in Europe last summer and

Jamie:

he just randomly Right when he started hitting. Yeah.

Scott:

And, like, he totally surprised me. Yeah. But it it looked right.

Jamie:

You know what it looks like when it looks right.

Scott:

No doubt. But I remember, so when I was coaching and I had some ice time and I brought Dom and Ottawa onto the ice that one time and we were practicing face offs. Yeah. Yeah.

Jamie:

Yeah. And was that last year or two?

Scott:

It wasn't last year. It was the year before.

Jamie:

Okay. Gotcha.

Scott:

And and so they I lined

Jamie:

know what you're gonna say.

Scott:

They lined up. And so Otto didn't play center. Otto played wing and we were just trying to get some reps in case he had to take a face I mean, whatever.

Jamie:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. In case somebody's kicked out of the face off. Like, sorry.

Jamie:

Don't know

Scott:

how many, like, face offs Dom was taking at the time either. Yeah. But so they they both lined up. And as soon as the very first one, I dropped the puck and Dom hammered Otto.

Jamie:

Oh god. Sorry.

Scott:

Knocked him over on his ass, and Otto didn't even know what and

Jamie:

this was before this was two years ago. Same size ish?

Scott:

Maybe ish, but Otto had did not see that coming. And Otto I'll tell this much. Otto was not thrilled.

Jamie:

Sorry.

Scott:

He was not thrilled. After that, he was like, yo. What was up with that? And I was like, I don't know. I don't know, but now you need to know.

Scott:

You need to be a little tougher in the face off that,

Jamie:

bro. Broski. It's funny. Probably just because he's two years older is my guess.

Scott:

I I don't know, but he floored him.

Jamie:

Sorry. It's amazing. I hope Dom does that this year, not to Otto and other kids.

Scott:

No, no, no. Listen, I guess my point was that it doesn't surprise me that it looked right. Dom seems like he had not He's an aggressive streak

Jamie:

in him.

Scott:

But like, yeah. And so in any event, that was Good. I'm glad to hear that. So, okay. So body checking, physical contact, that was from the jump.

Scott:

Then

Jamie:

Got very physical early. Yeah.

Scott:

So that was

Jamie:

Oh, and I didn't get upset. Oh, so what I was saying, don't want to cut you off. But you were asking me how I was mentally, the mental part of me watching.

Scott:

Well, I I what I wanna hear is, like, okay. You went up there to observe a few things. And I kinda wanna hear just, your, you know My take? Your your take on it.

Jamie:

Okay. From a hockey parent. From parent.

Scott:

What what what it do for you when you were watching there? One two things. One is you went in there to watch the new kids. Yeah. And, like, did like, how did that go?

Scott:

And then number two, how did the all the body checking, how did that look and the physical contact part?

Jamie:

So the physical stuff looked good. We were talking about how everybody has grown since last season.

Scott:

There

Jamie:

are some big boys. I'll say we picked up two defensemen, some of the new kids, and they're both huge.

Scott:

They're huge. What's huge? They're 13. Yeah. They're And how tall?

Jamie:

Mean

Scott:

Get a guess. I know you don't have their stats.

Jamie:

No, no, no. But I would say they have to be for a 13 year old, they're five on skates, five, ten, close to six foot.

Scott:

Wow.

Jamie:

They're big.

Scott:

That's big.

Jamie:

They're big. No, no, they're big. We have a big looking team this year.

Scott:

That's going to be helpful.

Jamie:

That's something I think our coach was focusing on. He brought in bigger kids. That's for sure. We were big

Scott:

last year. Not only did kids grow because kids are gonna grow on every team, but additionally new recruits that came in are also on the larger size. All right. That's good.

Jamie:

That'll be helpful. He replaced two defensemen, smaller kids, like Dominic Smaller, with two very large kids.

Scott:

Okay, good. So that'll be helpful. So that left you feeling positive?

Jamie:

Yeah, no. The physical part I think is going to be not an issue this year for some of these kids, is great. And I will say this. We talked about how we shouldn't watch practice and shouldn't berate our kids. Normally in years past, I would have a problem with Dominic's effort.

Jamie:

He was not back checking well. They played like a three on three game at the end because they hit the full ice. They were just kind of messing around. So for last twenty, thirty minutes, they played three on three each messing around. And he was not back checking on one particular play.

Jamie:

And I saw it and I forgot about it.

Scott:

Good for you.

Jamie:

Yeah. And in years past, after the game, I would have been like, so bad.

Scott:

Yeah. What happened that one time?

Jamie:

What were we doing?

Scott:

That one time when

Jamie:

you didn't

Scott:

back check?

Jamie:

They're like, what was that?

Scott:

I forget all the other times you did. I only remember the time that you didn't and that was fucking terrible.

Jamie:

Of course, right, exactly.

Scott:

Your effort blew.

Jamie:

Yeah, that was terrible. Overall, it was like a 95, but that effort was like a three.

Scott:

So let's focus on that.

Jamie:

Yeah, right. So let's focus on the really shitty time that I noticed. Dominica said that to me in past. Dad, why do you always focus on the negative stuff? I'm like, because you're supposed to do all the other stuff, right?

Jamie:

You know? Which is so not fair as a parent. Right? It's so ridiculous.

Scott:

Otto Otto said to me the other day, he said it wasn't even the other day. It was earlier today. He made a comment we were disagreeing about something. And he said, well, at least give me effort for doing, you know, x. And I said You're like, no.

Scott:

I said, no. Do you all I said, no.

Jamie:

You're supposed to do that.

Scott:

I I said something like, do you also want me to give you credit for breathing the air that God has given to you? Like, get out of here. No.

Jamie:

I know.

Scott:

I know. You're not getting credit for that. Get out of here.

Jamie:

I'm just reaching for something.

Scott:

This doesn't happen. Anything. But the analogy is like, I just made my bed. Can you pay me for my chores? No, you're supposed to make your bed.

Scott:

And let me be clear,

Jamie:

that doesn't happen in my house. Understood.

Scott:

And the analogy is as much.

Jamie:

Yes, yes. But yeah, so as a hockey, my crazy hockey dad, I did not, so I think my mindset has been changing, which is a good thing over the years. And I'm sure this podcast is helping me because we talk about it a lot.

Scott:

No

Jamie:

doubt. The therapy that we're doing in this by having a podcast

Scott:

And how

Jamie:

did Yeah, no. So I wasn't even remotely he came out. I gave him a big high five. My Jeff Funnies, again, like awesome.

Scott:

Great. So good. And how did the team look overall in aggregate? Came off a winning season last year. We had

Jamie:

a good season last year.

Scott:

And this year, like going obviously sample size of one. So not many things to compare it to and no games yet. Feeling optimistic?

Jamie:

I think so. Good. Dominic looks Looks the the part. Good. He looks like he could have a very good season if he wants to.

Scott:

Well, no, listen, he wants to.

Jamie:

If he decides to. Right? He wants to, but if he decides to do it, it could be fun.

Scott:

Okay. Listen. Awesome.

Jamie:

See how it goes.

Scott:

I did not have that experience.

Jamie:

No, yours seems like the exact opposite. So why don't you tell everybody exactly what happened and yours? I I You me midway I called. Through

Scott:

Not even midway. I didn't last that long.

Jamie:

Ten minutes? Ten minutes

Scott:

into it, I lost my mind.

Jamie:

So let's talk about it. Alright. So I'm sure you're not the only parent

Scott:

that's So feeling that way at this I'm going to, but just before we get any further, just wanna like do a little bit of housekeeping first. So let's just make sure to call out the partners, Howie's Hockey, Crazy Ten.

Jamie:

Crazy Ten. Yep. Pro Good stuff.

Scott:

Pro Stride Elite Skating, CH ten.

Jamie:

Yep. Angelo Seris, awesome power skating coach.

Scott:

A 100%. Check them out. And then athletic performance insight, API. And again, if any of the listeners out there have been thinking about video analytics for their team and haven't done anything just yet Yeah. And it doesn't have to be at the very beginning of the season either.

Scott:

Like, you know, you can Could

Jamie:

be anywhere at any point.

Scott:

But check out our friends out at Athletic Performance Insight. Easy to use, affordable system helping youth travel, and they've got all the collegiate teams. They're rocking and rolling, but athleticperformanceinsight.com for more info.

Jamie:

Eric's great, dude.

Scott:

Eric's yeah. Of course. And use the contact form to request a demo.

Jamie:

Yep.

Scott:

And they'll even tag a game for free. And new users will get 10% off the season subscription.

Jamie:

Episode 21, I believe, if you need to go back and listen, Eric.

Scott:

Okay.

Jamie:

Right? Nope. 22. I lied.

Scott:

22.

Jamie:

22. Just kidding.

Scott:

22.

Jamie:

That was close. Yeah. Episode 22.

Scott:

Okay. And then real quick on the geography front. Nothing new in The USA or Canada.

Jamie:

Nope. Nothing new, but North Dakota did move up a couple spots.

Scott:

Let's go.

Jamie:

Nice job.

Scott:

And so did New Jersey?

Jamie:

New Jersey?

Scott:

Let's go. Dirty jerse. Knew what's up. Let's bring it.

Jamie:

Jersey is all of a sudden, I'm getting text messages.

Scott:

I will say this. Well, I mean, obviously, we

Jamie:

have we don't tell anybody. Why don't you why don't you tell the story about your son? Why don't you tell the story about that? Because I'm I'm getting text messages about, hey. Congratulations on your podcast for Oh, it

Scott:

was great. I didn't tell you.

Jamie:

About it. Yeah. I did. I didn't tell you?

Scott:

The text maybe I'm

Jamie:

Maybe I didn't tell you. Oh,

Scott:

maybe I've got a text message. You tell well, listen. You might have don't I know how recent, most recently you told me about an in person conversation.

Jamie:

So it was a text message. Well, it was an in person conversation and then a text message from another parent on that same team.

Scott:

Oh, got you. Yeah. No, that's awesome.

Jamie:

So the word is spreading. That's tell awesome Crazy Hockey Dads podcast is.

Scott:

Yes. Yeah. 100%

Jamie:

Without us telling people about it.

Scott:

It's spreading Yeah. Can't tell anybody. Yeah. I barely told my family.

Jamie:

I I other than yeah.

Scott:

What? The last podcast we were recording and my buddy texted me and he's like my college roommate. Right. And I and I, you know, I, you know, real quick, sorry, recording a podcast. And then like, he's like, podcast?

Scott:

And I'm like, oh, dude. I'll send you a link. Anyway. Yeah, so any other housekeeping stuff? Oh, geography before we So we did add Austria.

Jamie:

We did. Throw another shrimp on the bobby.

Scott:

Lovely accent. New Jersey. Let's not.

Jamie:

Let's not.

Scott:

So let's go Austria. Thanks for listening. Yes. Welcome. Love it.

Jamie:

Yeah. Yeah. We have one spot in Canada still left, one territory in Canada to complete Canada.

Scott:

Is this your put it out to the world and it shall come?

Jamie:

This is. This is. And if you know anybody that's in the non event, I'm not I may be butchering So I apologize if I am.

Scott:

Well, shouldn't even say that. I don't know how

Jamie:

to say that. To our Canadian friends, if I'm butchering that, I apologize. Yeah. But we shy, one territory shy of being everywhere in Canada. Mean, technically

Scott:

Yeah. Okay.

Jamie:

I mean, listen, technically, we are listen, we're one territory shy of

Scott:

being Okay. It'll

Jamie:

four six US states. Six? Six? Seven?

Scott:

Six? I'm not counting. It's clear. Number.

Jamie:

We're not counting Not not many. We're not counting at all. Six left. We're not Who's counting, though?

Scott:

We're not keeping trash.

Jamie:

We're not keeping track. Why would we do that and write it down and cross them off as they come on board?

Scott:

Yeah. Like, and refresh the screen every

Jamie:

Like, every thirty seconds or forty seconds. Why would we do something like that?

Scott:

Know. I guess people do

Jamie:

that out there.

Scott:

Mean, people do crazy things.

Jamie:

They really do. Yes. But yeah.

Scott:

Okay. So Austria, thank you. Yes. And thank you to all the listeners. Really appreciate it.

Scott:

And just wanna shout out to all the new ones. Thank you. Thank you. Yes.

Jamie:

Shout out to I wanna do a quick shout out to Finland and Germany, by the way. Okay. Do it. All of a sudden, Finland and Germany have been coming on very strong on our map.

Scott:

Yeah.

Jamie:

And we're getting messages from people in Finland as well. Yes. So welcome.

Scott:

Thank you.

Jamie:

Yes. Glad to have you guys.

Scott:

We'll figure out how to say that in

Jamie:

finish. I was just gonna say.

Scott:

Scandinavian languages have a very different ear sound.

Jamie:

That's for sure.

Scott:

Yes. Yes.

Jamie:

I'm sure I would not be good at them.

Scott:

Why? You've never tried?

Jamie:

Yes. I mean, I would not be good at, like, right now

Scott:

if I'm other than English.

Jamie:

If I was if right now without practicing, like me saying none of that, I'm sure I am butchering that.

Scott:

Okay. Well, you might be surprised. Anyway True. But, yeah, so just getting back to the listenership. So Otto, like, kinda last minute, signed him up for a hockey camp.

Jamie:

Like a clinic type thing. Right? Oh, was it a camp?

Scott:

It was camp.

Jamie:

Oh, it was week long thing.

Scott:

Nice. He didn't go for the whole week.

Jamie:

Yeah. Tell that story. That's a cool story.

Scott:

So Otto had gone there, you know, over the last couple summers and, like, worked with, like, that group of coaches a few times. Right. Like, played spring with their spring team, I think, two seasons. And so one of the coaches, they're familiar with him, as Otto was like, you know, as he got there, he goes, oh, hey. You just got a podcast.

Scott:

And Otto was like, yeah. He goes, you were at BMX camp. And I was like, yeah. He's obviously listening. And so Otto was

Jamie:

To the most recent ones.

Scott:

Yeah. So Otto thought it was cool, obviously. Very cool. And then which was kind of the coach Yes. He had mentioned, I think, in front of I I mean, I'd as per Otto Right.

Scott:

That he had mentioned the podcast in front of the group at large, not necessarily parents, but I think in front of the kids. Yeah. So that was awesome. So thank you. Yes.

Jamie:

I wonder if that's contributing to all of a sudden New Jersey really coming on strong.

Scott:

Maybe he was out in in New York. Right. Mount Vernon.

Jamie:

Right. But I I bet you there were lot of New Jersey kids at that.

Scott:

Could've been. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. So in any event, so Yeah.

Scott:

The the bottom line is that it's getting around. And Yeah.

Jamie:

For sure. Definitely is.

Scott:

So that's awesome. Thank you, everyone. Appreciate it so much.

Jamie:

You should keep a good thing down.

Scott:

Yep. So, anyway so, yeah, I guess I'll give shout out to to Mike over at Eric Nates. Great. Great.

Jamie:

Hockey club.

Scott:

Thank you

Jamie:

for Critics, camps. Do yeah. Like, really good dudes.

Scott:

Awesome. Really good dudes. Yes. You

Jamie:

played with a bunch of them. I Two of them.

Scott:

Two of them. I played with two of them Yeah. About one or two seasons back when we were young children. Probably about Dom's age.

Jamie:

Big fan of t squared.

Scott:

Big Peewee. Big fan. Big

Jamie:

big big fan.

Scott:

Yep. Good shout out to Timmy and Eric. What's up, guys? Yeah. If you're listening.

Jamie:

Yeah. How's it going? Haven't seen you guys in a while. I need to get my kids ass back out there.

Scott:

Yeah.

Jamie:

Yeah. I'm a big fan.

Scott:

Phenomenal. Phenomenal program. Eric Nates.

Jamie:

Yeah. If you're in our area, everybody knows Eric Nates.

Scott:

Yeah. Yeah. No doubt. Okay. So that was the story about the listener spread.

Scott:

So that was that? Okay. So getting back to

Jamie:

Oh, yes. So tell yeah. Tell about Otto's practice where you had a meltdown.

Scott:

I did have a meltdown. So I I just wanna

Jamie:

Take notes, folks. Take notes. It's early on in

Scott:

the season. I need to qualify this so nothing gets taken out of, like, context or misunderstood. Well, maybe I'll just tell the story. So yeah. So okay.

Scott:

So Otto gets dressed, and, you know, he got they got their gear package, whatever. So Right. His his pants are fine.

Jamie:

We got

Scott:

him a

Jamie:

He's years old.

Scott:

He's 10 years old.

Jamie:

Yeah. So I'm just one just couching it. Good. No doubt.

Scott:

Yeah. So gear package and we got him a shell because pants are fine. So the first thing I'm

Jamie:

saying Especially now his pants are fine.

Scott:

Yeah. His pants are definitely fine. So I I put the stuff in the car, and then and then I went back in. And they'd already started doing a drill. And I I just noticed, like, the overall pace

Jamie:

team was there, by the way?

Scott:

No. We were definitely short a few kids.

Jamie:

Yeah. Because technically, it's still summer, people are still away.

Scott:

Yeah. But this is like the

Jamie:

We were shorter

Scott:

too. So so they're on the ice and they're doing just some very basic skating drills, some edge work, some stick handling passing, finishing with a shot. And just watching and I'm like, seems a little slow. And when I say slow, I don't mean that like the kids weren't capable of like, are are giving it their all and they're just slow. I mean, like like, no one was really

Jamie:

Moving.

Scott:

Moving. And I was like, the moment, like, I noticed that, I was like, what the fuck? You had a break down. I I Mental break down. But it's cray it's totally crazy.

Jamie:

Now now I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna give some context. Now, Scott, again, for you that don't know, some of you do, but the the ones that don't, Scott, Otto just came from a triple a team down to a tier two team.

Scott:

Yep.

Jamie:

So the speed is definitely going to be different.

Scott:

Yes. But but yeah. Yeah. So but in any event, like, look. And this is totally an example of, like, where, like, you know, you're a a parent in the stands is seeing something on the ice.

Scott:

Yeah. Not knowing. First, That's mine. It That's was mine thing, and now it's your fucking phone.

Jamie:

Meanwhile, that's mine and your alarm for Oh. Mine. Yeah. That's mine. Yeah.

Jamie:

That's mine and your alarm. Did for our weekly our weekly update, you and I.

Scott:

Well, we're we're here. Yeah. Good. Done. Yeah.

Scott:

So this is a classic example of a parent watching something on the ice and then not knowing what the coach how they he instructed them. And then, you know, I'm thinking to myself something's That happens. Except this is, like, what the coach now, I was, like, internally, I was, like, like, having my own, like, meltdown. I That's asked good. Afterwards, you know, I brought it up with Otto and

Jamie:

Oh, you did?

Scott:

Well, let me all I'm gonna be jumping around with this one. I know and I don't want to, but It's alright. Let's do this in particular, I my through my meltdown, I decided I wasn't gonna say anything to Otto after practice except like how to go, yeah, fun. In

Jamie:

the car.

Scott:

In the car.

Jamie:

Okay. Good. I like that.

Scott:

Making progress. That ultimately didn't happen. He had brought some stuff up. I didn't bring anything up to him.

Jamie:

Okay. He started talking

Scott:

to He had said a few things and then through that

Jamie:

It's fair game if that happens.

Scott:

Through that, I said, said, did the coach have you guys just kind of warming up easy? And he's like, yeah. He told us just to keep a steady pace. And I was like, okay. Thank you for confirming that because when I

Jamie:

was Glad I didn't scream at my kid.

Scott:

No. I wasn't gonna scream at him. No. You didn't. I was just like in my I having coached before and wanting to push kids.

Scott:

I was like, anyway. So that was that was the first that was the first thing. Then the next thing that happened was, like, started mentioning the pants. Like, he finished the skating drill. His team is over at, like, the bench.

Scott:

They're getting water. So it's not like the coach was in the middle of cause he had the shell on. And before he got on the ice

Jamie:

Oh, okay.

Scott:

He never wore a shell. But in any event

Jamie:

Shells are the worst, by the way.

Scott:

So They're awful. So and and I and I don't disagree with that. Sorry, folks. I shells. I

Jamie:

hate shells.

Scott:

That's why I was telling him to take it off. But like first, I'm noticing I'm noticing like, okay, practice looks slow. But it was supposed to be and that's fine. I have no complaints about that. But in my mind, I just started short circuiting.

Scott:

And then he skates over to me and now he's concerned about his gear as opposed to like being with the team. And in my mind, I'm like, oh my god, dude. Like, why? No. Just go over there.

Jamie:

Like, you do it out later.

Scott:

Like, I can't hear you. You're on the ice. There's glass on

Jamie:

the What am I supposed to do about

Scott:

the top of the Of the bleachers? Yeah.

Jamie:

You're like, by the roof?

Scott:

And I was like, oh my God. Oh my God. My God.

Jamie:

Like he did meltdown.

Scott:

Yeah. Because I'm annoyed that he's not coming with his team just paying What

Jamie:

did he expect you to do, by the way?

Scott:

Don't know. I think he was just sick He to tell you just want to understand just wanted me that he was having an issue. And I said, well, take him off. Yeah. And And so

Jamie:

And did he go to the bench and take him off?

Scott:

He did, ultimately. Okay. And So that so that was that. Now there was one thing that that came to light before any of this happened. And this has to do more with, a communication piece and expectation piece.

Scott:

Okay. And so when before they even got on the ice, so when Otto joined the team, there was two coaches, head coach, assistant coach. I knew the assistant coach from like years ago. Yep. Great guy.

Scott:

And then there's another dad getting on the ice with the with the team. I was like, another dad coach? And the nothing about him. But now, here I am like

Jamie:

Pee wee minor. Right? Pee wee first year pee

Scott:

wee's. First year pee wee's. But I was like, oh, so I didn't know that there was a new another coach and there's gonna be another parent on the ice. Right. And ultimately ultimately, I'm not saying I have any issue with it.

Scott:

Yep. But when I saw that and there was like, you know, I didn't know that that was like, that was gonna be a thing. Right. And I was like, oh, that's interesting.

Jamie:

I because you were not expecting any parent coaches.

Scott:

Or any additional parent coaches. And look, again, this this has nothing to do with that.

Jamie:

Oh, that's right. Because have one parent coach.

Scott:

And I know this guy. And you know the guy. And I know him. Like, I played men's league with him before. Like, I know

Jamie:

other from

Scott:

parent coach. I just didn't expect another parent coach. Like, I know him from I've another known I've known him like

Jamie:

For a long time now.

Scott:

Loosely at the rink for years at this point.

Jamie:

Yep. I'm not

Scott:

saying, you know, we're not Yeah.

Jamie:

No. I got you.

Scott:

Close. But So then I see like another another dad coach on the ice and in in my mind, and again, this is like coming after like, you know, I had been his coach and, like, during those seasons, like, there was another parent coach on the bench. There's two there's three pair when I was coaching, there was four parents that were involved, not including the manager, like, on ice, on the bench. That's a lot. Four parents.

Jamie:

That's a lot.

Scott:

Last year, the head coach was a parent coach. Right. And the and then this year, the there's already one parent coach.

Jamie:

Okay.

Scott:

And now we're adding on another parent coach. And I

Jamie:

One would think at p first year peewee is that that would disappear.

Scott:

Listen, I I get how there's situations where like you need You would think

Jamie:

that it would disappear. Right?

Scott:

It's better if there's three coaches on the ice, that's better than two for a lot of

Jamie:

reasons.

Scott:

Sure. But in my mind, I'm like, oh my god. Now we have more parent coaching. Like just any of the issues that have like come up in the past, my concern was that like here's another opportunity for something else to surface and my fear Yeah. Like I had very much like fear based thinking.

Scott:

And it wasn't necessarily rational and it wasn't any judgment on any one person in particular.

Jamie:

Right.

Scott:

But it was just like, oh my god. So between between that and then the the pace And

Jamie:

out of his pants.

Scott:

And then his pants, I was like, I have to leave. I have to fucking leave. I'm leaving. I'm leaving.

Jamie:

You walked out of the rink.

Scott:

And I walked out of the rink. Now listen. My intention Right. Similarly to you, like, in the beginning of the season, like, you're very curious because you don't know necessarily, like, what you're dealing with. Right.

Scott:

Right?

Jamie:

Right. Everything is new.

Scott:

Everything was new. Yeah. And then that happened. And I'm like, yeah, I'm out. I'm Audi.

Jamie:

See you.

Scott:

I'm Audi.

Jamie:

Do you think that made it worse when you walked out? You think Otto was like, shit, my dad's mad. He's leaving.

Scott:

Maybe. Dominic has told me that before. He knows that if I leave, I'm usually upset.

Jamie:

So you technically made it worse by leaving.

Scott:

Well, but this also isn't a lie. I also went out into the car and I did work. I mean, this was a 05:15 practice that I left early for, so it's not

Jamie:

That that is true. No. Fair. You have

Scott:

an alibi? 07:00. I do have an alibi.

Jamie:

Do have fair? Okay.

Scott:

And it's not BS, but at the same time So you

Jamie:

could lie to your kid and tell me it's not a lie.

Scott:

I guess that's one way of putting it. I went to the car and did work.

Jamie:

You're like, no. I wasn't upset. I needed to go to work, which is really true.

Scott:

No. Listen. But he didn't even ask about any of that stuff.

Jamie:

Yeah. Just tell me you need to go do podcast stuff.

Scott:

Well, that's work.

Jamie:

That's what I mean.

Scott:

I mean. Yeah.

Jamie:

I have to go do stuff. I had work. Right.

Scott:

Exactly. And I did. I took notes about the way I was feeling

Jamie:

and Which listen Is work. Is work because

Scott:

of what we have you do it, I'm not lying.

Jamie:

No. So you're so you're legit excuse. All

Scott:

of this to say that fifteen minutes into my 10 year old son's first practice Of the season. Of the season

Jamie:

Not even with a full team yet.

Scott:

I was having a total meltdown.

Jamie:

And I think you mentioned before that it wasn't necessarily a rational one. 100% it wasn't rational. All right, so I have a question for you because we are hyping this podcast up to be therapy sessions not just for us for other hockey parents out there and other hockey dads. When you called me during when you went outside into the car and you called me and we spoke about it and I said, Okay. And you realize you were being irrational, right?

Jamie:

Do you think that that helped at the moment in time?

Scott:

100%. Good. But this is what I'll say, it helps even more. What helped me more is when I got home and then I had to call you again. We spoke right This might sound crazy, but I mean, This is the truth.

Jamie:

This for the name of the podcast. Appropriate.

Scott:

Because I was I wanted to bounce stuff off of you Yeah. Because I I knew that the way I was feeling, you know, was a misrepresentation of like it didn't match like, punishment wasn't matching the crime, if you will. That's

Jamie:

You one way like misplaced anxiety I did. The moment,

Scott:

for whatever reason. Moment. And it just like one thing and then another thing and then like I just so in any event

Jamie:

Right.

Scott:

What what what I've walked away from this, you know, this whole thing was Mhmm. One, it reinforced the idea that I don't need to sit there and practice because I start tying myself stories.

Jamie:

Absolutely. Don't watch. People, don't watch. Don't watch. It's unnecessary.

Scott:

And then the other thing was also that when I get worked up about this stuff in times past, I decide had I not thought about things and then not called you, I hit the pause button.

Jamie:

You would

Scott:

have I clearly left the rink. No, but then I also would have potentially opened up on him. And I'm not saying verbally given it to him. But I would've

Jamie:

But you would've opened up a conversation.

Scott:

It would've and it wouldn't have been necessarily a positive one. Probably not. Wouldn't necessarily it probably wouldn't have been constructive. Nope. Probably not.

Scott:

Now listen. He did

Jamie:

You would've came across as a crazy hockey dad.

Scott:

Well, no doubt. And so Right? But listen, but here's a here's a great like this is something I'll give myself like, you know, in retrospect

Jamie:

Right.

Scott:

When he got in the car and he brought up hockey because he had like had a had a question about what happened on the ice.

Jamie:

Any any little opening to talk about it. Well You're like, you wanna talk hockey? Sure, bud. You're like, I wasn't going to. But now that you brought it up, it's on.

Scott:

Meanwhile, I'm like I'm like, my lip's bleeding because I'm biting it so hard and I've got like sweat coming down my brow. But but this is what I did. No. No. But this is I think an important thing.

Scott:

Instead of saying

Jamie:

Mhmm.

Scott:

Why was practice so slow? Why weren't you skating hard? I said to him, I was like, did the coach ask you guys to take it easy in the beginning?

Jamie:

And he did.

Scott:

And he did. And there it goes.

Jamie:

And there's your answer.

Scott:

That could have unfolded very differently.

Jamie:

Yeah. Because can you imagine if you had said, why weren't you skating hard at first? What were you doing? You're automatically accusatory. And that's just not a good way to start a dialogue.

Scott:

Or it could have even been something like, Hey, buddy. I watched a little bit. You could have put in more effort.

Jamie:

100%. And you not knowing that the

Scott:

coach said,

Jamie:

I just want you guys to take it easy for the first 20, thirty, whatever he said.

Scott:

But then also I'll tell you what else went through my mind. So as I'm watching practice, as they're doing these skating drills and it's at a lower tempo, fine. Well, not at the moment, but it ends up being fine. So then I'm thinking to myself Well put. This is what I so I'm thinking to myself, okay.

Scott:

Listen. I don't care. I'm saying this to myself. I'm saying,

Jamie:

I don't

Scott:

care if everyone else is slow.

Jamie:

Trying to talk yourself off the ledge. You gotta go.

Scott:

I'm I'm thinking to myself, Otto, you need to be a leader now. And you need to show everyone how it's done. And you need to skate hard. Like, these are the things in my mind I'm preparing myself to tell him. Yeah.

Scott:

In the car. It right. Like, after practice Yeah. I was thinking to myself, like, listen, this is a Literally, said, okay, is a teaching moment. This is the moment, because this is the leaders These are the leadership lessons that are gonna come in when the rest of the team is not moving.

Scott:

You're gonna go. You're gonna step up. Gonna lead by example.

Jamie:

That's

Scott:

right. That's That's the message I'm starting to formulate in my head to tell him.

Jamie:

Listen, which is not a bad thing.

Scott:

I understand what it

Jamie:

However, it's the that first fucking practice. It's that's the first the The coach said, I want you to take it easy. Listen, if the kids aren't going and you're not supposed to take it easy, then you go. That's when you definitely got to go because then you are leading by example. So listen, I see what you're saying.

Scott:

So now, okay, so that, yes. But then I never said any of that stuff. Yeah. So that's fine. That's good, I And again, it's the very beginning.

Scott:

Like, if there's patterns of behavior over the course of time, you know, then then there's obviously there will be opportunities to give constructive feedback, if you will. But I'm jumping on it at the moment I have a little seed.

Jamie:

Good. No, listen, well done by you. Listen. So clearly this podcast is helping you and I because in years past, I think you and I would have handled both of

Scott:

our differently. Stuff differently.

Jamie:

Absolutely. Right, like 1000%. Not even a question.

Scott:

So okay, so I didn't mention this either. And this is where things get

Jamie:

also There's more?

Scott:

You talk out of both sides of your mouth, yes, there's

Jamie:

more. Ah, okay.

Scott:

So on one hand, going into this newer season, again, auto, it seems like auto will be one of the better players.

Jamie:

Right.

Scott:

That's what it seems like. Time will tell.

Jamie:

Okay, good.

Scott:

But knows he he's gonna have a little bit more time and space. He's had a little bit more time and space in practice. Right, he's noticing it. And he's trying some things on for size that he hasn't in the past couple years. Just because

Jamie:

Being creative.

Scott:

Trying to.

Jamie:

Okay.

Scott:

Okay. And I also support that. You should. And I've told him as much. And I said, listen.

Scott:

You need he's he's very much been a pass first player and I think primarily because he's not necessarily want to keep the puck on a stick

Jamie:

too long. Whatever it is.

Scott:

It's probably fear of like making a mistake Yeah. Sure. If I had to guess.

Jamie:

Sure.

Scott:

So and and because of that, I he's been a great teammate and he's he's attempted to make a lot of passes and that's great. So now that he's like, the roles are a little different Mhmm. Seemingly or at least the way they are to start.

Jamie:

Seems like that's how it's setting up.

Scott:

He's keeping the puck on stick a little more. I said, listen. That's good. Like, you know, get comfortable with the puck on your stick.

Jamie:

Yeah. Sure.

Scott:

You don't have to force things. You know, you don't just have to, you know, get rid of like hot potato with the puck.

Jamie:

Yeah. Sometimes you could skate within, kind of make things happen a little bit.

Scott:

But now in practice, I'm watching him and he's trying some fancier moves. Some dangles and some dingles and Things

Jamie:

that he probably did not have time to do before. And if he did, then he may get yelled at. Or or whatever

Scott:

it is. And so on so I'm watching this. Yeah. And of course in my mind, there's a very clear difference between like the things that I'm hoping to see versus what I'm seeing. All of it do fall under the idea of being creative and keeping the puck on your stick.

Scott:

Right. But there's like, in my mind, there's like a way to do this. I'm like, play more direct hockey, like, you know, go hard and wide.

Jamie:

Get the puck to the open

Scott:

Go go hard and wide, like escape turns. But here it's like he's dropping the puck between his legs, like, kinda doing, like, a a spin o and, like, trying to do these other things. And I'm, like, thinking to myself, this is not exactly what I had in mind when I said this. And I'm watching this, and, of course, he'll he'll try something, and he'll probably do it, like, I don't know, 10 no. I'm making this up 10 times.

Jamie:

I know

Scott:

what you mean. And it'll it'll work a low low percentage. Yeah.

Jamie:

One or two?

Scott:

And and I have to also bite my lip because I'm watching this. I'm

Jamie:

like Yeah.

Scott:

I understand he's not necessarily doing the doing the things that are like the higher percentage hockey play. Right. But through this process, he will learn.

Jamie:

Yes.

Scott:

My hope is the coaches will give him quality feedback.

Jamie:

Guidance. Yeah. Sure.

Scott:

And he will accomplish two things. One, find a way to be a little bit more creative. Mhmm. He'll be more comfortable keeping the puck on a stick longer. But then he'll also, through failing, see that there's better ways to accomplish the same goal

Jamie:

To get that done.

Scott:

As opposed to trying to do something that's more highlight real ish. And again, in times past, that's something I would have called out to him. And actually, I will say this is what I did when that opening came up to talk about hockey.

Jamie:

Right.

Scott:

I said to him, I said, listen

Jamie:

When he mentioned it in the car?

Scott:

When he mentioned it in the car. I said I said something along the lines of like, dude, you know, love watching you like be more confident and creative out there. Smart. I was like

Jamie:

That's kinda how you wanna open.

Scott:

I said, I don't want you to stop that at all. Yeah. I I encourage you to continue to be more comfortable and like being a like be a playmaker, create time and space for yourself Right. Because you're gonna need to do that. Right.

Scott:

I said, but at the same time, some of the like the fancier moves, the dangles, like the drop of the puck between your legs, like those are probably lower percentage plays. Practice them. Fair. But you you also should practice playing more direct, playing with more power, playing with more you know? So

Jamie:

And what was his response to that?

Scott:

He agreed. Okay. You know? And and it didn't I didn't I certainly didn't tell it to him like, you know, dude, what the fuck are you doing out there? No, not anymore.

Jamie:

That doesn't end well.

Scott:

No. So in any event

Jamie:

Definitely not.

Scott:

Wow. That was

Jamie:

my That was your practice number one.

Scott:

That was fifteen minutes of

Jamie:

hour even a practice number one. Yeah, like a quarter of practice number one. But you handled it a better way than you would have in the past.

Scott:

Absolutely.

Jamie:

So making progress there, right?

Scott:

Absolutely.

Jamie:

Good. So I hope that this recorded therapy session, which essentially is what this is, right, this podcast. Yeah. It's helping other people as well. Clearly, it's helping you and I.

Scott:

No. Without a doubt.

Jamie:

So hopefully it's not just us.

Scott:

So not watching practice. Although, know, but this is where I know I'm gonna I'm gonna run into some problems with this because he often asks, please watch me. Like, he

Jamie:

wants So that's me to another story.

Scott:

So when he asks me to watch, I what I need to do is I need to tell him, like, kinda put boundaries around that. Right? And I gotta say, listen. I'm not gonna watch the whole thing. Right.

Scott:

I'll come in and watch. I'm like, dude, I'll pop in, I'll watch you, throw him some smiles and whatever.

Jamie:

Yeah. I think it's great. As long as you keep it positive at the end.

Scott:

You know what

Jamie:

I'm saying? As long as he doesn't do anything nuts.

Scott:

And one last thing that I also told myself that whatever it is that I wanna say, it does not need to be said now.

Jamie:

Probably not.

Scott:

Someone told me once and I think this is a great thing. He said before you talk about something that may be

Jamie:

You had sensitive said this

Scott:

before. Right. Does it need to

Jamie:

be In one of our early podcasts. Go ahead. Say it again because it's First really

Scott:

question. Three questions. Number one, does it need to be said? Does it need to be said now? Does it need to be said by me?

Scott:

And if the answer to those three questions are undoubtedly yes, okay. Then maybe you need to say something because if there's but I would say most times with the stuff that we talk about

Jamie:

Most of times the answer is no.

Scott:

Does it need to

Jamie:

be said?

Scott:

To one of those two. Does it need to be said? Okay. Let's just say yes for argument's Does it need to be said now?

Jamie:

No. The answer to that is probably no.

Scott:

Does it need to be said by me? No.

Jamie:

Probably not.

Scott:

Because someone else will probably say something if he's like, you know, whatever. So so right there, I have my answer. And I went through that Yeah. When I was like sitting there like biting my tongue being like, you know, going through my irrational craziness.

Jamie:

Well, listen. That was good that you controlled yourself.

Scott:

I know, but dude, that's fucking progress. Progress not perfection, right?

Jamie:

Listen, perfection is you just need to keep making progress. Right?

Scott:

No doubt.

Jamie:

It's all it is. And so clearly it worked. Right? I mean, you're handling your child better than you did last year, probably better than the year before that. So listen, mean, moving in the right direction.

Scott:

Yeah, man. Right? Yeah.

Jamie:

Now, I'm curious, just now that we're talking about it, what do you think qualifies to say something right now? Would you say that I don't know, if like, your kid baseball bats somebody upside his helmet. It may need to be said right now.

Scott:

Absolutely. There's only a

Jamie:

handful of things that would actually check yes to all three of those. Don't you agree?

Scott:

Probably.

Jamie:

Now that we're talking about it? Yeah. I would say there's not many things that will check yes to all three of those. Doesn't need to be said

Scott:

need to be said. Doesn't need to be said now. Doesn't need to be said by me.

Jamie:

Right. So unless your child legit hurts somebody on purpose, I can't think of many scenarios that all three of those check yes. Am I wrong?

Scott:

Don't And think you're another way to go about it also, I would think, is that again, I'm not suggesting parents get overly involved with coaches. Yeah. But if there's something I I could imagine a scenario where like it might not even we all know as parents Yeah. When you when you give your kid instruction or suggestions, it's not always heard.

Jamie:

Mhmm.

Scott:

But if it's said by somebody else, it's more easily heard.

Jamie:

Yes. Right? So Or it's absorbed differently.

Scott:

Right. So it's like if I tell my son, do your homework versus his teacher telling him to do his homework, he's probably more likely to listen to his teacher in the moment than he is to

Jamie:

me. Yeah.

Scott:

Good. Just for example.

Jamie:

Because Kids don't listen to parents.

Scott:

So if there's something that needs to be said, may maybe that's something like, you know, you bring the coach into it. You know? And again Yeah. I'm not I'm not saying, you know, like, inundate your coach with, you know, Yeah. Lessons like as a parent, should be teaching them at home.

Scott:

But if it's like hockey related, you know, I Yeah. And I'm just making this up. Right? I I I I don't know that I would do this, but because we're talking about it, it's at the tip of my tongue. But I could theoretically go to one of the coaches and be like, hey, listen, I noticed Otto was doing a bunch of trying to do some fancy stick work.

Jamie:

I don't

Scott:

know how you feel about Yeah. Maybe

Jamie:

If it bothers you, tell them tamp it down a little bit.

Scott:

If it bothers you. Right. For example, now I'm not saying that that's a great I'm not saying that is a great example nor is that something I would go to a coach with.

Jamie:

Right. But it's a different avenue of getting the same thing accomplished.

Scott:

Right. And then it's not coming from you and you're not stirring up some stuff that's, you know

Jamie:

Listen, I I last year, I remember I remember last year I wanted Dominic to block shots more. Because, mean, come on, when you're a second year Pee Wee, you need to block at least five shots a game. I mean, because why else?

Scott:

Why else are we playing

Jamie:

this game? Mean, I mean, why do you buy good players are warriors. Yeah, seriously. Why else would you buy good shin shin guards and pay $230 for them? So I remember I wanted him to block more shots.

Jamie:

So was talking to his coach one day, he was texting me. He's like, and he brought it to me, he's like, James, is there anything you want to work on? I'm like, yeah, shot blocking. I'm like, I'm like, teach him I gotta block shots, please. He's like, alright, we'll do it tonight.

Jamie:

I'm like, sweet.

Scott:

You know what's so interesting?

Jamie:

And they did. He had them blocking shots.

Scott:

No shit. They,

Jamie:

one at a time, pulled them out, and the coaches started firing pucks at them. And they're like, You have to block a

Scott:

couple before

Jamie:

you can step off the line.

Scott:

So it's so interesting.

Jamie:

I think it's cool, but it was a different I didn't think he was gonna take me seriously when I said shot blocking. I was serious about it but I wasn't.

Scott:

But there's a little bit of truth in every joke.

Jamie:

100%. But I didn't think they were actually gonna do it and they did it. Don came on like, What'd you do? He said, We blocked shots. I'm like, did you now?

Jamie:

That's so strange. Look at that. How cool is that? I'm like, how'd you do? He's like, get hurt.

Jamie:

I'm like, okay, fine.

Scott:

So when I was coaching, so one of the things that you see a lot with the very young kids and well, not even just the young kids, so let me take that back. You see if someone's winding up for a shot or fakes a shot, like Yeah. You know, players will freeze. Players will, like, you know, just kinda step out

Jamie:

of it

Scott:

and move out of the way. So but this was interesting.

Jamie:

Notorious for that.

Scott:

Okay. And so that we we all see that all the time. There's very few that are just like hungry.

Jamie:

Yeah. There was a That is true by the way.

Scott:

There was There kid on Otto's team when he was like, you know, whatever.

Jamie:

Mhmm. Squirt. Just eat pucks left and right?

Scott:

Dude, as a defenseman, he would drop to his knees in front of the goalie I've seen kids

Jamie:

do that.

Scott:

Take it to the chest.

Jamie:

Yeah. That's impressive. Sponge of the week, man.

Scott:

Like He drop to his knees and he'd eat it.

Jamie:

That's impressive. You're just a sponge.

Scott:

I was like, wow.

Jamie:

Yeah. Sponge of the week, dude.

Scott:

So those are the exceptions. But what I did was I would in my

Jamie:

coaching We shot back on college hockey podcast. Where that sponge of the week came from, yeah.

Scott:

Didn't know.

Jamie:

They're very big on blocking shots.

Scott:

Yeah, well, they're not the only ones.

Jamie:

No, I am too. My kid does not like to do it.

Scott:

But dude, I would have the kids on the ice and I would bring tennis balls out on the ice. Great idea. And so we'd do some kind of like, I dump a puck

Jamie:

Great idea.

Scott:

I would dump a puck in the corner or I'd dump a ball in the corner and have them retrieve it. They'd pass it up to me. Now I'm the offensive defenseman and they're the defensive forward. And I would say, you have to take away time and space and gonna shoot. And even with a tennis ball

Jamie:

They still

Scott:

And I wasn't shooting hard. You know what I mean? You'd still see them. They would move out of the way.

Jamie:

They do, right?

Scott:

Yeah. And so I guess part of why I'm even bringing that up is because that behavior of not wanting to hurt, first of is certainly a survival mechanism, no doubt. But even with the equipment and even

Jamie:

with the tennis equipment's ball good. All these kids have good equipment.

Scott:

A tennis ball's not gonna hurt your shins

Jamie:

No.

Scott:

Like on the ice.

Jamie:

No, you're not even gonna feel it.

Scott:

No. Yeah. But so I think let that be just put that like in the back pocket when you're about to talk to your kid about Not blocking knocking shots, yeah. Because not only do kids shy away from it if it's like a tennis ball. You know?

Jamie:

Which you would think they would

Scott:

Which you be tennis would think they wouldn't.

Jamie:

A rubber puck, I get. A frozen rubber puck,

Scott:

I These kids were still very young. Maybe like at like if you gave Dom's coach a bunch of tennis balls, I'm sure those kids would like have a field day like kind of jumping in front of them.

Jamie:

I think you're right that.

Scott:

But there's a human nature part of it of just getting out of the way that's something that might hurt, whatever.

Jamie:

Yeah. Dominic's funny. He'll dive out of the shooting lane. Like literally dive? No, I don't mean literally.

Jamie:

But he likes to skirt the shooting lane.

Scott:

Okay.

Jamie:

And then if he takes one, just happens to hit him, he's like, Dad, see the shot I blocked? I'm like, Dude, you were trying to get out the way.

Scott:

The kid just had an awful shot.

Jamie:

Like he hit you by accident. Like his shot was gonna go five feet wide right in the net and you just happened to be there. So it's funny you mentioned tennis balls. Oh my god, I can't remember how to tell this. So I have a pickleball machine.

Scott:

You have a fast pitch pitching machine?

Jamie:

I have a pickleball machine, a ball machine.

Scott:

You do? I do. Where is it?

Jamie:

It's in the basement and For real?

Scott:

Yeah. No kidding. Can I see that after the podcast?

Jamie:

Sure you can.

Scott:

Yeah. Can

Jamie:

I? You can put you can put tennis balls in it.

Scott:

You can fire them?

Jamie:

You can. So I'll I'll I have not done it yet but I told Dominic when we were talking this summer, we're on vacation. He's like, I'm like, Dominic, you need buy more shots here? He's like, yeah. He's like, I'm not scared, hockey puck.

Jamie:

I'm like, oh no? Are you not? I'm like, okay. I'm like, alright, Dom. I'm like, when we get home, I'm gonna put all your gear on and I'm gonna fire pickleballs at you from five, six feet.

Jamie:

Would that hurt?

Scott:

Would it They're wiffle ball. They are wiffle balls.

Jamie:

Yeah. So it's similar to tennis.

Scott:

They're heavier, like tenser? No.

Jamie:

No? No. It's gonna come with some speed. I'm gonna put him five feet away from him. I said, Dom, gonna pull your gear on.

Jamie:

I said, I'm gonna fire up all your shots shots to and we'll see how it goes. Yeah. We are going to do that, by the way. That is coming.

Scott:

I was watching, So in keeping consistent with Otto's fondness for, like, you know, the X Games stuff and whatever. We had we had Red Bull TV on this morning. Oh, nice. And he was watching this this Austrian biker who doesn't compete but he does like all like he does like Red Bull, falls around, does videos of like helicopter drop ins and like all kinds of crazy Extreme sports. And this guy went through like a string of some really bad like injuries.

Scott:

And one of the things that he said this morning was

Jamie:

Generally happens when

Scott:

you die Yeah, in a mean, listen, this guy knows no fear. Wild. And also so gorgeous to look at, like the scenery.

Jamie:

Well, He's probably doing some pretty intense stuff.

Scott:

But what he said was and and this is No doubt. Yeah. And this is you can put this in apply this to any scenario in in life probably. But he was just saying after all this, he's like, the best the best thing when I get back to riding after an accident Mhmm. More or less is something like this is like the first crash when getting that out of the way and getting up and remembering that I can crash and not get hurt.

Scott:

He's like that that that just you know pushes me past like, you know, the the initial fear of like getting back and getting after it.

Jamie:

Yeah.

Scott:

And I could look, you're gonna get hurt at some point blocking a shot. Like, that's gonna happen. Sure. But the more you do it like anything else and you see that you can block a shot

Jamie:

You without more getting hurt comfortable.

Scott:

Then you get more comfortable. No doubt. And so that's reps, right? It's like Like anything else. Here's another expression for your reps.

Scott:

Get you

Jamie:

scared, you realize there's nothing to be scared about and then it's easy.

Scott:

This is from Hockey Think Tank and there was a few episodes where they said reps remove doubt. Yeah, 100%.

Jamie:

Yeah. 100%. No doubt. When you do something over and over and over, Kobe Bryant said all the time, he's like, the last second jumper to win the championship or to win a game, When you do it over and over and over and over and over, you've been in that spot. It's all muscle memory.

Jamie:

It's not any different from the thousands and thousands and thousands of jump shots you've taken in the gym. Yeah. Same thing.

Scott:

It so Just happened

Jamie:

It's gonna be little less time on the clock.

Scott:

So clearly because I'm like just below Kobe in terms of my like ability.

Jamie:

Clearly.

Scott:

Clearly.

Jamie:

Clearly.

Scott:

But I so pulling on that thread a little bit. Right. So I was talking more about fear with my kids this weekend because we went to this swimming hole which was a quarry and they've got different level diving

Jamie:

High dives. Right. Yeah.

Scott:

Should have. And so the highest one is 12 feet.

Jamie:

Okay.

Scott:

Okay. But then I was also thinking about it. When Otto's looking down, let's round up a touch to five feet. Like, he's looking down from not 12, but from 17 feet.

Jamie:

Okay.

Scott:

So it appears higher than it really is just because your eyeballs are higher.

Jamie:

Sure. Sure.

Scott:

You know, so he two weeks ago we went there, he was just jumping off. He was afraid to do a flip or a back flip off Got went back there this past weekend, immediately front flipped. Yeah. Didn't get to the back flip, but I'm sure if we go another weekend Of course. We'll be

Jamie:

on the back flip. Yes.

Scott:

And so then my daughter who was so she's seven and she's never jumped off anything that high. She was intimidated to do a dive off of the two foot diving board

Jamie:

Okay.

Scott:

Even though she's like been on a swim team and dove off like swimming blocks The platform. For whatever reason. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Scott:

Like this was something to her.

Jamie:

Right.

Scott:

And and she went up there Right. And she jumped off. Mhmm. And it hurt because she landed a little funny.

Jamie:

On her rear end?

Scott:

But what I was telling what I was telling them and we were talking about like just overcoming fears and in those moments Yeah. When you're talking about reps, I said Yeah. There's a lower diving board. It was like six feet. Right.

Scott:

And not this is less to do with my daughter, but more to do with Otto. Right. And like just he would he would walk out to the very edge of like the 12 foot diving board, turn around like just on his toes. Like, know, it's kinda like you're watching the Olympics and the divers are just kinda standing getting settled on their toes like backwards. Yeah.

Scott:

He did that multiple times. And what I what I said to him, and again, everyone has their own way of dealing with things, but I was like, dude, why don't you just go down to the lower one? Go down to the lower one. Yeah. Sure.

Scott:

Do it like 10 like, I I was encouraging them to get reps Yeah. Yeah. So that the technical stuff Right. You're like, there's no doubt in your mind you can nail the technical stuff. Oh, yeah.

Scott:

And then what's interesting, what you were talking just about like Kobe and like, you know, like shooting putting yourself in that position so many times, that the mental side of it Yeah. Is like there's no doubt Otto would do that backflip. Right. No problem from a technical standpoint. Yeah.

Scott:

But there's something that he has to do between his ears The height. To get him to the place where he is so comfortable that it almost height is like

Jamie:

Is irrelevant.

Scott:

Is irrelevant. Yeah. And so that piece

Jamie:

because he's done it already.

Scott:

But that piece, I think

Jamie:

You just gotta do it once and stuff already starts to dissipate.

Scott:

Yes. Then once it do, I'm telling you once you got those first

Jamie:

couple Easier of funds easier easier.

Scott:

He would dive and hesitate and then he would do the flip. It wasn't long before he built on that initial flip. Yes. But I think it also comes like you bringing this back to hockey and forget about this Red Bull stuff. We're talking about fear and we're talking about children and we're talking about like getting past your fears.

Scott:

And could and maybe this is the difference between a practice, someone who's a practice player and doesn't show up in games. It's like what what between the ears, we I don't think as parents we can minimize just because we see our kids being able to do a skill in practice or Around the cone. Have a certain behavior that's not in a game situation. It yes. Technically, they would probably be able to do it.

Scott:

For some reason, there's like a mental side of it that is it's just not there yet. So so

Jamie:

Talk about the magical yet. Right?

Scott:

The magical yet.

Jamie:

I don't remember what episode it was, but the book, The Magical Yet, it's just not there yet. Doesn't mean it's not going to be.

Scott:

Just not yet. Right. And so anyway, that was like a it was an interesting weekend. Super proud of both my children

Jamie:

That's great.

Scott:

For doing that. They really put some fear aside and they

Jamie:

That's huge. Huge. Overcoming fear is so big for kids and it builds confidence because they see that they can get past something that they were so petrified about at some point in their life.

Scott:

Yeah. And an interesting thing that also came up, so at this place there's a lot of people who have not jumped off something 12 feet in the air before, adults. And so there's a lot of people that go out there and they're scared and they don't do it and there's Adults. Adults. And there's plenty of people that end up doing it.

Scott:

Right. There was one kid, kid, I call him a kid, but he was probably like in his thirties.

Jamie:

Oh, okay. Maybe he not a kid. Yeah. Definitely a kid.

Scott:

But maybe even younger. And he was there with a group of friends and they all started like chanting. I think his name was Phil. And they're like, Phil, Phil.

Jamie:

All the kids started chanting?

Scott:

Like, had a crowd around

Jamie:

him.

Scott:

Oh, yeah.

Jamie:

Like a bit interesting.

Scott:

And they were all trying to like it was almost like peer pressure. Yeah. Ultimately, it was peer pressure. Yeah. I see that.

Scott:

So Phil ultimately like gave in to the peer pressure and he jumped.

Jamie:

He did.

Scott:

Now I don't know if he was by himself, he would have done it anyway. Then I saw Otto and people were not not to the same magnitude, but anytime there was people or a bunch of kids who were also doing some other stuff giving him encouragement.

Jamie:

Right.

Scott:

He had to do it like on his terms. Like he wasn't I I bring that up only to say that like as a parent, you know, telling your kid ad nauseam to do the thing like that might not your kid might just might not He respond to just needs to come to it by himself on his terms. And there are gonna be kids where you could quote unquote peer pressure them or figure out a reward system that's gonna make them do it. And there are others that it's not gonna work out that way.

Jamie:

No. Listen. You're right. But I'm glad that he did it. That was huge.

Scott:

It was huge. It was pretty awesome.

Jamie:

Yeah. And that's great that that you know, I'm I'm glad I'm glad that both your kids did it actually because because I'm sure Noah was not okay with jumping off that at first.

Scott:

No. But she saw younger kids do it.

Jamie:

So she's like, I have to do this.

Scott:

It wasn't that she had to, but it gave her the belief that she was able to.

Jamie:

Good. Okay.

Scott:

Listen. But meanwhile, there's a kid there that like did like he was seven or eight.

Jamie:

He was doing like two

Scott:

parents had to tell him to like stop doing stuff they were afraid he was gonna get hurt. He had like no fear. Anyway, as I digress.

Jamie:

I bet you he blocked shots.

Scott:

Oh, dude. With no helmet on. He would take his helmet off first. Anyway.

Jamie:

Anyway. No, it's great. Right. So our podcast seems to be working for you and I. The therapy part of our podcast seems to be doing good things.

Scott:

Yes. Well, let's say this. I will say that the regular conversation about things is what's helping between us.

Jamie:

Right.

Scott:

And then So the rep is the goal of doing this. Right. But the goal of the podcast is to to to broadcast that and like share Yeah. So I mean, look, if if we weren't like sharing this with the world, this still would be very helpful having these conversations with you. By the way, yes.

Scott:

But obviously layering in the fact that we're able to and I also

Jamie:

Giving back to the hockey community.

Scott:

Yeah, no doubt and it also helps me think a bit more deeply about some of these things

Jamie:

because You're parenting.

Scott:

Well, because even like I said to you when I left the rink the other day, I went to the car and I was like this is a great thing to talk about. I know. What's what's your I

Jamie:

have no idea, by the way.

Scott:

You've never had so many fucking dings.

Jamie:

You, I mean, like, all of a sudden, it it alright. So I I don't know how my phone got off silent mode, but it's off now. It's all pickleball related.

Scott:

Like Jesus.

Jamie:

Go away until they know I'm busy.

Scott:

No. They don't.

Jamie:

Well, should.

Scott:

Oh, fuck.

Jamie:

Yeah. Sorry. Sorry. Go ahead. If you were

Scott:

saying yeah. I was going to say to turn off the dings.

Jamie:

Yes. You were saying that. We have we have a history of

Scott:

of Dings?

Jamie:

Beeps and dings on this podcast.

Scott:

We we should rename this to the hockey beep.

Jamie:

Seriously. By the way, we before we started recording, we were trying to stop the beep. Couldn't do it.

Scott:

Couldn't stop

Jamie:

the beep. So we just shut the whole thing off.

Scott:

Yeah. Shut it down. Except then your phone just it's like, what the fuck?

Jamie:

I I'm telling you. It's like we can't get away from That's people texting me and things popping up on like a You're so

Scott:

popular. You're so cool.

Jamie:

What can I tell you?

Scott:

Pickleball. I'm gonna play pickleball.

Jamie:

So what is our topic for today? Well, shall we go into our topic for today? How much time did we just blow, by the way?

Scott:

Like, fifty minutes.

Jamie:

Do we really? Yeah. Alright. So we wanna do a quick, quick topic for everybody?

Scott:

I don't know if but this is more than a quick topic.

Jamie:

It is more than a quick topic.

Scott:

How about this?

Jamie:

Should we just go right into our hot dog thing?

Scott:

Why don't we shelf this week's topic for, like, the next

Jamie:

We can.

Scott:

Episode? Because it's an important one. And just to go ahead. You go.

Jamie:

It no. It it is an important one. You're right about that. It definitely is an important one. Maybe what we'll do is we'll so obviously next week we have the Crazy Hockey Dads mini camp coming.

Jamie:

So if you guys last episode we mentioned that next week we are going to release instead of one episode midweek, early to midweek, we're going to release five Monday through Friday.

Scott:

Shorter ones, yeah.

Jamie:

Shorter ones and hopefully they will kind of compound on top of the other. So you need to listen to all five, Right? And this is going to kind of get you guys ready for the opening of the youth hockey season.

Scott:

Oh, Lord, save us.

Jamie:

I know, right? No, it'll be good, though. So you know what? So we'll roll that topic into one of those five.

Scott:

Is it real funny?

Jamie:

I don't where it's gonna be. I'll find spot

Scott:

for you. Funny little so it must have been like two or three years ago. Was walking to a rink before a game with another one of Otto's teammates' fathers. Right. And on the ice was like a learn to skate.

Scott:

And the dad looks at me like, we we probably we were probably were he just we weren't even talking, I don't think. Yeah. Like, at the moment. And as we walk in, he looks at me and he looks at the rink and he looks at me and he goes, suckers.

Jamie:

Dummies. You guys have no idea what you're Suckers. Bunch of idiots. Yeah. Anyway.

Jamie:

Yeah. By the way, I was in pure hockey yesterday.

Scott:

Speaking of suckers.

Jamie:

Speaking of suckers, I was in pure hockey was it yesterday or the day before? Was yesterday. No. Was yesterday. It was yesterday.

Scott:

Yesterday. It was yesterday.

Jamie:

No? No. It was Friday. It wasn't yesterday. It was Friday.

Jamie:

And can I just tell you that place, number one, is absolutely jammed with stuff? All the new stuff is out. The shelves are packed. I mean, there's so much shit everywhere.

Scott:

It's like Christmas come early.

Jamie:

It's ridiculous and the place was jamming with people.

Scott:

I'm sure.

Jamie:

So busy, so busy. Dude, this game, it's an awesome game. There's so much money to be made in this game. I mean, it's like the amount of gear and shit and stuff and training tools and this and that and it's just wall to wall. It's awesome but it's ridiculous.

Jamie:

Don picks up the new Tru. So Tru's Nuke Sticks, the Tru Smoke. Smoke? Yeah. He's like dad.

Jamie:

Yeah. I guess it's replacing the Project Action, the Hazardous.

Scott:

That's like when Bauer came out with the Twitch.

Jamie:

That was last year.

Scott:

These names are these are young people's names for sticks. And

Jamie:

so Dom picks up this one. And I think he saw the new Trigger. Remember the CCM and So, the the Trigger 10. So, it's funny. They're pushing it as so you know how you have the low, mid and high kick

Scott:

It's a hybrid.

Jamie:

It is a ultra low kick point. Not low, Scott.

Scott:

It's ultra Ultra low. Yeah, it is.

Jamie:

So if you

Scott:

If you need the

Jamie:

ultra low, then this is something you want. If you're a low kick point kinda guy, then you really need this stick because it's ultra.

Scott:

Ultra low. Could Ultra low. Dude, I need one just to see the difference.

Jamie:

Rip chord 10. Ultra low kick point. I was like, now I think the nine is out this year and the 10 is I don't know if it's coming next year or the 10 is this year. Yeah. But it was being there was a thing that said ultra low.

Jamie:

Dom's like, dad, ultra low.

Scott:

Ultra. Just throw a buzzword in front of it.

Jamie:

Ultra low.

Scott:

Lordy, lordy.

Jamie:

I'm telling you. It's like but place is jammed, Scott.

Scott:

Dude. I mean, that's not surprising.

Jamie:

And again, at Dom's practice yesterday, everybody knew skates on.

Scott:

You know what else though? I mean, but there's also Are they? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Scott:

There aren't so many but there also aren't so many like those like hockey kinda outlet stores around us. There's not too too many.

Jamie:

There's two.

Scott:

Right. So not too many.

Jamie:

By us. Two. And they're not close to us. I mean, the one is forty minutes, half hour, forty minutes.

Scott:

Like, are kind Yeah. Of

Jamie:

No. You're right about that.

Scott:

That's Yeah.

Jamie:

No. They're similar similar distance. But you're right. It is kinda like Christmas come early. I mean, it's

Scott:

For children. Oh my god. And adults.

Jamie:

Even for adults.

Scott:

Yeah. Breaking the bank in August. Yeah. Awesome. Right before December.

Jamie:

Yeah. $230 gloves. Thank you very much. That are sparkling white. Oh.

Jamie:

I don't know about that, but my wife was there and he's been asking me for white gloves for a while. Yeah. And I've been telling him no Yeah. For months now.

Scott:

And then what happened? What kind of message are you sending to a child that they beg enough and they'll go cave? So he needs Where's your where's your backbone?

Jamie:

He's a dick.

Scott:

I know it's too big. No. Mean, I don't know.

Jamie:

Listen, hey. Look. No. I'm a dick because I caved. That's why

Scott:

I'm Oh, a yeah. Yeah. I would agree with that.

Jamie:

Yeah. So he needs new gloves. He's going from a 10 to an 11. No, he does. They have holes in them.

Jamie:

He needs

Scott:

new Okay. Yeah, yeah, I got you.

Jamie:

I mean, he really needs new gloves. And he needs larger gloves. So, okay, fine.

Scott:

No doubt.

Jamie:

So he's been trying to get me to buy him white gloves for a while now. Okay? First, it was the tinted bubble, which I said absolutely not to.

Scott:

Absolutely not. That's a hard no. Until when?

Jamie:

Until Until forever. Are you sure about that? I'm never doing a tinted fishbowl. Never. I'm never getting him a tinted fishbowl.

Jamie:

Never.

Scott:

Okay. Okay. Mark, I'm making a note here.

Jamie:

Please do. And you can tell me I'm Dom, just get black. Just do all black, ball black, perfect, right? Just all black or team color.

Scott:

Or team colors.

Jamie:

Either one, right? Either one. So he goes and a lot of stuff has disappeared off the walls as well because obviously people are in there buying stuff. So there's one pair of white gloves on the junior wall. And of course they're his size.

Jamie:

Of course they are because how else would it have played out?

Scott:

But that's a clear sign

Jamie:

So he has to have they're 11s, right? So they're 11s and he comes over and he's like, Dang, look. So I'm looking at the black and white digital camoed ones from Bauer. Something

Scott:

not Less all white.

Jamie:

Right, exactly. So he comes over with the white and I'm like, Dom, no. I'm like, Just let me look at any other color. I'm like, Just buy anything else. I'm like, Just anything else.

Jamie:

He's like, Dad, look how comfortable he is. He puts his finger on him, he's moving his hand around. I'm like, put your hand in this. And I did and he's not wrong, they, which they all are nowadays, the technology is very impressive where the kids are moving their fingers like it's nothing.

Scott:

I'll tell you this much though, that same level of comfort comes in different colors.

Jamie:

Correct, that's what I said. So you're 100% right, yes it does. So I'm like down, is there any other color but that? I don't care what it is, I'm like any other color but white. So my wife turns to me and she goes, God damn it.

Jamie:

She turns to me and she goes, Jamie, I thought this was supposed to be fun. See? I go, what do you mean? She goes, if it's supposed to be fun, shouldn't we get him what he wants? I look at her and I'm like, son of a so I so I so I pull fucking my gloves.

Jamie:

It's terrible.

Scott:

It goes really well with the home jersey.

Jamie:

It's terrible. I said to him, I go I go, Dominic, I go, I'm just gonna tell you right now. I go I go, you're buying white gloves. I go, I I go, You cannot buy white gloves and not play well.

Scott:

Oh Jesus.

Jamie:

You can't not back check because you're going to get chirped, period, just for having white gloves. So if I were you, if you're going to do this and you're going go open this door, you need to play well. Right.

Scott:

You need a gear.

Jamie:

That's what I told him. I was obviously very tongue in cheek but I wasn't being serious but I told him you might want to get your rear end in gear if you're gonna buy white gloves. So he bought white

Scott:

gloves. First of

Jamie:

I'll say this, I could find him on the ice when he's practicing and then he will tell you.

Scott:

He's got sty And that's important to 13 year olds. Sty is important. It is important

Jamie:

actually, which is And a

Scott:

so speaking of sty, guess what made its way back onto Otto's helmet? His cage hang? No. No cage hang.

Jamie:

His stickers.

Scott:

He got new helmet stickers, new team. Okay. So that's new. Right. One last guess.

Scott:

I don't expect you to remember this, but

Jamie:

On to his helmet. Hold on. Don't tell me. So he had something on his helmet that he took off?

Scott:

I picked him up from hockey camp earlier in the summer and his entire team had

Jamie:

Oh, they had tape on their helmets.

Scott:

But what kind of tape is the

Jamie:

Clearly, Howie's hockey tape.

Scott:

Flame flame

Jamie:

tape. No. Crazy 10. Sorry. Crazy

Scott:

Flame tape. No. Now he's got Flame tape.

Jamie:

Although, could buy it from Howie's hockey. Crazy 10.

Scott:

Flame tape is now back on his helmet.

Jamie:

So it was on the chin strap, right?

Scott:

It didn't make its way to the chin strap, but it is on the top of his helmet. You know how Michigan has Not

Jamie:

in the same design, but

Scott:

it's more

Jamie:

like just down

Scott:

the middle.

Jamie:

It's more an He's got like auto state the Michigan stripes. So he may put it back on. Yeah. Did he have a role that he could Does he have a role in it?

Scott:

If he does, I don't know where it is.

Jamie:

Well, if he does, you should find him and

Scott:

Well, throw it I think maybe someone gave it to him at practice. I don't know. Anyway, but I also saw

Jamie:

I forgot he had flame tape. That's right.

Scott:

But so I saw this yesterday.

Jamie:

Anybody who listened to our episode, Scott hates flame tape,

Scott:

which It's I not even just the flame tape. It's like all the graphic tapes. Like, it's great for, like, the younger much younger

Jamie:

There's a great for younger.

Scott:

For honestly 100%. But to Nancy's point, like, shouldn't this be fun? And you know what my my thought about the the the graphic tape is like, but it's not serious enough. It just should be black or white because that's what purists are traditionalist. Anyway That is true.

Scott:

So but I didn't say anything. And I'm not gonna say anything. Gonna let him have his fun and have his thigh.

Jamie:

Yeah. Cage Hang will

Scott:

say something about because it has

Jamie:

It's probably a safety issue.

Scott:

Safety

Jamie:

issue. Yeah. We've talked about that.

Scott:

But Yeah. Yeah.

Jamie:

Oh, that's funny, dude. That's actually very funny. Hey, listen. You want to hear my hockey rant? Go.

Jamie:

And I don't have a good way to fix this either, the hockey rant. But my hockey rant is about shitty referees at the youth level.

Scott:

That's a major can of worms.

Jamie:

Huge because crazy hockey parents Yes. I'm sure have flipped out on these referees before and I'm sure has made a lot of them not want to do this anymore.

Scott:

That's no secret.

Jamie:

Yeah. So my rant is about really shitty refs and I don't think there's a good fix for this by the way. But my rant is about shitty refs and they're all over youth hockey, all

Scott:

over. Yes.

Jamie:

Some are good. Don't get me wrong. But most of them no. No. No.

Jamie:

I say most of because that that's not correct either. But there's a lot of them that are really bad.

Scott:

Okay.

Jamie:

I mean, really bad.

Scott:

But there's like So we've all encountered poor officiating. Oh,

Jamie:

yeah. I'm not just talking about just missing a call.

Scott:

And because that happens. There's a there's a spectrum for everything. Yes. There's a spectrum for everything and there's definitely some on the end that are like, should probably not be doing this. Most definitely.

Scott:

And and that is for real. Yes. It is. And they exist.

Jamie:

Oh,

Scott:

yeah. However, I think like, okay. You can put the like that bucket, if you focused on that bucket, like, you know, there's I think part of the problem is that there, and I don't know this firsthand, but just from what I've read and heard and whatever is that there's a shortage of refs.

Jamie:

Shortage, big time

Scott:

And why is there a shortage? In part because of crazy hockey parents.

Jamie:

I think the fact that they probably don't get paid a whole heck of a lot. True. And they probably we've all seen them take abuse from lunatics in the stands.

Scott:

So why would you want to do that?

Jamie:

Well, that's what I'm saying. Why would you want to do that? I understand why there's a shortage of refs. I get it. They've probably no, I don't want say it.

Jamie:

A lot of crazy parents and the lack of money has probably if anybody knows, please drop us a line because I would love to hear more about this. I would think that they would have pushed a lot of the good refs out of the game because why are you coming to a rink on your Saturday and Sunday and taking abuse versus $50 $75.100 It's not like it's worth it.

Scott:

The other part But

Jamie:

then, unfortunately, it then leads to I don't want say unsafe things on the ice, but the main part of a referee is to keep the kids safe. Wouldn't you agree with that?

Scott:

I think that's a major part, especially at the younger levels. Definitely. No, all up and down. I shouldn't even say that, but I think that the refereeing at the younger levels, you're going to necessarily get the most qualified refs to ref the lower age groups because they don't necessarily need the highest level official to call that game.

Jamie:

You don't even call penalties. I mean, especially when you talk about like mites. It's for the most part.

Scott:

Right. And so and because of but like, everyone has to learn somewhere. Right. And like if anyone thinks that like your 10 year old or 13 year old or 14 year old for that matter is getting like a seasoned official game in and game out, you're wrong.

Jamie:

Of course not.

Scott:

And so to some extent, there needs to be a space where parents like, first of all, accept that, recognize it. And then they have to make a hard choice probably between the the amount of, like, hate they wanna spew versus what the right thing to do is. And I I think that Yeah. You you in like, just like a a player is not gonna be able to influence a call once it's been made. Right?

Scott:

A parent after the fact is not gonna make that

Jamie:

You're not that gonna make change

Scott:

his mind. That call or non call It's not gonna change. Reverse.

Jamie:

Yeah. So it's like You freaking out from the stands is not gonna do anything.

Scott:

So then

Jamie:

they make you look stupid.

Scott:

This is something that we should do for next And I'm glad you brought this up. We should actually dig into this a little bit just to see like what what channels are there that a parent could take or use in order to voice concerns about officiating and just Without

Jamie:

screaming during the game?

Scott:

Yeah. Like like, listen. I don't know if it would fall on deaf ears, but is that you write into USA hockey? Like, where are you what are you doing in in in practice if you're gonna be a responsible, rational, like, solid human being and you have real concerns

Jamie:

Yeah.

Scott:

And it's not just you being like a lunatic

Jamie:

Right.

Scott:

Like, where what's your form?

Jamie:

Where do you go? What's your forum to

Scott:

voice that?

Jamie:

What's your avenue?

Scott:

And Yeah. What are the potential avenue? Well, that's what I'm saying. For next episode,

Jamie:

we should run that gonna fall on deaf ears. But let's look into that.

Scott:

We should run that back.

Jamie:

Yeah. Let's look at it because I'm curious, actually. I'm actually curious where that would go. I would hope that there is an outlet to go through. If see something egregious and a ref is just not keeping the kids safe,

Scott:

Maybe

Jamie:

they You're going see even something along those lines.

Scott:

Maybe they don't even hear anything from parents. Maybe it always has to come from an organization.

Jamie:

I don't know. That's a good question. I don't know. If any of you are refs or you know one, please, absolutely drop us a line. I am very curious to hear more about that.

Jamie:

Very

Scott:

curious. And to that end, just to follow-up on your rant about the really poor officiating, the officiating that falls on the extreme end of the should not be doing this curve. Yeah. Like as what what's the how how how can you be heard as someone who has experienced poor officiating? And I don't know if that's something that the league, the organization, USA Hockey even entertains from parents because they must get

Jamie:

say probably not.

Scott:

Probably not. That's probably That suggestion box got, like, you know, taken away pretty quick probably.

Jamie:

I would think so. Yes.

Scott:

But Yeah. We should look into it. Look into it. Yeah.

Jamie:

Yeah. Yeah. We'd appreciate it. Alright. Nice, man.

Scott:

Nice, dude.

Jamie:

Good. Sorry. Be one of our shorter ones. I actually I'm sure no? I wouldn't I don't know.

Jamie:

No. You're looking oh, alright. You're looking at the time. You I don't know.

Scott:

Time flies when having fun.

Jamie:

We took our clock down off the screen so you guys don't hear the beep. So so I can't see it. But it sounds like we are still at a healthy number.

Scott:

Yeah, we're solid. We are still at a healthy

Jamie:

All so everybody get ready. Look for our Crazy Hockey Dads mini camp coming next week.

Scott:

Yes.

Jamie:

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, you're going to get an episode from us every day starting next week, the twenty fifth?

Scott:

No, not starting next week.

Jamie:

The twenty fifth,

Scott:

next What?

Jamie:

Not this week, next week, the twenty fifth. This week you guys are gonna get one. The week of the eighteenth you're gonna get this episode.

Scott:

Yes.

Jamie:

And the following Monday, twenty five, twenty six, twenty seven, twenty eight, twenty nine, which is gearing up for the season for probably all of us. Yes. Right? You guys are gonna get the Crazy Hockey Dads mini camp. One episode a week for five straight days.

Scott:

Imagine that. Talk about Christmas coming early. Seriously. Holy shit.

Jamie:

I mean, come on. It's gonna be awesome.

Scott:

Holy jeez.

Jamie:

You're not kidding. Absolutely. That's exactly I'm

Scott:

gonna go home and watch Elf.

Jamie:

Oh my god. When he gets hit by the taxi, it's one of the funniest it's one of the absolutely funniest scenes. Dude, my kids my kids are younger. They die. They would just rewind it every time to watch them get creamed by

Scott:

the taxi. That's funny.

Jamie:

And speaking of, that's coming up shortly, by the way.

Scott:

What? Christmas?

Jamie:

That's gonna be it before you know it.

Scott:

Christmas? Yeah. Totally.

Jamie:

I'm already seeing Halloween in stores.

Scott:

Oh, for real?

Jamie:

Dude, my wife already has Halloween out around my house. What? Yeah. She's nuts. Loves Halloween.

Jamie:

Loves it. Really? Yeah. You'll see it.

Scott:

Yeah. Okay. I'll experience it firsthand. Yes. You will.

Scott:

Alright.

Jamie:

Alright. So that's it for today, guys. Thank you so much. Everybody, please go leave a review if you like this. The reviews really help us on the analytics side of this.

Jamie:

So again, Howie's Hockey, Krazy ten, the season is starting. Go grab your tape, laces. They have awesome gear. Use our discount code, Crazy10, at Howie's Hockey. They have awesome stuff.

Jamie:

I'm sure you guys have seen their logo in every pro shop in this country and everywhere else. Their stuff's awesome. Pro stride, eat Angelo Serce, CHD10 for Angelo's clinics and his camps. He is an awesome power skating coach. And then API, Eric, mentioned Crazy Hockey Dads.

Jamie:

You guys get a discount. You guys want to 10 use percent. Yeah. Guys, if you want to use some analytics to teach some of your kids off the ice, maybe a good tool for you guys. So thank you again so much, Scott.

Jamie:

This was fun.

Scott:

Yep. Likewise, dude.

Jamie:

And the next episode from us you guys will get will be episode one of our Crazy Hockey Dads mini camp.

Scott:

Rock and roll.

Jamie:

Here we go. And remember everybody, youth hockey is not just a sport. It's a lifestyle.

Scott:

It is a lifestyle, dude.

Jamie:

See you.