Some of you may know that several times a week I am a volunteer coach for the MAHA Mini-mites hockey team.  There is about 54 kids ages 4-6.  At the beginning of the year we start out with about 25 kids that have never skated before.  In fact, that first practice is the very first time they've put skates on. google map to real pro systems

This is a little comical, and very stressful. Yes, stressful, for the kids as well as the coaches.  Kids learn fast, but that first night and in the next few weeks, we do see a few tears, a lot of laughing and several very big smiles. 

Kids are cool, although their attention span is a little short.  We do all kinds of drills to teach the fundamentals.  Here is one of Coach Doug's favorites, Hungry Brown Bear:

We start laying down on our backs sleeping, Do you smell anything?  Let's sit up and see, I don't see anything, but I can smell something, I think it's coming from over there.  Do you smell it?  Lets crawl over there, be careful make sure its safe.  Smell it, I do, it's making me hungry.  Lets stand up and see what it is.  Stand Tall look over the bushes.  I see fish, hey there is a lot of fish for all of us, lets go get them.

And we all skate to a spot about ten feet away and drop the the ice and eat fish.

Sounds silly, well the kids love it and the stress falls away.  They think we're really cool.

I learned a very valuable lesson while doing this drill with the kids.  You can have fun being silly, what ever you're doing have fun.