How To Play Hockey

As a child, I was extremely active and participated in many sports, however, there is no question that my main source of physical activity was hockey. Like many other children from my community in Kingston, hockey has been a true passion of mine for as long as I can remember. My father was the one who introduced hockey into my life at a young age, as he did for my older brother Andrew as well. Growing up, my father would dedicate many winter days and nights building and maintaining an outdoor rink in our backyard. The three of us would spend countless hours back there after school and on weekends throughout the winter. Our backyard rink allowed me to foster the skills I needed to excel in ice hockey as a child and I was eager and determined …show more content…
Playing top tier hockey as a child was difficult, as it requires a significant time commitment for practices, games, and traveling, as well as the perpetual dedication to improving each year. Our team would generally practice three hours a week and play two games on the weekend. We would travel to play teams from Ottawa to Toronto on a weekly basis and participate in tournaments all over Ontario and the northern part of the United States throughout the year. Hockey was a true commitment as a child but I loved every moment of it. Even though the season would end around April, hockey never stopped for me nor my teammates. Our team would have tryouts for the following year a few weeks after the season ended and it was essential to continue practicing and improving. Our coaches encouraged us to participate in recreational ball hockey leagues and off-ice training to increase our skill, physical strength, and endurance, however, my preferred method of off-ice physical activity was street hockey. A majority of my close friends in my neighborhood did not play ice hockey with me in the winter, and I truly loved to play street hockey with them after school and throughout the summer. Street hockey was a fun way to stay involved with the game off the ice and allowed all my friends regardless of age or skill to play together simply for the love of the game.
Hockey continues to be my main source of physical activity …show more content…
As a child, I was always one of the shortest members of my team, regardless of which sport I played. In a majority of the sports I played, this limited my ability be as physical as some of my teammates, however, it motivated me to be more agile and faster than my opponents. In sports such as hockey, lacrosse, and football, I believed it was essential for me to be quick therefore I usually played and excelled at positions associated with speed such as midfield in lacrosse and running back in football. Other structural constraints that shaped my movements and participation in physical activity are injuries. Throughout my childhood, I received many injuries that limited my ability to participate in physical activity, such as a broken wrist and pinky finger. At the beginning of grade nine, I tore my meniscus, which ultimately limited my playing time in hockey, football, and lacrosse that year. I have also received roughly 4 major concussions due to hockey and football and as a result, I needed to take time off physical activities until I was better. This leads me to how functional constraints have shaped my development and physical activity. Functional individual constraints are referring to the behavioural aspects of an individual. For example, after receiving my third concussion I was very nervous and