Rinkside

I'm sittng in a cold, cavernous, steel building on a Tuesday evening in February, watching 12 year old boys learn and practice the fine skills of our true national sport, hockey, and I wonder if they know how lucky they are. They aren't the top level of players at this age, these boys are one level below 'the best', which at this age may be due to size, strength, desire or, sadly, parental political interference, and they know this, and I'm sure it plays on their minds at times, but they work hard (most of them) and skate fast and enjoy the hitting and physicaity that this level of the game allows them.

I watch as they pass and shoot and work through the drills designed to help them improve their basic skills, and those drawn up to accelerate the team based aspects of the game, and its easy to forget that this is indeed a game they are playing, as the drills could be mistaken by an outsider to be some form of punishment, and the shouts of the coaches, perhaps verbal abuse, if taken out of context.

Games are supposed to be fun, enjoyable pastimes; distractions from reality and not forced tests of physical endurance and intestinal fortitude. But our society, no longer the warrior classes of ancient history, still finds a thrill in victory - be it a game of checkers vs a sibling, or with more civic pride and bragging rights on the line: professional sports franchises vying for the National Title. But there should be a difference between what is 'expected' of an employee (player) employed by a professional business enterprise (the team) versus kids playing and learning a game for physical fitness and personal enjoyment. Unfortunately that line gets blurry the older the kids get, or the more skilled the players are within a given age group.

So the governing bodies draft codes of conduct for coaches, players and spectators, ensuring everyone involved in amateur athletics understands and behaves properly for the betterment of all involved - but that's the utopian ideal. The reality is usually much different, with sports becoming a way of life, and other interests, hobbies and pursuits getting left behind in the athletic wake. A healthy balance is what is needed; our goal should be to create independent, critical thinking, productive members of society, who can contribute to the greater whole. Travel, the arts, educational, religious and cultural studies should be encouraged as well as athletics if we as a society are to continue pushing boundaries and creating positive, lasting, caring change.

A slapshot rattles of the crossbar behind the goalie, and the puck ricochets up and off the plexiglas behind the net, and I'm brought back to the present reality. The shooter, frustrated that he has missed his intended target, slams his stick on the ice and hangs his head as he swoops behind the goal, retrieves the errant puck and returns back to the drill in progress, a few good natured jokes and jabs are thrown his way as he joins the rest of his teammates, and I smile a contented smile, having been on both sides of the exchange before.

I realize that one can't dismiss these kinds of experiences - failure at a task brings about a focussed energy and a desire to improve. These are life lessons in short form. It isn't just about physical skill and execution. There's more happening out on the ice than you first realize - and even one who has played and practiced as these young men are tonight sometimes forgets that.

They're learning the subtlties of teamwork and dedication. Of hard work and self discipline; checking ones ego at the door for the good of the team. And while few of them currently realize the value of this education they are receiving on these winter evenings, they will someday, and then they too will look back fondly as they sit in the bleachers watching their sons and daughters play this sport, or any sport for that matter, and smile and wonder if those kids know how lucky they are...