The Scheduling Rigidity of Hockey

I've had at least one kid in hockey, full time, since 2015.

This many years in, a lot of it is routine.

We just "know" where and when to be and have a really solid grasp on when things end.

While our family schedule appears overwhelming, it's actually pretty easy to manage effectively.

I never really appreciated that fact...until recently.

See, hockey involves ice time and ice time is expensive and, as a result, it's broken up into very specific time windows.

In our neck of the woods, it's usually 1 hour or 90-minute windows.

If practice starts at 7:00pm...you know you're done at 8:00 or 8:30.

Without a doubt.

Cause another group will push you off the ice if you linger...they PAID for that ice. Get off it.

Don't upset the figure skaters...or the zamboni drivers... Bad move, all around.

So, like, where there's a start time, there's always an end time too.

There is no gray area.

As a hockey family, if Duncan has a game in Boston at 10am and Henrik has a game on Manhattan at 5pm...I can do it. (While Mom takes Emmet to his noon and 3:00pm doubleheader in Burlington, Vermont.)

Long day for everyone involved, sure, but totally do-able.

Thanks to the "scheduled" ice times.

But now with the kids going to the gym for workouts and also dabbling in soccer, well, I'm all out of sorts.

I've been conditioned to thinking things take exactly 60 minutes...or 90 minutes.

That's unique to hockey.

The gym, we've found, can take 45 minutes...or it can take two hours.

They have personal trainers that prepare a regimen for them so it's not like an inconsistent "pace" thing on the kids' part.

And, yeah, if it's really busy in there, sometimes they need to wait to get access to certain equipment and that can eat up a little time...but, yeah, there is certainly not a "hard" end time.

It's like baseball, they finish when they finish.

I love that concept, in my head, but it's horrible when it comes to scheduling.

Soccer, we've found is much the same.

Lots of start times...never any end times.

Sometimes he's at the field for 2+ hours.

Sometimes I get a text -- pick me up -- 45 minutes after I drop him off.

Sometimes he rolls in the door after about an hour having gotten a ride home from an older teammate.

And it's this fluidity that I think contributes to non-hockey families amazement, when they see our google calendar, that we can somehow manage having three "travel" hockey players playing for three different programs out of three different buildings and somehow not miss anything.

I'll tell you why we're able to do it.

Cause hockey schedules are awesome!

Where there's a start time, there's always an end time too.

If you don't already appreciate that part of hockey, you should!

Oh, and while we're on the topic of hockey schedules and non-hockey families...there's a legendary "myth" out there that I don't necessarily want to debunk...but it's hardly accurate.

I still often here stuff like, "Wow, those 4am practices must be rough..."

I played hockey, poorly, as a kid. I was born in the 1970's.

I never once had a 4am practice. Neither have my kids.

Total myth, this day in age.

Six in the morning? Sure.

Five? Maybe.

Four? No.

Rinks have staff -- someone has to unlock the door, someone has to resurface the ice.

Four AM isn't happening...from the business standpoint.

If anything, it's the other way around -- we once had a 10pm game for 9-year olds. Tournament, sure, and certainly not a regular occurance...but stepping off the ice after 9pm on a weeknight is definitely a common occurance.

Five AM practices are generally high school aged kids getting a practice in, having time to go home, shower, eat, get ready, and then get to school.

And it's usually staggered, not daily.

Just think, there could be four high school teams utilizing the same sheet of ice. After school, the rink has the 3:00pm slot and the 4:00pm slot available.

That would support two teams...but what about the other two?

They can't get ice after 5pm on a weeknight, usually, because that ice is all booked up by youth programs or learn to skate sessions.

Mens league eats up the 9pm and 10pm time slots.

To make room, they start offering 6am ice to the high school teams.

If the demand is there, 5am is a possibility too...and the teams will generally rotate who gets what time slot.

The Falcons girl's team isn't getting hosed with 5am practices everyday of the week.

That said, being a morning person, I would absolutely love to start every day at the rink!

But, yeah, 4am practices aren't a thing. And haven't been for at least four decades...

And I think the "concept" of ice time is where things have changed over that span -- ice is a business. There aren't many "municipal" rinks left. There aren't idle sheets of ice available if a rink is being run properly -- it's all scheduled and paid for.

Like, you can't even just "use" the baseball fields at a local high school anymore -- you're supposed to reserve them.

Maybe back in the 1970's, you could roll in at 4am, turn on the lights, and hop on the ice...but those days are ancient history at this point.

Actually, you could probably have done that in the 1980's too. My home rink back then, which eventually turned into an NHL practice facility, was simply surrounded by a very climbable chain link fence.

And I knew where the lightswitch was too.

Ahhh, the olden times...when trespassing wasn't a concern...and neither were lawsuits...

Agree? Disagree? Let me know -- I love the feedback from all angles!

Chris Rutsch

Hockey Dad

Year round, I spend a significant amount of time and money transporting my three boys to and from freezing cold ice rinks. Not because I expect them to make it to the NHL but because I know the rigorous youth hockey experience will serve them well in the future.