That's what we're trying to do through hockey. The entire hockey program runs on volunteer coaches, and parents are paramount to the success of any program. So when a child starts hockey at the age of four, five or six years, we give the parents a talk. We try to get them to see they are entering hockey for the same reason they would be taking up any other sporting or cultural activity. You put your child into music lessons because you want them to learn music and enjoy it for a lifetime. You put your children into hockey or sport for the same reasons, and at ages four, five, and six the parents seem to buy into that and saying that yes, they're putting their little child into this and he will learn skills and have fun. It's going to be non-competitive, and everybody is in it for the right reasons.
Somehow through the years it becomes more and more competitive and more and more elite, but we continue to pound away at the thought that you start playing sport for fitness, fun, and health reasons and you can play it for a lifetime. I'm in my sixties and I play old timers hockey. There is a whole bunch of us out there enjoying the camaraderie, the fitness, and the fun of it. We're trying to transfer that kind of thinking to the beginner programs.
Also, when we run practices for the introduction of players, what we call the initiation program, we use a variety of teaching aids. We don't just use a hockey stick and puck. We use soccer balls where they hit the ball with their hands or feet. We use different obstacles that they go around, over or through. We're trying to develop a total athlete. We're trying to develop a healthy attitude in terms of the players and the parents. We're trying to have people involved in the sport for a lifetime, and if some of those people happen to have that special competitive ingredient in their heart that they want to become an elite player, then they'll surface sometime in their late teens, but we want enough programs that you can choose your place.
There should be competitive elite programs and recreation programs and everything in between so that, as a player, you don't have to quit at some point in time because you're not competitive. You can find a place where you can continue to enjoy the sport for a lifetime.