Hockey players start young, with many kids taking to the ice almost as soon as they can walk. Organized hockey leagues group players according to age to ensure competitive balance and keep the game as safe as possible for all participants. The squirt age group includes players 9 and 10 years old, marking an informative time in a young hockey player's career.
Age Groups
While hockey programs exist to instruct kids as young as 3, organized leagues typically start with mites, which features kids 7 and 8 years old. Mites then graduate to become squirts. Once a player turns 11, he advances to peewee hockey, which includes players 11 and 12. Bantam hockey involves 13- and 14-year-olds, serving as the final step before high school hockey.
Skating
Once they reach the squirts level, hockey players should have a basic grasp of the game's rules and skills. Squirts must build on what they learned at the mites level and continue to improve. When it comes to skating, squirts should possess solid edge control and be able to perform a control stop, a one-foot stop and a backward stop. They also should be able to execute forward and backward crossovers.
Passing
Squirt players need to progress both in making passes and receiving them. Players should be confident receiving passes on their forehand, on their backhand and even as they are moving. Besides being able to make all standard push and snap passes, this age group should learn how to make saucer passes from either the forehand or backhand side.
Shooting
Squirt players still aren't really strong enough to take slap shots. Instead, squirts should focus on improving their wrist shot and backhand. At this age level, players also start to learn how to screen goaltenders, deflect shots and collect rebounds in front of the net. Knowing these skills helps players develop into well-rounded goal scorers.
Goaltending
Because of their position's unique demands, goaltenders tend to take longer to develop than forwards and defensemen. Squirt goalies need to continue working on the basic goal-tending stance until it becomes natural. They also should learn how to perform a parallel shuffle and a lateral T-glide to guarantee proper movement in the goal crease. Other necessary goal-tending skills for this age group include the two-pad stack and the butterfly knee drop.
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