Hockey mornings in Beijing
Many of the big sports stories I expect to come out of China in the next few years will be about winter sports. Beijing and Zhangjiakou are hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics, and Xi Jinping has announced a goal of 300 million participants in winter sports in China. Hockey is a marquee event at the Olympics, so it has been getting quite a bit of attention lately in China. The KHL is already established in Beijing, and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman recently visited the capital to announce their planned activities in Beijing and Shanghai. There is going to be a lot more, and fairly soon, if hockey is going to be well-represented among those 300 million.
This spring Brigid is doing her part for Xi's current Chinese Dream.
Among the initiatives in China to support the ambitious goal of creating a nation of winter sports enthusiasts, Canada's The First Shift Program has entered the Chinese market. Sports Beijing, the sports club to which we have belonged since our move north in 2009, is a sponsoring organization.
Brigid and Myles had already planned on playing baseball this spring, but we were surprised to hear that Sports Beijing was offering hockey again. They used to have a team, years ago, but it fizzled out. Now with a cooperating organization to back them up, it looked like Sports Beijing was back in the hockey game again. Myles was, unfortunately, too old for The First Shift offerings, but Brigid happily joined up in their Learn to Skate program.
She was already quite the fan of hockey, and especially of Amanda Kessel. I hadn't a chance to blog about it (but I did tweet!), but back in January one of my sisters and her daughter joined my family in Buffalo to watch Amanda Kessel's New York Riveters play the Buffalo Beauts. Kessel was a scratch, unfortunately, but it was a great time. At that point, Brigid was only looking forward to skating on our pond for Chinese New Year, not having the opportunity to learn hockey herself.
So far, we are pleased with our First Shift experience. There have been hiccups, of course, as this is a new program. There are kinks to work out. For our family, though, it has been fun to watch Brigid grow in courage and confidence. She already could skate, but not like a hockey player. I really like how they are emphasizing a strong foundation of the basics.
Some of the drills challenge her.
And some are ridiculously fun.
When I asked Myles if he would be okay with Brigid picking up a second sport, and one quite dear to us as hockey, he indicated he was fine with it. He liked hockey, enjoyed listening to the radio feeds in the morning, loved going to games with me, but he wasn't quite a fan of playing a contact sport. That's one of the reasons he still played exclusively baseball; only in rare situations do players collide. He tried one lacrosse practice last year, and enjoyed the skills portion. Once he realized that collisions were just as much a part of lacrosse as the stick handling, he decided it wasn't for him.
Fine with me. Sports benefit from having both participants and fans.
When Brigid registered for The First Shift back in February, there were only two cities in China with participating programs, Beijing (through Sports Beijing) and Xiamen. I checked the website today, and there were several more: Foshan, Shenzhen, Zhanjiang, and Zhengzhou. Additionally, a private school in Changping, Huijia, contracted The First Shift to start their own hockey program in their new beautiful ice rink.
Three hundred million people participating in winter sports by 2022. It may actually be achievable.
This spring Brigid is doing her part for Xi's current Chinese Dream.
Among the initiatives in China to support the ambitious goal of creating a nation of winter sports enthusiasts, Canada's The First Shift Program has entered the Chinese market. Sports Beijing, the sports club to which we have belonged since our move north in 2009, is a sponsoring organization.
Brigid and Myles had already planned on playing baseball this spring, but we were surprised to hear that Sports Beijing was offering hockey again. They used to have a team, years ago, but it fizzled out. Now with a cooperating organization to back them up, it looked like Sports Beijing was back in the hockey game again. Myles was, unfortunately, too old for The First Shift offerings, but Brigid happily joined up in their Learn to Skate program.
She was already quite the fan of hockey, and especially of Amanda Kessel. I hadn't a chance to blog about it (but I did tweet!), but back in January one of my sisters and her daughter joined my family in Buffalo to watch Amanda Kessel's New York Riveters play the Buffalo Beauts. Kessel was a scratch, unfortunately, but it was a great time. At that point, Brigid was only looking forward to skating on our pond for Chinese New Year, not having the opportunity to learn hockey herself.
So far, we are pleased with our First Shift experience. There have been hiccups, of course, as this is a new program. There are kinks to work out. For our family, though, it has been fun to watch Brigid grow in courage and confidence. She already could skate, but not like a hockey player. I really like how they are emphasizing a strong foundation of the basics.
Some of the drills challenge her.
And some are ridiculously fun.
When I asked Myles if he would be okay with Brigid picking up a second sport, and one quite dear to us as hockey, he indicated he was fine with it. He liked hockey, enjoyed listening to the radio feeds in the morning, loved going to games with me, but he wasn't quite a fan of playing a contact sport. That's one of the reasons he still played exclusively baseball; only in rare situations do players collide. He tried one lacrosse practice last year, and enjoyed the skills portion. Once he realized that collisions were just as much a part of lacrosse as the stick handling, he decided it wasn't for him.
Fine with me. Sports benefit from having both participants and fans.
When Brigid registered for The First Shift back in February, there were only two cities in China with participating programs, Beijing (through Sports Beijing) and Xiamen. I checked the website today, and there were several more: Foshan, Shenzhen, Zhanjiang, and Zhengzhou. Additionally, a private school in Changping, Huijia, contracted The First Shift to start their own hockey program in their new beautiful ice rink.
Three hundred million people participating in winter sports by 2022. It may actually be achievable.
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