 USA Hockey and the NHL held their Try Hockey for Free Day this past Saturday, an event that encourages kids ages 4 to 9 to get out on the ice. While the Brainerd Amateur Hockey Association held their Free Hockey Day last month, they still offer programs for young children to get better every week. For this week's Northwoods Adventure, our own Taylor Archer went to a Level 1 mites practice. Try Hockey for Free Day has come and gone, but the Brainerd Amateur Hockey Association has other ways of introducing young kids to the sport of hockey. We've got multiple levels here and it starts with our mites and our 8U program, which is what we have out here right now, and we go up into squirts, which is for squirts slash 10U, which is 10 and under, and then we go to a PUE slash 12U, so it's, you know, the 11 and 12 year olds, and we go into a Bantam and 15U, which is in that 12, or, yeah, 12, 13, 14 year olds, even at the girls' level, it can be 15 years old, and then from that they go on to high school. These little guys are the Level 1 mites team. They range from ages 4 to 9 and fearlessly take the ice. With this age group, the main focus for coaches is to get the kids comfortable on their skates. The main focuses are, you know, developing athleticism, so it's basic skills, learning how to skate, learning how to stand up, passing, a little bit of shooting, things like that. Absolutely just the basics, you know, standing up and falling down, getting back up again. Basic skating, basic stick handling, we'll touch on some shooting, we'll touch on some, some little bit of, we won't even touch on any system work, but we'll just touch on a little bit of the game type atmosphere. And any sport can teach children valuable life lessons growing up, but what makes hockey special is that children learn early on that when you fall, you can always get back up. There's a ton of research out in all different walks of life that playing sports helps people. It helps better health, it helps from an education standpoint, it just helps general development. What's also important with this opportunity is that kids are having fun and staying active. We just want kids to be active in the community, you know, healthy lifestyle, healthy choices. Making sure they have fun, making sure they experience the game, they enjoy the game and that every single day they want to come back again, and next year they want to come back again. And the more they come back, the more they will improve. In Brainerd, for this week's Northwoods Adventure, Taylor Archer, Lakeland News. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.