Back Again

So back in May I hurt my shoulder – wakeboarding, not hockey-related.  That put me on the sidelines for a few weeks, and then I was very busy planning and preparing for a trip around the country with my daughter.  That put me into August, by which time, of course, I’d gotten rather lazy and out of shape again.

After a year’s break, the boy-child is wanting to play again, so I had him dig out his equipment and see what fit … at thirteen, after a year, what fit would be shin pads.  So $600 later he has all new equipment.

The girl-child has been saying that she wants to play as well.  When she started saying this, she was heavily involved in dance four or five nights a week, so it wasn’t an option.  Now she’s less involved in formal dance lessons and she’s still been saying periodically that she’d like to try it. 

She has a busier schedule, though, with work, college soon, and a teenage girl’s social life – but the hockey options for someone sixteen-plus are less formal than for the younger kids, with drop-ins and clinics where you can just show up for one instead of signing up for weeks of them.

So I figured what the hell … I’ll let her try it a couple times and see what she thinks.

First we went to Play it Again Sports to look at used equipment, but two things put me off.  First, nothing there is organized, and I hate trying to find things in a disorganized mess; and, second, the thought of putting my little girl in someone’s old, sweat-stained castoff gave me qualms.  Now, I’d put the boy-child in a used jock if I needed to save money, and not think twice about it, but girls are different.

Another shopping trip and another $600 for gear and the girl-child’s fully equipped.  I took a chance that she’d actually like it and I wouldn’t wind up wasting the money, because she’s never played a team sport before. 

A few days later, off to the skate and shoot we all went.

Apparently, skating on hockey skates is different than figure skates (the only other skating the girl-child’s done).  Who knew?

I didn’t think it would be that different, but I’ve never worn figure skates, so that was an assumption.  The girl noticed it, though, and that, plus the pounds of equipment, made her considerably less graceful than a decade of dance training would lead one to expect.

She was also a bit wide-eyed and seemed nervous.  Her only experience on-ice has been public skates where everyone goes ‘round-and-‘round in the same direction.  The chaos of a skate and shoot, with scrimmages at either end and skaters at center ice, was a very different experience for her.

The boy and I spent some time chasing each other around the ice, then the three of us practiced passing a bit.  That went better than I expected it to, with the girl-child never having held a hockey stick before.  She missed some, but she was generally on target and had good speed on the puck for her first time.

I spent the last fifteen minutes of the skate practicing a hockey stop with my left foot forward.  Something I still can’t do, so it’s more like a just barely controlled skidding turn. 

I think the gamble on buying her equipment was worth it, because a few days later she came over and asked: “So when’s the next hockey?”

I assumed she meant the next Solar Bears games we could go to, so I started reading off their schedule.

“No, no, no,” she said. “Hockey.”

So it’s harder for her to find time to do something and she doesn’t want to go alone yet, which complicates it further, but it looks like there’ll be three of us on the ice when we can all make it now.

Sunday Clinic

I made it through about half of today’s clinic before leaving the ice with an equipment problem.

First we started off skating the face-off dots forward – two reps of that, then another two reps carrying a puck.  With the puck, I concentrated on either keeping my head up or at least looking up at least half the time.  I wasn’t the slowest in either of these and no one passed me, which made me happy.

Then we had two reps of skating the face-off dots where we skated forward east-west (cross-ice) and backward north-south.  At the start of the second rep of this, I lost my edge transitioning from forward to backward and hit the ice hard.  Head bounced off the ice pretty good, but the pads, helmet, and mouthpiece did their job, so I hardly felt it.

The right skate hadn’t felt quite right last week either, so I decided to get them sharpened after the clinic, but midway through the next drill it seemed to have gotten worse (or I just noticed it more), so I left the ice.

In the pro shop they confirmed my concerns and noted that the inside-edge of my right skate was mostly not there.  Since that’s my cross-over leg, my stopping leg, and my transition leg, it’s inside edge is somewhat important.

Sunday Clinic

Today’s clinic started with a High-Low drill:

Two skaters from the goal-line along either side.  Take the puck around cones set on the face-off dots – either far or near, depending on which side you’re starting from – then into the zone for a shot.

We ran this drill with groups at both ends of the ice, so there were four skaters converging in the neutral zone at any given time.  Good practice for keeping your head up and knowing where the other skaters are.

This was followed by a passing drill the length of the ice:

From the goal-line pass to the blue-line, then to the far blue-line, finally to center-ice.  The skater at center-ice takes the puck into the zone for a shot and everyone else follows their pass to a new position.

Finally we went around the face-off circle, picking up a puck after once around, then around again and take a shot on goal. 

After a few reps of this, we changed it up to include skating backwards – always facing goal.

Game 2

So game number two for me, after skipping last week due to taking an ass to the groin. 

Even strength teams tonight and we lost 3-4 in overtime.  I wasn’t on the ice for any goals against and was out there for one of our goals, so I feel better about my performance than I did last time.

The goal I was on the ice for was a nice little wrap-around.  I was left wing and I think I was in good position to take a pass from him when he was back there or pick up the rebound.  Maybe a little too close to the goal, though.

I think I played my positions better – tonight I was mostly at wing, with one shift on defense.  After the first game I found a site that lays out the proper position in different situations, something I probably should have learned before the first game.

One confusing situation that kept occurring was in our zone, where, as I understand it, I’m supposed to keep an eye on their defenseman at the point on my side.

But he was never there, he was more down in the slot, so I spent a lot of time in this big box of open ice.

My instinct is to head down their too and keep him off the puck, but our center said, no.  Let our defense clear him out and stay where I should be to take the puck for a breakout.

One thing about the boy-child, who’s still on a bit of a hiatus from hockey, is that he plays his position well.  Having been in a game, now, and felt the temptation to get down there into the play, I have a lot of respect for him doing that.

As in the first game, I think my best shift of the night was a clear that set up a breakaway.  I got the puck in our zone and saw a clear lane out to our center at the blue-line and the other wing almost there.  My pass was on target to the center and I wasn’t too far behind them down the ice.  No goal, but it was a decent play on my part.

I think I was also able to put more pressure on the other team than last game.  I was still behind people a lot, but rather than trying to catch up and touch the puck, I lifted a lot of sticks and kept them in mind that I was back there.

I fell less in this game.  All but one the result of being bumped off balance by other players – it’s no-checking, but you can’t avoid all contact.  The one was rather spectacular, as it involved my leg giving out while I was trying to climb over the boards to the bench – pancaked onto my back right there.  My goal now is to make it through a game without the ref having to say: “You okay, man?”

With about 5:00 left in the third, my right thigh started aching on top.  Twinging from moderate to muttered-obscenity.  Weak and worse when I put weight on the leg, I made it through a last shift in the period – they scored 0:30 into overtime, so I didn’t have to see if it would handle that.

It was an unpleasant ride home, with lots of grunts and mutterings, but the pain subsided after a stop at Friday’s, so all it needed was a bit of rest.  Or vodka.  Rest or vodka, one.

The late end to these games is unfortunate, because there’re no massage places open on my drive home (well, no legitimate massage places).  I would so pay for a massage after these games.

Monday Clinic

Only seven skaters at the start and eleven when the late arrivals finally showed, so Coach went easy on us as far as the end-to-end skating went.  Tonight we stayed around the net, practicing deflections.

First off, taking position between the goal and the point, about at the paint of the face-off circle.  Face the point, legs apart and stick on the ice in front of you with the blade in-line with the path the puck will take.  Now pray that the guy taking the shot from the point doesn’t lift it to groin level, because we had enough of that shit last week.

When I started this drill, I was reacting late and trying to pull my stick back and toward the puck.  This created something of a curling motion, which I was told to avoid.  So hold the stick firmly and just move it side to side, trying to get it into the path of the puck a bit.  By the time the evening was done, I was getting a bit and earned some praise from the goalie when I did it right.  Did I get any past him?  I have no idea, it was behind me.

Also lots of advice about making a ramp with your blade to lift the puck and how it has to be a way-shallow angle to keep it below the crossbar.

A few reps of this on one side, then Coach set up two shooters, so we’d take a shot from one point, then hightail to the other side of the net for a second shot.

Then we took turns shooting, lining up at the blue line.  Take the shot and then follow it to the net to deflect a shot from the next in line.

Last was a two-man attack from center ice.  Skate the puck in and pass back, backhand, to the trailer who’s stopped near the top of the circle.  Then head for the net and set up to deflect his shot. 

This was a high note for me, because my passes were generally on target.  I may not be able to shoot or skate that well yet, but if I can touch the puck I have a decent chance of getting it to someone who can.

Clinic Catch Up

There was no Sunday clinic last week (4/8) because the rink was closed for Easter.  Monday’s clinic ended abruptly in the following manner.

After a brief skating drill, the first puck drill was to carry the puck from the goal-line, down the ice to the other zone, take a shot from just inside the far blue-line, and then pivot to skate backwards to the starting point.  Not entirely difficult.

So I go … and the puck slips off my stick back to my feet, so I kick it up.  It goes off the back of my stick to my right where one of the guys coming back to the line sees it and taps it toward me, so it’s now over to my left. 

I’m trying to regain the puck and people are skating backwards toward me.  Do I really need to say any more?

My head’s down and I slammed right into the back of this guy.  He went down and rolled over to give me a “what the fuck?”-look, which I richly deserved.

Now for me, I didn’t go down, but since we’re both crouched and skating, his ass and my cup were at a level.  Unfortunately, my cup was not entirely cupping correctly.  It had ridden up a bit and the left one was, apparently, a bit out.  So the left one was caught between the edge of the cup and my thigh, and the top of the cup pounded into my lower gut.  It was a two-fer.

I spent the rest of that clinic on the bench clutching myself.

Today’s drill went better.

First off, three skaters each take a puck and head the length of the ice.  First skater enters the zone and takes a shot.  Second skater hangs at the blue-line to center, then heads into the zone for a shot.  Third skater hangs along the blue-line to the left side and then heads in for a shot.

Next up was a little thing that I can’t even begin to draw a picture of.  Two groups at either end of the ice.  On the whistle, three skaters from each group each take a puck and head for center ice, where they enter the center face-off circle and skate around puck-handling. 

Yes, six crappy, beginning skaters all trying to control their pucks while they skate around in that little circle.  On the second whistle, the survivors exit the Thunderdome circle and take shots on goal.

An easy one’s next – from behind the goal-line, take the puck out of the zone, pass it hard to the far boards, then skate over to pick the puck up and take a shot.

Then we did some four-person passing, follow your pass to your next position.

And finally a drill with cones.  I don’t like cones, they make my ankles hurt.  Which probably means I need to do more drills with sharp turns and stop skating just in straight lines.

Equipment Review

So having used it all for a while and now finally played a game, it seems like a good idea to review my equipment and see what I’m happy with and what I’m not.  Maybe decide what order to upgrade things in.

Skates

Bauer Vapor X:50 – not a single complaint about these skates.  Comfortable, light, and durable, these were the best money I’ve spent on hockey equipment so far.

Shin Guards

Reebok 6K – no complaints about these, either.  They’re comfortable and I’ve hit the ice often enough to evaluate how well they protect my knees.

Pants

Easton Synergy S16 – not much to say about pants, I think.  Comfortable and I’ve tested them enough to know they’ll protect me on impact.

Shoulder

CCM Vector 06 – these will probably be the next thing I replace.  These are really thin around the sides and belly.  Part of the problem may be a sizing issue.  I’m tall, but relatively thin; so a large fits my chest well, but doesn’t meet up with the pants and an extra-large meets the pants, but winds up loose around the chest.

The Bauer X:60s offer more protection and are lighter, so I’ll probably pick one up this month, as the inventory closeouts are all running.

Elbow

Reebok 8K – after much testing, these have proven effective, so I’m happy with them.

Gloves

Reebok 6K – no complaints at all.

Helmet

CCM Vector 10 – my head’s hit the ice and a puck’s hit my face, so I can’t fault the protective qualities of this helmet.  Near the end of a game or practice, it does become a bit uncomfortable around the temples.  I’ll stick with it, but at some point I’ll try some new ones on.

Currently I have a wire cage, but I want to try the visor/cage combination to see if it improves visibility.

Stick

I hate hockey sticks. Length, flex, curve type, curve depth, pattern, material, lie, grip, face, blade length … I’ve bought cars with fewer options. I started off with a wooden Easton stick because it had the $12.99 feature.  Heavy and no flex at all, I replaced this with the same pattern in a composite. This was okay, but I wanted something that offered a little more curve to cup the puck a bit and somewhat more open to help me lift it. So I moved on to a Bauer pattern that seemed to match what I was looking for.

I can see myself spending a lot of money on sticks, looking for the right pattern and features – which equally means that I’ll be giving a number of sticks away when I decide what I don’t like. Luckily all the blade patterns are available on a range of sticks, so that’ll keep the cost down.  The clinic coach just got a new Combat stick that he was trying out Monday.  Slapshots from the far goal line that hit the glass at head height with disturbing velocity.

First Game

So a month and change shy of my forty-fifth birthday, I play my first hockey game.

It. Was. Awesome.

I haven’t had so much fun in a long time.  But, damn, having the clinic and game on the same night makes for a long night.  Six-plus hours.

6:00	30-minutes of yoga to stretch and warm-up, because my balance sucks and I’m not as limber as I used to be
6:30	A quick shower, make sure all the gear’s in the bag, fill the water bottle, take an Ibuprofen as a pro-active solution to the coming pain
7:00	Leave for the rink
7:30-7:45	Arrive at the rink, depending on traffic
7:45	Gear up and bullshit in the locker room (particularly nasty story from the other rink about a guy’s earlobe getting sliced off – yay, hockey!)
8:00-8:15	Wait for the kids to finish up their practice and the Zamboni to cut the ice
8:15-9:15	Clinic
9:15-9:30	Wait for the ice to be cut again
9:30-11:00	Game: 12-minute periods, 5-minutes between periods
11:15	Leave the rink
11:45	Stop at Friday’s, because, damn it, I just played a hockey game and I deserve a sandwich and a drink
12:30	Home

And that would be an optimal night where the kids don’t run long and the Zamboni doesn’t drop a ton of water on the ice that we have to wait on.

The rookie game at this rink is sort of a formalized pick-up game.  It’s not a league with set teams.  The rink manager sets the team each night, depending on who shows up and lets you know if you’re Red or Blue.  Tonight I was on Blue.

Fifteen skaters showed up, so Red had seven players and Blue had eight … well, seven and me.

A quick conference before the game starts and we decide on three defensemen and five forwards.  I’m one of the forwards, but not starting.

The puck drops and before I know it one of our guys is skating for the bench yelling “Right wing!”.  Shit … I’m next on the bench, so I go over the boards and start my first shift … which I don’t remember at all …

It’s all a blur, and I couldn’t recount what happened in any kind of order to save my life, but certain events stand out.

I was surprised at how tired I was when I got to the bench at the end of a shift.  For the most part, I didn’t notice it on the ice, but then I’d sit down on the bench and start gasping for breath.

I made all of my shifts except one.  With about 7:00 minutes left in the third, I returned to the bench and it hit me hard.  Out of breath, feeling like I’d vomit, scrabbling at my facemask to open it up and get some air (because a metal cage stops airflow?). 

By the time I was up again, I just hadn’t recovered enough and someone else had to take that shift, but I did recover my breath and managed one more before the end of the game – unfortunately, as we’ll get to later.

The coach from the clinic referees the game and provides feedback to the teams between periods.  I listened … I really did … and today I don’t remember a word he said.  Something about the D not pinching so much and maybe not letting one guy carry the puck behind their net and get mobbed by the entire other team without any help. 

I cannot count the number of times I fell, but it was easier to avoid flat-out running into anyone than I expected it to be.  Falling I don’t mind – it’s usually the result of pushing my skating skills a bit too far, which is the way to improvement, and it doesn’t hurt with the pads.  Running into the boards does hurt, which I have now managed to do three weeks in a row.  At least this time it wasn’t my left side, so the ribs there got a break.

So on one shift we were in our own zone and the puck went behind the goal-line.  One of the opposing players got to it and one of our guys went after him, but there was a tangle and ours went down.  I was on the other side of the net and went behind it toward them.  I got there before the opposing player got control of the puck and whacked at it.  I actually connected and got it away from him.

The puck went more to the center than I’d have preferred – it would have been better to send it back along the boards, but I managed to get there and keep the opposing player from making a controlled pass, so I’m happy with that.

Later I wound up at center … which means face-offs … which I’ve never done before and it showed.  Lost both of them.  I need to read up on how to take a face-off and find some drills to practice.

My best effort of the night was again in our zone.  I was at right-wing and got to the puck, turned to cut off the opposing player and had open ice to clear it to the other wing.  He was hanging at the blue-line and picked up the puck for a breakaway.  Didn’t score, but it was still nice to be a part of.

I even managed a shot on goal.  Coming in at left-wing, the right-wing carried the puck into the zone, got stood up by the defense and the puck came across the slot to me.  Unfortunately, it came to my backhand and the shot was slow and pathetic, but it was on net.

The last shift of the game was the worst.  We started the third period with the score 4-4 (I think, tied at least).  Near the end it was 4-7 … we’d had a bad third period.

I’d sat out one shift with 7:00 left, but figured I had one more in me.  Everyone on the bench was exhausted, but I’d been there the longest, so when a defenseman came in and no one else moved, I went out. 

So one of them gets the puck on my side and gets around me.  I chased him up the ice and it was incredibly frustrating, because the fucking puck was right there. Two feet.  I needed two more feet of reach to poke it away from him and I couldn’t pump my legs enough to get them.  We hit the top of the circles and I had to let up a bit, because I know I’m not going to be able to turn or stop in time to avoid the boards if I don’t, and he scores.

Just a little more speed and I’d have been able to do something.  I managed to stay with him, but just couldn’t make up those two feet.  Also he was inside of me, so I think if I’d managed to move to his other side, I could have interfered with his shot, at least.  My mistake there was that I was playing the puck and not the man – if I’d been inside, I could have lifted his stick or something.

Next I just got out of position.  The puck was deep in our zone and went back and forth between the net and the boards a couple times – I played more wing than defense and wound up outside the puck and they scored again.

So a couple of decent plays, a couple bonehead mistakes, and a hell of a lot of fun.

Monday Clinic

This week’s clinic got off to a rocky start.  The regular goalie was out of town, but no one at the rink knew to find a replacement and the Zamboni dumped a lake of water on the ice – so we got a late start waiting for the water to freeze and spent half the clinic without a goalie.

Skating drill was forward only, goal-line to blue-line, center, and far blue-line and back.  We followed that with end-to-end puck carries, first side to side, then forward and back.

Then shot practice – wrist, snap, and shot.  In general, the discernable difference in my attempts at these is the progressively greater degree by which I miss the net. 

Once a replacement goalie arrived, we spent the rest of the time on two-man dump recoveries.

Sunday Clinic

Yes, Sunday.  I’ve added a second clinic to my week, this one at the other ice rink in town.  Conveniently, I live about the same distance from each, so can take advantage of both.  This rink is more crowded, though, with about two dozen skaters on in the clinic, and it isn’t week-to-week.  This is an upfront fee for all ten lessons in the current “season”.

Skating drill was through all the faceoff circles – forward crossice and backward down the ice:

Three reps of this and then once forward only.  We were started on this drill in groups of three and, of course, I got passed a lot.  But having to do the drill in-line, instead of line-abreast like we typically do at the other rink, changed things up for me.  I had to concentrate more on what was going on around me and what I was doing, rather than on what I was about to do – if that makes any sense. 

In the line-abreast drills, I find myself preparing to do what’s next, whether it’s stopping at the blue-line to reverse direction or whatever.  In this drill, because I had to watch out for other skaters, including those passing me, I did less thinking and simply reacted.  Oh … there’s a dot already, time to change direction. 

I’m not claiming I was any better at it, but it was definitely different.

The first puck drill was more complex than we’ve been doing at the other rink.  Three skaters start at the goal line – they start forward, with the center carrying the puck.  He passes to either wing, his choice, and then follows the puck to switch places with the receiver.  This continues down the ice and ends with a shot.

I think everyone got two or three reps at each position, before we moved on to something else.  Next was much simpler, just skate the puck down the ice and take a shot.  Then they split us up into two groups – beginners and not-beginners.  I was not a not-beginner.

The guys running this clinic take a more rapid approach than at the rink I’m used to.  Two or three reps of something, then move on to different drill.  I think both formats have their uses and going to both will help my game. 

Next up we did a one-handed carry of the puck around a cone, and then back for a shot on goal.  I’ve never had to carry the puck one-handed in a drill before … and given that it’s only useful if you’re in front of everyone else and can stay there, I don’t anticipate needing it any time soon.

Next up we added defense to the mix, with the person in line behind the next puck carrier skating as a defenseman.  First to a nearer cone than the puck carrier and then pivot to skate backwards and defend.

Pivot, of course, meaning that still magical foot thing whereby a skater moving forward at speed is suddenly moving in the opposite direction with seemingly no loss of momentum and clearly in violation of Newton’s Second Law.  I cannot pivot and still don’t understand it, no matter how often I’ve watched the move in slow motion.  I am convinced there’s a magic pivot potion I’m supposed to drink before a game, just no one’s clued me in where to get it yet.

Because of how we wound up back in line, both my reps of this were on offense, so I didn’t have to demonstrate my non-pivot.  The first rep resulted in the puck being knocked away by the defenseman, but the second had better results – after rounding cone, I went to the defender’s left as I had before, but then I cut hard to my left and got by him. 

The next drill had more cones.

Damn cones. 

My first rep of this was bad – I kept trying to skate through the turns and that clearly wouldn’t work, so it was awkward.  Second rep was better, I leaned more and cut harder in the turns, despite my legs feeling weaker this late in the clinic, and made a better showing.

I can say that my passing was spot-on today.  Both in this drill and earlier ones, nobody had to reach for my passes.

The last drill of the day had us skating a puck in from center ice, then cutting hard across the slot before taking a shot.  They ran this with two skaters simultaneously from either side, so we also got to play don’t-run-into-the-other-guy-who-just-turned-straight-for-you.

Monday Clinic

Tonight’s clinic was a lot of fun and I’m happy with my performance, despite a number of falls.  Since the falls were because I was pushing things, I’m good with that.

Skating drill started with coach putting us on the goal-line and having us crouch as low as we could – then skate to the other goal-line in that position.  And back.  His point being that everyone is typically standing too straight while they skate.  Then down and back at speed, followed by sprints from goal-line to blue-line and goal-line to center ice.  His point after the sprints that what we’d just done took a little less than a minute and that’s how long shifts should be in the game – not the two or three minute shifts that are typical.

The regular drill was three skaters on the attack, this time with one of us dumping the puck in, rather than relying on the coach to do it.

So each rep was both different, based on how well whoever had the puck could dump it in, and more realistic to our level of play.  Especially since some of us, including myself, simply don’t have the oomph to wrap the puck with any kind of power.  For us, the dump in was cross ice

This was because the goalie had been instructed to play the puck if it was piddling along the boards from a sucky attempt to wrap it, and our rep would stop if he was able to. 

The other thing he stressed was to form a triangle, not a straight line, on the attack.  With the straight line, a defender can move out to the center man and with two players there a pass likely won’t make it to the player in the far circle.  With a triangle there are more options.

My first rep at left-wing was very successful.  I got the puck off the boards and made a nice backhand pass that was right on target to the right-wing and he scored with it.  Yay!

My second rep at right-wing was less so.  After I dumped the puck in and headed for the net, the left-wing passed it behind me.

I don’t turn to the right so good still, so this had the predictable result of me hitting the boards at speed.  Much like last week and with much the same result – some ribs that are still tender.

A bit later, the coach upped the ante and announced that he’d be playing D for the rest of the reps to put pressure on us.  “You all know who I am.  If you shoot the puck through me … I will kill you.”

So on my first rep at left-wing for this change I got to the puck in the corner and the blade of my stick went right through the slot in the Zamboni doors.  Before I could back up a bit to pull it out, the coach was on me with some gentle jostling and crosscheck or two.  I got my stick out, but went down on the ice, but was able to whack the puck back to the high slot area.  Of course, the guy I thought would be there had moved to the point along the boards, so the puck sailed out of the zone.

What I should have done is left off with trying to free the stick and protected the puck with my skates until I could see a teammate along the boards and just kick it free to him.  Or at least looked up to see where someone was before I whacked it.

For the final instance of my ass hitting the ice, I was again at left-wing and dump in was cross ice.   The puck rebounded from the boards to the goal-line and rather than trying to pass from there, I decided to scoop it up as I went by, take it behind the net, and pass from there.  Good idea, poor execution.  My skates hit a rut behind the net and I went down, but managed to scramble back to the puck and pass it.

Monday Clinic

I skipped blogging about the clinic the last two weeks, but might make the posts later.  Tonight’s clinic was lightly attended with only nine skaters.  Coach went easy on us for the skating drill, just a couple times up and down the ice and then on to shooting.

So we started by simply skating into the slot at the hash-marks and taking a shot off a pass from the coach.

Next we changed it up into two lines.  Coach dumps the puck around the boards while one skater heads for the slot and the other gets the puck along the boards, then centers it for the shot.

And the final drill split us up into three groups.

The new skater carries the puck behind the net, passes to the wing, who then centers it for the shot.

This was a good night for me – I made it through the whole clinic and actually felt pretty good at the end of it.  I even considered staying to play in the game after, but it’s probably best I didn’t.

During the last drill I was coming along the boards to get the first pass and it looked like the guy behind the net was going to pass more into the circle, so I angled that way.  Then he passed along the boards, so I had to turn to get the puck.

Unfortunately, that’s a turn to the right and I still don’t do that well, so I ran into the boards.  Still got the puck and made the centering pass, but something hit my upper ribs.  Not sure if it was just my arm or if the stick was between me and the boards, but it’s tender today.

Monday Clinic

I made it all the way through tonight’s clinic, missing no reps; but it was a light crowd, so the coach went pretty easy on us – no end-to-end after the skating drill.  I’m still happy I made it through the whole thing and I learned why we wear our facemask.

So skating drill started with one rep of “suicides”:

Start at the goal-line, then forward to the blue-line, stop and return backward.  Repeat for the red-line, far blue-line, and far goal-line.  Very glad there was only one rep of this.  Then we moved on to puck carrying drill, thankfully not backwards.

This drill was goal-line to goal-line, carrying the puck … but carrying it in specific ways.

First, side to side in front of you – and very specifically the puck should be moving far outside your feet.  I’m right handed, so this meant when the puck was to my right it should be so far that my left (top) hand is all the way across my body and past my right hip.  Theory of this is that doing so will make the goalie move more side-to-side as well as you close on him.

Second was carrying it in front.  Instruction was to avoid drawing the puck back toward you … after all, you’re skating forward.  So push the puck forward, stop it with the stick, then put the stick down again behind the puck, by which time you’ll have caught up and can push it forward again.

Finally was dragging the puck.  Just dragging the stick a couple feet behind you with the puck on it, all the way up the ice.  And back.

So two reps each (up-back-up-back) of each of these. 

Next was some shooting/deflection drills:

Okay, so line of players at the blue-line.  One player in front of the goal, screening the goalie, and a third in the faceoff circle, waiting to move in on net.

Coach dumps the puck around the boards and next in line moves up to stop it, then takes a shot, with the guy in front of the net moving to screen/deflect.

Then shooter moves to the faceoff circle, faceoff circle moves in front of net, and the guy who was in front of the net moves to the end of the line.

After some reps of this, coach changed it up, and formed two lines:

Basically the same, except that the second line is having to skate into the zone and get into position instead of starting there.  This is when I learned the value of the face mask.

In one rep, I went in a bit to the left of the goal.  The goalie came out to block the shot, so I wound up behind him:

The shot came hard and he blocked it with his stick, so it came up past his shoulder and ping into my mask.  To which coach commented: “And that’s why we wear the facemask.”

Didn’t hurt a bit – and I hardly noticed it except for the rather loud ping right next to my face.  I have, though, now officially abandoned any contemplation of wearing a half-shield.

And one last changeup to the drill:

This time stopping the puck deeper in the zone and passing to the teammate by the goal instead of shooting.

Why Write This Blog

Especially after my latest clinic experience, a friend or two has questioned why I write this blog.  After all, it’s not like my kayaking blog, where I actually know what I’m doing; or my programming blog, where I’m writing about a field I have some expertise in.  No, with regard to playing hockey … or, rather, even preparing to play hockey, I’m pretty much at the level of general incompetence.

Which is entirely the point and precisely why I started this blog.

When I decided to try playing, I had a lot of questions.  What would the equipment cost? How good a skater would I have to be to take hockey lessons?  How much would lessons cost?  Was I in good enough shape?  What would a hockey clinic be like?  What would a skate and shoot be like?  Were the guys in the locker room likely to be assholes to a complete newbie? Was it even possible for someone to start playing at forty-something?

I found a lot of information about kids starting to play, but very little about adults, especially middle-aged adults, just starting to learn. 

I would have liked to have read something about the aerobic and anaerobic muscle as it relates to hockey before I started this – if I had, I’d be much further along than I am now. 

So I’m writing this to provide some of the information that I wish I’d been able to find before I started.  And writing this post, I see that I haven’t covered some of those questions I had, so at least I’ll be able to write some new posts that don’t involve me falling down or puking … that’ll be a nice change of pace.

Another reason is precisely because of my difficulties and stutter-steps in doing this.

I very much doubt that there are many people who could go to their first hockey clinic and do worse than I did tonight – they might suck, they might be the worst skater/player at their clinic, but they’d be hard-pressed to do worse than I just did, so there’s clearly hope and they’re not alone.

Blame it on the Blood Bank

So … Monday night clinic … yeah …

Not a good performance this week.  I knew going in that it would be bad, but had no idea, really.

Last week I donated blood.  And it was a double-red donation, so they took twice as many red-blood cells as a regular donation and I got a bunch of salt-water in return.  It’s a fair trade, except for the part where I noticed a significant difference in my visits to the gym. 

Each interval was much harder and took much longer to recover from.  Not unexpected, but disheartening, so I expected to have poorer performance this week.

Before heading to the rink for the clinic, I drank a 5-hour energy.  Now … I know that my problem is not solvable with an energy drink.  I know this, but I drank it anyway … and it did not agree with me.  I was queasy before I left the house.

So tonight I was drenched in sweat, out of breath, nauseated, and had burning calf muscles before the end of the warm up.  It was bad.  We went to the goal-line to line up for skating drill and I had to take a knee to rest my calves. 

Skating drill tonight was goal-line to goal-line – first backward, then forward.

This was followed by a second rep, but this time carrying a puck.  I can generally keep a puck with me (at least skating forward).  I can generally skate backwards at a not too embarrassing speed.  Tonight I learned that I cannot combine the two.

We were divided into two groups for this drill.  I was in the first.  So the coach would send the Ones and when we (well, everyone but me) got to a certain point (I don’t know where, because I wasn’t there yet), he’d send the Twos.

In the backward puck-carrying drill, the Twos passed me at the blue-line.  The first blue-line.  Yeah.

I fell somewhere in the neutral zone.  And when I say “fell”, I mean that I lost the puck, stretched for it, and body-slammed the ice.

By the time I passed the second blue-line, both groups were at the other goal-line, lined up, and listening to the coach describe what the next drill would be.

I face-planted again at this point and noticed that the coach had stopped talking.  I’m not sure if it was because of me falling or because he’d run out of ways to not say “as soon as that last guy makes it to the goal-line, we’re going to skate forward with the puck”.

He was grinning, so I said: “Dude, go ahead and laugh.”

He wanted to make me feel better, so he asked everyone who’d ever done that before to raise their hand and announced that everyone who didn’t raise their hand was a liar.

Now, let me tell you this, I know funny and me face-planting into the ice after everyone else has been finished for half a minute or so?  That’s fucking funny.  I deserved a couple laughs.

Unfortunately I don’t know what the rest of the drills tonight were, because, yes, after three lengths of the ice, I was done.  I made it to the locker room and spent several minutes giving serious consideration to puking into the garbage can.  Got my gear packed and into the car.  Stopped the car on the way home to puke beside the road. 

Fun night.

Lesson Learned: No energy drinks ever again.  That’s not my problem and they don’t agree with me.

Monday Clinic

So did a week of interval training make any discernable difference in my performance?  Maybe.

I talked to the coach before practice about changes I’d made in my workout routine this week and he thought they were okay.  He also seems to think that I’d be fine playing in the rookie game, but I’m still hesitant – I don’t care so much about the skills, but although I can stop and turn, it does tend to require some advance planning on my part. 

Drills are one thing, but with an opposing team out there I’m concerned that I’ll run into someone (or the goalie) and hurt them.  I’d also like to be able to make it through the entire practice without feeling like I’ll blow chunks first. 

It struck me this week, after last Monday’s revelation, as I looked into the difference between aerobic and anaerobic, that everything I’ve ever done as far as exercise has been aerobic – hiking, kayaking, golf … all aerobic.  So starting something anaerobic for the first time at forty-something and having to build an entirely new type of muscle may be pretty stupid.  Oh, well.

First skating drill tonight was much like last week, trying to get us into that hop-turn from a standing start.

Starting on the blue-line (top arrows) and facing the side boards, he first had us just step sideways to the other blue-line.  The “hop” off the leading foot started to feel more natural during this drill, but after a few reps of this we were back to adding the turn.  It might be that I’m not making enough of a hop to get fully turned at the start.

Next (bottom arrows) we’re back on the blue-line, but this time facing down-ice.  Forward to the other blue-line, with the first three to five strides being quick steps.  Then stop and the return is backwards.

The coach is stressing to everyone that he doesn’t want to see anyone doing crossovers backwards in this drill – strictly power-skating.  This is easy for me to comply with, because I have no f-ing clue how to do a backward crossover.  I’ve watched it and watched it, but it still seems like magic to me – the way the feet move just shouldn’t wind up in the body going the way it does.

Puck drill is much the same as last week, but there are enough people to have three skaters.  It simulates recovering the puck in your own zone after it’s been dumped in by the opposing team.

Skater 1 dumps the puck in behind the net.  Whoever’s fastest of the other two (not me) heads for it.  The other one makes for the boards at the blue-line – bail-out man.  Skater 1, meantime, skates into the zone, playing defense until we have the puck, then doubles back to head up-ice.  Whoever stopped the puck passes to the bail-out, and we head up-ice, passing, for a shot on goal.

Lots of yelling by coach on everyone’s reps about the bail-out not being in position and the pass not going to him first.  Also more stressing, like last week, about not stopping in the neutral zone to wait for the puck – keep moving, zig-zag, even come back down-ice, but don’t stop and don’t turn around to skate backwards.

Good point that skating backwards to take a pass on offense is going to let the defender set himself in your path.  Even in a no-check league, when you run into him backwards there’ll be no penalty and you’ll be face down on the ice.

I made four reps of this (it was two last week) and had to sit on the bench for a bit to catch my breath, but I made it back onto the ice for two more reps before the end of practice.  That’s better than last week, but too soon to tell if the improvement will be consistent.

I was happy with my passing during this drill.  I flubbed a couple, but so did everyone and my flubs weren’t the worst.  On one I got the puck near the goal line and made a nice backhand pass across the slot that was right on target.  I also took a pass on one drive and got the shot on goal – that’s an accomplishment in two ways: 1) my shot was on goal instead of six feet to the right; and, B) I was at the goal to take the pass instead of out in the neutral zone struggling to catch up.

Accomplishments are all about perspective.

A Stab at Interval Training

So Monday’s clinic taught me that I needed to add anaerobic exercise to my routine.  Today I made a stab at that.

First, this is not a recommendation or suggestion for what you should do.  I’m not at all knowledgeable about exercise, fitness, or nutrition – I’m just trying stuff and relating the results.  It’s entirely possible that I’m killing myself with this, so emulate at your own risk.

That being said, my understanding is that I need to add short periods of intense activity (anaerobic) to my longer, less strenuous efforts (aerobic).  Although the coach recommended blue-line to blue-line sprints during public skating, work and money prohibit me from going skating every day.  The impact makes running or a treadmill out of the question for me, so I decided to add more intensity to my time on the elliptical.

Using the machine’s built-in interval setting with a base resistance of 5, my 30-minute workout looks like this:

Starting slow today, trying to avoid that whole killing-myself thing, I went with increased intensity every fourth minute (arrows).  The machine handles adjusting the incline and resistance, I just had to increase my strides. 

I slowed my normal pace to the 100-120 strides per minute range and increased it on the red arrows to 180-200.  Well, until about the twenty minute mark, when I really started wearing down and settled for 150+.

This is going to be a work-in-progress as I try to find a base resistance level and strides that will start taking care of that anaerobic-thing.

Back at the Hockey Clinic

Yes, I’d been planning to start back with the lessons in January, but I had several things that would have interfered with Monday nights and didn’t want to start if I couldn’t go every week right away.

Did the three months of exercise get me in better shape?  Well …

First drill: Line up on the blue-line, facing the side boards.  Now we’re going to skate to the red-line and stop, but we’re facing the side boards, so we have to turn.  The way I’m lined up, the red-line is to my right, so my first instinct is to turn my right foot and push off with my left … as in many cases, my first instinct is wrong.

I’m supposed to lift my left foot, cross it over, and push-off/jump off my right foot.  This feels very awkward. 

Stop at the red-line, then go back, this time lifting and crossing over the right foot, while pushing off with the left.

A few reps of this and I’m getting the hang of it – better pushing off with my right foot, but I’d expect that.  I’m feeling okay, not out of breath, so I start feeling confident that the exercise did some good.

Next drill is similar, but blue-line to blue-line and we start from our knees facing the far blue-line.  Oddly this feels more comfortable to me if I’m pushing off my left foot … from both knees, I get my left foot under me and push up and out, getting my right foot under me.

A few reps of this and I’m still feeling pretty good.  I get out of breath once we stop to get ready of for the next drill, but during it I was okay.  I was the slowest at both of these, but I haven’t been skating a lot, so I’m okay with that as I get better.

Next up is some puck-handling with our feet – trying to get us to kick the puck to our sticks along the boards or to control a pass that comes to our feet.

So four or five of us around each circle, and first it’s just feet.  Stop the puck with your feet and kick it to the next person.

After some time of doing this, we change it up and pass with the stick, but stop the puck with our feet – kick it out to our stick after stopping it.

This is harder work than it sounds like.  At least for me, it’s awkward and a lot of work to maneuver from a standing start, so when the pass is off it’s a lot of work move to stop it.

I was not the worst in my group at this, so that made me happy.

Last was a passing and shooting drill.  Two lines at the blue-line.  One player dumps the puck in along the boards while the other heads to the other side to stop it.

Once he has it, both head up ice, passing along the way, and take a shot on goal. 

Two things the coach was stressing in this drill:

1) Stay together.  If one of the pair is slow (me) the other (everyone else) needs to stay with him, not just blast up the ice.  We want to attackers in order to split the goalie’s attention.

2) Keep moving.  The faster skater shouldn’t just stop and wait for the slower – when he catches up he’ll just blow by, so keep skating.  Side to side or even skating back to the slower skater is preferable to just stopping and waiting.

This is where it fell apart for me.  I’m slow, so I’m skating all-out the length of the ice for this drill.  I made it through two reps and when I got back in line after the second one, I was out of breath, dizzy, and nauseated. 

So I headed to the bench for a rest and frustration.  The coach came over to talk to me while I was sitting there – he remembered me from the few times I was there last year.

I told him, “I’ve spent the last two months on the elliptical five times a week to get ready for this, I don’t understand.”

“That’s aerobic,” he said.

I gave him my best look of incomprehension.  It’s impressive, I get to use it a lot.

“This is anaerobic,” he explained.

Well … crap … so I’ve spent the last two months doing the wrong thing?

He explained that aerobic was still important so I’d have legs in the third period.

Great … I’ve prepared myself well for the third period, I just can’t get through the first shift.

His recommendation?  I can’t run, knees and shins won’t take the impact, so he suggested pushing myself in intervals at public skating. 

I should also be able to add some interval training to what I’m already doing on the elliptical, by just increasing the speed.  I’ll also be hitting the skate & shoots to skate hard with my gear on – I’m more comfortable on the ice when I have it on anyway.

Sunday Skate

RDV had four hours of public skating today, so four 45-minute sessions.  I made it through three of them.

I broke each session into two 10-minute skates with a 5-minute break and ending with a 15-minute skate.

The first ten minutes were painful again – my upper shins hurting like the lower did last time.  Skating was slow and awkward and I felt off-balance crouching, especially in cross-overs. 

After a break, though, the pain went away by the second ten-minute skate.  Everything felt better and smoother.

Had a minor fall during the second session. 

A girl in front of me and a bit to the right fell and splayed her left hand out flat on the ice.  I edged left to avoid her, winding up right behind a woman and her little girl, who both slowed down, looking at the girl who had fallen. 

So, right up on them, I couldn’t go left without clipping the little girl and couldn’t go right without running over the girl who had fallen, so snowplowed and almost made it.  I wound up just barely contacting the mother of the little girl and going over backwards as I leaned away from her. 

Overheard during a break -- two pre-teens were at the table next to me reading flyer for the rink’s ‘80s music skate this week:

“’80s music.  That’s like disco.  Music for old people.”