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.

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.

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.

Back on the Ice – Finally (and with Flat-Bottom V)

In looking back in this blog, I see, depressingly, that the last post about me and not T was January 24.  And, yes, that was the last time I was on the ice at all – nearly two months. But today I finally got out to skate today – and with the Flat-bottom V sharpening I got for T a few weeks ago.

Because I normally get a 1/2” hollow, they started me out with the 100/50 to try.

All I can say is … wow …

Literally, the first step onto the ice with this sharpening is a noticeable difference.  There’s a distinct change in the “feel” of the skate against the ice – it’s smoother with significantly less drag.

A few strides to the blue line and then coasting makes the change even more noticeable, as there seems to be virtually no loss in momentum compared to a traditional sharpening.

In the turn, the edges bite and there’s no sense of slipping or scraping at all.  Doing crossovers I’ve always had a feeling of losing my inside edge a bit as I put my outside foot down, but that doesn’t seem to happen with this.

Stopping takes some getting used to, as there’s a much different feel to it.  It seems like the edges bite more, but less deeply, if that makes any sense.  I was able to stop in the same distance, but with less effort and a feeling of still being on top of the ice instead of digging into it.

Second Game of the Weekend

It’s a two-game weekend for T’s team and both were league games.  After yesterday’s win, I was curious to see if their level of play would stay consistent.

Today’s game was a 3-3 tie at the end, but T’s team really dominated the first period.  Even though there was no scoring, they controlled the puck well and kept possession for most of the period.

Their team-play was still there from yesterday and it they showed a lot more discipline than they did earlier in the season.  Players stayed in their positions more and you could tell that they were thinking things through before beginning a play or passing – well, not always, but often enough to notice.

This was really noticeable and very interesting to watch when the other team didn’t play a disciplined game.  It showed most on a couple plays where there were turnovers in the neutral zone and T’s team got the puck.  They’d pass back to one of their defensemen who were just inside their blue-line. 

At that point, whether by design or just a result of that defenseman taking a moment to think about what he was going to do, the other team would converge on him like flies to honey … at which point he’d make a cross-ice pass to the other defenseman who had almost the entire neutral zone to choose from for passing it up.

T’s own game stayed consistent as well.  He worked hard and challenged the other team. 

One big improvement I saw was that he ran into another player and stayed on his feet – the other kid went down, but T maintained his balance and stayed in the play.

Money and time have kept me from getting him extra ice-time like we did in December and January – that’s impacting me, as well, since I haven’t been to a clinic or skating since I last blogged about it.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to start getting him (and me) back on the ice more this month – it’s clear that one practice and one game a week aren’t enough for him to improve as much as he should to really be competitive.

The Pro shop at his rink now has the Flat Bottom V sharpener now and I had T’s skates done this way after yesterday’s game.  The way this sharpening is described is that the flat-bottom, instead of curved, allows the skate to glide better without having to sacrifice control:

Logically, it makes sense – with a curved hollow, the skate’s cutting into the ice more, but this has a flat surface to ride the ice and edges to gain control.

So I had T’s done at 90/75, which the brochure said was a good place to start.  He didn’t notice a difference that stood out enough to mention, but I thought he was better able to control his turns.  There weren’t really enough rushes for me to gauge his speed this game, but I’m going to keep an eye on it.

I’ll also be trying this on my skates to see if I feel a difference myself.  I’d really like to be able to gain some speed without reducing what little control I have.

In other equipment news, I think it’s time to get T better shoulder/chest pads.  This is one of those times that I wish I didn’t live in Florida, because I really want to make this sort of purchase “hands-on” and there’s just no store that really carries wide-range of hockey gear. 

I’m leaning toward the Bauer Vapor line – probably because I like my skates so much. The Vapor line of products seems to be of pretty good quality and I’ve been happy with all of the Bauer equipment I’ve purchased. 

Right now he has the Bauer ONE35 pads, but the Vapor line seems to be made of lighter/stronger materials.  Since he’s going to be doing this for a while, I can get him something good.  The Vapor X:60 looks pretty good:

Monday Clinic

So … yeah … not my most impressive showing at the clinic …

On the plus-side, I have a new stick.  The old one was wood, no flex at all and cost $19.99.  New one’s composite, has some flex which may help my shot and was $69 – which is still on the cheap side, but it’s much lighter.

Skating drill was goal to goal pretty fast five times – we were divided into two groups.  Fourth time coach sent the twos off quicker and told them to catch the ones – I was a one and didn’t get caught.  Fifth was the reverse – I also didn’t catch anyone.  Then backwards to the far goal line.

Then we paired up for some passing drills.  Two of us skate to the far end, trying to stay even with about two stick-lengths between us, passing the whole way.

First time down, I flubbed my first pass and put it behind him.  Second time we did well and made all our passes except the last one – that was almost at the goal line and he wasn’t expecting me to send it back to him.  I think I did okay the rest of the times we did this – we weren’t trying to skate at full speed, so that helped me a lot.

For the rest of the clinic, we did a three man breakout drill.  Two goalies, coach along the boards with a pile of pucks and us in three lines at the red-line. 

Coach dumps the puck in and we’re supposed to chase it – the goalie goes behind the net to stop it, but might miss, so the theory is whoever’s fastest gets behind the net, where the puck should be, and the other two head for the boards. 

If the goalie’s missed the puck behind the net, we’re supposed to send it back to the player behind the net and start a breakout – down the ice to the far goal, passing, and then shoot on the far net.

Well, two things happened to me in this drill:

First, it just killed me.  I wound up on the bench about ten minutes before the clinic was over.  See, I’m still pretty much slower than everyone else, so where they might go half- or three-quarter-speed into the zone and down the ice, I have to go full speed just to keep up.  After a few repetitions of this, I was wiped out and had to sit for a while.

Second, and this happened on, I think, my first time, I had a bit of an impact. 

We enter the offensive zone and the guy with the puck passes it to me, but I miss it and it heads to the goal-line, left of the net.  So I skate after it at full-speed and I’m about to the goal-line when I realize I have a problem.

I’m going full-speed, the pucks right there, the boards are in front of me, the plays to the right and I can’t stop on my left foot.  So I could turn left and stop on my right foot, but that’s away from the play – I’m on the puck and I’ve got two guys crashing the net, so I should get it to them.  Or I can try to stop on my left foot and get the puck into play.  What did I do?

I muttered a copulative-verb and skated full-tilt into the boards, missing the puck entirely.

I bounced off the boards and landed on my hands and knees staring straight down at the stationary puck with my stick flat on the ice in my left hand.

Now, I don’t know how this looked to the other guys, but here’s what I was thinking at this point: I need to get the puck to somebody.  So I reached for it with my right hand, dimly realized that would be a hand-pass, and then shuffle the shaft of my stick into it to knock it toward the net.

As I’m doing this, one of the other guys skates over and asks if I’m okay, to which I reply: “Ib tieing ‘oo ‘it ‘oo ‘uh ‘ucking ‘uck.” 

I have yet to master speaking with the mouthpiece in, so translate that yourself.

Why didn’t I turn right instead of thinking about stopping, take the puck behind the net with me and pop it out in front to a teammate?  Because I’m an ‘ucking ‘oron.

The rest of the drill went better for me, though. 

I’d say I was about 50/50 for passes I made being on target or reasonably so.  I made my share that were off target, but everyone did.  On receiving passes, mostly they were too far ahead of me – which is reasonable and expected when you consider my speed.  They’re passing where they think I’ll be, but they’re expecting me to be moving faster than I do.

This was actually a fun drill and I wish I’d been able to finish it, but the repetition of full-speed from center ice into the zone then pushing it all the way down wore me out.  Especially when I had to push even harder when a pass was ahead of me. 

Some of those I got, though, even though I had to skate hard and stretch off-balance to reach them.  It was good to have to push myself that hard – now I just have to push myself into better shape.

Monday Clinic

Last night’s clinic started much the same as my first one – that is to say, lots of end-to-end skating drills.  This time, though, I seem to be in a little better shape – I’m still out of breath and dragging at the end, but at least I was able to continue with the rest of the clinic and didn’t wuss out and leave the ice.

The rest of the drill concentrated on shooting, which I haven’t practiced very often, even at skate & shoots … which is probably a good thing, since I apparently do everything wrong.  Now that I’ve had a bit of instruction and demonstration, I can practice without, one hopes, developing any bad habits out of ignorance.

Now I just have to remember to get my left wrist at my right hip, puck behind me, both arms moving forward, pivot the stick when my arms are fully extended, point the stick where I want the puck to go, but in line with the puck not in front of my body and, oh yeah, shift my weight to my left foot and get the right one back … all while trying to skate … and not run into the goalie after … or the net … or the boards … and with five other guys trying to take me off the play …

Yeah.

The drill was simple in explanation: start at the blue line with a puck, skate in and take the shot from the hash marks.  Keeping in mind all that stuff above.  Except for the five-guys, which, in my case, is probably not necessary anyway – I can see it now: I’ll be playing my first game, take the puck over the blue line and someone on the other team will just wave everyone off and yell: “No, let him, just watch … wait for it … ooohhh, that’s gonna leave a mark!”

Second drill of the night came out of the coach’s sadistic-bastard bag. 

Start at the blue line and he dumps the puck in around the boards.  Skate into the zone, pick up the puck, then take it, hard, down the ice to the other zone for a shot on goal … then pick up another puck from a pile at that blue line and take it, hard, back to the other zone for a shot on that goal.  Then back in line.  Repeat.

After a few of these we, or at least I, added practice for the skills of wheezing heavily in line and chanting “please god let this be the last one” over and over again.

I did bail on this one and sit on the bench, but I’m pretty sure it was on the last one and I wouldn’t have been up again, so I consider this a completed clinic for me.  I’m especially happy about this because it started with the same skating drill that wiped me out the first time.

So I’m going to really have to work on my shot, such as it is, and figure out if I’ll ever really have a decent one.  A few years ago I broke my right elbow and I have a bit of carpal tunnel in my right hand because of my work as a computer programmer, so I wind up with pain in those two places after only a few shots.  I’m not sure yet if strengthening those areas will help in this respect.

Another thing I learned is that my stick sucks.  It has no flex to it at all, or at least is very difficult to flex.  I’m not sure why this is, since I had clear criteria when I bought it (“Hi, show me your cheapest stick, please.”)  So I think that’ll be the next piece of equipment I upgrade, both for me and the boy-child.

New Skates, Old Legs

So after a break for the holidays I was able to get on the ice today with the new skates and the Super Feetinserts.

Awesome result – the pain in the outside of the left skate is gone completely and most of the heel pain is gone. Still a little bit of discomfort after a while of skating, but it’s discomfort, not pain.

Sadly, though, they’re not entirely magical.

They may be more comfortable, but they don’t lend wings to my feet or any nonsense like that – I’m still slow and run out of gas quick.  Maybe for my birthday my friends can pitch in to buy me new legs.

New Skates

Well, I didn’t make it to the lesson this week because I took the kids to dinner with my dad – holidays and all that – but I did make it to skate and shoot last Friday.

I had a nice chat with a guy there – Derek, I think, being horrible at remembering names – he’s also 43 and just started playing this year along with his son.  So apparently there’s more of my sort of dumb-ass going around this year.  Anyway, he took a few lessons and is now playing in the rookie league, so that gave me a lot of encouragement.

Another guy saw me wincing at how much my feet were hurting and took a look at my skates – his advice was to get new ones. 

The skates I had were fifteen-plus years old and were probably the bottom of the line back then – more recreational than hockey, but hockey-shaped.  And the fact that they’re that old and still look new tells you how much I’ve skated in the last two decades.

Anyway, they’ve always hurt like hell, but I figured that was because I wasn’t skating enough to really break them in and this year I kept expecting it to get better as I skated more.  But it didn’t. 

For about the first ten or fifteen minutes of skating, they’d really hurt my feet bad.  Arches, heels, etc.  Very painful.  Then it would wear off for the rest of the skate … mostly.  Came and went sometimes.

Anyway, I stopped off at the pro shop to look at new skates and get a recommendation.  They sized me and recommended the Bauer Vapor line – but they only had the X:50 in stock in my size.  I was more leaning toward the X:20 because, well, they’re cheaper.

I tried on the X:50 just to see and the difference was phenomenal.  Very comfortable right out of the box – no pain or pressure at all.  After a few minutes of walking around, my left foot had some discomfort, but nothing like in the old skates.

I went home and checked prices online for the skates and was quite surprised to find that it was much the same as the pro shop – I hadn’t expected that.  So now I was faced with the decision to wait for the X:20 or just get the X:50 – since it’s the holiday’s and I’m off work until next year and planning to skate almost every day until then, facing the wait for an online order and having to use the old, painful skates just wasn’t something I could stomach – and, it being the holidays, I had a bit of cash gifts from a couple friends.

So, yeah, got the X:50s.

There was someone different in the shop when I went back to get them and he changed the size from what had been recommended earlier. My right foot measures out to 8.25 for skates and the left at 8.00.  So the first guy told me to get 8.5 – but the second guy suggested 8s so the left one wouldn’t be too big.  They felt fine, no pinching or cramping, so that’s what I went with.

Now they were comfortable out of the box, but really nice after being heat-molded.  Still some discomfort in the left one – felt like there was pressure on the outside of the foot near the toes and just on inside edge of the heel where the arch starts.  But not nearly as bad as the other skates, so I went with it.

The next day I went for public skating and tried them out – I cannot believe the difference.

The right one is absolutely perfect – no pain or discomfort at all.  And this with brand-new, unbroken-in skates, first time on the ice.  The left one is still uncomfortable in those two places, but I have a bit of a heel problem in that foot.  I think there’s a small amount of swelling or something in the heel that’s causing the pain there and pressing my foot into the front of the skate at an angle. 

I got some Super Feet inserts (again at the recommendation of the pro) and the left one feels a little better just standing around, but I haven’t had the chance to try it on the ice with them.

So I’ll get to try them on the ice tomorrow and see what kind of difference it makes in skating drills come Monday. 

Months of Updates and My First Lesson

So … long time since my last post.  Personal issues have kept me mostly off the ice and I won’t get into too many details except to say that if your marriage counselor ever recommends this book:

Accept that life as you know it is over, then find yourself some good Prozac and a great lawyer.

With that going on, money was tight over the summer and any skating fees went for the boy-child, not me – which is as it should be when you’re a parent.

Over the last few months, T got on his first team, got his first assist, and his team won the league championship.  Three teams in the league, but still.

He’s improved a lot since starting.  He’s still the slowest one out there, but ever time he listens to me or his coach and takes our direction, he improves a little bit.  His skating’s gotten much better.  The one thing he needs to work on most is to gain the confidence to be more aggressive.  Both his coach and I have told him to challenge the other players more – even if they get by him, he’ll be able to disrupt their play.

So his first season’s over and one of the local rinks is running a special … for $100 he gets a month of their youth programs.  Five nights a week – 3-on-3, pond hockey and skate & shoot.  A good deal just for the ice time.

But enough about him and back to me.

A couple weeks ago I took him to skate and shoot and fell hard for the first time.  I was in the middle of trying something very complicated which requires a great deal of skill: skating in a circle.

Yes, I was practicing cross-overs around the center face-off circle and busted my ass.

Actually, it was my head that I busted.  I was trying to lean more in my turns, something I don’t do properly.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough speed for the amount of leaning that I did … or something.  Anyway, my feet not only slid out from under me, they completely left the ice, winding up, near as I can tell, at about waist level before I plummeted to the ice completely horizontal.  At least that’s what it felt like.

The momentum of my fall didn’t let me keep my head up and the side of my helmet hit the ice with a rather impressive crack.  My first thought was:

Good helmet … barely felt that.

My second thought was:

Why does my jaw feel like somebody just drop-kicked me in the face?

Then my inner-retardspoke up:

Duh-oh! Didn’t need a mouth guard yet … just doing skate-and-shoot right?  Dumb ass!

So, yeah, jaw hurt for a week and a half.  Ow.

Now when I sign T up for his month of skating, the guy mentions that on Mondays they do the kids’ 3-on-3 on the main rink, then let them have extra time on the studio rink while the adult clinic’s on.  So I ask him how good a skater I’ll have to be before I can reasonably sign up for that. 

He tells me that’s not a problem, they’ve had people who good barely stand up on the ice.

Hah! I think to myself.  I can stand up.  I stand up good.  Mostly.

So tonight I signed up for it.  What the hell.

In the locker room beforehand, I get a little boost of confidence.  I was expecting this to be all young guys – teens and twenties – but the four suiting up with me are all around my age and one of them’s only been coming for three weeks. 

Out on the ice I’m a little confused about what to do – everyone’s skating around doing their own thing, so it’s looking like a skate-and-shoot, not a clinic.  I was expecting an instructor to start things off first-thing, but apparently there’s quite a bit of warm-up time included.

During the warm-up, the coach stops me and asks me to skate across the rink for him, which I do.  First advice: keep my arms in closer (apparently I had my elbows way far out from my body) and I’m holding the stick too far down when I handle the puck.

I feel a big difference in my skating and puck handling with both these things, so that’s worth the price of admission all by itself.

Next up is skating drill.  Now, I’ve never had a clinic before or taken a lesson, so this is all new to me. 

First off is goal-line to goal-line, push with the left foot only and glide on the right.  I can do this one pretty good, I think.  Same with the second and third: same with right foot, then both feet, respectively.

Next is goal-to-goal as fast as we can, and this one just kills me. I’m the slowest one out there, but not by too much – I mean I get there last, but I’m close enough to touch the next slowest, so that makes me feel okay about it. What’s really bad, though, is that I’ve been on a couch for the last ten years, with little or no exercise, so my endurance sucks.  Bad.  We do this four times and by the time we’re done I’m drained and ready for the thirty-second break he gives us.

I take more than thirty seconds.

In fact, I sit out the first rep of the next drill, because I don’t want to puke on his ice.  Clearly this is a problem and I need to do some serious cardio.  I knew this already, intellectually, but having to leave the ice while a bunch of other guys your age keep going drives it home quite pointedly.  The new apartment has a gym and I need to be there every morning.

I make it back on the ice for the second rep of this drill: around the circles, left-crossovers, right-crossovers … one circle to another.  I’m a little tentative about this one and don’t do as well as I think I should.  Might be because my inner-retardis saying things like:

Didn’t buy that mouth-guard yet, did you?  Here it comes! Going down again and it’s gonna hurt! Dumb ass!

I make it through without falling, but I can do this better and I’m disappointed in myself.  The only reason I don’t have a mouthguard already is because money’s tight right now, so I really need to get one before the next time.

Next drill is down to the far blue-line and form two lines – if that was all that was involved, I’d be pretty good at it.  But, no, there’s more.

We’re going to skate in pairs (I feel bad for the guy paired with me), dump the puck into the zone, pick it up again, then skate to the other zone and take a shot on the goal.  Obviously passing as we go and appropriately to each pairs skill-level.

First time through my guy dumps it in around the boards and I head over to get it.  I know I’m not going to be able to take it up the ice well, so I pass to him – a bad pass, he’s not where I thought he’d be at all.  We head up the ice and I cross the blue line where he passes to me on the left side. 

Now my shot is weak.  Way weak, so I don’t even bother, I just pass back to him as he’s coming across the blue line and let him take the shot.  I have no idea if he got it in, because I’m too busy trying to turn before I hit the boards.

Second time through this drill, I start with the puck, so I dump it in and immediately turn for the other end.  I’m too slow yet to do anything else.  He yells, “Boards!” and this is the first time I’ve ever heard this on the ice, but I understand it and take his pass off the left-side boards short of the zone. 

I skate the puck into the zone and make a back-hand pass to him at the blue line.  Again, I have no idea what happened with the shot, because I fell after the pass.  But I do know that it was a pretty decent pass, at least as far as direction goes – power could have been better, I think, but it was there for him.

I sit out the next rep of this drill because I’m out of gas again.  And my legs are really weak, so I call it a night. I know enough to realize that if I try to push myself, I’m probably going to fall badly enough to hurt myself if I keep going, even though it’s even more embarrassing to leave the ice.

But I talk to the coach afterward and ask him what, aside from finding a treadmill, I should do – basically whether I should keep taking the lessons or if I suck too bad for them to do any good.  He says he’s seen suck and I don’t, which is encouraging. 

Obviously I need to work on my endurance, because right now I have the endurance of a little girl (which I retract, because I’ve seen the little girls who play hockey and they could all kick my ass), but my skating’s good enough to stay in the lessons.  So I’ll be back next week.

But right now I’m starting to ache from tonight, so I’m going to bed.

Ow.