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.
