Darkspace Press

Author: sutherland

  • I’m not the Slowest! (except sometimes)

    The skating drill at tonight’s clinic was an important milestone for me: I wasn’t the last one across the ice in one of the drills. Yay!

    So skating drill tonight was goal-line to blue-line forward, then return backward; then the same to the red-line; then the same to the far blue-line.  Then to the far goal-line and back, both forward.

    It was at the far goal-line that I realized I’d made the turn and there were others behind me.  Maybe I’m getting faster .. maybe they just weren’t skating as hard … don’t really care which, I’ll go with feeling good about it either way.

    Then we did goal-line to goal-line and back three times … backwards.

    I am not not-the-slowest going backwards.  I am, in fact, slower than the goalie.  That’s right … I’m slower than the guy with 500 pounds of equipment on him. 

    Also, I don’t turn well backward.  How do I know this?  Well, since I’m the slowest, it meant that everyone else reached the goal-line and started coming back before I did.  (anyone see where this is going?)

    I’m doing what I’m supposed to, looking over my shoulders frequently, but I seem to have trouble seeing directly behind me.  And when I finally do see him, he’s close and we’re both moving.  And I was unprepared to maneuver, so there was a bit of a collision.  I went down and he kept going, which was rather disappointing.  I mean, if I’m going to go down after colliding with someone, I’d at least like it to be mutual, you know?

    The hockey drills were interesting.

    First off, we ran an offensive drill with two defensemen and one forward.  Passing and shooting while the coach put pressure on whoever had the puck – it’s a bit sad that at three-on-one he still could’ve kicked our asses if he’d chosen to, I think.

    So we all line up and the first three go in.  After a bit we cycle, so right-defense moves to forward, forward moves to left-defense, and left-defense moves back to the line, while the next in line takes over at right-defense. 

    This drill uncovered a serious problem I have – I kept trying to walk.  At defense, I found myself trying to take steps side-to-side instead of skating.  So I need to work on moving left/right by skating instead of thinking I can step back and forth.

    For the second drill we line up in two groups at opposite blue-lines, along the boards and facing the far blue-line.  First skater from one group skates to the far blue-line and turns, taking a pass from the other group and skates down to take a shot on the net.  As he gets the pass, the passer from the second group takes off and does the same, but taking his pass from the other group.  On and on.

    Of the three times I did this, I missed the pass I was supposed to receive twice – but I’m going to blame the passers.  The passes were ahead of me … okay, so that makes it my fault for not skating faster to get them, but still …

    The three passes I gave, though, seemed to be on target.  I didn’t notice any of the receivers having to stretch too far or really work to get to them.  So I’m happy with that, because I’m realistic enough to know that 1) I’m not fast enough to skate with the puck and B) my shot sucks – so my best bet to help the team if I touch the puck is to pass it and it’ll be good to at least be accurate about it.

  • Boy-child’s Draft Skate

    The boy-child’s draft skate was tonight, so we got to see him in context with the other players in his league again and there was some improvement over the first draft – which I didn’t blog about because it was still close to the whole divorce-thing starting and I wasn’t doing much of anything.

    Suffice to say that in his first draft he was the slowest, suckiest one on the ice – much like his old man is in his lessons.  So, after a season of play and about six weeks of skating three to five days a week since the end of that first season, was there an improvement?

    Some.

    He’s still slow – both skating and reaction time – but his skills, in general, have definitely improved and in several drills he was not the worst one out there.  That’s an improvement over the first time and not bad, I think, for just a few months. So what drills was he not the worst at?

    First one I noticed was skating down the ice – hop over the blue line, hit the knees across the center line and then hop over the other blue line.  He had trouble getting up off his knees, but so did lots of other kids and he made it up faster than some of them. 

    Next was skating backwards – goal-line to goal-line – still in the bottom quarter, but not dead last.

    He did best at the drill where he had to skate to the center-line and stop then step sideways back to the blue-line, reverse direction and side-step back to center.  I’d say he was in the top half of this one – a lot of the kids had trouble stepping instead of skating.

    So he’ll probably be picked last or close to it again in this draft based on overall performance, but he’s worked hard and gotten a lot better.

  • Monday Clinic

    Tonight’s clinic started in what I’m going to start calling The Bad Way – that is, goal-line to goal-line skating drills that I’ve described in two of the last three clinic posts.  Not going to elaborate further again.

    However, they didn’t wear me out as much as previously.  I’m wondering if it might have something to do with the enormous amount of water I drank between noon and skating – maybe there’s something to that whole hydration-thing.

    Drill tonight was shots again – first dragging the puck in from the blue line and taking a shot, then something different.

    Coach set up on the right boards at the blue line with a pile of pucks – seems most of his drills consist of him standing in one place with a pile of pucks and making us shag them.  It’s good to be the coach.

    Anyway, two lines of us – one at the left boards and the other at center, but on the blue line. 

    Coach dumps the puck in around the boards – skater at the left boards goes in and gets it, skater at center heads for the net.  Shot, pass, deflection-attempt, whatever and then back to the end of the other line.

    On my first attempt I was on the boards.  I tried to stop the puck with my skates and forgot how to stand, which resulted in me flat on my back on the ice. 

    Second or third attempt from center and I’m trying to screen the goalie and maybe deflect the shot, but the guy taking the shot lifted it a bit. 

    Note to Self: Puck-deflection with ‘nads inadvisable.

    Not really – it hit me on the outside of the thigh about two inches below the level of Mr. Johnson and the Boys, but it was the first time I’ve taken a puck anywhere, so it was surprising.  And made me glad I remembered my cup, just in case.

    Will now always remember my cup – pending divorce or not, I may need those again someday.

    My “shot”, and I use the term with much derision and mocking, showed itself again to be weak.  I need to figure out a way to strengthen my right elbow – I broke it a few years ago and it twinges quite a bit taking a shot. 

    I also discovered, when stopping the dumped-in puck along the boards, that it’s difficult for me to see a puck right at my feet.  I stopped them all after that first fall, but had to look around to find them again – kept getting lost under me and squirting away.  Since I’m not heavy at all, I’m going to blame this on all the gear.

    I felt really good after the clinic – tired, but not completely worn out like previous ones.  I think I might target trying to play in the Monday game starting in February. 

  • 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.

  • Skate & Shoot

    Friday skate & shoot with the boy-child went well.  I got some good skating in along with some practice handling the puck.  Even practiced my tickle-shot a little …

    Okay, I’ll explain – some people have a slapshot – well, mine falls more toward the tickle end of the slap & tickle spectrum.  ‘nuf said.

    Passed with T along the boards for a bit – he’s improved a lot over the last month at puck handling and reacting to the puck when it gets near him.  I hope that carries over to his draft skate in January – if it does, I think his teammates will be surprised by the improvement.

  • Monday Clinic

    Made it to my second Monday clinic and it was a much better experience than the first one. 

    Coach started us off with laps because no one had stretched – four times around, but I was able to stay with the pack and had no foot pain, so I was pretty pleased about that.  The new skates remained comfortable throughout.

    The drills concentrated on screening the goalie and deflecting the puck around the net. 

    He and another guy set up at the points and we were to skate in from the side of the net and stop – screen the goalie and try to deflect a shot from one point, then move quickly to the other side for a shot from the other point.

    I’m new to the drills, but part of this I don’t understand completely.  The explanation was that if the first shot misses it’s likely to go around the boards to the other point, so that’s why the move to cover the other side of the net.  That makes sense to me if it misses wide, but it seems more likely to me that there’s going to be a rebound from the goalie in this situation, so we should be “training” to turn and try to pick that up. 

    We moved from that to skating straight across the slot and deflecting a shot on the move, then to circling behind the net and coming in front to deflect a shot. 

    I have no idea if any of the shots I was working with went in the net or not, I was too busy concentrating on moving to where I needed to be next.  I figure that’ll fix itself as I get more used to the environment and working with the puck.

    I fell once during the drill where we were crossing the slot – I think the shot was more in line with my skates than my stick and trying to adjust backwards to deflect it sent me off balance.  I went down and hurt my right elbow a bit – I was worried at first, because I’d broken that elbow in the past, but it’s getting better.

    After the clinic one of the guys asked if I was going to start playing in the rookie game they have afterward – I demurred, but he said he thought I was skating well enough to join. 

    I’m still going to hold off on a decision, though – I plan to stick around after next Monday’s clinic and watch a game to see what it’s like.  Maybe start playing by the end of January, which will still be sooner than I expected when I started this nonsense.

  • 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.

  • Sunday Skate

    The Summer Youth League starts July 10 and T will be done with his lessons by then and ready to join a team.

    I, on the other hand, will be nowhere near ready. :(  So the little snot’ll be playing before me.

    If I could get on the ice more for practice then I might have a chance (snowball’s), but it’s twenty miles to the nearest ice from my house, so once or twice a week is about all I can manage.

    So this Sunday, I got a bit better at backward skating and started trying to hockey stop with my left-foot forward.

    I suck at that.  It feels so damn awkward … worse than skating clockwise.  I may give up on it and concentrate on other things … I’ll just always stop on my right foot and turn to my left … what’s the worst that could happen?

    My daughter came with this time and stopped me at center ice to ask me how to stop.  She skates well, has started skating backwards, but can’t seem to master stopping.  So I tried to explain a snowplow stop.

    She understands the premise, but can’t seem to do it, always winding up in a spin because she’s not scraping the ice at all.

    So I tried to get through to her with an analogy I, as the father of a fifteen-year old girl, hope can do double-duty:

    “The blade needs to start scraping the ice, not slide over it.  Put pressure on the blades.  Try vocalizing what you want to do.

    "Now pretend you’re in a car with a boy, put pressure on the blades and say ‘Stop!’”

    She found this amusing, but still couldn’t get it, so I suggested she stand in one place and scrape the ice with one blade to see what it feels like.  I demonstrated:

    “Stop!” scrape

    “Stop!” scrape

    “Just like in a boy’s car.

    “Stop!” scrape

    It’s at this point that I lost my balance and fell on my ass.  Much hilarity ensued.

    She still can’t stop.