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Category: equipment
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.
Afternoon on the Wekiva
An afternoon paddle on the Wekiva today, but no pictures or GPS due to battery issues. Those should be resolved before my next paddle, though.
I started at Wekiva Springs State Park and turned onto Rock Springs Run to paddle upstream until the water became to shallow to continue. Then I returned to the Wekiva and paddled downstream past the marina for an hour or two.
Two small gators, a number of birds, and a bevy of drunken paddlers from the marina. The highlight of the trip was a hawk carrying a squirrel (or some other small, furry dinner) that back-winged mid-river to reach a tree on the bank.
Part of this trip was to try out a couple pieces of new equipment.
First was a carry strap I got from topkayaker.net:
(stock photo – sadly neither the yak nor the brunette are mine)
I’ve used this the last couple trips, but those were short transfers. It worked well for those, but the 100-yard sand path from the parking lot to the launch at the Park would be a good test, with soft sand much of the way that tends to bog down some kayak cart wheels and a significant elevation change between the parking lot and the launch area.
So what I found was that the weight, even on one shoulder, wasn’t a problem. The 16’ length of the Tarpon is an issue, as it’s simply unwieldy to carry – controlling the ends, and such. The biggest issue for a long portage with this device is that the bottom of the boat presses against my leg just below the knee – so each step rubs that spot back and forth along the bottom edge of the boat.
On the trip down to the water the kayak had been on top of the car for a couple hours, so had plenty of time to heat up the plastic and it was uncomfortable. On the way back up again, the friction was noticeable – in fact, I believe there is a spot bare of hair on that leg now. Next time I’ll have to bring some pants to change into for the portage – that should alleviate the rubbing.
Next were these:
I’ve been looking at the Vibram Fivefingers brand for a while and my kayaking sandals are just about at the end of their useful life, so I decided to try a pair.
These are the KSO model, along with the Flow, designed for watersports.
So comparing them to the sandals I usually wear, I was favorably impressed. Yes, the having-stuff-between-your-toes thing takes a bit of getting used to, but aside from my left pinky-toe, all adjusted quickly and even that awkwardness went away once they got wet the first time.
I was in and out of the boat several times and when the water got very skinny on Rock Springs Run I got out and walked for a couple hundred yards pulling the boat.
The “feel” of these is very much like being barefoot, but still protected from rocks and logs. I didn’t have a need to perch on a log while pulling the boat over, but I do think these would provide better grip and balance than sandals.
The bottom of Rock Springs Run is more sand than mud, but there are spots where the sand isn’t hard-packed and your feet sink. These were easier to deal with in the KSOs than in sandals. With sandals, once you’re foot sinks, pulling it out often creates a void between the sole of your foot and the sandal – that creates some suction and makes it more difficult to get out. These both stay on and avoid that problem.
The fit around the ankle is tight enough that very little sand or dirt is able to get into the shoe.
Overall quite comfortable and effective.
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.
