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Category: pain
Game 2
So game number two for me, after skipping last week due to taking an ass to the groin.
Even strength teams tonight and we lost 3-4 in overtime. I wasn’t on the ice for any goals against and was out there for one of our goals, so I feel better about my performance than I did last time.
The goal I was on the ice for was a nice little wrap-around. I was left wing and I think I was in good position to take a pass from him when he was back there or pick up the rebound. Maybe a little too close to the goal, though.
I think I played my positions better – tonight I was mostly at wing, with one shift on defense. After the first game I found a site that lays out the proper position in different situations, something I probably should have learned before the first game.
One confusing situation that kept occurring was in our zone, where, as I understand it, I’m supposed to keep an eye on their defenseman at the point on my side.
But he was never there, he was more down in the slot, so I spent a lot of time in this big box of open ice.
My instinct is to head down their too and keep him off the puck, but our center said, no. Let our defense clear him out and stay where I should be to take the puck for a breakout.
One thing about the boy-child, who’s still on a bit of a hiatus from hockey, is that he plays his position well. Having been in a game, now, and felt the temptation to get down there into the play, I have a lot of respect for him doing that.
As in the first game, I think my best shift of the night was a clear that set up a breakaway. I got the puck in our zone and saw a clear lane out to our center at the blue-line and the other wing almost there. My pass was on target to the center and I wasn’t too far behind them down the ice. No goal, but it was a decent play on my part.
I think I was also able to put more pressure on the other team than last game. I was still behind people a lot, but rather than trying to catch up and touch the puck, I lifted a lot of sticks and kept them in mind that I was back there.
I fell less in this game. All but one the result of being bumped off balance by other players – it’s no-checking, but you can’t avoid all contact. The one was rather spectacular, as it involved my leg giving out while I was trying to climb over the boards to the bench – pancaked onto my back right there. My goal now is to make it through a game without the ref having to say: “You okay, man?”
With about 5:00 left in the third, my right thigh started aching on top. Twinging from moderate to muttered-obscenity. Weak and worse when I put weight on the leg, I made it through a last shift in the period – they scored 0:30 into overtime, so I didn’t have to see if it would handle that.
It was an unpleasant ride home, with lots of grunts and mutterings, but the pain subsided after a stop at Friday’s, so all it needed was a bit of rest. Or vodka. Rest or vodka, one.
The late end to these games is unfortunate, because there’re no massage places open on my drive home (well, no legitimate massage places). I would so pay for a massage after these games.
Clinic Catch Up
There was no Sunday clinic last week (4/8) because the rink was closed for Easter. Monday’s clinic ended abruptly in the following manner.
After a brief skating drill, the first puck drill was to carry the puck from the goal-line, down the ice to the other zone, take a shot from just inside the far blue-line, and then pivot to skate backwards to the starting point. Not entirely difficult.
So I go … and the puck slips off my stick back to my feet, so I kick it up. It goes off the back of my stick to my right where one of the guys coming back to the line sees it and taps it toward me, so it’s now over to my left.
I’m trying to regain the puck and people are skating backwards toward me. Do I really need to say any more?
My head’s down and I slammed right into the back of this guy. He went down and rolled over to give me a “what the fuck?”-look, which I richly deserved.
Now for me, I didn’t go down, but since we’re both crouched and skating, his ass and my cup were at a level. Unfortunately, my cup was not entirely cupping correctly. It had ridden up a bit and the left one was, apparently, a bit out. So the left one was caught between the edge of the cup and my thigh, and the top of the cup pounded into my lower gut. It was a two-fer.
I spent the rest of that clinic on the bench clutching myself.
Today’s drill went better.
First off, three skaters each take a puck and head the length of the ice. First skater enters the zone and takes a shot. Second skater hangs at the blue-line to center, then heads into the zone for a shot. Third skater hangs along the blue-line to the left side and then heads in for a shot.
Next up was a little thing that I can’t even begin to draw a picture of. Two groups at either end of the ice. On the whistle, three skaters from each group each take a puck and head for center ice, where they enter the center face-off circle and skate around puck-handling.
Yes, six crappy, beginning skaters all trying to control their pucks while they skate around in that little circle. On the second whistle, the survivors exit the
Thunderdomecircle and take shots on goal.An easy one’s next – from behind the goal-line, take the puck out of the zone, pass it hard to the far boards, then skate over to pick the puck up and take a shot.
Then we did some four-person passing, follow your pass to your next position.
And finally a drill with cones. I don’t like cones, they make my ankles hurt. Which probably means I need to do more drills with sharp turns and stop skating just in straight lines.
Sunday Skate
RDV had four hours of public skating today, so four 45-minute sessions. I made it through three of them.
I broke each session into two 10-minute skates with a 5-minute break and ending with a 15-minute skate.
The first ten minutes were painful again – my upper shins hurting like the lower did last time. Skating was slow and awkward and I felt off-balance crouching, especially in cross-overs.
After a break, though, the pain went away by the second ten-minute skate. Everything felt better and smoother.
Had a minor fall during the second session.
A girl in front of me and a bit to the right fell and splayed her left hand out flat on the ice. I edged left to avoid her, winding up right behind a woman and her little girl, who both slowed down, looking at the girl who had fallen.
So, right up on them, I couldn’t go left without clipping the little girl and couldn’t go right without running over the girl who had fallen, so snowplowed and almost made it. I wound up just barely contacting the mother of the little girl and going over backwards as I leaned away from her.
Overheard during a break — two pre-teens were at the table next to me reading flyer for the rink’s ‘80s music skate this week:
“’80s music. That’s like disco. Music for old people.”
Lots of Pain–We’ll Find Out About Gain on Monday
As I embarked on my plan to get in shape and start taking lessons again next week, I probably should have added actual skating to the mix before this week. Oh, well.
Today was probably the fifth time I’ve been on the ice in the last six months – the second this week. So, while a lot of muscles are getting better due to my exercise this month, they’re not necessarily the ones I’ll use for skating. But that’s okay, I’m not so much interested in getting more speed or power out of my skating right now – my goal is simply to be in better general shape so I can make it though the clinics.
Today’s skating session was 2:45 – three forty-five minute skates, with fifteen minutes between them to cut the ice.
The first session was absolute hell. The last time I skated my calves hurt, so I’ve been trying to target them more in my off-ice exercise, but today they were okay. It was the front of my legs that hurt.
Why this part of my leg would hurt while skating, I don’t understand, but it’s painful as hell. This lasted throughout the first session, but after resting while they cut the ice, it went away in the second.
Three five-minute breaks for water in the first session, two in the second, and one in the third, so I was on the ice, skating steadily, for over an hour and a half.
They’ve finally, this year, started reversing directions at this rink, so it was counter-clockwise/clockwise/counter-clockwise. Reinforcing my knowledge that I can’t do a crossover clockwise. There’s something about the lean – I’m very uncomfortable leaning in that direction for some reason.
After the skate, I had to deal with my typical, left-foot pain.
These pains I know the source of. I have some inflammation of my Achilles at the heel. Pressure on it is painful when I’m skating, so my left foot has to go forward in the skate, rather than being flush against the heel (I’m working on some kind of padding that might work), but this presses the top of my foot into the laces. So after a skate I can count on both hurting.
All I concentrated on today was skating forward – I was really just trying to work the muscles, rather than trying to improve any skills. At the end of the last session, with everyone leaving the ice, I skated to the goal line at the door end and did a simple hockey stop. Then, since people were lining up to exit the ice, I decided to skate backwards a few feet. And prompt fell on my ass. As soon as I started backward, my muscles just gave out and it was like someone had cut my legs out from under me. Not the ending I wanted.
