A combination of a family event (sister having some "minor" surgery, it's only minor if it's not happening to you) and Christmas meant I didn't get to skate at all last week. I've got some extra kids this week as sister recoups, but the local rink has shifted their public skate times around for the holidays and has a 9:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. session I should be able to hit a couple of times.
Before I get to the small hockey stuff, I've got a life thing that tangentially relates. I'm not doing an specific New Year's Resolutions, but I did read something the other day that really hit home. "If a stranger read a log of how you spend your time, would they be able to tell what your goals are?" There's some family and career stuff that's more important, but once you get past that, hockey is my most important goal right now. Is it showing in how I spend my time?
OK, that said, I've still been keeping an eye on gear. I got a sweet used hockey bag for Christmas from my sister, easy big enough to hold all my gear, so that's off the list now. I was in Anaheim for some other reasons so I stopped by Hockey Giant to look at some stuff.
I wanted to see how the SherWood sticks felt in my hands. It's hard to get a read on these things without experience, but I think a wood stick will be fine for me. I'm marking down expensive composite sticks as "for advanced players and enthusiasts who overthink the difference" rather than something important for me to worry about (unlike skates, which definitely seem to matter).
I like Hockey Giant, but their policy of not putting price tags on things is annoying. If you're lucky, there will be a sign somewhere in the vicinity that lists all the prices for a specific type of gear. Sometimes that sign isn't there, or at least I never found it.
I did pick up two things: a cheap pair of hockey socks and some shin guard tape. Hockey socks are funny to me because it's a great example of how much I didn't know about the game I've watched for 25 years. I never really thought about what hockey players wear on their legs, I always assumed it was some kind of pants. But it's really shorts (called ice pants) and these extremely long socks that start at your ankle (don't actually go into the skate) and go up past your thigh.
Anyways, I wanted them because I wanted to be able to start wearing my shin pads to skating. I banged my knee pretty good last class. I'm actually looking pretty much like a hockey player all geared up now. All I'm missing are the ice pants.
I should be finishing off my gear set in the next couple of weeks. I need to have it all by Jan. 18 anyway when the Anaheim Ducks Adult Learn To Play sessions start. I went through and made a cart at Ice Warehouse for everything left that I need, just to see how much it would set me back. Hockey pants, one wood stick, stick tape, a neck guard, mouth guard, jock and a couple of pucks would set me back just a smidge under $100. Not too shabby.
Monday, December 28, 2015
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
Fourth class
Well, shoot. I showed up at the rink at 11:30 this morning to try to get one more skating session in before class tonight, but it was closed for some event and public skating had been moved back to the afternoon. That's what I get for not checking the schedule on the site ahead of time.
So I went into tonight's lesson with no real ability to skate backwards, which is what I had been hoping to work on. The next few public sessions I need to spend a lot of time on that. My backwards swizzle is OK-ish, but I need to do one-foot backward strokes and I just can't see to grip the ice right.
Alright, we ran through the previous stuff in class to start with. Crossover starts - adequate (I mean, adequate for me and my experience level). One-foot stops - adequate, but I'm hoping to get better and stop quicker. Forwards crossovers - Improved!
Let's talk about that for a minute. Every day this past week, I've been taking the time to work on my ankle strength and flexibility, as well as my balance in the crossover position. I think it's paying off. I can do some sort of crossover and get at least a little push out of it every time. It's nowhere near as good as it needs to be, but it's *something* that an outside observer would recognize as a crossover and I don't lose all momentum.
Backwards crossovers - lol, no. I can't do a backwards crossover if I'm not actually moving backwards. It's still pretty bad. I think I did one that kind of felt OK.
Then he introduced tight turns. I didn't exactly master them in one night, but they seemed much easier than the other stuff we learned and I think I can pick these up with practice.
The public skate session was having some sort of toy drive/kids' night, there must have been 75 people skating. No point in trying to deal with that, I just skated a few laps for funsies and went home. I can go back out tomorrow and get some real practice in.
So I went into tonight's lesson with no real ability to skate backwards, which is what I had been hoping to work on. The next few public sessions I need to spend a lot of time on that. My backwards swizzle is OK-ish, but I need to do one-foot backward strokes and I just can't see to grip the ice right.
Alright, we ran through the previous stuff in class to start with. Crossover starts - adequate (I mean, adequate for me and my experience level). One-foot stops - adequate, but I'm hoping to get better and stop quicker. Forwards crossovers - Improved!
Let's talk about that for a minute. Every day this past week, I've been taking the time to work on my ankle strength and flexibility, as well as my balance in the crossover position. I think it's paying off. I can do some sort of crossover and get at least a little push out of it every time. It's nowhere near as good as it needs to be, but it's *something* that an outside observer would recognize as a crossover and I don't lose all momentum.
Backwards crossovers - lol, no. I can't do a backwards crossover if I'm not actually moving backwards. It's still pretty bad. I think I did one that kind of felt OK.
Then he introduced tight turns. I didn't exactly master them in one night, but they seemed much easier than the other stuff we learned and I think I can pick these up with practice.
The public skate session was having some sort of toy drive/kids' night, there must have been 75 people skating. No point in trying to deal with that, I just skated a few laps for funsies and went home. I can go back out tomorrow and get some real practice in.
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Some updates
OK, I apparently didn't post an update after my last public skating session, and I need to catch up on some stuff anyway, so here goes.
Friday's public skating session didn't go particularly well or badly. Crossovers are still a problem. I'm not getting any push out of them most of the time, although I'm at least stepping over consistently instead of just sort of stumbling. Backwards skating continues to improve very slowly. I can get some sort of swizzle going most of the time. I did some asking around online and watched some more videos, and I *think* I know what I'm doing wrong there (pushing more with the middle of the foot/heel rather than putting weight on the toe), but it's hard to know until I get out on the ice and try it.
I've been "practicing" my crossovers and stretching my ankles out every day, but just in bare feet on carpet. I think it's helping? I'm getting a better idea of what I want my feet to do, and how to keep my body balanced as I do it. And my ankles are definitely getting more comfortable with being rolled into the edge positions.
I wasn't able to go either Monday or Tuesday because of some family scheduling complications. I'm *really* hoping that means I can go tomorrow and get a practice session in for the morning before the next lesson in the evening. I really don't want to go into class without getting more comfortable with both forward crossovers and backward skating.
Tomorrow's class is the 4th out of 8, so we're not even halfway home. It will also mark exactly four weeks since the first time I stepped onto the ice. Given that, I think I'm coming along pretty nicely.
I am beginning to strongly consider repeating the class. I know at least one of my classmates is doing that this semester. I'm not sure if there's a pass/fail element like there is with the kids' ice-skating class, so it may not even be up to me. But I think it'd be good for me regardless, and the ice time is cheaper than paying for extra public sessions. I'd be taking that in addition to taking the intro to adult hockey skills, the next step in the progression.
I'm a little annoyed to have found out that the Beginner League that logically follows those classes is not quite on the same schedule as the rest of the leagues. and the next season actually starts Feb. 6. That's earlier than I thought, and I just don't think I can be ready by then. Not just skating skills, but also putting together all the equipment and paying the league fees. That's a beating on my wallet I wouldn't mind spreading out a bit better than that. But the next one wouldn't start until late May or June, and that's later than I hoped to wait.
But unless the next month and a half goes way better than I expect in terms of skill development, I'll probably just wait. I really don't like being the worst at anything, and I'd rather really feel comfortable in my first experience than rush myself out there. Maybe if I feel comfortable I can play some drop-in next spring while I wait.
Speaking of beating on my wallet, the equipment accumulation continues. I found a nice clearance deal on a helmet ($30) in my size at the local rink store, so I'm now the proud owner of a Bauer IMS 5.0 with full face shield (and anyone who doesn't like an adult wearing a face shield can offer to pay my dental bills and plastic surgery if something happens).
Then tonight, I finally found a pair of cheap shoulder pads at Ice Warehouse that I was able to combine with their 25% promo code and free shipping to get them down to under $25. They are CCM RBZ 90 senior mediums, and that should work for me according to their sizing chart. While I was there, I picked up a practice jersey with the same 25% off to get it down to $10. Just a simple black Bauer 200 large (I really was tempted to go with medium, but with my weight I didn't want to risk the tight gut look, I can always buy smaller later if I need to. The length they gave for medium just didn't *quite* seem long enough). I went with number 61 on the back, no name, and they offered to knock $3 off if I put an Ice Warehouse logo on the front and back. Given that I actually do really like them (they've twice offered a low-end entry model that other sites didn't seem to have, and they offer free overnight shipping to my state, and seem to have good promo codes) and it's just a practice jersey, that sounded fine to me and paid for the number customization.
So that gives me helmet, jersey, gloves, elbows, shins and skates. The only big pieces I have left to get are hockey pants and a stick. Oh, and a bag, but I'm probably just going to try to find a big cheap gym bag rather than a dedicated hockey bag. Then there's a bunch of small stuff: jock, mouthguard, various tapes, who knows what else when I start picking it all out. But we're getting there.
Friday's public skating session didn't go particularly well or badly. Crossovers are still a problem. I'm not getting any push out of them most of the time, although I'm at least stepping over consistently instead of just sort of stumbling. Backwards skating continues to improve very slowly. I can get some sort of swizzle going most of the time. I did some asking around online and watched some more videos, and I *think* I know what I'm doing wrong there (pushing more with the middle of the foot/heel rather than putting weight on the toe), but it's hard to know until I get out on the ice and try it.
I've been "practicing" my crossovers and stretching my ankles out every day, but just in bare feet on carpet. I think it's helping? I'm getting a better idea of what I want my feet to do, and how to keep my body balanced as I do it. And my ankles are definitely getting more comfortable with being rolled into the edge positions.
I wasn't able to go either Monday or Tuesday because of some family scheduling complications. I'm *really* hoping that means I can go tomorrow and get a practice session in for the morning before the next lesson in the evening. I really don't want to go into class without getting more comfortable with both forward crossovers and backward skating.
Tomorrow's class is the 4th out of 8, so we're not even halfway home. It will also mark exactly four weeks since the first time I stepped onto the ice. Given that, I think I'm coming along pretty nicely.
I am beginning to strongly consider repeating the class. I know at least one of my classmates is doing that this semester. I'm not sure if there's a pass/fail element like there is with the kids' ice-skating class, so it may not even be up to me. But I think it'd be good for me regardless, and the ice time is cheaper than paying for extra public sessions. I'd be taking that in addition to taking the intro to adult hockey skills, the next step in the progression.
I'm a little annoyed to have found out that the Beginner League that logically follows those classes is not quite on the same schedule as the rest of the leagues. and the next season actually starts Feb. 6. That's earlier than I thought, and I just don't think I can be ready by then. Not just skating skills, but also putting together all the equipment and paying the league fees. That's a beating on my wallet I wouldn't mind spreading out a bit better than that. But the next one wouldn't start until late May or June, and that's later than I hoped to wait.
But unless the next month and a half goes way better than I expect in terms of skill development, I'll probably just wait. I really don't like being the worst at anything, and I'd rather really feel comfortable in my first experience than rush myself out there. Maybe if I feel comfortable I can play some drop-in next spring while I wait.
Speaking of beating on my wallet, the equipment accumulation continues. I found a nice clearance deal on a helmet ($30) in my size at the local rink store, so I'm now the proud owner of a Bauer IMS 5.0 with full face shield (and anyone who doesn't like an adult wearing a face shield can offer to pay my dental bills and plastic surgery if something happens).
Then tonight, I finally found a pair of cheap shoulder pads at Ice Warehouse that I was able to combine with their 25% promo code and free shipping to get them down to under $25. They are CCM RBZ 90 senior mediums, and that should work for me according to their sizing chart. While I was there, I picked up a practice jersey with the same 25% off to get it down to $10. Just a simple black Bauer 200 large (I really was tempted to go with medium, but with my weight I didn't want to risk the tight gut look, I can always buy smaller later if I need to. The length they gave for medium just didn't *quite* seem long enough). I went with number 61 on the back, no name, and they offered to knock $3 off if I put an Ice Warehouse logo on the front and back. Given that I actually do really like them (they've twice offered a low-end entry model that other sites didn't seem to have, and they offer free overnight shipping to my state, and seem to have good promo codes) and it's just a practice jersey, that sounded fine to me and paid for the number customization.
So that gives me helmet, jersey, gloves, elbows, shins and skates. The only big pieces I have left to get are hockey pants and a stick. Oh, and a bag, but I'm probably just going to try to find a big cheap gym bag rather than a dedicated hockey bag. Then there's a bunch of small stuff: jock, mouthguard, various tapes, who knows what else when I start picking it all out. But we're getting there.
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Class No. 3, aka "Oh, *that's* what they mean by edge"
So after a couple of skating sessions last week, I was very disheartened. I just wasn't getting forwards crossovers at all, and I don't want to be falling behind after just two classes. I really wasn't looking forward to class today.
Then I got in the right mindset by the afternoon. You know who is awesome? The guy who keeps showing up and working hard even when he's not as good as he wants to be. I can be that guy.
I'm always a little worried that it was the wrong choice to stay in the power skating class on that first day when the instructor suggested I move to the adult novice skating class because I had never actually skated (the course catalog did not list any prerequisites for this class, but it did for others, so I assumed this would be ok).
But objectively, I think I'm keeping up as well as my classmates. There are maybe a dozen people each week. One is clearly the best skater, and can already do most of what we are learning. I suspect he is here mostly to have the instructor refine his technique. There's four or five of us including me who are at least improving to some degree each week and make a game effort of doing the stuff we are learning. Then there's about half the class that can barely stand up on skates and isn't doing anything at all. So I'm definitely not the worst or even close.
The nicest thing I got out of the instructor this week was that he strongly suggested that we get hockey gloves, which I already have and wear every week because it feels a lot nicer when you fall than bare hands. "Only one guy has hockey gloves? Don't you all want to play hockey?"
OK. We started with crossover starts and one-foot stops, both of which I can do adequately. I'm starting to get the hang of distributing my weight and digging into the ice enough to stop a little quicker. I can see a full two-footed hockey stop in my future pretty easily.
Then those evil forwards crossovers, where we do an S down the ice doing crossovers in each direction. After only a couple of people had any luck at all, the instructor called us all over and explained it again. This time he really took a few minutes to talk about weight distribution and ankle bend. He talks a lot about most people being visual learners, but I do better with this sort of instruction. Yes, I need to see how the feet move in the maneuver, but I also want to hear a technical explanation of "keep your weight here on this part of your foot," which seems to be the key to every skating maneuver: where you put your weight.
And he really explained and showed what "being on your edge" means. Holy balls. I thought it meant "slightly rocking your foot to that side." Nope, it means bending your ankle down to a 45-degree angle or maybe further. What I was doing wasn't even *close* to being on a true edge. He emphasized that we should be doing ankle stretches for flexibility side-to-side as much as possible.
Then he showed us how the weight should be on the heel of your inside foot (and your landing foot once it takes over the weight).
Between the two, this is what allows your weight to stay balanced as you come over the top. What I was doing was only slightly leaning my inside foot so that it was basically upright, and it was skidding all over the place as I basically had to throw my outside foot and hope that I could somehow catch my balance when it landed. The blade really gets in there at an angle and digs into the ice, giving you stability.
Suddenly, I was able to do some sort of crossover every time. Not always a good one, but none of the flailing and praying I was doing before.
Then he introduced backwards crossovers. It is similar to a forwards one, but it starts with a backwards push. I did maybe two right, but for the most part I could not for the life of me get a consistent backwards push. Most of the time, I'd either go nowhere or only a couple of inches before losing all momentum. I'm assuming this is yet again a problem with weight distribution. Actually, I'm sure it is. I bet I'm pushing with my toe too much and not my heel.
That was it for the class. Speaking of weight distribution, I keep saying this, but I just have to lose 20 pounds. I think it would help with the foot pain considerably, along with everything else.
I skated for about 15 minutes after class, not really to work on anything (night public sessions are crowded and the ice is shot by the time we get done with class), but just for the pure fun of it. I'm at the point where I can glide pretty good for fun without having to think about it too much.
Oh, almost forgot! I got an exciting e-mail yesterday: I got off the waiting list and into the next session of the Anaheim Ducks adult Learn To Play program. It's basically three free one-hour sessions in a large group setting. Not exactly game-changing, but three free hours of clinics and ice time is nothing to sneeze at! It runs once a week for three weeks, starting Jan. 18.
Then I got in the right mindset by the afternoon. You know who is awesome? The guy who keeps showing up and working hard even when he's not as good as he wants to be. I can be that guy.
I'm always a little worried that it was the wrong choice to stay in the power skating class on that first day when the instructor suggested I move to the adult novice skating class because I had never actually skated (the course catalog did not list any prerequisites for this class, but it did for others, so I assumed this would be ok).
But objectively, I think I'm keeping up as well as my classmates. There are maybe a dozen people each week. One is clearly the best skater, and can already do most of what we are learning. I suspect he is here mostly to have the instructor refine his technique. There's four or five of us including me who are at least improving to some degree each week and make a game effort of doing the stuff we are learning. Then there's about half the class that can barely stand up on skates and isn't doing anything at all. So I'm definitely not the worst or even close.
The nicest thing I got out of the instructor this week was that he strongly suggested that we get hockey gloves, which I already have and wear every week because it feels a lot nicer when you fall than bare hands. "Only one guy has hockey gloves? Don't you all want to play hockey?"
OK. We started with crossover starts and one-foot stops, both of which I can do adequately. I'm starting to get the hang of distributing my weight and digging into the ice enough to stop a little quicker. I can see a full two-footed hockey stop in my future pretty easily.
Then those evil forwards crossovers, where we do an S down the ice doing crossovers in each direction. After only a couple of people had any luck at all, the instructor called us all over and explained it again. This time he really took a few minutes to talk about weight distribution and ankle bend. He talks a lot about most people being visual learners, but I do better with this sort of instruction. Yes, I need to see how the feet move in the maneuver, but I also want to hear a technical explanation of "keep your weight here on this part of your foot," which seems to be the key to every skating maneuver: where you put your weight.
And he really explained and showed what "being on your edge" means. Holy balls. I thought it meant "slightly rocking your foot to that side." Nope, it means bending your ankle down to a 45-degree angle or maybe further. What I was doing wasn't even *close* to being on a true edge. He emphasized that we should be doing ankle stretches for flexibility side-to-side as much as possible.
Then he showed us how the weight should be on the heel of your inside foot (and your landing foot once it takes over the weight).
Between the two, this is what allows your weight to stay balanced as you come over the top. What I was doing was only slightly leaning my inside foot so that it was basically upright, and it was skidding all over the place as I basically had to throw my outside foot and hope that I could somehow catch my balance when it landed. The blade really gets in there at an angle and digs into the ice, giving you stability.
Suddenly, I was able to do some sort of crossover every time. Not always a good one, but none of the flailing and praying I was doing before.
Then he introduced backwards crossovers. It is similar to a forwards one, but it starts with a backwards push. I did maybe two right, but for the most part I could not for the life of me get a consistent backwards push. Most of the time, I'd either go nowhere or only a couple of inches before losing all momentum. I'm assuming this is yet again a problem with weight distribution. Actually, I'm sure it is. I bet I'm pushing with my toe too much and not my heel.
That was it for the class. Speaking of weight distribution, I keep saying this, but I just have to lose 20 pounds. I think it would help with the foot pain considerably, along with everything else.
I skated for about 15 minutes after class, not really to work on anything (night public sessions are crowded and the ice is shot by the time we get done with class), but just for the pure fun of it. I'm at the point where I can glide pretty good for fun without having to think about it too much.
Oh, almost forgot! I got an exciting e-mail yesterday: I got off the waiting list and into the next session of the Anaheim Ducks adult Learn To Play program. It's basically three free one-hour sessions in a large group setting. Not exactly game-changing, but three free hours of clinics and ice time is nothing to sneeze at! It runs once a week for three weeks, starting Jan. 18.
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
Public skate 12/8/2015
I was hoping to go Monday, but I had a minor family thing that interfered. So today was probably my only practice before class on Wednesday night.
I'd probably have to describe this session as disheartening. It didn't feel like a lot of progress, and I'm definitely not going back to class tomorrow night feeling a lot of confidence.
It was back down to less than 10 people on the ice, which was nice. These weekday afternoon sessions really spoil me.
I really wanted to focus on staying low in my hockey stance today. I think that contributed to my feet just absolutely killing me, more than they have in recent sessions, because I was unlearning some bad habits. I could generally make it about two times around the ice before I needed a break to ease the throbbing.
Crossovers are still a major problem. I'm just not comfortable enough on my edges to balance properly, and at best I'm falling toward my turning side and catching myself. I did maybe a couple right over about an hour of practicing.
Focusing on hockey stance was mixed. It's really hard not to straighten up. I tried to keep my base a bit wider, which helped with balance, and I could feel the way my stride felt different when I did it right.
I got about 15 minutes of backwards swizzle in, and a couple of times I got some decent backwards momentum. I just had to accept that I'm not going to be able to do those huge circular swizzles the coach wants because of my hips, and focused on smaller ones that still got some nice momentum going.
I really felt like I was having problems getting my skates to dig into the ice. It was a small problem during turns and a big problem when trying to backwards swizzle. I think maybe they need sharpened? I'm going to take them by Hockey Giant tomorrow before class. I think I'm also going to try a 1/2 cut instead of 5/8. The difference is small, but it might help me dig into the ice a bit better.
I'm not really looking forward to class tomorrow. It's only the third class out of 8, and already I'm showing up not able to do the stuff we learned last week. That's pretty frustrating and I *really* don't want to fall behind too far. But on the other hand, there's maybe a dozen people in class and no more than 3 or 4 of them are better than me right now. Most of them seemed to be having trouble last week doing the stuff we learned in the first week, so it's not like I'll be without company.
Worst comes to worst, I'll retake the class and give myself an extra 8 weeks to learn it. I think at least one person is retaking the class this time around. I can't expect perfection from myself, and good lord I've only been skating for three weeks. Well, it'll be three weeks tomorrow since the first time I stepped on the ice. Typing that out made me feel a little better. Maybe I'm just asking too much of myself.
I'd probably have to describe this session as disheartening. It didn't feel like a lot of progress, and I'm definitely not going back to class tomorrow night feeling a lot of confidence.
It was back down to less than 10 people on the ice, which was nice. These weekday afternoon sessions really spoil me.
I really wanted to focus on staying low in my hockey stance today. I think that contributed to my feet just absolutely killing me, more than they have in recent sessions, because I was unlearning some bad habits. I could generally make it about two times around the ice before I needed a break to ease the throbbing.
Crossovers are still a major problem. I'm just not comfortable enough on my edges to balance properly, and at best I'm falling toward my turning side and catching myself. I did maybe a couple right over about an hour of practicing.
Focusing on hockey stance was mixed. It's really hard not to straighten up. I tried to keep my base a bit wider, which helped with balance, and I could feel the way my stride felt different when I did it right.
I got about 15 minutes of backwards swizzle in, and a couple of times I got some decent backwards momentum. I just had to accept that I'm not going to be able to do those huge circular swizzles the coach wants because of my hips, and focused on smaller ones that still got some nice momentum going.
I really felt like I was having problems getting my skates to dig into the ice. It was a small problem during turns and a big problem when trying to backwards swizzle. I think maybe they need sharpened? I'm going to take them by Hockey Giant tomorrow before class. I think I'm also going to try a 1/2 cut instead of 5/8. The difference is small, but it might help me dig into the ice a bit better.
I'm not really looking forward to class tomorrow. It's only the third class out of 8, and already I'm showing up not able to do the stuff we learned last week. That's pretty frustrating and I *really* don't want to fall behind too far. But on the other hand, there's maybe a dozen people in class and no more than 3 or 4 of them are better than me right now. Most of them seemed to be having trouble last week doing the stuff we learned in the first week, so it's not like I'll be without company.
Worst comes to worst, I'll retake the class and give myself an extra 8 weeks to learn it. I think at least one person is retaking the class this time around. I can't expect perfection from myself, and good lord I've only been skating for three weeks. Well, it'll be three weeks tomorrow since the first time I stepped on the ice. Typing that out made me feel a little better. Maybe I'm just asking too much of myself.
Friday, December 4, 2015
12/4/15 public skate
Another public skate report. I would call it a success, although not an overwhelming one.
The main goal today was to work on the two things we learned in class: Forwards crossovers and backwards swizzles. And obviously keep practicing everything else, I haven't mastered anything.
With no classes to take up one-third of the rink, I was hoping for the ice to be nice and empty. I've been spoiled by the Monday/Tuesday early shifts where the skaters numbered in the single digits. I'd say there was maybe 30-40 there today. An Olympic sized sheet of ice can easily accommodate that, but I only like to try the trickier stuff if I can see that there is no one near me that I might take out if I blow it, and that wasn't always easy to find. Plus, the ice was pretty rotten by the end of the session.
The best part was that twice during the session, a veteran skater approached me and asked if I wanted any advice. I said absolutely, I'm new and I want everything I can get. The first one gave me a brief pointer, the second actually skated a couple laps with me and talked about it in detail. They both had the same basic message though: Bend your knees better and stand up straighter. Like so many new skaters, I struggle with leaning forward trying to get low rather than squatting down.
The second gentleman really explained it to me well. He said that he could see that I knew the footwork I was trying to do, but it wasn't working for me because I wasn't balanced on my skates right, and I wasn't balanced on my skates right because my posture wasn't right.
From there on out, I tried to focus much more on posture. I certainly didn't get it right every time. But before that, I wasn't even close to doing successful crossovers. Once I started thinking more about staying low and straight up, I started to occasionally succeed. If I kept my balance properly, the foot movement was a lot easier and more natural. By the end, I was successfully getting my foot across and getting some sort of meaningful push on maybe 1 out of 4 or 5 attempts. It was quite an exhilarating feeling to actually accelerate through a turn. I would have liked a chance to try left-footed crossovers in turns more, but there wasn't really a good chance to take over a circle in the middle of the ice. I did work on them in the straightaways in an S pattern when I could, but it will take a lot more work.
I also fell three times. I was taking pride in not falling the first few times out on the ice, but now that I'm trying harder stuff and safely protected (well, wearing hockey gloves anyway), I figured if I'm not falling at least sometimes, I'm not pushing myself hard enough. All were on turns where my feet slid out from under me. As long as I have a gloved hand to hit the ice with instead of bare, and I slide with it, it wasn't too bad. The only fall I'm really scared of is the "feet forward/straight backwards/head hit the ice" fall, and that should be pretty avoidable.
OK, backwards swizzles. This was another thing I'd hoped to work on more, but it was tough to find a safe chunk of open ice. I definitely made a little practice. I could barely get *any* backwards movement in class, but today I was getting some movement at least half the time.
At least some of the problem is my hips. I was born with a congenital defect in that my hips weren't fully in the sockets. My parents still have the baby shoes connected by a stiff metal brace. It fixed itself before I was a year old (somewhat improbably), but not completely perfectly. I have a slight natural tendency for my feet to point outward. The technique the instructor wants us to use for the backwards swizzle involves twisting your hips so far that your toes point inward and actually touch, and I just can't get them that far in.
But a lot of the problem is good ol' posture and balance. Just have to keep focusing on getting my hockey stance right and holding my balance properly. I also thought that it didn't help that most of my practice on this particular move was in the second half of the session,
For both techniques, I can see the progress. I am going to *try* to make it to two more public skates next week before class, hopefully Monday and Tuesday or Monday and Wednesday. If I keep progressing at this pace, I won't completely embarrass myself in class. I'm a little worried that I'm going to be in trouble if we keep adding new techniques at this pace, but I will just have to suck it up and deal with it.
So my big exercise plan for the next week (and beyond) is to *really* work on my hockey stance. I suspect wall sits might be in order.
Previous stuff? Still feeling pretty good about it. For some reason I completely biff the first one-foot snowplow stop I try on every session. After that, I got them all just fine. I'm working on stopping faster by digging into the ice harder and letting my skate twist even further to parallel. My crossover starts are getting to be downright adequate (at least relative to my level). My one-foot glides are getting better, I made it blue line to red line a few times on one foot, though usually not quite that far. I could make it blue line to blue line with two foot changes every time.
Oh, one more thing I wanted to work on: Turning properly. The turn I was doing wasn't using my edges much at all, it was basically a slow leaning glide. I tried to get more onto my edges and turn properly, and I could mostly do it without too much effort. I just need to get comfortable on my edges. I did a lot of twisting C-cuts in the straightaways, going back and forth on my edges in an S pattern. It was fun, although certainly not flawless technique.
Two more random thoughts:
1) Improving my physical fitness will probably help a lot. I'm lift enough to stay strong (including plenty of leg work) and my cardio is above-average, but I'm still carrying 25 pounds of extra fat squarely in the belly, and that can't be helping my flexibility and balance. I don't know if I can lose all 25 by March, but I'd like to drop a big chunk of that.
2) I learned last night something that had escaped my notice in 25 years of following hockey: The way I learned to hold a stick isn't necessarily wrong, but it's uniquely "American" and most Canadians and Europeans do it differently. When I was a kid playing street hockey, I bought a right-handed stick because I'm right handed, put my dominant hand on the bottom and went to town. It never occurred to me there was another way. But hockey players from everywhere else learn the opposite: Righties get left-handed sticks and put their right hand at the top, using the left hand down the shaft.
From a right-handed player's perspective, right-hand-down gains more power on your shot, but right-hand-up is better for stickhandling and poke-checking. Most Americans just assume you'd hold a hockey stick the same way you'd hold a baseball bat. I'm wondering if I should learn to try the other way. Better stickhandling sounds sweet, as does being able to play left wing easily when most of my American counterparts can't. And it seems that lefty sticks go on clearance more often because they are harder sells. But even though my muscle memory is more than 20 years old, it still bristles at the thought of trying to shoot "backwards." I think I should probably just buy a cheap street-hockey stick and see if I can get used to the idea.
The main goal today was to work on the two things we learned in class: Forwards crossovers and backwards swizzles. And obviously keep practicing everything else, I haven't mastered anything.
With no classes to take up one-third of the rink, I was hoping for the ice to be nice and empty. I've been spoiled by the Monday/Tuesday early shifts where the skaters numbered in the single digits. I'd say there was maybe 30-40 there today. An Olympic sized sheet of ice can easily accommodate that, but I only like to try the trickier stuff if I can see that there is no one near me that I might take out if I blow it, and that wasn't always easy to find. Plus, the ice was pretty rotten by the end of the session.
The best part was that twice during the session, a veteran skater approached me and asked if I wanted any advice. I said absolutely, I'm new and I want everything I can get. The first one gave me a brief pointer, the second actually skated a couple laps with me and talked about it in detail. They both had the same basic message though: Bend your knees better and stand up straighter. Like so many new skaters, I struggle with leaning forward trying to get low rather than squatting down.
The second gentleman really explained it to me well. He said that he could see that I knew the footwork I was trying to do, but it wasn't working for me because I wasn't balanced on my skates right, and I wasn't balanced on my skates right because my posture wasn't right.
From there on out, I tried to focus much more on posture. I certainly didn't get it right every time. But before that, I wasn't even close to doing successful crossovers. Once I started thinking more about staying low and straight up, I started to occasionally succeed. If I kept my balance properly, the foot movement was a lot easier and more natural. By the end, I was successfully getting my foot across and getting some sort of meaningful push on maybe 1 out of 4 or 5 attempts. It was quite an exhilarating feeling to actually accelerate through a turn. I would have liked a chance to try left-footed crossovers in turns more, but there wasn't really a good chance to take over a circle in the middle of the ice. I did work on them in the straightaways in an S pattern when I could, but it will take a lot more work.
I also fell three times. I was taking pride in not falling the first few times out on the ice, but now that I'm trying harder stuff and safely protected (well, wearing hockey gloves anyway), I figured if I'm not falling at least sometimes, I'm not pushing myself hard enough. All were on turns where my feet slid out from under me. As long as I have a gloved hand to hit the ice with instead of bare, and I slide with it, it wasn't too bad. The only fall I'm really scared of is the "feet forward/straight backwards/head hit the ice" fall, and that should be pretty avoidable.
OK, backwards swizzles. This was another thing I'd hoped to work on more, but it was tough to find a safe chunk of open ice. I definitely made a little practice. I could barely get *any* backwards movement in class, but today I was getting some movement at least half the time.
At least some of the problem is my hips. I was born with a congenital defect in that my hips weren't fully in the sockets. My parents still have the baby shoes connected by a stiff metal brace. It fixed itself before I was a year old (somewhat improbably), but not completely perfectly. I have a slight natural tendency for my feet to point outward. The technique the instructor wants us to use for the backwards swizzle involves twisting your hips so far that your toes point inward and actually touch, and I just can't get them that far in.
But a lot of the problem is good ol' posture and balance. Just have to keep focusing on getting my hockey stance right and holding my balance properly. I also thought that it didn't help that most of my practice on this particular move was in the second half of the session,
For both techniques, I can see the progress. I am going to *try* to make it to two more public skates next week before class, hopefully Monday and Tuesday or Monday and Wednesday. If I keep progressing at this pace, I won't completely embarrass myself in class. I'm a little worried that I'm going to be in trouble if we keep adding new techniques at this pace, but I will just have to suck it up and deal with it.
So my big exercise plan for the next week (and beyond) is to *really* work on my hockey stance. I suspect wall sits might be in order.
Previous stuff? Still feeling pretty good about it. For some reason I completely biff the first one-foot snowplow stop I try on every session. After that, I got them all just fine. I'm working on stopping faster by digging into the ice harder and letting my skate twist even further to parallel. My crossover starts are getting to be downright adequate (at least relative to my level). My one-foot glides are getting better, I made it blue line to red line a few times on one foot, though usually not quite that far. I could make it blue line to blue line with two foot changes every time.
Oh, one more thing I wanted to work on: Turning properly. The turn I was doing wasn't using my edges much at all, it was basically a slow leaning glide. I tried to get more onto my edges and turn properly, and I could mostly do it without too much effort. I just need to get comfortable on my edges. I did a lot of twisting C-cuts in the straightaways, going back and forth on my edges in an S pattern. It was fun, although certainly not flawless technique.
Two more random thoughts:
1) Improving my physical fitness will probably help a lot. I'm lift enough to stay strong (including plenty of leg work) and my cardio is above-average, but I'm still carrying 25 pounds of extra fat squarely in the belly, and that can't be helping my flexibility and balance. I don't know if I can lose all 25 by March, but I'd like to drop a big chunk of that.
2) I learned last night something that had escaped my notice in 25 years of following hockey: The way I learned to hold a stick isn't necessarily wrong, but it's uniquely "American" and most Canadians and Europeans do it differently. When I was a kid playing street hockey, I bought a right-handed stick because I'm right handed, put my dominant hand on the bottom and went to town. It never occurred to me there was another way. But hockey players from everywhere else learn the opposite: Righties get left-handed sticks and put their right hand at the top, using the left hand down the shaft.
From a right-handed player's perspective, right-hand-down gains more power on your shot, but right-hand-up is better for stickhandling and poke-checking. Most Americans just assume you'd hold a hockey stick the same way you'd hold a baseball bat. I'm wondering if I should learn to try the other way. Better stickhandling sounds sweet, as does being able to play left wing easily when most of my American counterparts can't. And it seems that lefty sticks go on clearance more often because they are harder sells. But even though my muscle memory is more than 20 years old, it still bristles at the thought of trying to shoot "backwards." I think I should probably just buy a cheap street-hockey stick and see if I can get used to the idea.
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
Learn To Hockey Skate Lesson 2
There's this amazing scene in Bull Duhram. The movie features a veteran minor league baseball catcher (Kevin Costner) sent to mentor a promising young pitcher (Tim Robbins) who has a lot of talent but an immature attitude.
The pitcher strikes out three straight batters, and gets lots of congratulations from his teammates. He sits next to the catcher in the dugout and asks him how great it was. The exchange:
"Your fastball was up and your curveball was hanging. In the show they would have ripped you."
"Can't you let me enjoy the moment?"
"Moment's over."
For the first 10 minutes of class, I felt pretty great about myself. I got a "someone's been practicing" from the coach during the first drill, going over stuff we learned last week. Then the last 20 was a nice slap in the face that I'd only "mastered" (become vaguely adequate at, really) the first week of skills and there's seven more to go.
I did pretty well with my one-foot snowplow stops and something approaching acceptability with my crossover starts. Lots more repetition is needed on the crossover starts, but I think I've got a good base to learn more advanced stops and push a little harder in that area.
Then we learned (well, he showed us) the two new skills for this week: Forwards crossovers and backwards swizzles.
Forwards crossovers are still pretty hard for me, but I can see the path to getting there. Maybe 1 out of 6 I try are vaguely correct, mostly on my dominant side. I'll get there with practice, I'm pretty sure. A lot of it is just trusting my edge. It's hard to really lean and put my weight out there on a turn and feel comfortable yet, but that just takes time.
Backwards swizzles just about broke me in half. Part of the problem is that I'm just not good at bending my feet that way. I was born with a congenital hip problem that mostly was solved but leaves me with just a slight natural tendency to have my feet turned outward. Turning my toes inwards and leaning on the inside edge is really not easy, especially as tightly as the instructor wants us to. I'm going to have to really work on my flexibility to get there. Getting from one sideboards to the other trying this for the first time took me a good 3 minutes and was not remotely graceful or correct.
I skated around for maybe 15 minutes after class, but the public session had maybe three or four dozen skaters on 2/3rds of the rink. Too many for me to feel comfortable pushing myself on some techniques that I don't really have down and could easily go flying into some toddler or something, plus the ice was pretty brutal and bumpy by that point. I called it a night and will get back out there as soon as I can. Daytime sessions have spoiled me.
I should be able to get to the public session on Friday and maybe next Monday or Tuesday before class. That's 3.5 hours of skating to work on these things, and I hope I see some improvement. I'll keep working on my footwork and especially hip flexibility off the ice.
The pitcher strikes out three straight batters, and gets lots of congratulations from his teammates. He sits next to the catcher in the dugout and asks him how great it was. The exchange:
"Your fastball was up and your curveball was hanging. In the show they would have ripped you."
"Can't you let me enjoy the moment?"
"Moment's over."
For the first 10 minutes of class, I felt pretty great about myself. I got a "someone's been practicing" from the coach during the first drill, going over stuff we learned last week. Then the last 20 was a nice slap in the face that I'd only "mastered" (become vaguely adequate at, really) the first week of skills and there's seven more to go.
I did pretty well with my one-foot snowplow stops and something approaching acceptability with my crossover starts. Lots more repetition is needed on the crossover starts, but I think I've got a good base to learn more advanced stops and push a little harder in that area.
Then we learned (well, he showed us) the two new skills for this week: Forwards crossovers and backwards swizzles.
Forwards crossovers are still pretty hard for me, but I can see the path to getting there. Maybe 1 out of 6 I try are vaguely correct, mostly on my dominant side. I'll get there with practice, I'm pretty sure. A lot of it is just trusting my edge. It's hard to really lean and put my weight out there on a turn and feel comfortable yet, but that just takes time.
Backwards swizzles just about broke me in half. Part of the problem is that I'm just not good at bending my feet that way. I was born with a congenital hip problem that mostly was solved but leaves me with just a slight natural tendency to have my feet turned outward. Turning my toes inwards and leaning on the inside edge is really not easy, especially as tightly as the instructor wants us to. I'm going to have to really work on my flexibility to get there. Getting from one sideboards to the other trying this for the first time took me a good 3 minutes and was not remotely graceful or correct.
I skated around for maybe 15 minutes after class, but the public session had maybe three or four dozen skaters on 2/3rds of the rink. Too many for me to feel comfortable pushing myself on some techniques that I don't really have down and could easily go flying into some toddler or something, plus the ice was pretty brutal and bumpy by that point. I called it a night and will get back out there as soon as I can. Daytime sessions have spoiled me.
I should be able to get to the public session on Friday and maybe next Monday or Tuesday before class. That's 3.5 hours of skating to work on these things, and I hope I see some improvement. I'll keep working on my footwork and especially hip flexibility off the ice.
Monday, November 30, 2015
Practice makes adequate
Alright, had a big day today. Kid had been on Thanksgiving break all last week, which made it tough to get away too much. Today he went back, and I got some stuff done. Hockey stuff.
I hit the local Play It Again Sports, figuring if they had anything at all in my size, it was a win. They had two things in my size. A pair of very nice gloves for $50. That's a good deal for the quality of glove, but I can spend ~$40 for a new pair at the low end, and low end is fine with me and I'm trying to keep this down to a minimum. (I had read that you could fill out your non-skates equipment for ~$250-300 if you shop cheap and/or used. From what I've been seeing out there, that's pretty optimistic).
The other thing they had in my size was a pair of shin pads for $25. That's not a fantastic bargain for something that goes for $35 new, but they looked to be in decent enough shape so I went with it. Plenty of scuff marks, but the only part that I could ever see breaking down would be the straps, which could easily be fixed if needed.
Then tonight, I was looking for good Cyber Monday deals and was intrigued with Ice Warehouse. They stocked the lowest-end of most models, which isn't always true of other web sites. And they offered free overnight shipping on orders of $50 or more to California residents. Their Cyber Monday deal was 25% off.
I snapped up a pair of elbow pads and gloves. (Bauer Vapor X60, black for the gloves and Easton Synergy 20 for the elbow pads, if anyone cares) to get me over the $50 minimum.
So all told, I spent $85.02 and picked up three pieces. Let's keep a running total to see how well I do. For protective equipment, I still need a helmet, mouth guard, shoulder/chest pads, jock and hockey pants. I'll also need practice jerseys (one dark and one light), hockey socks, an equipment bag and the various tapes. Oh, and duh, a stick. You really can't buy the helmet used, and I plan on getting a full cage because I just have no intention of dealing with the dental calamities.
OK, what else did I do today. Oh yeah, I actually skated. That's kind of important too.
I bought a pair of ultra-thin socks and that solved my skate problems. There had been a nasty pinching right behind the toes in my right skate that was causing all kinds of problems, but the thinner sock made it all go away. I skated for 95 minutes and the only pain I felt was ordinary "feet are not used to balancing on a thin piece of metal for 95 minutes" aching.
The skate went extremely well and left me feeling buoyant and excited for my second class in two days. Some things I worked on:
1) My main goal was to work on the one-foot snowplow stop, which was the primary focus of the first class. I spent the entire skating around the rink and stopping 4-6 times on every circuit. At first, I alternated feet, and then I started to do the left a bit more just because it's my off foot and doesn't come quite as naturally.
The move involves gliding forward, then placing one foot slightly in front of the other and turning the point of your tow inward, and using the resistance this creates to scrape to a stop.
I would say that I definitely became adequate at this move. I could do it almost every time and stop with success, even at what for me is a higher speed. By the end, maybe one time out of 10 I'd start to catch an edge wrong and have to abort, but even then I felt it right away and recovered. Watching the videos on it over and over again really helped, as did just raw repetition.
It really hinges on putting your weight in the right place. Well, first, you have to become comfortable enough that you can glide straight. The very first time I stepped on the ice, those many weeks ago, I was too wobbly ankled to do much of anything.
Then, during class when I struggled with it, I was leaving too much weight on my back (straight) foot and not the stopping foot. You need to push down with your stopping foot. I was trying to do this on the edge as well, and you actually do this on the flat of your blade (the middle, not on either the inside or outside edge).
And finally, you need to be pushing down with the toe and distribute your weight there. This is the final key. I'm sure the instructor mentioned it in class, but watching the YouTube videos really reminded me. And you can tell the difference immediately if you don't. If your weight is on your heel, you start to turn in the direction your stopping skate is facing.
Instructor said at the end of class "I'll know who has been practicing it and who hasn't in two weeks." I'm pretty excited to be on the good side of that ledger.
2) I worked on general technique while skating forward. This meant getting low into a hockey stance (meh, I'm trying, but new skaters always need to get and stay lower than they are. It's rough on the back), taking smooth strides that start with the heel and then push through to the toe (50/50. Sometimes I would do it right and I could feel how well it worked, and a lot of times I wouldn't and would get a lot less push for my effort. Right foot is better and more consistent than left foot), and gliding with my weight properly balanced. Like most new skaters, I was tensing my feet, curling my toes and putting too much weight forward. This was definitely contributing to the foot pain. I focused on keeping my feet relaxed and the weight more centralized, and I could definitely tell when I was doing it right and how much better it felt and smoother I moved.
The term "benders" is a somewhat derogatory term for new skaters who can't keep their ankles straight. When you let your ankle bend to one side or the other, your skate is no longer pointing straight down and you scrape on your edge instead of gliding on the flat. I'm up to the point where I'd say 90% of my skating is with my ankles locked. Once in a while I'll let it slip and can immediately hear the scrape and feel the lost momentum.
3) I practiced shifting my weight back and forth between my feet, letting myself glide on one foot with the other off the ice. At first, I couldn't do it for more than a split-second. By the end of the session, I could do 2-3 seconds with my right foot and 1-2 with my left. A lot of more advanced maneuvers involve being comfortable with your weight entirely on one skate, so this is just scratching the surface of getting used to that.
4) At least once or twice for each circuit, I made an attempt at a crossover start. The instructor very briefly showed it to us in class and implied it would become more important in later classes. After watching a bunch of videos and practicing the footwork at home, I'm not particularly close to getting it right. Today's attempts mostly involved me slowly crossing my foot over, managing to not fall, then twisting around and facing forward with no momentum. Will keep trying.
Another thing that made a difference today is that I wasn't afraid to stop and take a 2-3 minute break when I needed it. This let my feet rest and gave me the chance to skate almost the entire open session, something I hadn't been able to do before. It's definitely a workout. I'm still hoping to lose 20 pounds by next spring, which would probably help my skating and such considerably.
I hit the local Play It Again Sports, figuring if they had anything at all in my size, it was a win. They had two things in my size. A pair of very nice gloves for $50. That's a good deal for the quality of glove, but I can spend ~$40 for a new pair at the low end, and low end is fine with me and I'm trying to keep this down to a minimum. (I had read that you could fill out your non-skates equipment for ~$250-300 if you shop cheap and/or used. From what I've been seeing out there, that's pretty optimistic).
The other thing they had in my size was a pair of shin pads for $25. That's not a fantastic bargain for something that goes for $35 new, but they looked to be in decent enough shape so I went with it. Plenty of scuff marks, but the only part that I could ever see breaking down would be the straps, which could easily be fixed if needed.
Then tonight, I was looking for good Cyber Monday deals and was intrigued with Ice Warehouse. They stocked the lowest-end of most models, which isn't always true of other web sites. And they offered free overnight shipping on orders of $50 or more to California residents. Their Cyber Monday deal was 25% off.
I snapped up a pair of elbow pads and gloves. (Bauer Vapor X60, black for the gloves and Easton Synergy 20 for the elbow pads, if anyone cares) to get me over the $50 minimum.
So all told, I spent $85.02 and picked up three pieces. Let's keep a running total to see how well I do. For protective equipment, I still need a helmet, mouth guard, shoulder/chest pads, jock and hockey pants. I'll also need practice jerseys (one dark and one light), hockey socks, an equipment bag and the various tapes. Oh, and duh, a stick. You really can't buy the helmet used, and I plan on getting a full cage because I just have no intention of dealing with the dental calamities.
OK, what else did I do today. Oh yeah, I actually skated. That's kind of important too.
I bought a pair of ultra-thin socks and that solved my skate problems. There had been a nasty pinching right behind the toes in my right skate that was causing all kinds of problems, but the thinner sock made it all go away. I skated for 95 minutes and the only pain I felt was ordinary "feet are not used to balancing on a thin piece of metal for 95 minutes" aching.
The skate went extremely well and left me feeling buoyant and excited for my second class in two days. Some things I worked on:
1) My main goal was to work on the one-foot snowplow stop, which was the primary focus of the first class. I spent the entire skating around the rink and stopping 4-6 times on every circuit. At first, I alternated feet, and then I started to do the left a bit more just because it's my off foot and doesn't come quite as naturally.
The move involves gliding forward, then placing one foot slightly in front of the other and turning the point of your tow inward, and using the resistance this creates to scrape to a stop.
I would say that I definitely became adequate at this move. I could do it almost every time and stop with success, even at what for me is a higher speed. By the end, maybe one time out of 10 I'd start to catch an edge wrong and have to abort, but even then I felt it right away and recovered. Watching the videos on it over and over again really helped, as did just raw repetition.
It really hinges on putting your weight in the right place. Well, first, you have to become comfortable enough that you can glide straight. The very first time I stepped on the ice, those many weeks ago, I was too wobbly ankled to do much of anything.
Then, during class when I struggled with it, I was leaving too much weight on my back (straight) foot and not the stopping foot. You need to push down with your stopping foot. I was trying to do this on the edge as well, and you actually do this on the flat of your blade (the middle, not on either the inside or outside edge).
And finally, you need to be pushing down with the toe and distribute your weight there. This is the final key. I'm sure the instructor mentioned it in class, but watching the YouTube videos really reminded me. And you can tell the difference immediately if you don't. If your weight is on your heel, you start to turn in the direction your stopping skate is facing.
Instructor said at the end of class "I'll know who has been practicing it and who hasn't in two weeks." I'm pretty excited to be on the good side of that ledger.
2) I worked on general technique while skating forward. This meant getting low into a hockey stance (meh, I'm trying, but new skaters always need to get and stay lower than they are. It's rough on the back), taking smooth strides that start with the heel and then push through to the toe (50/50. Sometimes I would do it right and I could feel how well it worked, and a lot of times I wouldn't and would get a lot less push for my effort. Right foot is better and more consistent than left foot), and gliding with my weight properly balanced. Like most new skaters, I was tensing my feet, curling my toes and putting too much weight forward. This was definitely contributing to the foot pain. I focused on keeping my feet relaxed and the weight more centralized, and I could definitely tell when I was doing it right and how much better it felt and smoother I moved.
The term "benders" is a somewhat derogatory term for new skaters who can't keep their ankles straight. When you let your ankle bend to one side or the other, your skate is no longer pointing straight down and you scrape on your edge instead of gliding on the flat. I'm up to the point where I'd say 90% of my skating is with my ankles locked. Once in a while I'll let it slip and can immediately hear the scrape and feel the lost momentum.
3) I practiced shifting my weight back and forth between my feet, letting myself glide on one foot with the other off the ice. At first, I couldn't do it for more than a split-second. By the end of the session, I could do 2-3 seconds with my right foot and 1-2 with my left. A lot of more advanced maneuvers involve being comfortable with your weight entirely on one skate, so this is just scratching the surface of getting used to that.
4) At least once or twice for each circuit, I made an attempt at a crossover start. The instructor very briefly showed it to us in class and implied it would become more important in later classes. After watching a bunch of videos and practicing the footwork at home, I'm not particularly close to getting it right. Today's attempts mostly involved me slowly crossing my foot over, managing to not fall, then twisting around and facing forward with no momentum. Will keep trying.
Another thing that made a difference today is that I wasn't afraid to stop and take a 2-3 minute break when I needed it. This let my feet rest and gave me the chance to skate almost the entire open session, something I hadn't been able to do before. It's definitely a workout. I'm still hoping to lose 20 pounds by next spring, which would probably help my skating and such considerably.
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
Breaking in
I've been watching Youtube videos of different skating techniques. Most of them have been rewatched several times. It's not a substitute for actual practice, but I think it is helping.
The family took a trip to the rink today, and I got to get out on the ice for the first time in my brand new skates.
I had a lot of trouble getting my foot into them, and then when I got out on the ice, I felt like my foot was breaking in half before I'd even made it an entire lap around (public skate got the entire length of the Olympic size ice, which was fun).
I skated off and realized that maybe going through and methodically tightening the laces a few nights ago was probably a poor idea and I should have left the laces roughly where the salesman had. I loosened the laces significantly and got my foot back into them much easier. There was still some pain as I skated, but it was noticeably less. Roughly equal to what I felt in rental skates. It was also less when I used proper technique, balancing on the right part of my foot for whatever I was trying to do.
I'm *hoping* that just means they need to be broken in more. I'll try wearing them around the house in guards a little bit each day until the next time I can go out. I'm hoping it doesn't mean that I'm in a half-size too small.
The actual skating? It wasn't half bad. I was out there for an hour and I once again managed to not fall. I worked on:
1) Keeping myself off my edges when gliding. This was especially problematic on my left foot, which is my off side as I'm right-handed.
2) Balancing on each foot while gliding, shifting the weight from one side to the other. Again, I was better with my right foot than my left, but by the end of the session I was doing better on my left foot too.
3) Doing a proper accelerating push-off while staying low in a hockey stance. Same old story: Way better on my right foot getting the skate turned and pushing back with an edge.
4) Stopping. I tried the one-footed stop we learned in class and the two-footed snowplow stop I saw in a video (feet turn in and slowly spread the legs). Both worked perfectly about half the time and not at all the other half.
The family took a trip to the rink today, and I got to get out on the ice for the first time in my brand new skates.
I had a lot of trouble getting my foot into them, and then when I got out on the ice, I felt like my foot was breaking in half before I'd even made it an entire lap around (public skate got the entire length of the Olympic size ice, which was fun).
I skated off and realized that maybe going through and methodically tightening the laces a few nights ago was probably a poor idea and I should have left the laces roughly where the salesman had. I loosened the laces significantly and got my foot back into them much easier. There was still some pain as I skated, but it was noticeably less. Roughly equal to what I felt in rental skates. It was also less when I used proper technique, balancing on the right part of my foot for whatever I was trying to do.
I'm *hoping* that just means they need to be broken in more. I'll try wearing them around the house in guards a little bit each day until the next time I can go out. I'm hoping it doesn't mean that I'm in a half-size too small.
The actual skating? It wasn't half bad. I was out there for an hour and I once again managed to not fall. I worked on:
1) Keeping myself off my edges when gliding. This was especially problematic on my left foot, which is my off side as I'm right-handed.
2) Balancing on each foot while gliding, shifting the weight from one side to the other. Again, I was better with my right foot than my left, but by the end of the session I was doing better on my left foot too.
3) Doing a proper accelerating push-off while staying low in a hockey stance. Same old story: Way better on my right foot getting the skate turned and pushing back with an edge.
4) Stopping. I tried the one-footed stop we learned in class and the two-footed snowplow stop I saw in a video (feet turn in and slowly spread the legs). Both worked perfectly about half the time and not at all the other half.
Sunday, November 22, 2015
New skates!
I've already taken my first hockey-related injury, and it wasn't one I expected, but more on that in a minute.
I drove seven minutes down the road to Anaheim to the Hockey Giant superstore, ready to buy my first pair of skates. Only been on the ice once so far, but the instructor advised getting them as soon as possible rather than learn bad habits overcoming rental skates. Who am I to argue?
Nine-year-old me spent every visit to Wal-Mart in the sporting goods section admiring the quarter-aisle of hockey equipment. He probably would have fainted at going to an entire large warehouse store devoted perfectly to hockey. The six-year-old kidlet really enjoyed it.
After lots of reading and research online, I had targeted the $200 price range. The bottom end of skates (~$75) are meant for very light recreational skating and only last about a year. Next up is a tiny bit hardier, but the blades are not replaceable and that's the first part to wear out. $150 and you start getting into skates designed to last long-term for rec players, and the $200 versions tend to be a bit sturdier and thus better for a guy weighing 200 pounds. More expensive skates are for better athletes who want to shave tiny amounts of weight, get protection from harder shots, and have boots that can withstand their ripply athlete leg muscles pushing on them.
It took about 20 minutes to get a salesman's attention, but that was understandable because there were several other people buying skates at the same time. Once we did, I was quite impressed. He measured my foot, and told me we should look at size 6.5 skates. I wear 9.5 shoes, so conventional wisdom said I would wear a 7.5 to 8 skate, so now I'm doubly glad I didn't buy online.
I had two that I wanted to try on just because I liked the looks of them. He said he would pull those, but also recommended a third that he thought would fit best because I apparently have slightly wide, flat feet. Not enough to push me from regular width to special wider boots, but this brand is slightly wider than the ones I had looked at and he thought the fit would be better.
I tried on my two choices first, and they seemed nice enough. Then I tried his suggestion and I knew immediately it was right. I had read online about how skates should feel, and it's hard to know until you actually try them on, but these checked all the boxes. Firm grip on my ankle, toes brushing the front of the boot when I sat, solid but not painful pressure all around my foot.
So I made my choice: Bauer 160 Supreme
He took them back to "bake" them, a process by which skates are heated to make the inner plastic softer, then put on so that they mold to your feet while they cool, providing a perfect fit. I knew this was something they did, but I wasn't prepared for how dang hot they really were. I was sweating profusely, and later I was able to take my socks off and confirm: I had small burn marks in several spots on my feet. My first ice hockey injury is a burn. Who saw that coming?
I wandered around the store a bit while they were sharpened. Tried on some of the equipment just to see how it felt and laughed at the prices. I will definitely be buying most of the rest of my equipment, which I won't need for awhile, used. Not that the store was overpriced, that's the going rate for new equipment.
I did end up picking up a pair of blue canvas skate guards with foam bottoms. I wonder if the guards would make it acceptable to practice my footwork on carpet, or should I just wear them sparingly at the rink to preserve the blades? I'll look around online. I have already added footwork practice to my daily exercise routine, and keep watching the Youtube videos on stopping and crossover starts to really try to watch how they do it.
All in all, I really want to give Hockey Giant a glowing review. The salesperson was knowledgeable, friendly and helpful, and knew exactly how to get me into a skate I was very happy with.
I drove seven minutes down the road to Anaheim to the Hockey Giant superstore, ready to buy my first pair of skates. Only been on the ice once so far, but the instructor advised getting them as soon as possible rather than learn bad habits overcoming rental skates. Who am I to argue?
Nine-year-old me spent every visit to Wal-Mart in the sporting goods section admiring the quarter-aisle of hockey equipment. He probably would have fainted at going to an entire large warehouse store devoted perfectly to hockey. The six-year-old kidlet really enjoyed it.
After lots of reading and research online, I had targeted the $200 price range. The bottom end of skates (~$75) are meant for very light recreational skating and only last about a year. Next up is a tiny bit hardier, but the blades are not replaceable and that's the first part to wear out. $150 and you start getting into skates designed to last long-term for rec players, and the $200 versions tend to be a bit sturdier and thus better for a guy weighing 200 pounds. More expensive skates are for better athletes who want to shave tiny amounts of weight, get protection from harder shots, and have boots that can withstand their ripply athlete leg muscles pushing on them.
It took about 20 minutes to get a salesman's attention, but that was understandable because there were several other people buying skates at the same time. Once we did, I was quite impressed. He measured my foot, and told me we should look at size 6.5 skates. I wear 9.5 shoes, so conventional wisdom said I would wear a 7.5 to 8 skate, so now I'm doubly glad I didn't buy online.
I had two that I wanted to try on just because I liked the looks of them. He said he would pull those, but also recommended a third that he thought would fit best because I apparently have slightly wide, flat feet. Not enough to push me from regular width to special wider boots, but this brand is slightly wider than the ones I had looked at and he thought the fit would be better.
I tried on my two choices first, and they seemed nice enough. Then I tried his suggestion and I knew immediately it was right. I had read online about how skates should feel, and it's hard to know until you actually try them on, but these checked all the boxes. Firm grip on my ankle, toes brushing the front of the boot when I sat, solid but not painful pressure all around my foot.
So I made my choice: Bauer 160 Supreme
He took them back to "bake" them, a process by which skates are heated to make the inner plastic softer, then put on so that they mold to your feet while they cool, providing a perfect fit. I knew this was something they did, but I wasn't prepared for how dang hot they really were. I was sweating profusely, and later I was able to take my socks off and confirm: I had small burn marks in several spots on my feet. My first ice hockey injury is a burn. Who saw that coming?
I wandered around the store a bit while they were sharpened. Tried on some of the equipment just to see how it felt and laughed at the prices. I will definitely be buying most of the rest of my equipment, which I won't need for awhile, used. Not that the store was overpriced, that's the going rate for new equipment.
I did end up picking up a pair of blue canvas skate guards with foam bottoms. I wonder if the guards would make it acceptable to practice my footwork on carpet, or should I just wear them sparingly at the rink to preserve the blades? I'll look around online. I have already added footwork practice to my daily exercise routine, and keep watching the Youtube videos on stopping and crossover starts to really try to watch how they do it.
All in all, I really want to give Hockey Giant a glowing review. The salesperson was knowledgeable, friendly and helpful, and knew exactly how to get me into a skate I was very happy with.
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
The Plan
"No plan survives first contact with the enemy." An old saying, attributed to many different generals who probably all said it at various times. I've got a plan on how this is all going to work. Who knows how it will all end up working out, but it's nice to have a baseline to plan around.
The Rinks at Anaheim offers an 8-week Adult Intro to Hockey Skating class, and I had my first class tonight. The follow-up to that class is Adult Intro to Hockey Skills, which is another 8-week class where they introduce sticks and pucks and all that jazz. That session would run through Jan. 30.
That should set me up to play in the spring session of the rec leagues they run at the rink, starting with the Rookie League, designed for people who have just finished the two sets of classes. Then I'll spend the summer in Copper, the follow-up to rookie, and then finally I hope to move on to Bronze, the lowest of the regular rec leagues, where I'd like to plant my flag for awhile before settling into the 35-and-over leagues that I'll be eligible for in a mere two years (eww).
As mentioned in the previous post, I think I'm going to need my own pair of skates right away. I'm not sure if I want to buy a cheap pair to get me through the 15 remaining weeks of classes, or go straight to a nicer pair that I hope to last me well into regular play.
When I learned to play chess, it was tactics that was the absolute key to getting from rank beginner to strong amateur status. The parallel in hockey seems to be skating. Fancy moves and powerful shots are fun and all, but being able to skate well and stay in position seems to be what sets improving players apart. So I plan to really focus on these skating classes, and hit as many public skate times as I can in the meantime. At least one a week, two when I can.
After that, I've got until the end of the two sets of classes to do two things: Get myself into playing shape and acquire all the equipment.
I'm not in terrible shape. I do regular weightlifting and spent most of last year on a pretty epic cardio program that had me exercise biking 40-60 miles a day. But I could definitely stand to lose 20 pounds, maybe 30 if I wanted to be particularly cut. I also want to focus on building some extra lower-leg strength to help with all that skating.
The equipment should be a fun hunt. It's not cheap, and that's definitely a theme for this hobby. Each set of lessons for an 8-week period cost $100. I'm going to drop at least $200 on skates, maybe more. Once you get into league play, it's $500 for a four-month season that covers 16 games.
But outside of skates, you are encouraged to look for bargains and buy used on the rest of the equipment. I need a helmet and cage, stick, shoulder pads, gloves, hockey pants, shin pads, jock and mouthguard. Plus some miscellaneous stuff like stick tape. I'm hoping I can get all that for $250 total, which would require some serious bargain hunting, but I've got a few months to do keep an eye out, and that makes it a fun challenge. I'm not sure if it will work in my favor or not that I'm only 5-7. That means that the most common sizes for adults are going to be big for me, but maybe that means there won't be as much competition for used stuff in my size.
The Rinks at Anaheim offers an 8-week Adult Intro to Hockey Skating class, and I had my first class tonight. The follow-up to that class is Adult Intro to Hockey Skills, which is another 8-week class where they introduce sticks and pucks and all that jazz. That session would run through Jan. 30.
That should set me up to play in the spring session of the rec leagues they run at the rink, starting with the Rookie League, designed for people who have just finished the two sets of classes. Then I'll spend the summer in Copper, the follow-up to rookie, and then finally I hope to move on to Bronze, the lowest of the regular rec leagues, where I'd like to plant my flag for awhile before settling into the 35-and-over leagues that I'll be eligible for in a mere two years (eww).
As mentioned in the previous post, I think I'm going to need my own pair of skates right away. I'm not sure if I want to buy a cheap pair to get me through the 15 remaining weeks of classes, or go straight to a nicer pair that I hope to last me well into regular play.
When I learned to play chess, it was tactics that was the absolute key to getting from rank beginner to strong amateur status. The parallel in hockey seems to be skating. Fancy moves and powerful shots are fun and all, but being able to skate well and stay in position seems to be what sets improving players apart. So I plan to really focus on these skating classes, and hit as many public skate times as I can in the meantime. At least one a week, two when I can.
After that, I've got until the end of the two sets of classes to do two things: Get myself into playing shape and acquire all the equipment.
I'm not in terrible shape. I do regular weightlifting and spent most of last year on a pretty epic cardio program that had me exercise biking 40-60 miles a day. But I could definitely stand to lose 20 pounds, maybe 30 if I wanted to be particularly cut. I also want to focus on building some extra lower-leg strength to help with all that skating.
The equipment should be a fun hunt. It's not cheap, and that's definitely a theme for this hobby. Each set of lessons for an 8-week period cost $100. I'm going to drop at least $200 on skates, maybe more. Once you get into league play, it's $500 for a four-month season that covers 16 games.
But outside of skates, you are encouraged to look for bargains and buy used on the rest of the equipment. I need a helmet and cage, stick, shoulder pads, gloves, hockey pants, shin pads, jock and mouthguard. Plus some miscellaneous stuff like stick tape. I'm hoping I can get all that for $250 total, which would require some serious bargain hunting, but I've got a few months to do keep an eye out, and that makes it a fun challenge. I'm not sure if it will work in my favor or not that I'm only 5-7. That means that the most common sizes for adults are going to be big for me, but maybe that means there won't be as much competition for used stuff in my size.
First class
Well, I can't say anymore that I've never ice skated! I'm still buzzing from the adrenaline high.
I got to the Anaheim ICE rink quite a bit early, just because I'd never been there before and wanted to have plenty of time to look around. The facility was pretty nice, right in the middle of downtown Anaheim. Parking would have been free up to two hours, but I got there so early and stayed a bit late and ended up paying $5. That's pretty reasonable.
They have two rinks there, an Olympic size and an NHL size. The NHL size was being used for some sort of hockey practice (wasn't the Anaheim Ducks, although they do practice there). The Olympic was used for lessons and later a public skate. There was a snack bar, and a pro shop that I assume was overpriced because pro shops always are.
I checked in a half-hour before my 7 p.m. class, got my rental skates, went to the benches outside the Olympic rink and watched all the kids taking their lessons. The ice was coned off into six strips, the nearest to me was kids beginning hockey skating. I felt bad for one kid who clearly had skates a size or two too large, but the rest of them seemed to be doing it.
They zamboni'd the ice at 6:55, then it was time to go. One-third of the area was partitioned off for lessons, the other two-thirds was public skating. At first, there was only three of us, but within 10 minutes it had filled up to about a dozen.
The instructor told me that if I had never been on the ice before, I might want to shift over to the beginning skating class right next to us. I told him I'd risk it, and if I wasn't keeping up, I could always shift over, and he said that was fine. He highly advised me to buy my own hockey skates ASAP rather than relying on rentals, and I think he's definitely right. More on that in a minute.
He showed us two basic moves, and said we'd be working on them pretty much the entire length of the 8-week class. A cross-over start, and a one-foot stop. The crossover start involves turning sideways to the direction you are going, leaning on your edges in that direction, pushing off with your back foot as it crosses over the front foot, then twisting and pushing off with the front foot as you go off in the direction you aim with presumably the momentum of both pushes there to help you. The one-foot stop involves putting your weight on one foot, gliding on both edges, then turning in the other foot and putting it slightly in front of you, allowing the inside edge to scrape the ice and slow you down.
After half an hour, the zamboni came out again, and then there would have been another hour of public skate, but I decided to call it a night. I'm getting over a cold and was starting to cough pretty good in the cold air, and I didn't want to start hawking loogies at my unsuspecting fellow skaters. I drove home happy and exhausted and sore.
I definitely agree with the coach that the rental skates were holding me back. They were snug in the middle of the foot, but loose in the ankle and toe, neither of which is ideal. I don't exactly have an expert feel, but the blades felt dull and had trouble cutting through the ice and scraping when needed. I stopped at one point and sat on the hockey benches so I could clear all the shavings that had accumulated on them, which was interfering with my skating.
There's no lesson next week due to Thanksgiving, so that gives me two weeks to go out and get my own skates, and I intend to do so. I had planned on getting by with rental skates for the duration of my lessons, and laying down some cash for quality ones once I was ready to start playing. Now I'll either move that purchase up, or by myself some cheap ones that can just get me through the lessons and then by the nice ones before I start skating for real.
I hope to get at least a couple of public skates in between now and the next lesson. Tomorrow morning, I'm taking both of older nephews (four years old each, closing in on five) to their first skating lesson. I should be able to hit the public skating for half an hour while they learn, and it'll be fun.
I got to the Anaheim ICE rink quite a bit early, just because I'd never been there before and wanted to have plenty of time to look around. The facility was pretty nice, right in the middle of downtown Anaheim. Parking would have been free up to two hours, but I got there so early and stayed a bit late and ended up paying $5. That's pretty reasonable.
They have two rinks there, an Olympic size and an NHL size. The NHL size was being used for some sort of hockey practice (wasn't the Anaheim Ducks, although they do practice there). The Olympic was used for lessons and later a public skate. There was a snack bar, and a pro shop that I assume was overpriced because pro shops always are.
I checked in a half-hour before my 7 p.m. class, got my rental skates, went to the benches outside the Olympic rink and watched all the kids taking their lessons. The ice was coned off into six strips, the nearest to me was kids beginning hockey skating. I felt bad for one kid who clearly had skates a size or two too large, but the rest of them seemed to be doing it.
They zamboni'd the ice at 6:55, then it was time to go. One-third of the area was partitioned off for lessons, the other two-thirds was public skating. At first, there was only three of us, but within 10 minutes it had filled up to about a dozen.
The instructor told me that if I had never been on the ice before, I might want to shift over to the beginning skating class right next to us. I told him I'd risk it, and if I wasn't keeping up, I could always shift over, and he said that was fine. He highly advised me to buy my own hockey skates ASAP rather than relying on rentals, and I think he's definitely right. More on that in a minute.
He showed us two basic moves, and said we'd be working on them pretty much the entire length of the 8-week class. A cross-over start, and a one-foot stop. The crossover start involves turning sideways to the direction you are going, leaning on your edges in that direction, pushing off with your back foot as it crosses over the front foot, then twisting and pushing off with the front foot as you go off in the direction you aim with presumably the momentum of both pushes there to help you. The one-foot stop involves putting your weight on one foot, gliding on both edges, then turning in the other foot and putting it slightly in front of you, allowing the inside edge to scrape the ice and slow you down.
The class ended after 30 minutes, and he encouraged us to go over to the public skating part of the ice and continue practicing what we learned. I eagerly obliged, and really enjoyed skating in circles and testing how well I could get moving and turning. I had little problem weaving in and out of traffic, and managed to keep going the entire time without falling or running into anyone, so I consider that a major victory. I even took out my phone and took a video skating a lap, although I thought I was holding the camera a lot steadier than I actually was. At the very end you can see my feet as I try one of the one-foot stops from class.
After half an hour, the zamboni came out again, and then there would have been another hour of public skate, but I decided to call it a night. I'm getting over a cold and was starting to cough pretty good in the cold air, and I didn't want to start hawking loogies at my unsuspecting fellow skaters. I drove home happy and exhausted and sore.
I definitely agree with the coach that the rental skates were holding me back. They were snug in the middle of the foot, but loose in the ankle and toe, neither of which is ideal. I don't exactly have an expert feel, but the blades felt dull and had trouble cutting through the ice and scraping when needed. I stopped at one point and sat on the hockey benches so I could clear all the shavings that had accumulated on them, which was interfering with my skating.
There's no lesson next week due to Thanksgiving, so that gives me two weeks to go out and get my own skates, and I intend to do so. I had planned on getting by with rental skates for the duration of my lessons, and laying down some cash for quality ones once I was ready to start playing. Now I'll either move that purchase up, or by myself some cheap ones that can just get me through the lessons and then by the nice ones before I start skating for real.
I hope to get at least a couple of public skates in between now and the next lesson. Tomorrow morning, I'm taking both of older nephews (four years old each, closing in on five) to their first skating lesson. I should be able to hit the public skating for half an hour while they learn, and it'll be fun.
Five hours to ice time
When I was nine years old, I remember seeing a hockey game late at night on cable TV and thinking it looked kinda cool. The next day was the scholastic book fair, and I saw a book with a picture of a hockey player on the front. Flipping through, it was a biography of Wayne Gretzky, the greatest hockey player of all time. It turned out he and I had the same birthday. That meant it was fate: I had to become a hockey player.
I played a lot of street hockey as a kid, but my dreams of playing professionally ended when I found out a year or two later that 5-7 was almost always too short for the NHL and generally hockey players were exceptional athletes. But my fandom stayed with me. The name of this blog is a reference to me putting myself in the Create-A-Player for EA Sports NHL '94 for Sega Genesis, always wearing jersey number 61 (a reverse of my favorite player, Brett Hull). I listened to the Roenick-era Blackhawks on the radio every game. When I was in my early 20s, I moved from Illinois to North Dakota to take a prep sportswriting job just to get a chance to cover high-school hockey. I lived through the lean years of the Blackhawks, the Jocelyn Thibault and Arnason-Bell-Calder lines, and loved them every step of the way. And yes, it's been pretty sweet to see them win three Stanley Cups. My son, born the August before their first, is named Patrick Jonathan after their two best players.
But there's one thing I've never actually done: Lace up a pair of skates and hit the ice.
I'm in Orange County, California, now, and there are some opportunities here that I haven't seen before. So I'm going to become a hockey player, and I'm using this blog to keep track of it. I signed up for an 8-week Adult's Intro to Hockey Skating class at The Rinks of Anaheim, and the first class is tonight. The follow-up to that class is an eight-week hockey skills class, and then you are allegedly ready to play in their introductory rec league. My ultimate goal is to become an acceptable rec-level player, able to play in the regular rec leagues without being an embarrassment or drag on the team. No. 61 is stepping out of the video games and into real life.
I played a lot of street hockey as a kid, but my dreams of playing professionally ended when I found out a year or two later that 5-7 was almost always too short for the NHL and generally hockey players were exceptional athletes. But my fandom stayed with me. The name of this blog is a reference to me putting myself in the Create-A-Player for EA Sports NHL '94 for Sega Genesis, always wearing jersey number 61 (a reverse of my favorite player, Brett Hull). I listened to the Roenick-era Blackhawks on the radio every game. When I was in my early 20s, I moved from Illinois to North Dakota to take a prep sportswriting job just to get a chance to cover high-school hockey. I lived through the lean years of the Blackhawks, the Jocelyn Thibault and Arnason-Bell-Calder lines, and loved them every step of the way. And yes, it's been pretty sweet to see them win three Stanley Cups. My son, born the August before their first, is named Patrick Jonathan after their two best players.
But there's one thing I've never actually done: Lace up a pair of skates and hit the ice.
I'm in Orange County, California, now, and there are some opportunities here that I haven't seen before. So I'm going to become a hockey player, and I'm using this blog to keep track of it. I signed up for an 8-week Adult's Intro to Hockey Skating class at The Rinks of Anaheim, and the first class is tonight. The follow-up to that class is an eight-week hockey skills class, and then you are allegedly ready to play in their introductory rec league. My ultimate goal is to become an acceptable rec-level player, able to play in the regular rec leagues without being an embarrassment or drag on the team. No. 61 is stepping out of the video games and into real life.
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