Late January update

I've been terrible about keeping this updated, but not about my hockey practice, which I guess is more important. Some things have definitely happened in the last few weeks.

I was about ready to give up on my skates.  They were just killing my feet, full-on cramping so that I needed to take breaks after even 10 to 15 minutes on my feet on the ice.  I talked to a lot of people online, all of whom had different remedies, and was starting to talk to the shop that sold them to me about exchanging them (they didn't seem inclined, but I bet I could have gotten there if I'd pushed harder).

Finally, I hit on the formula: Bar lacing.  This almost magically made my skates fit better and completely solved my foot pain.  Then I added waxed laces to keep the top few eyelets from loosening as I skated, and got the skates sharpened, and wowee it felt great to skate out there.

Last Monday was the first night of the Yorba Linda Adult Learn to Play clinics.  I had a blast.  There were maybe 45 players and five or six coaches. Everyone was friendly and having a grand time.

We started with some basic skating drills.I did alright with those, though trying to go to one knee while gliding was harder than I thought.  Actually, before that, they let us skate around in warmups for a few minutes and shoot some pucks. I put two pucks perfectly off the high post and in before I realized maybe I shouldn't be shooting high with new skaters right behind the net.  I'd say the mix was maybe 1/3rd people with a little experience and 2/3rds never-ever skated befores.

Then we split up into groups and did different sections. First was puckhandling, which just involved skating to a cone, turning around and coming back, all while controlling the puck.  I did it better than most, but it still reminded me how far I have to go. I definitely have trouble turning and controlling back at same time.

Next was passing drills, which wasn't too bad. I've got some basic technique for passing and receiving passes. Same for shooting (it helps being one of the only ones who can lift the puck).  We ended with some cross-ice 3-on-3 scrimmages.

That was literally the first time I've been on ice in an even slightly competitive way, and it was a whole different ball game. Suddenly I have to figure out where to skate and who to challenge. I noticed immediately I like to sit back and read the play, which could be good and bad depending on how I use it.  First time I got the puck, I put together what I thought was a pretty sweet pass between two defenders to a guy skating toward open net. He couldn't control it, but it got there on his stick.

Then the other team was coming up the ice, I settled back in a defensive position, and I could see the guy was planning to shoot. I picked it off like a pass and started skating forward. the guy who shot was in my way.  I went straight to backhand and skated around him.  Wide-open net, put it away.  That felt *good*.  I enjoyed that feeling very much. I want it many more times.

That night was my first time with bar lacing. I went from 10 minutes of skating at a time with throbbing feet to being out there the full 75 minutes with no problems.

I got some more practice in during the day on Wednesday, then had the 7th of 8 classes this semester that night.  Last week, we learned my favorite thing so far: forwards to backwards transitions.  You're skating forward, suddenly you whip your feet around and you're going backwards in the same direction. Since I'm miserably at accelerating backwards, this is the only way I get to do any backward skating with any momentum. Obviously I'm not an expert at them after one week, but I can do them at low speed consistently and just need more practice.

So we start class and we do stopping first as always.  I had just sharpened the blades that afternoon, and I felt a huge difference. I even got a credible two-foot stop done on my strong side (still just one foot on the weak).

Then came crossover drills and I did the best ones I'd done to date. Not fluid and powerful, but gaining some speed and not stumbling down the ice.  Then came forward-backward transitions, and I nailed those too.  A fellow skater comments that I look so much stronger than I did at the beginning of the semester.  Instructor overhears, calls everyone over. "Hey Kyle, how often do you come out here and practice?"  A couple times a week here, usually at least one at another rink.  "You guys hear that? That's why Kyle is getting better and a lot of you aren't."  That felt pretty good.  I'm still brutal at backwards crossovers, but I'm seeing a little progress.

With only one week of class left, the big question now is what next?  Both the Anaheim and Yorba Linda rookie leagues start in February, just a couple of weeks away.  So the question is: Do I start playing competitively or wait until June? The timing is really awkward. I was hoping to start a rookie league maybe April-ish.  June is a long time to wait. But after a lot of thinking, I think I am going to wait until next season. I've seen a rookie league game and I don't think I'd be the worst player there or even close, but I still want to be better.I don't want to be be pinwheeling trying to stop to grab a puck or flailing around.  When I can stop consistently, skate backwards reasonably well, and generally feel comfortable with my ability to do all the basics under pressure in a game situation, then I'll be ready.  I can always try some pickup in the meantime.

Bar down!

Ice time continued to elude me until today.  Family obligations just made it brutal to find a time to get away three hours.  Then I missed week 5 of the skating lessons because I bought Anaheim Ducks tickets and didn't think about it being a Wednesday night.

I was feeling a bit frustrated, but that all went away today. I had some time, I finally had all my gear, so I decided it was time to go to stick and puck.

If anyone doesn't know, stick and puck is sort of like hockey's equivalent of "open gym."  It's open skating, but with nets and pucks out and you're allowed to bring your hockey stick (which public skate doesn't not allow).

This is actually at a different rink from my usual. KHS Ice. It's slightly closer to my house. Yelp reviews said it was in a bad neighborhood, but those people are nuts. It was in a light industrial zone, but there wasn't anything bad about it. Maybe not quite as nice as Disneyland half a mile away, but sheesh.

I got there about 30 minutes early because I really wasn't sure how long it would take me to get the gear on.  The biggest issue is lacing skates, because I'm still chubby and it's hard to bend over that far.  At least I got the jersey over the shoulder pads with no problem.

I'm not gonna lie, walking out of the house and into the arena with my gear bag and stick, sitting in the locker room suiting up, I felt like a total boss. So many years of watching people do this, covering hockey games and going into locker rooms with nothing but my note pad and recorder, now I'm a *player*.

One offensive zone was devoted to two coaches and two players doing lessons. The other two-thirds of the ice was free, and there were maybe seven or eight of us.  I was the worst player, but there were only two that were really good and a few weren't *that* much better than me.  I tried to be deferential and not  get in anyone's way, everyone was nice and chatted a bit, sometimes we traded passes, but mostly I just tried to get used to the feeling of being on the ice, with a stick, trying to manipulate a puck.  I took a *lot* of rest breaks.

Sometimes I tried to skate a round a little bit stickhandling. It's really hard to focus on skating technique, looking around you and keeping the puck under control at the same time.  That's probably why hockey isn't super easy and everyone in the world isn't amazing at it.

A lot of times people just took turns skating in and shooting at the net.  I can still shoot a *little* bit from my years of street hockey, especially considering the stick has almost no curve.

One thing I wanted to do was try to get a little feel for my new stick to see if and how much I wanted to cut it down.   For feel, it needs to go down a couple of inches and I probably will. I'm a little reluctant just because the combination of short man, short arms and bad skating posture leaves me with almost no reach at all.  But that will improve with practice, I think.

I did have one highlight.  There was one time I was aiming high from 15 feet out and it went crossbar, down and in.  What a sweet feeling. I was tempted to yell "showtime, baby!" and celly all over the ice, but I figured that might be in bad taste.

The other memorable moment was having a puck whiz by my face. I didn't see him about to shoot and he didn't see me about to skate behind the net.  He started to apologize, but I laughed and said "That's what hte full cage is for" and he laughed too.

I'm dying to go to a pick-up game now. I don't even care if I'm the worst one there by far.