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.
Friday, January 22, 2016
Friday, January 8, 2016
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.
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.
Monday, December 28, 2015
Catching up over Christmas
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.
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.
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.
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