After last night's encounter in Gawler it was back to the ice today, twice in six hours! First, I met up with B down there and we had a good hour and a half before the public session closed. It was great watching him slot himself in to the community of the ice, amongst all the sunday afternoon skaters - 'at home', respectful and enjoying himself as boys should. Self regulating also, which made my day easier lol!
I just played around with finding my edges again, check the first stride of acceleration, a bit of backwards for the fun of it, make sure can still stop on ice both ways, transitions smoother than before with all the inline time. Had to pull myself back a couple of times after a fast lap, remind myself that the whole point of this skate today was not to condition myself to the ice (or push the envelope at risk of big black bruises again), but rather to just get my muscles thinking 'ice' prior to the night's tryout session.
Me and B had a great time and I think we both achieved our goals. Mission success.
A quick hamburger on the way home, a little stuffing around with minor household tasks and being semi-social, then it was get the full body armour out, pack all the gear in its old kit bag, retape the stick and head back to the Ice Arena for C Grade tryouts (premier winter league, if it happens).
Structure was pretty simple, complicated only by the fact that about fifty people turned up. At least that made the cost only $10 for the 70 mins. I guess it was also a demonstration of support for the concept of a 'premier c grade (development) league', an idea which I believe is still not approved by the powers that be and is facing scepticism verging on opposition at the board level for Ice Hockey SA. That's what I hear, anyway. Good people on both sides, I hope it gets worked out.
On a full ice passing-shoot-backcheck drill in triplets I didn't shine at all, my two runs both times falling foul of some pretty poor passing behind me. This drill morphed into two on twos, going each way on the ice. The 'St Louis Drill', or some such. Disorganisation in the lines disrupted first couple run throughs, but I think my pairing did okay on its final shot/backcheck sections. Things were beginning to look up, when...
In a two on one passing game (piggy in the middle) I got totally outshone by my two companions. I certainly got worked out being piggy in the middle more than my share. One of the main coaches took me aside in the next 1 on 1 drill of 'keepy off', showed me a couple basics of puck protection, and of stealing it. In the 1 on 1 I then did with the chaps from the previous drill, I actually managed to keep it off them a fair bit, and managed to steal it a couple times. Though obviously still learning, so must have been improvement.
Then, the battle drills. The first of which had two teams of two, battling in front of a goal. A couple very long shifts, but accounted reasonably well for myself (almost even on points on the boards, couple blocked shots, a good screening and a handful of (weak) shots, use of backhand, a couple passes. And a clash on the boards against a reasonably ferocious opponent bigger and stronger than me. Who knew what he was doing (I make it up as I go still). Surprisingly I managed to still prevent him doing what he wanted for long enough that they got no advantage. I think that pairings I was in were scored against twice, and we got that many goals ourselves. There were probably that many again of tied 0-0 battles, one of which was a very long shift. All in all, I think this drill was a 'win' for me.
Finally, a mini-shinny of four on four across the ice. I don't think I particularly shone, but I was still going reasonably strong and had more shifts left in me. I definitely acted as a bit of a brake on their breakout a few times, and nullified a couple of their 'point' players. Never got a chance to carry the puck or do anything significant with it, however. A 'draw' for this one?
Why do I keep scoring myself in the above account? It is because the whole session was a tryout, viewed by all the coaching staff in the C Grade coaching group. We were being assessed and measured while we went through all the above. They (the coaches/managers) will be horsetrading over the next couple weeks, viewing the prospects and taking their picks until their teams are full. There were almost enough there tonight to fill the proposed league already. Scary to think of that many again coming to future sessions, or having been to the B Grade Tryouts and thus already assessed. I have no idea if I'll make the cut, but I must still be in the zone to make it possible judging by what I saw tonight.
Especially if I don't take the foot out of the skate (off the accelerator) in terms of training and development over the next week or two, in the hope that I can make a promised yet-to-be-scheduled third tryout date (tonight was the first, I can't make the second as it clashes with Vikings finals).
And now, sweet thing, too bed! It's been a big day.
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