Skate Scout

On Wednesday Night, driving to the Ice Arena, we passed by my usual shooting court down at the local primary school.  My aim was to see it with no moon and under flood lights, decide if it is feasible to come here for some night shooting practice.  The answer to the question is 'yes', there is sufficient light.  But the answer is academic because the court is presently covered in piles of dirt and rubble from the neighboring construction of new class rooms (and I suspect the ashphalt will be all torn up also).  So, time to find a new location for those times when I am able to get some stick'n'puck time in.

By this morning I had worked out three or four possibilities that I could think of within about a kilometre and without too big a hill to scale.  So, I went for a skate to check them out.  Two of them were no good (a particular stretch of river path (not wide enough) and a church carpark (locked, and crap tar anyway).  But the third (nearby new carpark for the Klemzig O-bahn bus station) was practically empty of cars whenever checked outside of the work-a-day week and pretty smooth.

So, I returned in the afternoon with puck and stick and spent almost an hour with deke's and turns while carrying the puck up and back a line of 25 parking bays, four sets, forehand/backhand and inside/outside (ie deking FH to BH and vice versa for these last two).  If I get a few sessions like this under my belt before the return to competition, I'll have worked on the third main area of my playing in dynamic settings and hopefully have pushed the profficiency as much as that many sessions' shooting time did for my shooting.

On the return journey, had a bit of a chat with a couple other skaters I met going the other way on the river path.  He had spent enough time near St Louis to have an accent and was quite willing to talk hockey after breaking the ice by commenting on my Canucks sweater.  She had a brand new pair of skates for the beginning of her quest to play roller hockey.  And then it was get home.

Total of about 7km skating today, low 20s, light cloud.