I wasn't originally going to go skating on Sunday at all (gulp). This was a combination of the fact that the what-sounds-like-a-regular-shinny at Noarlunga was this week only able to go ahead at 9-11 in the evening. Which is too late for me on a Sunday unless it's a game or team practice. So, unless I reverted to the usual skate with B in the afternoon, I wouldn't be getting on my skates (it was too wet for inline in the neighborhood). This, in turn, didn't look likely as he had left a message for me on the Saturday that he wasn't able to come with me due an important event.
So, I called up B to confirm that we weren't going and we could agree to go next Saturday (can't go on the Sunday next week), which was him being diplomatic as his busy diary had reorganised itself in twelve hours and he was now free to come with me 'if I wanted to go skating'. As if! And then my missus reminded me that I couldn't go next Saturday arvo either, so I called him again and said that unless he had got something else already planned, we might as well go skating. To which he agreed.
Although the afternoon session at the Ice Arena had already started by the time we had the above conversation, we got our respective acts together well enough that we still had an hour and a half from when we arrived. Actually, B said he'd been ready since the day before. Keen! It wasn't excessively crowded for a Sunday, and this reduced as the afternoon progressed to the point that the rink had only a score or so of people for the last twenty minutes. Excellent.
I stayed on the ice for the whole eighty minutes we had available, alternating between 'just skating' for the intrinsic pleasure, drilling myself on particular techniques, and resting against the sideboards watching everyone else circulating while catching my breath after skating hard. Very few people I have regular interaction with, though a few as always. B seemed to find himself quite at home talking to some keen teens lurking teenlike in the corner in between bursts of creative high speed skating. He said later that he squeezed in over a hundred hockey stops while he was there.
Me, I did ten sets of five stops each way with at least three paces between, picking up the intensity and hence the speed a little compared to last week (though still not pushing it to the max). I did maybe ten laps backwards, getting the feel of my outside edges for pushing off on (again, not pushing it to a high level). No jumps this week. Maybe five laps of quick puck protection transitions along the board to my right (or a pretend board on my left). The main energy well, however, was the ten laps I did where I accelerated hard on my toes between the blue lines in a clumsy stumbling attempt to get into overspeed mode. I reckon I reached it a couple of times. Will see if can't pump this up somehow and get some perceived control into it.
Then, a quick visit through the Powerplay skateshop to check out junior inline skates and sticks, a banana and orange juice afterwards, and then home.
Fridge
Monday 30 June 2014
Sunday 29 June 2014
Go Nathan Walker!
Welsh born but Sydney raised Nathan Walker, 20, has been selected by the Washington Capitals in the third round of the annual NHL draft. He is apparently the first Australian (or, Australian resident?) to be drafted into an NHL franchise (though I thought there was another in the sixties, albeit he never actually played for the NHL team). This is a big thing and great for Ice Hockey downunder. Now our younger players know that it can be done!
Walker started skating at age 5 or 6, following in his older brother's sudden passion for ice hockey after the boys had watched Disney's 'The Mighty Ducks'. By the time he was 13 he and his family decided that he should go to the Czech Republic to pursue his dream, he simply wasn't getting enough ice time where he lived. Then followed a number of years competing in various teams within the Vitkovice franchise. Last year, he was invited to a tryout for a pro league team in the North America, the Hershey Bears in the AHL (not having been born in North America nor having played in a Canadian Major Junior League team, he was eligible for pro league selection despite still being a teen). The Bears are affiliated with the NHL's Washington Capitals, so Cap's got to have a reasonable look at Walker for the last season (in which he played 43 games, scoring 5 goals and 6 assists.
In the trading that surrounds the draft, the Cap's swapped their fourth and fifth round picks for another third (the 89th pick overall) and used that to select Walker. They said later that they had 'targeted' him and would take him if they could, ahead of the interest in him displayed by other clubs (he had been placed as high as a fourth round pick in various prognostications I've read over the past few months). Walker said that he had no idea of what if any designs the Capitals had on him going into the draft. In fact, he had phlegmatically responded to questions on the subject by saying, "I'm guessing they're probably thinking the same thing I am. Just wait and see how it all pans out.”
By all accounts he sounds a nice guy and very hardworking and fearless player. The US media is even describing him as 'NHL ready', something regarded as unusual in a draft pick during their first year. The reasoning varies, but seems to be a combination of his actual ability and work ethic, his age and thus physical development (he is a second year draftee, having not been chosen the year before, making him a year older than the 'cream' of the crop and the bulk of the others), and the fact that he rose to the occasion of playing regular games in a pro league season with and against fully developed 'men'.
He is scheduled to come back to Australia to participate in the International Ice Hockey tournament between American and Canadian teams in July. We should get to see him playing in the Stars and Stripes when we go to see the Melbourne game.
Good on him!
Notes (edit): The official Draft site of the NHL only gives information on Walker playing in the Czech Extraliga and in the AHL. It doesn't mention that he has played for the Sydney Ice Dogs in the AIHL or the Youngstown Phantoms in the USHL. Nor, sadly, does it mention the fact that he has played 5 (?) times for Australia at the Ice Hockey World Championships. He was the first Australian to play professionally in Europe and the youngest player to ever score a goal in the Spengler Cup (2011). There's a Wiki page on him which is probably the best source of information.
Walker started skating at age 5 or 6, following in his older brother's sudden passion for ice hockey after the boys had watched Disney's 'The Mighty Ducks'. By the time he was 13 he and his family decided that he should go to the Czech Republic to pursue his dream, he simply wasn't getting enough ice time where he lived. Then followed a number of years competing in various teams within the Vitkovice franchise. Last year, he was invited to a tryout for a pro league team in the North America, the Hershey Bears in the AHL (not having been born in North America nor having played in a Canadian Major Junior League team, he was eligible for pro league selection despite still being a teen). The Bears are affiliated with the NHL's Washington Capitals, so Cap's got to have a reasonable look at Walker for the last season (in which he played 43 games, scoring 5 goals and 6 assists.
In the trading that surrounds the draft, the Cap's swapped their fourth and fifth round picks for another third (the 89th pick overall) and used that to select Walker. They said later that they had 'targeted' him and would take him if they could, ahead of the interest in him displayed by other clubs (he had been placed as high as a fourth round pick in various prognostications I've read over the past few months). Walker said that he had no idea of what if any designs the Capitals had on him going into the draft. In fact, he had phlegmatically responded to questions on the subject by saying, "I'm guessing they're probably thinking the same thing I am. Just wait and see how it all pans out.”
By all accounts he sounds a nice guy and very hardworking and fearless player. The US media is even describing him as 'NHL ready', something regarded as unusual in a draft pick during their first year. The reasoning varies, but seems to be a combination of his actual ability and work ethic, his age and thus physical development (he is a second year draftee, having not been chosen the year before, making him a year older than the 'cream' of the crop and the bulk of the others), and the fact that he rose to the occasion of playing regular games in a pro league season with and against fully developed 'men'.
He is scheduled to come back to Australia to participate in the International Ice Hockey tournament between American and Canadian teams in July. We should get to see him playing in the Stars and Stripes when we go to see the Melbourne game.
Good on him!
Notes (edit): The official Draft site of the NHL only gives information on Walker playing in the Czech Extraliga and in the AHL. It doesn't mention that he has played for the Sydney Ice Dogs in the AIHL or the Youngstown Phantoms in the USHL. Nor, sadly, does it mention the fact that he has played 5 (?) times for Australia at the Ice Hockey World Championships. He was the first Australian to play professionally in Europe and the youngest player to ever score a goal in the Spengler Cup (2011). There's a Wiki page on him which is probably the best source of information.
Game Day - Wheelers (7) d Bumpers (1)
As is so often the case, the scoreline in tonight's early game doesn't reflect the competitiveness or nature of the game that was played. We officially put 38 shots on their net, not counting those that either missed or were blocked, which is twice the amount that are recorded in many games. Our team saw different facets of our game as being especially worthy of note. Alex, the passing/rebounds. Matt, close in battles in the goal mouth. Merrilyn, passing. Me, stick checking.
We were a player down at the start (Brendan couldn't be there) and so Paul played for us as a 'reserve' (went up from C Grade to Div 1 this season). I think Paul jokingly typified the game as one requiring not too much from him. Which was a way of saying that he didn't have to play a great many minutes as we 'true' Wheelers stayed out for as long as was practical. When he played, he played a steady defence, going forwards only once that I recall (resulting in a pass back to me who was on the centre line). This was excellent play on his part, as there is no way he could be said to have greatly affected the game in our favour (always a risk when playing a higher grade player as a 'reserve').
The game began with a bit of confusion after two minutes. In that time we had scored a goal in the play resulting from the opening face off, and they had landed a good shot on goal from a blitz reply. I was just collecting the puck after our narrow escape from this last when the siren rang. I tapped the puck to the referee and glided towards the centre trying to work out what had happened.
Turns out, the time keeper had not started the clock when the game began. There was a conference with the referees and time keepers while we skaters just milled about aimlessly. Eventually, the referee signalled a centre face off and told us that the clock would start again. I noticed a minor sense of disquiet that the score was 0-0 on the scoreboard. Then, concentrate on the face off. Their blitz team scored a goal off their first play. We were down 0-1. It seemed a little unfair as we skated back for the next centre face off. This remained the scoreline until the end of my first shift. We were credited with our goal shortly afterwards; 1-1. From this point, we didn't look back.
We were a player down at the start (Brendan couldn't be there) and so Paul played for us as a 'reserve' (went up from C Grade to Div 1 this season). I think Paul jokingly typified the game as one requiring not too much from him. Which was a way of saying that he didn't have to play a great many minutes as we 'true' Wheelers stayed out for as long as was practical. When he played, he played a steady defence, going forwards only once that I recall (resulting in a pass back to me who was on the centre line). This was excellent play on his part, as there is no way he could be said to have greatly affected the game in our favour (always a risk when playing a higher grade player as a 'reserve').
The game began with a bit of confusion after two minutes. In that time we had scored a goal in the play resulting from the opening face off, and they had landed a good shot on goal from a blitz reply. I was just collecting the puck after our narrow escape from this last when the siren rang. I tapped the puck to the referee and glided towards the centre trying to work out what had happened.
Turns out, the time keeper had not started the clock when the game began. There was a conference with the referees and time keepers while we skaters just milled about aimlessly. Eventually, the referee signalled a centre face off and told us that the clock would start again. I noticed a minor sense of disquiet that the score was 0-0 on the scoreboard. Then, concentrate on the face off. Their blitz team scored a goal off their first play. We were down 0-1. It seemed a little unfair as we skated back for the next centre face off. This remained the scoreline until the end of my first shift. We were credited with our goal shortly afterwards; 1-1. From this point, we didn't look back.
My Game
I scored my only goal, which put us ahead 3-1 with two minutes left in the (long) first half, from a hard wristshot from near the centre. I held the shot a little moment before releasing, raised it to the extent that the puck went through between glove and pad. I had been on the floor for all bar one of the goals in the first period.
I was on the floor for two goals in the second period. For the first, I was awarded the assist for claiming the puck in our offensive corner, skating it back up past the goal line about midway in from the boards, waiting waiting waiting before snap passing it to Matt who was lurking in the front of the crease for a goal. For the second, I was lurking in the central defence role as Alex and a younger opponent were tipping the puck around in contest, with it eventually falling loose in our favour. Alex began moving towards it, too slowly for him to get it in my view, so I shouted loudly at him from nearby to 'Skate, Alex, Skate! Skate for it!' Which, to his credit, he did, keeping the puck alive and eventually tipping it past the next defender before managing to gather it in with some strong stick work. Finding himself in the slot, he responded to his team mates' 'Shoot!' and hammered it home.
Our team work was as much a product of strong commuication as it was of good passing. For the first time I think that we ALL were communicating with each other, both listening and talking. Several times it was information gathered from this source alone which determined what I did. This pleasing aspect of our game is perhaps reflected in the fact that of our seven goals, five were assisted (a higher percentage than usual).
As for the passing, I was making time to be more selective with my passing, and on at least one occasion sent the puck back over half the floor to give us a chance to reset rather than make a risky pass. When I needed to make a hard pass (eg to Matt in the goal mouth) I was able to. I don't think any of my passes were picked off tonight. Big improvement.
I didn't take many faceoffs tonight, maybe four. I won three of them, generally with a 'passive' stick and letting their powerful forehand strike rebound the puck off my own blade. On at least one occasion I then shielded the puck with my skates from their follow through and pressed it further out to my blade before passing back to my support. I spent more time on the edge of the faceoff circle, and this blended nicely with my role tonight of chasing the loose puck. I got the puck into our control several times in such a manner.
Besides passing and communicating, much of my play tonight was typified by chasing the loose puck down. I was the fastest skater on our team and probably the most agile, so it was only fair. As part of my role, I several times had to sweep back from an attacking position to chase down a skater who had got behind us, or race them for a loose puck that our defender wouldn't get to but I might, or pick up the loose man who was sweeping through our centre. In these sort of confrontations my job was as much about delaying and disrupting them, or at least drawing the fangs from their attack by forcing them to a weaker position, as it was about actual puck possession. I used my stick a lot more than I generally do, to steer opponents, tip the puck, block the board, knock their stick aside or disrupt their shot/pass.
On a couple of occasion I swooped in onto another battle to pluck the loose puck out of the aftermath, pinching as the D. Against a strong forward who knows how to use his bulk to hold or gain position, however, I was outmuscled on at least two occasions. Neither of these instances led to anything, but I will need to work out how to remedy this.
My puck possession was pretty good, not losing it off my stick at all due either enemy action or poor pass reception. Several times I manipulated my position relative to the puck on my stick to ensure I kept my body between chasing opponent and the puck. On two occasions I managed to steal it from inches in front of an opponent's blade (both times behind their goal). At least once I managed to pull of a stop/pivot along the board to shake an opponent and create time and space. Much smarter than has been the norm.
I had about eight shots at goal, one went in, one missed and all the rest were blocked by the goalie. I put up over 20 minutes, and was in good shape at the end. I immediately had a banana and 600ml orange juice after the game, as well as a very good stretch. Maybe that's why I'm still feeling so good?
GP 7 G 6 A 6 +12 5-1-1
Tuesday 24 June 2014
Academy - snappy session
Seventh week in a row, cold and wet. Busy traffic. Had been reading about nutrition and hockey conditioning yesterday, put a few ideas into place today (as I had the opportunity). I have a lot to learn about diet, nutrition and the hockey lifestyle but even the tweaks I made today to my more regular routines had a positive impact both on the ice and afterwards. This last point is important as I have another training session tomorrow (Vikings inline training at Gawler).
But I digress...
Tonight was definitely more oriented towards basic skills than anything more dramatic. With no goalie and the numbers being what they were (about twenty), it was good that Mick was there to help out. We began with a few warm ups, enough that I could safely stretch out my leg muscles before we gathered for the first set of instructions.
Then began about a half hour of basic skating exercises, beginning with doing laps, transitioning at the blue lines so as to be skating backwards between them. Our collective pace and intensity was lacking, which brought a brief lecture from Corey - to always skate hard. I think he must have heard someone grumbling about not using a puck yet (?!) because, after his critique on our casual approach he announced that 'boring skating' is the core of it all, and only when one is able to do all the necessary maneuvers at the fastest speed of which one is capable of (and then some) can one say that 'I don't need to do this.' Which was all fine by me, as I love skating for skating's sake (as regular readers would know).
We then set off in pairs, racing with crossovers and tight turns in full circuits of all the faceoff circles a couple of times, then the same backwards. No pucks. Then it was about four back and forths from red to far blue line to near blue line to far red line up the ice, with stops and accelerations in between. Then throw in backwards skating segments and do several more laps.
Then it got technical. Simple end to end skating. No emphasis on speed. Outside edges. Gliding. Balance. Extension. Stability. Weight transfer. Under cut. Cross unders. Do it backwards. Notice the improvement after ten or more minutes.
Half an hour has passed. Gather a puck and meet in the centre of the ice. Instructions being given, stray skater out at a goal playing with a puck, distracting. Stray skater wanders over, Corey stops, is a little ascerbic in his comment to the stray skater, not happy Jan. Snaps out, 'you stay still, don't move! The rest of you, leave your pucks, skate a lap. Hard. Now!' And off we all go and the poor stray skater probably feels like a real goose.
Regather in centre ice. Play the puck protection game of everyone protect their own puck while skating within the blue lines, and try and knock the other player's over the blue line. If you lose your puck, go and play puck protection in the outer zones. Eventually there's only one left in the middle. Do it all again.
Then, shooting. Wrist shot, backhand, slapshot. For the wrist shots, as there was no goalie, to miss the goal mouth from the blue line incurred a ten push up penalty. I didn't have to do any, but felt sorry for some of my peers who had to do ten push ups again and again and again. Being hockey players, they did it and didn't complain. I think I missed one of the half dozen backhand shots we then did (concentrating on weight transfer). For the slap shot, this was the first time I've ever been 'officially' shown how to do it. I think my last of four attempts could be called a weak slapshot, so I guess there was progress. I sure miss my summer shooting sessions in the neighborhood!
Finally, about ten minutes of a rolling battle drill at each end of the ice, involving groups in each corner and the coach in the centre. A skater would race out from each corner, tight turn around the neutral zone dots and race back in towards the goal. Meanwhile the coach had sent a puck somewhere into the zone. The skaters race for it. Whoever gets it will try and get a goal. The other defends. Next pair. Around and around and around for about ten minutes. We had four skaters in one corner to start with and five in the other. I kept getting beat in the skating by a sheila who was at her first academy session but played in NSW. I held my own (though not necessarily 'winning' very often) against the others I went against. My speed was lacking.
End of session. Good yarn with Old Timer Stephen afterwards while I munch on a banana and have a mandarin while cooling off in my gear, watching the next training session.
Just another night at the Ice Arena!
But I digress...
Tonight was definitely more oriented towards basic skills than anything more dramatic. With no goalie and the numbers being what they were (about twenty), it was good that Mick was there to help out. We began with a few warm ups, enough that I could safely stretch out my leg muscles before we gathered for the first set of instructions.
Then began about a half hour of basic skating exercises, beginning with doing laps, transitioning at the blue lines so as to be skating backwards between them. Our collective pace and intensity was lacking, which brought a brief lecture from Corey - to always skate hard. I think he must have heard someone grumbling about not using a puck yet (?!) because, after his critique on our casual approach he announced that 'boring skating' is the core of it all, and only when one is able to do all the necessary maneuvers at the fastest speed of which one is capable of (and then some) can one say that 'I don't need to do this.' Which was all fine by me, as I love skating for skating's sake (as regular readers would know).
We then set off in pairs, racing with crossovers and tight turns in full circuits of all the faceoff circles a couple of times, then the same backwards. No pucks. Then it was about four back and forths from red to far blue line to near blue line to far red line up the ice, with stops and accelerations in between. Then throw in backwards skating segments and do several more laps.
Then it got technical. Simple end to end skating. No emphasis on speed. Outside edges. Gliding. Balance. Extension. Stability. Weight transfer. Under cut. Cross unders. Do it backwards. Notice the improvement after ten or more minutes.
Half an hour has passed. Gather a puck and meet in the centre of the ice. Instructions being given, stray skater out at a goal playing with a puck, distracting. Stray skater wanders over, Corey stops, is a little ascerbic in his comment to the stray skater, not happy Jan. Snaps out, 'you stay still, don't move! The rest of you, leave your pucks, skate a lap. Hard. Now!' And off we all go and the poor stray skater probably feels like a real goose.
Regather in centre ice. Play the puck protection game of everyone protect their own puck while skating within the blue lines, and try and knock the other player's over the blue line. If you lose your puck, go and play puck protection in the outer zones. Eventually there's only one left in the middle. Do it all again.
Then, shooting. Wrist shot, backhand, slapshot. For the wrist shots, as there was no goalie, to miss the goal mouth from the blue line incurred a ten push up penalty. I didn't have to do any, but felt sorry for some of my peers who had to do ten push ups again and again and again. Being hockey players, they did it and didn't complain. I think I missed one of the half dozen backhand shots we then did (concentrating on weight transfer). For the slap shot, this was the first time I've ever been 'officially' shown how to do it. I think my last of four attempts could be called a weak slapshot, so I guess there was progress. I sure miss my summer shooting sessions in the neighborhood!
Finally, about ten minutes of a rolling battle drill at each end of the ice, involving groups in each corner and the coach in the centre. A skater would race out from each corner, tight turn around the neutral zone dots and race back in towards the goal. Meanwhile the coach had sent a puck somewhere into the zone. The skaters race for it. Whoever gets it will try and get a goal. The other defends. Next pair. Around and around and around for about ten minutes. We had four skaters in one corner to start with and five in the other. I kept getting beat in the skating by a sheila who was at her first academy session but played in NSW. I held my own (though not necessarily 'winning' very often) against the others I went against. My speed was lacking.
End of session. Good yarn with Old Timer Stephen afterwards while I munch on a banana and have a mandarin while cooling off in my gear, watching the next training session.
Just another night at the Ice Arena!
Monday 23 June 2014
Synchro Inputs
On Sunday, evolving my stopping drill towards a quick acceleration drill. Crossunders the (present) key. Watch youtube video today while checking out 'puck protection' with kids drilling these same basic moves, except much more fluid than me. Then they 'stepped it up' to be doing it with quickness (ie using twitch muscles and rapidity in fast short drill). On the bus trip home from work, reading about the methodology for 'quickness' in agility training.
Adrenaline lose to Mustangs
After our Sunday Skate session (see previous post) I took B back to his home and did the social thing briefly before hopping back into the car and returning to the rink for the Australian Ice Hockey League game between Adelaide Adrenaline and the Melbourne Mustangs. I got there part way through the first period, using my new North Vikings I.H.C. membership card (issued the night before at our Wheelers game) to get a discount entry price. How cool, to get in at cheaper rate without having to book ahead!
I had a seat in the temporary stands erected on the small ice rink, about four rows up. Well rugged up and with a blanket, I was never the less getting pretty cold after a couple hours. This despite having loaded up with coffee, dried fruit and a muesli bar after the afternoon's exertions. Still, I did alright and was only mildly famished by the end of the day.
There were quite a few Mustangs fans (evidenced by the sweaters etc). None were too near me, I was surrounded by a mixture of people of different 'types' (15-60, working class to posh and snobby, male and female) who all loved their hockey and turning up at the event. The crowd got boisterous when the Adrenaline were about to score a goal, went stunningly quiet if we gave away a goal, respectfully applauded a very good exhibition of play that resulted in a brilliant individual effort at goal on the Mustang's part. The Gawler section of the crowd (seated not far from me) were the most vocal in our area of the stands, especially so for 'Petey', who's the patron spirit of the Viking club in many ways. I must make more of a point of sitting with them next time. I did enjoy it when I brought the boys, afterall.
Overall, a sense of disappointment with the local team, who gave away two goals through bad passing, and two more through poor positioning allowing identical breakaways, but support for those players who showed a bit of oomph and who didn't give up.
As always when watching the Adrenaline, amazed at the raw speed and skill these guys display, and the absolutely continuous nature of the sport. It is unrelenting in its competitiveness, right up to the final siren. Final score was 6-3.
I got home cold and tired and hungry, but the experience well worth it. Will go again.
I had a seat in the temporary stands erected on the small ice rink, about four rows up. Well rugged up and with a blanket, I was never the less getting pretty cold after a couple hours. This despite having loaded up with coffee, dried fruit and a muesli bar after the afternoon's exertions. Still, I did alright and was only mildly famished by the end of the day.
There were quite a few Mustangs fans (evidenced by the sweaters etc). None were too near me, I was surrounded by a mixture of people of different 'types' (15-60, working class to posh and snobby, male and female) who all loved their hockey and turning up at the event. The crowd got boisterous when the Adrenaline were about to score a goal, went stunningly quiet if we gave away a goal, respectfully applauded a very good exhibition of play that resulted in a brilliant individual effort at goal on the Mustang's part. The Gawler section of the crowd (seated not far from me) were the most vocal in our area of the stands, especially so for 'Petey', who's the patron spirit of the Viking club in many ways. I must make more of a point of sitting with them next time. I did enjoy it when I brought the boys, afterall.
Overall, a sense of disappointment with the local team, who gave away two goals through bad passing, and two more through poor positioning allowing identical breakaways, but support for those players who showed a bit of oomph and who didn't give up.
As always when watching the Adrenaline, amazed at the raw speed and skill these guys display, and the absolutely continuous nature of the sport. It is unrelenting in its competitiveness, right up to the final siren. Final score was 6-3.
I got home cold and tired and hungry, but the experience well worth it. Will go again.
Sunday Skate - Back at the Arena
Yesterday I went down to the Arena with my skate Buddy, B (9). He had been very understanding of my requests to go and play in the Shinnys down at Noarlunga over the previous fortnight so I thought that the least I could do to make it up to him was go for our usual weekly skate this week. The guys in the Shinny group had been equally understanding when I had told them that I was unlikely to turn up this week. Without even knowing them, B has a bunch of allies there who empathised with his need to skate!
B was his usual charming self, patiently waiting in the queue for us to get in, having eaten breakfast and drunk some water before we left, and two hours after we started skating he even called me off the ice five minutes before we had to (!) so we didn't get caught up in the crush to get out of there ('just one more lap, B!').
For the first time he had a go at tightening and tying his own skates unassisted and made a not bad job of it (gives him good incentive to work on is lace tying skills lol). More imporantly, he told me about an hour into the session that he thought his laces needed retightening - I'd said I'd be happy to do it if/when he thought it needed doing. He was working in small segments of time on the various skills he has either been taught at his skating lessons (eg. forwards and backwards skating, turns, crossovers, one foot glides) or that he has taught himself (hockey stops). In between, he just cruised around and seemed as always to be well in tune with himself and his fellow skaters. I am quite proud of him!
For me, I stayed on the ice for one lap longer than B, which means that I didn't get to stop except to tighten laces for two hours. I was a bit sore from the Wheeler's game the night before, so took a while to warm up. Over the two hour session I did maybe ten sets of 5 each way back and forth stops with three accelerating steps between (aiming at getting the acceleration occuring as the change in direction reaches its point of transition by crossing over as I finish the stop and pushing under on the outside edge as the first impetus). A couple of times I felt it 'flow', so it won't be too long and this skill will become operational.
I had breakthrough sessions in two other base skills I've been pursuing for months now; balancing/skating on the toe tips (maybe doing ten or so blue to blue tottering runs on my toe tips - where once for a few strides I felt the 'click' as posture and skate handling and momentum combined to move me quicker than my running motion alone could do), and repeat jumping in sets of ten while skating across the rink on the red line with landings occuring on alternating sides of the line as did so. With the jumps, I lifted my legs high for the first time and it probably looked either weird or spectacular. I was doing the jumps in a bounding motion - probably not the safest. I did maybe five of these drills. So, for skill acquisition, it was pretty valuable session.
For the rest of the time, I just enjoyed cavorting around and basically playing around with the various techniqes I know to have fun.
Excellent day!
B was his usual charming self, patiently waiting in the queue for us to get in, having eaten breakfast and drunk some water before we left, and two hours after we started skating he even called me off the ice five minutes before we had to (!) so we didn't get caught up in the crush to get out of there ('just one more lap, B!').
For the first time he had a go at tightening and tying his own skates unassisted and made a not bad job of it (gives him good incentive to work on is lace tying skills lol). More imporantly, he told me about an hour into the session that he thought his laces needed retightening - I'd said I'd be happy to do it if/when he thought it needed doing. He was working in small segments of time on the various skills he has either been taught at his skating lessons (eg. forwards and backwards skating, turns, crossovers, one foot glides) or that he has taught himself (hockey stops). In between, he just cruised around and seemed as always to be well in tune with himself and his fellow skaters. I am quite proud of him!
For me, I stayed on the ice for one lap longer than B, which means that I didn't get to stop except to tighten laces for two hours. I was a bit sore from the Wheeler's game the night before, so took a while to warm up. Over the two hour session I did maybe ten sets of 5 each way back and forth stops with three accelerating steps between (aiming at getting the acceleration occuring as the change in direction reaches its point of transition by crossing over as I finish the stop and pushing under on the outside edge as the first impetus). A couple of times I felt it 'flow', so it won't be too long and this skill will become operational.
I had breakthrough sessions in two other base skills I've been pursuing for months now; balancing/skating on the toe tips (maybe doing ten or so blue to blue tottering runs on my toe tips - where once for a few strides I felt the 'click' as posture and skate handling and momentum combined to move me quicker than my running motion alone could do), and repeat jumping in sets of ten while skating across the rink on the red line with landings occuring on alternating sides of the line as did so. With the jumps, I lifted my legs high for the first time and it probably looked either weird or spectacular. I was doing the jumps in a bounding motion - probably not the safest. I did maybe five of these drills. So, for skill acquisition, it was pretty valuable session.
For the rest of the time, I just enjoyed cavorting around and basically playing around with the various techniqes I know to have fun.
Excellent day!
Sunday 22 June 2014
Game Day - Shufflers (4) d Wheelers (3)
We went down in a hard fought game against the Shufflers in the last game of the night at Gawler. Although we had our full roster (5 skaters and Matt the Goalie) Brenton had played in the preceding Div II contest between the Rockers and Bumpers as a reserve,so we were probably half a skater down. Never the less, the rest of us were rested and experienced enough to cope. Despite the loss, we remain on top of the ladder at this midpoint of the season with 9 points. Shufflers are second with 8 points. Rockers are third with 7 points.
Opening shift for me was about six minutes long, which is too long but I was able to cope with it on this occasion as during the early stages of the game I was using my head at least as much as my skates to make the most of my opportunities. I scored the first goal after Alex chased down his own rebound and passed it back to me in the slot. He scored the second after a bit of maneuvering around in the slot after I'd passed it to him from centre (no assist for me, however).
The Shufflers two stars (Alen and Mark) combined to score one back within the minute of our second, and then Mark put in their second about five minutes later with a powerful wrist shot from their right point. I managed a couple more rush shots, neither of which went in, although one nearly slid beneath their late dropping goalie. At least I wasn't missing the goal mouth!
We went into half time at 2-2 and had a bit of discussion on our bench about the fact that we should be clearing their screening forward away from our goalie's crease (the Shufflers were leaving one of their skaters right up against our goalmouth much of the time, not that I think that it was a cause of any scoring despite its distractive value). I argued that that meant that they were a skater down elsewhere on the floor and this was a weakness in their plans. I did agree, however, that we would need to make the most of this advantage if we were to warrant not sending our defence back to keep the goal mouth clear. Which would mean we should be talking more, which we hadn't been. Which was a valid point. And then it was back onto the floor.
First Period
Opening shift for me was about six minutes long, which is too long but I was able to cope with it on this occasion as during the early stages of the game I was using my head at least as much as my skates to make the most of my opportunities. I scored the first goal after Alex chased down his own rebound and passed it back to me in the slot. He scored the second after a bit of maneuvering around in the slot after I'd passed it to him from centre (no assist for me, however).
The Shufflers two stars (Alen and Mark) combined to score one back within the minute of our second, and then Mark put in their second about five minutes later with a powerful wrist shot from their right point. I managed a couple more rush shots, neither of which went in, although one nearly slid beneath their late dropping goalie. At least I wasn't missing the goal mouth!
We went into half time at 2-2 and had a bit of discussion on our bench about the fact that we should be clearing their screening forward away from our goalie's crease (the Shufflers were leaving one of their skaters right up against our goalmouth much of the time, not that I think that it was a cause of any scoring despite its distractive value). I argued that that meant that they were a skater down elsewhere on the floor and this was a weakness in their plans. I did agree, however, that we would need to make the most of this advantage if we were to warrant not sending our defence back to keep the goal mouth clear. Which would mean we should be talking more, which we hadn't been. Which was a valid point. And then it was back onto the floor.
Second Period
We got the first goal of the second period about five minutes in, with Alex passing to Matt to drop it in. I could feel our confidence rising.It was only a minute or so later however, and they answered with first one, and then a few minutes later a second to take the lead. it could have been worse, as just before that the puck had bounced down from crossbar to land outside the line, and another shot had traveled along the line within the goal mouth for at least a couple feet before being steered out by someone (me?).
Maybe foolishly, I came off shortly after their fourth goal, perhaps assuming that we could split the remaining four minutes between us to keep a head of steam going (we were out skating them, although not out shooting). I was disappointed that at least one of our skaters stayed on the floor long after he'd lost all his concentration and ability to accelerate and chase down loose pucks (and hence, kept turning over possession straight after we had fended off yet another attack) until there was only a minute to go.
The final minute was pretty dramatic. We were under assault, Matt and I coming off the bench on a defensive zone face off. I didn't feel uncomfortable, however, as we were both skating strong and we had the skills. Sadly, a bad bounce in the faceoff and I was in a mad race to the backboard with Nicoletta, followed by a mad crash as we both hit the floor very hard to keep up the fight (we do this every game, and love it). I was up on my feet quickly to see that in front of me there was a scrum in the crease, with Matt the Goalie out to the side by a couple feet. Unusually for me, I skated between him and the goalmouth, aiming to cover the wide open side. Lucky I did, because a hard shot came in and I only just managed to get my boot in the way and save the goal. This was the second goal I saved in the evening, having earlier jammed the puck into our blind goalie's pad until he could get a glove onto it to protect it against the questing stick of the aggressive forward.
When the siren went it was 3-2, and smiles all round. Several spectators commented to me in the aftermath about how competitive the whole game had been. I couldn't argue with that.
My Game
My game was quite reasonable. Probably 20 minutes on the floor, one goal, set up another (though no points for this), directly saved two goals, was on the floor for one of theirs. I wasn't aware of a screening forward in front of our goalie when I was present. I played more in the neutral zone in a 'striker' role, dropping back for loose pucks or to help the goalie when necessary. I provided a reset option several times, and didn't once miss receiving the puck. Most risky thing I think I did was pass the puck back to Matt the Goalie on one occasion so he could effectively commence the breakout. I don't think I missed the goal with any of my four shots.
I had several of my own breakout passes intercepted by the opposition because I passed it too close to them and too soft. I will have to pick my passing options better in future.
GP6 G5 A5 PT10 +8 4/1/1
Thursday 19 June 2014
Vikings Training - more puck work
Last night I made it to Gawler after battling traffic all the way so as to be only 10 minutes late. Sigh. Managed to do one circuit of the evening's first drill, skating up the length of the rink around which maybe 6 pairs of 'witches hat' cones were set up, having to do full circuits as fast as possible around each one (getting down as low as possible in the stance). Then it was into the drills.
Firstly, and most simply, two groups of skaters in opposite corners at opposing ends of the floor. Occupied goals at both ends. Pucks with each group. A skater would wait for someone from the opposite group to skate down their side of the rink and then curl across in front of the goal while calling for the puck. The skater would pass it to them (and they would then try and skate back towards the initial end to have a shot) and take off to themself skate up the boards, curl across the front of the opposing goal while calling for the puck, receive the pass from a player in the opposite corner (who would at this point themselves take off up their board (and hence, alongside the (now puck carrying skater)) to curl around in front of the goal to take a pass, etc...) and then skate hard towards the original end so as to get a shot off on goal before rejoining the original group.
We then conducted a three line weave. This entailed forming three groups on one goal line. The opposite goal was occupied (ie only the one goalie on the floor). A player in the centre line (F1) would pass the puck to the skater from the second line (F2) who was going up and curling towards the centre. F1 would then continue their own curl towards the boards alongside which F2 had started and skate hard up the wing to then cut in towards the goal. Meanwhile, F2 would continue their curl towards the right boards, where the third skater (F3) had been keeping pace with them until shortly before entered the attack zone. Then, as F2 headed towards the right boards, F3 curled towards the centre of the attack zone. This set up the play. The idea was for F2 to pass to F3 who would quickly pass it to F1 who, if they'd skated hard and hadn't spent any time observing the success or otherwise of the evolving play, should be coming in at the goal for a shot off the pass from F3.
Not easy to describe without pictures, and even harder to do with any ease. This drill required an effort of accuracy for the passes, and faith in the process. Especially for F1 as they had to pass and skate hard and trust that the puck would be there when they were for the culminating shot. For to look events and interpret them was to slow down and effectively kill the play. Not the easiest. We were frustrating to watch to the coach.
Finally, a game of Red Rover with two occupied goals in the centre of the floor, each facing an opposing side board, and (almost) all the players each with a puck lined up along one goal line. One or two skaters began anywhere on the floor between the two goal lines. The narrow spaces between the goal lines and the end boards was regarded as 'safe'. The idea was simple. On the whistle, the line of puck carriers would attempt to carry their puck across the floor and into the opposite safe zone. The player(s) in the middle would try and seize a puck (any puck) and get it past a goalie into the goal. While they tried to get the goal, the original puck carrier would try and get their puck back under control and into safety. If the puck went into the goal, the skater whose puck it had been joined the puckless people in the middle. They could combine to rob pucks off of carriers as they came across in the other direction, and combine to get it into the goal. A million tactical lessons in this simple game.
Hour up, (or, fifty minutes in my case) it was time to cool down and change, and head back down the highway to home.
Great evening.
Firstly, and most simply, two groups of skaters in opposite corners at opposing ends of the floor. Occupied goals at both ends. Pucks with each group. A skater would wait for someone from the opposite group to skate down their side of the rink and then curl across in front of the goal while calling for the puck. The skater would pass it to them (and they would then try and skate back towards the initial end to have a shot) and take off to themself skate up the boards, curl across the front of the opposing goal while calling for the puck, receive the pass from a player in the opposite corner (who would at this point themselves take off up their board (and hence, alongside the (now puck carrying skater)) to curl around in front of the goal to take a pass, etc...) and then skate hard towards the original end so as to get a shot off on goal before rejoining the original group.
We then conducted a three line weave. This entailed forming three groups on one goal line. The opposite goal was occupied (ie only the one goalie on the floor). A player in the centre line (F1) would pass the puck to the skater from the second line (F2) who was going up and curling towards the centre. F1 would then continue their own curl towards the boards alongside which F2 had started and skate hard up the wing to then cut in towards the goal. Meanwhile, F2 would continue their curl towards the right boards, where the third skater (F3) had been keeping pace with them until shortly before entered the attack zone. Then, as F2 headed towards the right boards, F3 curled towards the centre of the attack zone. This set up the play. The idea was for F2 to pass to F3 who would quickly pass it to F1 who, if they'd skated hard and hadn't spent any time observing the success or otherwise of the evolving play, should be coming in at the goal for a shot off the pass from F3.
Not easy to describe without pictures, and even harder to do with any ease. This drill required an effort of accuracy for the passes, and faith in the process. Especially for F1 as they had to pass and skate hard and trust that the puck would be there when they were for the culminating shot. For to look events and interpret them was to slow down and effectively kill the play. Not the easiest. We were frustrating to watch to the coach.
Finally, a game of Red Rover with two occupied goals in the centre of the floor, each facing an opposing side board, and (almost) all the players each with a puck lined up along one goal line. One or two skaters began anywhere on the floor between the two goal lines. The narrow spaces between the goal lines and the end boards was regarded as 'safe'. The idea was simple. On the whistle, the line of puck carriers would attempt to carry their puck across the floor and into the opposite safe zone. The player(s) in the middle would try and seize a puck (any puck) and get it past a goalie into the goal. While they tried to get the goal, the original puck carrier would try and get their puck back under control and into safety. If the puck went into the goal, the skater whose puck it had been joined the puckless people in the middle. They could combine to rob pucks off of carriers as they came across in the other direction, and combine to get it into the goal. A million tactical lessons in this simple game.
Hour up, (or, fifty minutes in my case) it was time to cool down and change, and head back down the highway to home.
Great evening.
Wednesday 18 June 2014
Academy - Puck'n Strong!
Last night I was at the Ice Arena for my sixth session in a row of Corey's weekly Ice Hockey Academy. As always, it was a enjoyable, educational and exhausting hour! Many thanks to Nancy for making it possible for me to attend, the demands any half serious hockey player makes on the household economia is considerable, and in a sense we owe it all to our loved ones.
Sentimentality over, it was onto the ice. After several laps he had us skating as hard as we could between the blue lines while we did several laps. Then he had us do it the other way for several more. Then we had a minutes breather while he explained the next evolution of the drill. Namely, one whistle meant do a stop and then take off in the opposite direction as hard as you can. Two whistles meant that one had to immediately do a full tight circle and then continue in the direction you were going as hard as you could. And then it was the equivalent of several laps of this. And then it was, 'get a drink'. This was a conditioning exercise, also termed 'cardio' (by a colleague who is also into fitness per se).
Then we did a sequence of drills where one of the concentration points was puck handling, with introductions of skating techniques and positioning (hockey sense) to culminate in basic teamwork practice.
The initial exercise was to drop gloves on the ice in front of one, about one and a half times the distance apart of one's feet in the classic hockey stance. Then, stick handle the puck in figure of eights around the gloves. Then, reorganise the gloves so they are the same distance apart, but now the second glove is just that distance in front of you. Then, kick the gloves apart to the distance of two sticks lying end on end and skate between them, carrying the puck. Then pick up the speed. Then, leave the pucks in a pile and cycling from one end of the ice to the other and back, via doing fast circles around each of the five face-off circles. Then do this with a puck.
Then, everyone grab a puck and gather in the zone between the one blue line and adjacent red goal line. The (empty goal) was put in the middle of the zone. Everyone, keep moving, protect your puck, try and knock other players' pucks into the goal. If your puck gets scored with, you go up to the far blue line and start back and forth between it and its nearby goal line, doing hockey stops and accelerating out of it each time. I think I could have kept going the whole way through the long battle between the final two puck carriers (of whom I knew both), but once I was only able to accelerate out of the stop every second one on average I found it quite easy to stop the exhausting skate/stop routine and watch the battle play out at the other end of the ice. The winnner was the one who first decided to just leave their puck alone on the board and chase down the opponent and their puck to seize it and score. Then, get a drink.
When we returned to the ice,.refreshed, there were a sequence of 'witch's hat' cones spaced about two stick lengths apart in a line up one side of the rink between the non neutral zone circles, and a goal with goalie at the other end. The idea was to skate in a fast slalom through the cones and then have a shot on goal. After a few rounds of this, four cones were put into a diamond shape (same distance between them as the others) in the zone nearest where the drill began and a pile of pucks dropped in the top corner diagonally opposite where the skaters had begun from. The idea was now to pick up a puck after passing the goal (after your shot) and then carry it back, making full circuits of each of the cones while carrying it. Then, rather than doing circles, skate back down the middle of the cones after taking your shot, dangling the puck, 'outside' or 'inside' each of the cones in the diamond (depending if the cone was near the boards or not). Then, repeat the skating drills but this time start alongside the pile of pucks nearest the goal (ie we were all near the goal and able to hear the exhortations and have things pointed out to us about the shooting). Then, get a drink.
Then, step it up. This time, all the cones were scattered in a random pattern across one end of the rink. The goalie in his net was down the other. All the skaters gathered in the middle, with the pucks in a pile nearby. Skater 1 would go up and weave a pattern (nothing in particular) through the cones, curling back towards the centre, they were to call for the puck shortly after turning. The second skater of the pair would pass the first the puck, then pivot so as to be skating in the same direction (ie. towards the goal) but backwards, in front of the skater 1 with the puck. Skater 1 was offence, skater 2 was defence. Idea was to either get a shot off on goal (either into the goal or requiring a goalie save from which rebound didn't go in) or get it out off the zone to end the play and get the next pair moving from the centre.
Just to lighten the mood (and, I suspect, give the goalie a breather) we all then had to line up on a goal line on our knees. We had to get up to our feet as quick as we could, go as fast as we could to the blue line. Drop to our knees and get to our feet and to the centre line, then the next blue line, then the far goal line. Then back. Rinse and repeat. Get a drink.
The final puck handling exercise of the evening was a four line drill, starting from the opposite end of the ice to the goalie. From right to left, the four roles of the various lines were; puck carrier, puck carrier defence, puck support and puck support defence. Essentially, a two on two battle with the emphasis added now to passing/receiving and positional play. The battle zone was extended to include the neutral zone also. Everyone (as always in these things) was expected to have a go at each of the lines several times over. As there were 14 of us to start and several dropped off through it, it got to be a bit of a final conditioning exercise by the time we ran through it the last few times (eventually paced by the need to have one or more of the empty lines filled by one or more of the surviving skaters returning from the previous battle).
Finally, a strength battle tournament where everyone split into pairs, standing facing each other in the middle of the ice with each holding their hockey stick towards the opponent and holding the blade end of the opponent's stick as it was held towards them. Then, each player tries to pull the other towards the boards on their side of the rink. In each bout, the first to score three times against the opponent wins. Then play the winner of a neighboring pair. Continue until only one pair left. Then they fight it out. It was a contest of strength and stability. When one lost one's footing you were even more helpless than when resisting a stronger bigger person's pull. It took agility to get to one's feet and keep resisting the opponent. I was getting the hang of it by the time I had been knocked out 3-0 by fellow Knight Andy in the first round. I had a bit of a cheer squad during my intense struggle in the final round.
The night concluded with the final bout, and all the rest of us having quite a laugh as the final two used their varied abilities in strength and catlike agility to determine the victor.
A great evening.
Sentimentality over, it was onto the ice. After several laps he had us skating as hard as we could between the blue lines while we did several laps. Then he had us do it the other way for several more. Then we had a minutes breather while he explained the next evolution of the drill. Namely, one whistle meant do a stop and then take off in the opposite direction as hard as you can. Two whistles meant that one had to immediately do a full tight circle and then continue in the direction you were going as hard as you could. And then it was the equivalent of several laps of this. And then it was, 'get a drink'. This was a conditioning exercise, also termed 'cardio' (by a colleague who is also into fitness per se).
Then we did a sequence of drills where one of the concentration points was puck handling, with introductions of skating techniques and positioning (hockey sense) to culminate in basic teamwork practice.
The initial exercise was to drop gloves on the ice in front of one, about one and a half times the distance apart of one's feet in the classic hockey stance. Then, stick handle the puck in figure of eights around the gloves. Then, reorganise the gloves so they are the same distance apart, but now the second glove is just that distance in front of you. Then, kick the gloves apart to the distance of two sticks lying end on end and skate between them, carrying the puck. Then pick up the speed. Then, leave the pucks in a pile and cycling from one end of the ice to the other and back, via doing fast circles around each of the five face-off circles. Then do this with a puck.
Then, everyone grab a puck and gather in the zone between the one blue line and adjacent red goal line. The (empty goal) was put in the middle of the zone. Everyone, keep moving, protect your puck, try and knock other players' pucks into the goal. If your puck gets scored with, you go up to the far blue line and start back and forth between it and its nearby goal line, doing hockey stops and accelerating out of it each time. I think I could have kept going the whole way through the long battle between the final two puck carriers (of whom I knew both), but once I was only able to accelerate out of the stop every second one on average I found it quite easy to stop the exhausting skate/stop routine and watch the battle play out at the other end of the ice. The winnner was the one who first decided to just leave their puck alone on the board and chase down the opponent and their puck to seize it and score. Then, get a drink.
When we returned to the ice,.refreshed, there were a sequence of 'witch's hat' cones spaced about two stick lengths apart in a line up one side of the rink between the non neutral zone circles, and a goal with goalie at the other end. The idea was to skate in a fast slalom through the cones and then have a shot on goal. After a few rounds of this, four cones were put into a diamond shape (same distance between them as the others) in the zone nearest where the drill began and a pile of pucks dropped in the top corner diagonally opposite where the skaters had begun from. The idea was now to pick up a puck after passing the goal (after your shot) and then carry it back, making full circuits of each of the cones while carrying it. Then, rather than doing circles, skate back down the middle of the cones after taking your shot, dangling the puck, 'outside' or 'inside' each of the cones in the diamond (depending if the cone was near the boards or not). Then, repeat the skating drills but this time start alongside the pile of pucks nearest the goal (ie we were all near the goal and able to hear the exhortations and have things pointed out to us about the shooting). Then, get a drink.
Then, step it up. This time, all the cones were scattered in a random pattern across one end of the rink. The goalie in his net was down the other. All the skaters gathered in the middle, with the pucks in a pile nearby. Skater 1 would go up and weave a pattern (nothing in particular) through the cones, curling back towards the centre, they were to call for the puck shortly after turning. The second skater of the pair would pass the first the puck, then pivot so as to be skating in the same direction (ie. towards the goal) but backwards, in front of the skater 1 with the puck. Skater 1 was offence, skater 2 was defence. Idea was to either get a shot off on goal (either into the goal or requiring a goalie save from which rebound didn't go in) or get it out off the zone to end the play and get the next pair moving from the centre.
Just to lighten the mood (and, I suspect, give the goalie a breather) we all then had to line up on a goal line on our knees. We had to get up to our feet as quick as we could, go as fast as we could to the blue line. Drop to our knees and get to our feet and to the centre line, then the next blue line, then the far goal line. Then back. Rinse and repeat. Get a drink.
The final puck handling exercise of the evening was a four line drill, starting from the opposite end of the ice to the goalie. From right to left, the four roles of the various lines were; puck carrier, puck carrier defence, puck support and puck support defence. Essentially, a two on two battle with the emphasis added now to passing/receiving and positional play. The battle zone was extended to include the neutral zone also. Everyone (as always in these things) was expected to have a go at each of the lines several times over. As there were 14 of us to start and several dropped off through it, it got to be a bit of a final conditioning exercise by the time we ran through it the last few times (eventually paced by the need to have one or more of the empty lines filled by one or more of the surviving skaters returning from the previous battle).
Finally, a strength battle tournament where everyone split into pairs, standing facing each other in the middle of the ice with each holding their hockey stick towards the opponent and holding the blade end of the opponent's stick as it was held towards them. Then, each player tries to pull the other towards the boards on their side of the rink. In each bout, the first to score three times against the opponent wins. Then play the winner of a neighboring pair. Continue until only one pair left. Then they fight it out. It was a contest of strength and stability. When one lost one's footing you were even more helpless than when resisting a stronger bigger person's pull. It took agility to get to one's feet and keep resisting the opponent. I was getting the hang of it by the time I had been knocked out 3-0 by fellow Knight Andy in the first round. I had a bit of a cheer squad during my intense struggle in the final round.
The night concluded with the final bout, and all the rest of us having quite a laugh as the final two used their varied abilities in strength and catlike agility to determine the victor.
A great evening.
Sunday 15 June 2014
Sunday Skate - Noarlunga Shinny
For the second week in a row I traveled down to Noarlunga for a two hour shinny on the small ice. The traffic was a bit heavier than last week and I got a lot of red lights, which on top of leaving about 20 minutes later than I'd hoped to meant that I got there twenty minutes after the booking had started. The crew were out there hitting pucks around and doing a few drills when I got there. Gave me a chance to do a sweater count before picking which of the ones I had brought I should wear. To even the on ice colour combination, I went with my white Canada 'away' sweater.
Again, we had one goalie (John). This time, only the one female (Rene). I think there were three blooded C graders. We had a total of nine skaters plus the goalie, which split to 3 white plus 1 orange (Joel, Michael and me, and Rene, respectively) versus 5 of the dark colours (Matt in a black blackhawks, Anthony in his beloved blues, an oiler and a plain black, and Lachie in his Canucks top). The Blues team had the most 'emotionally investive' competitive players as well as the least skilled skater, We had a work/wo/man like crew.
By the time I got onto the ice it was nearly 4:30 pm (puck drop). We played two twenty minute and one thirty minute period, with intermissions of about ten and five minutes between them. The last five minutes of the last period were 'all in'. I kept my own personal tally (3 goals, 1 clear assists), found out from the competitive ones that the score was 7-7 at the end. This added a smile to my face because I'd got the last goal to finish the last play of the evening! That's the second tied game of my weekend. At least I managed to put the puck on net when it counted tonight, unlike in last night's Wheelers game!
The final fifteen minutes saw a general drop off in skill execution. At least once in that time I went down due my legs giving out, and had to really struggle to find the energy to get back to my feet. I wasn't the only one that had that experience. My brain at least didn't shut down (as evidenced by the options evaluation and shot selection for my final skate in (culminating in the game tying goal).
Despite the hard playing and eventual fatigue, there weren't any significant injuries. I probably copped the worst one, when a slapshot puck ricocheted off of my right inner forearm. In almost fifty sessions of ice hockey this is the first time the puck has found the gap between glove and elbow pad. It stung at the time and there's a red welt there now, but that seems the limit of the damage.
Our team (Joel, Mike, me and Rene) had all been together the previous week so, by accident more than design, we also got the chance to experience a bit of team development. I think it really showed in how we played, and that's possibly the greatest lesson to take away from the whole experience.
I felt that I was much more aware of where my team mates were, and we were all much more willing to communicate with and trust each other (maybe the secret of here doesn't lie in juxtaposition, but an evolving feedback loop) to the extent of passing off and resetting, holding the puck to give off a pass rather than take a weak shot, etc. Thus, more offensive puck protection, as well as looking for ice amongst the non puck handlers.
We had three relatively strong skaters, two good stickhandlers, and three skaters under thirty (the oppo had four such), and we are all at least minimally competent at the various arts of the sport, and we all have heart. Despite the oppo's scorecounting competitiveness and size (they had the three largest, and four of the top five) we seemed to be more likely to out muscle it, even after an hour and a half of battling. And, perhaps most importantly, our defence held strong with aggressive checking, slot, player and lane coverage.
My own game continues to improve in its effectiveness (and not just on the scoreline). When defending, I concentrated on keeping both opponent and play in my field of view and shielding the slot. Occasionally I'd pinch in a race to the puck or to take over the pressuring role on the puck carrier. Around the boards I didn't leave an easy clearance for them, and tried to always make them feel under pressure. The main attack dog role was taken by Mike and Joel, I tried to always be able to be in a position allowing them an outlet or support if they needed it. I even did some creative stick checking, using position to lever an oppo's stick into practical immobility (despite their superior strength) or flicking that extra inch at the outstretch to just put the shot or pass off. A certain ferociousness in the one on one battles certainly added a bit of spice to the whole thing.
Offensively, my game involved more seizure of the puck, when it came up for dispute, a little bit more thought about where or who to pass it to if I didn't have a good shot, and on several occasions the creation of enough time in the slot to select a shot that pierced the goalie's guard (a backhand on a flyby, taking up position by the weakside post to receive a pass, and the final shot from the top of the slot as their skaters covered all my team mates, momentarily creating a clear shooting lane for a 'saucer shot' that fooled the goalie as it dipped). My shots aren't necessarily strong, but the slower puck can still easily lead to a goal (Rene was there and unchecked for the rebound on that final shot).
My skating is improving, though I need to continue to reduce skating backwards when supporting the puck carrier. I am more quick in my accelerating starts, wasn't beaten today. Will need to continue to work on this. My fitness was a minor concern earlier, especially having played last night. After the first ten or so minutes, however, I got into the rhythm. I had good team mates who were happy to give me the shorter shifts I felt warranted with only four of us, and felt that I pulled my weight in time on ice. None of us got blown. In other words, my match conditioning is improving.
The technical aspects of my passing were satisfactory, with the puck pretty well always going where I wanted it to. The decisional aspects, however, were very poor tonight. I turned it over at least ten times by poor selection from my options (I probably stole it that many times also, so didn't feel as bad about this as I should do). My shooting, as said earlier, was not strong but it was on net and I did use my head enough to get a couple goals. The assist was a very neat pass, part of a larger passing sequence, involving delaying and controlling the puck in the corner long enough for Rene to get into shooting position and then passing it to her tape to tape. The later goal when we combined culminated after a swooping series of passes between her, me and Joel where we all deserved a point and even the oppo applauded the way we put the play together. Speaking of which, my puck reception seems to be improving, didn't lose any to bounces off my blade tonight.
At the end of the session, it was a case of pay up and get out of there as broomballers started arriving. I made sure this week I did some stretches before getting in the car, and had a nice warm shower after putting away all my gear and before eating dinner. So my body feels better than it did last week at this time, despite what I know to have been a more intense past 48 hours.
All good.
Again, we had one goalie (John). This time, only the one female (Rene). I think there were three blooded C graders. We had a total of nine skaters plus the goalie, which split to 3 white plus 1 orange (Joel, Michael and me, and Rene, respectively) versus 5 of the dark colours (Matt in a black blackhawks, Anthony in his beloved blues, an oiler and a plain black, and Lachie in his Canucks top). The Blues team had the most 'emotionally investive' competitive players as well as the least skilled skater, We had a work/wo/man like crew.
By the time I got onto the ice it was nearly 4:30 pm (puck drop). We played two twenty minute and one thirty minute period, with intermissions of about ten and five minutes between them. The last five minutes of the last period were 'all in'. I kept my own personal tally (3 goals, 1 clear assists), found out from the competitive ones that the score was 7-7 at the end. This added a smile to my face because I'd got the last goal to finish the last play of the evening! That's the second tied game of my weekend. At least I managed to put the puck on net when it counted tonight, unlike in last night's Wheelers game!
The final fifteen minutes saw a general drop off in skill execution. At least once in that time I went down due my legs giving out, and had to really struggle to find the energy to get back to my feet. I wasn't the only one that had that experience. My brain at least didn't shut down (as evidenced by the options evaluation and shot selection for my final skate in (culminating in the game tying goal).
Despite the hard playing and eventual fatigue, there weren't any significant injuries. I probably copped the worst one, when a slapshot puck ricocheted off of my right inner forearm. In almost fifty sessions of ice hockey this is the first time the puck has found the gap between glove and elbow pad. It stung at the time and there's a red welt there now, but that seems the limit of the damage.
'Team White'
Our team (Joel, Mike, me and Rene) had all been together the previous week so, by accident more than design, we also got the chance to experience a bit of team development. I think it really showed in how we played, and that's possibly the greatest lesson to take away from the whole experience.
I felt that I was much more aware of where my team mates were, and we were all much more willing to communicate with and trust each other (maybe the secret of here doesn't lie in juxtaposition, but an evolving feedback loop) to the extent of passing off and resetting, holding the puck to give off a pass rather than take a weak shot, etc. Thus, more offensive puck protection, as well as looking for ice amongst the non puck handlers.
We had three relatively strong skaters, two good stickhandlers, and three skaters under thirty (the oppo had four such), and we are all at least minimally competent at the various arts of the sport, and we all have heart. Despite the oppo's scorecounting competitiveness and size (they had the three largest, and four of the top five) we seemed to be more likely to out muscle it, even after an hour and a half of battling. And, perhaps most importantly, our defence held strong with aggressive checking, slot, player and lane coverage.
My Game
My own game continues to improve in its effectiveness (and not just on the scoreline). When defending, I concentrated on keeping both opponent and play in my field of view and shielding the slot. Occasionally I'd pinch in a race to the puck or to take over the pressuring role on the puck carrier. Around the boards I didn't leave an easy clearance for them, and tried to always make them feel under pressure. The main attack dog role was taken by Mike and Joel, I tried to always be able to be in a position allowing them an outlet or support if they needed it. I even did some creative stick checking, using position to lever an oppo's stick into practical immobility (despite their superior strength) or flicking that extra inch at the outstretch to just put the shot or pass off. A certain ferociousness in the one on one battles certainly added a bit of spice to the whole thing.
Offensively, my game involved more seizure of the puck, when it came up for dispute, a little bit more thought about where or who to pass it to if I didn't have a good shot, and on several occasions the creation of enough time in the slot to select a shot that pierced the goalie's guard (a backhand on a flyby, taking up position by the weakside post to receive a pass, and the final shot from the top of the slot as their skaters covered all my team mates, momentarily creating a clear shooting lane for a 'saucer shot' that fooled the goalie as it dipped). My shots aren't necessarily strong, but the slower puck can still easily lead to a goal (Rene was there and unchecked for the rebound on that final shot).
My skating is improving, though I need to continue to reduce skating backwards when supporting the puck carrier. I am more quick in my accelerating starts, wasn't beaten today. Will need to continue to work on this. My fitness was a minor concern earlier, especially having played last night. After the first ten or so minutes, however, I got into the rhythm. I had good team mates who were happy to give me the shorter shifts I felt warranted with only four of us, and felt that I pulled my weight in time on ice. None of us got blown. In other words, my match conditioning is improving.
The technical aspects of my passing were satisfactory, with the puck pretty well always going where I wanted it to. The decisional aspects, however, were very poor tonight. I turned it over at least ten times by poor selection from my options (I probably stole it that many times also, so didn't feel as bad about this as I should do). My shooting, as said earlier, was not strong but it was on net and I did use my head enough to get a couple goals. The assist was a very neat pass, part of a larger passing sequence, involving delaying and controlling the puck in the corner long enough for Rene to get into shooting position and then passing it to her tape to tape. The later goal when we combined culminated after a swooping series of passes between her, me and Joel where we all deserved a point and even the oppo applauded the way we put the play together. Speaking of which, my puck reception seems to be improving, didn't lose any to bounces off my blade tonight.
At the end of the session, it was a case of pay up and get out of there as broomballers started arriving. I made sure this week I did some stretches before getting in the car, and had a nice warm shower after putting away all my gear and before eating dinner. So my body feels better than it did last week at this time, despite what I know to have been a more intense past 48 hours.
All good.
Game Day - Wheelers (4) tie Rockers (4)
Last night we played a tight draw with the Rockers in our regular season inline game at Gawler. Both teams played their regular line ups, no reserves required. There were no penalties taken. The Wheelers remain a game and a half clear on the top of the table. Alex leads the Division's scoring table with 12 goals and four assists over five games (he's played four of them). Next week we play the Shufflers in the late game (8:45pm start) for a top of table clash marking the season's midpoint.
The first period was pretty tight. We won opening face off. The following play was full of passing triangles, resulting in a good shot on goal that rebounded into the corner. Their counterattack was a similarly good two pass play and required a save from Matt the Goalie to keep it out. Each side had showed its teeth in the opening minute. I assisted Alex to open the scoring in the last play of our shift. It was about the third attacking play our line had made, each of them marked by controlled passing and a shot on goal. I seemed to be more the playmaker than shooter, but that suited me fine. Our line went in on the goal, and from then on there was an element of chaos in the game as the on-floor composition of our team kept changing. A couple shifts later, Brenton was open in the top of the slot and slammed a goal in for 2-0.
Not to be deterred, our opponents answered with two goals of their own in the next eight minutes, one being a 'soft' goal (Merrilyn and I shrugged our shoulders to each other as we returned to the face off, there wasn't much that could be said when the puck gods had spoken, that kind of goal) and the other one where we were simply outworked on the neutral boards, resulting in an overload in front of our net. It was therefore with some relief that in the half's closing minute I witnessed Alex get open in front of their net and deliberate over his shot as he skated across the goal mouth, before putting the puck home in the top corner. The siren rang shortly after, and we had a 3-2 lead.
Half time was mainly one of quiet determination on our bench. There was no sign of either panic or exuberance, nor did any of us feel the need to comment on our play or make any exhortations about what we needed to do/not do. Instead, a fairly focused recuperation period, all of us taking a drink whilst concentrating on regaining composure and that sense of 'teamness' when you're all together and you all know what needs doing.
The second half was an interesting one. The opening shift culminated in a physical struggle for position in the slot in front of our goal, upping the emotional level as everyone responded in the push and shove. This resulted in a pileup in front of our goal, with sticks, boots and hands flailing at floor level. I kept my feet and my eyes on the puck the whole time, was about to pluck it from the scrum when a little space opened around it, saw a gloved hand cup itself over the puck and push it into space a foot or so closer to the goal, in the path of an opponent's stick that flicked it into the net. Before the whistle blew I was pointing at where the hand had held the puck (it was one of their player's who'd gloved it). I think a couple of my fellows remonstrated briefly with the referee. I later gathered that even the offending player had told the ref at this point that she had held the puck. Sadly for us, the ref maintained that he hadn't seen it and the goal counted. We took the opportunity to change lines.
What impressed me most about the whole incident was our team's response. The attitude on the bench was one of 'well, let's get on with it', "Let's get it back, Wheelers!". And, in half a minute, we did! Matt hit it out from the backlines, Merrilyn and Alex made a couple considered lateral passes to each other after winning it off the backboards while Matt skated up into the slot for the final pass from the boards to score a goal. If there was any sour taste left from their previous score, it was well and truly exorcised by the sense of vindication that came with the return of our one goal lead. Give the Rockers their due, however, for a couple minutes later they again combined to out pass our defence while we perhaps foolishly conducted a shift change for a desperately tired skater and score the game equaliser.
The last ten minutes were a close fought battle, with us probably mounting more attacking moves than they did. The last few seconds of the game were the most strange, with us having a final attack. Merrilyn had the puck in the corner, the goalie had somehow found himself stranded between her and his net, I was coming down the centre with only an open net in front of me. The pass came in across the crease, I reached for it and watched it go across the goal about three inches in front of my blade. If I'd lunged I might have got it, if I'd dived I would have. It was an open net. We had time to smile about it and commence one further play before the siren went and this most excellent game was over.
Despite my failure to connect in the dying seconds I wasn't disappointed with my own game. I'd won the opening face off, and three of the further six I'd taken (getting down much lower, watching the puck from the ref's hand to the floor, adjusting what I want to do to account for the opposition and thus winning a couple on guile over strength). I didn't get totally blown, and my strained abductor muscle showed the benefit of my 'rehab' this past week. in that it didn't give any grief and was able to be well stretched after being warmed up during the first shift. I think I had about four shots on goal (2 wristshots and 2 crossing forehand (?) snaps), and missed at least twice when had snaps from a middling distance against an open half of net. I was definitely more playmaking than shooting during this game.
Probably the dumbest thing I did was a soft lateral pass across the high slot in front of our goal when I didn't know where all their players were and there was a chance one of them would pick up a dangerous shot opportunity late in the second half. I knew my mistake as soon as I'd done it and followed the puck across towards Merrilyn, supporting her in controlling the puck and moving it back into safety.
Technically, I was happy, having put in play various things that have been taught. This included heel to heel for both puck protection on the board and threat of wrap around, good acceleration in the late game in the race for the puck, a poke check or two, keeping my feet, chipping up the board, talking with my team mates, stop and turn moves, and even a couple wrist shots (sadly, against a well squared up goalie by time I released), and a couple occasions where I kept my composure to cross the goal front before releasing my shot after breaking out down the wing (I noticed Alex was doing this on occasion also) and reasonably good positional play ('twas not my player who set up or scored their goals when I was on the floor), keeping both play and player in view at all times. I kept my feet moving. My movements on and off the bench were tight and controlled.
GP 5 G 4 A 5 TP 9 +7 4/0/1
First Half
Not to be deterred, our opponents answered with two goals of their own in the next eight minutes, one being a 'soft' goal (Merrilyn and I shrugged our shoulders to each other as we returned to the face off, there wasn't much that could be said when the puck gods had spoken, that kind of goal) and the other one where we were simply outworked on the neutral boards, resulting in an overload in front of our net. It was therefore with some relief that in the half's closing minute I witnessed Alex get open in front of their net and deliberate over his shot as he skated across the goal mouth, before putting the puck home in the top corner. The siren rang shortly after, and we had a 3-2 lead.
Half time was mainly one of quiet determination on our bench. There was no sign of either panic or exuberance, nor did any of us feel the need to comment on our play or make any exhortations about what we needed to do/not do. Instead, a fairly focused recuperation period, all of us taking a drink whilst concentrating on regaining composure and that sense of 'teamness' when you're all together and you all know what needs doing.
Second Half
The second half was an interesting one. The opening shift culminated in a physical struggle for position in the slot in front of our goal, upping the emotional level as everyone responded in the push and shove. This resulted in a pileup in front of our goal, with sticks, boots and hands flailing at floor level. I kept my feet and my eyes on the puck the whole time, was about to pluck it from the scrum when a little space opened around it, saw a gloved hand cup itself over the puck and push it into space a foot or so closer to the goal, in the path of an opponent's stick that flicked it into the net. Before the whistle blew I was pointing at where the hand had held the puck (it was one of their player's who'd gloved it). I think a couple of my fellows remonstrated briefly with the referee. I later gathered that even the offending player had told the ref at this point that she had held the puck. Sadly for us, the ref maintained that he hadn't seen it and the goal counted. We took the opportunity to change lines.
What impressed me most about the whole incident was our team's response. The attitude on the bench was one of 'well, let's get on with it', "Let's get it back, Wheelers!". And, in half a minute, we did! Matt hit it out from the backlines, Merrilyn and Alex made a couple considered lateral passes to each other after winning it off the backboards while Matt skated up into the slot for the final pass from the boards to score a goal. If there was any sour taste left from their previous score, it was well and truly exorcised by the sense of vindication that came with the return of our one goal lead. Give the Rockers their due, however, for a couple minutes later they again combined to out pass our defence while we perhaps foolishly conducted a shift change for a desperately tired skater and score the game equaliser.
The last ten minutes were a close fought battle, with us probably mounting more attacking moves than they did. The last few seconds of the game were the most strange, with us having a final attack. Merrilyn had the puck in the corner, the goalie had somehow found himself stranded between her and his net, I was coming down the centre with only an open net in front of me. The pass came in across the crease, I reached for it and watched it go across the goal about three inches in front of my blade. If I'd lunged I might have got it, if I'd dived I would have. It was an open net. We had time to smile about it and commence one further play before the siren went and this most excellent game was over.
My Game
Despite my failure to connect in the dying seconds I wasn't disappointed with my own game. I'd won the opening face off, and three of the further six I'd taken (getting down much lower, watching the puck from the ref's hand to the floor, adjusting what I want to do to account for the opposition and thus winning a couple on guile over strength). I didn't get totally blown, and my strained abductor muscle showed the benefit of my 'rehab' this past week. in that it didn't give any grief and was able to be well stretched after being warmed up during the first shift. I think I had about four shots on goal (2 wristshots and 2 crossing forehand (?) snaps), and missed at least twice when had snaps from a middling distance against an open half of net. I was definitely more playmaking than shooting during this game.
Probably the dumbest thing I did was a soft lateral pass across the high slot in front of our goal when I didn't know where all their players were and there was a chance one of them would pick up a dangerous shot opportunity late in the second half. I knew my mistake as soon as I'd done it and followed the puck across towards Merrilyn, supporting her in controlling the puck and moving it back into safety.
Technically, I was happy, having put in play various things that have been taught. This included heel to heel for both puck protection on the board and threat of wrap around, good acceleration in the late game in the race for the puck, a poke check or two, keeping my feet, chipping up the board, talking with my team mates, stop and turn moves, and even a couple wrist shots (sadly, against a well squared up goalie by time I released), and a couple occasions where I kept my composure to cross the goal front before releasing my shot after breaking out down the wing (I noticed Alex was doing this on occasion also) and reasonably good positional play ('twas not my player who set up or scored their goals when I was on the floor), keeping both play and player in view at all times. I kept my feet moving. My movements on and off the bench were tight and controlled.
GP 5 G 4 A 5 TP 9 +7 4/0/1
Saturday 14 June 2014
Stanley Cup - Kings win, how did I go?
I watched the final game of the Stanley Cup final series between New York Rangers and the LA Kings this morning with Ashton and Nancy. We didn't watch the whole thing as it does go for a long time (especially when it goes into a second overtime period) but we did get to see Dustin Brown raise the Cup for the second time in three years. Goes to show how hockey has progressed in California, and how it has infiltrated this household.
The Kings got there by playing the maximum twenty one games in the first three series (against San Jose, Anaheim and Chicago), notably coming back from 3 games down in the first against the sharks. Jonathan Quick, although a little inconsistent, came through on all the big games.
My own view on the Kings has shifted over the past years. In 2012 they struck me as a fairly dull team that relied over much on a brilliant young goal tender and ground their opponents down to win their games in an unexciting way. That view didn't change much through the shortened lock out season, and even the start of the season just finished. However, they evolved (or perhaps, showed their evolution more obviously) as the season unfurled itself and they began to display that there was more to them than the defensive brand that their scorelines tended to show (high possession, low scoring). Now, I'd say they're quite entertaining to watch, play a hard but skilled game, and aren't afraid to push both axes as far as they can. Without the ill-faith that goes with Boston...
How did my picks go from before the first round? I didn't pick ANY of the Western Conference first round winners and so couldn't pick the cup winner at all. In the East, I did ping the Canadiens and the Rangers to go far, but only mentioned the Rangers as my favourite to win the conference. So I'll take that as a contested pass. If I'd known it would be Rangers v Kings in the finals, I would have picked Kings on form as I interpreted it at the time.
Enough of me, however. Well done LA Kings!
The Kings got there by playing the maximum twenty one games in the first three series (against San Jose, Anaheim and Chicago), notably coming back from 3 games down in the first against the sharks. Jonathan Quick, although a little inconsistent, came through on all the big games.
My own view on the Kings has shifted over the past years. In 2012 they struck me as a fairly dull team that relied over much on a brilliant young goal tender and ground their opponents down to win their games in an unexciting way. That view didn't change much through the shortened lock out season, and even the start of the season just finished. However, they evolved (or perhaps, showed their evolution more obviously) as the season unfurled itself and they began to display that there was more to them than the defensive brand that their scorelines tended to show (high possession, low scoring). Now, I'd say they're quite entertaining to watch, play a hard but skilled game, and aren't afraid to push both axes as far as they can. Without the ill-faith that goes with Boston...
How did my picks go from before the first round? I didn't pick ANY of the Western Conference first round winners and so couldn't pick the cup winner at all. In the East, I did ping the Canadiens and the Rangers to go far, but only mentioned the Rangers as my favourite to win the conference. So I'll take that as a contested pass. If I'd known it would be Rangers v Kings in the finals, I would have picked Kings on form as I interpreted it at the time.
Enough of me, however. Well done LA Kings!
Friday 13 June 2014
3 on 3 - Playing D
Second in a series of intermittent posts about the tactics and strategies of 3 on 3 hockey.
The three skaters of an inline team have quite a bit of floor space to cover and a number of roles to fulfill. Perhaps the most basic tactical formation is '2 up and 1 back', where the two wings are regarded as offensive roles and the centre is regarded as defence. Generally speaking, one of the wings takes the puck into the offensive zone, the other gives support, and the D remains always between the opposition and the goal.
Generally speaking, a line of three skaters will rotate through the D role during a shift, allowing the D opportunity to carry the puck up rather than pass it off to a winger. The nearest wing should take up a supporting role, and the other drop back to become the new D. Thus, D is on the lookout for opportunity for a counter attack.
When the puck is in the offensive zone the D moves up to about half way, with the intent of either providing a 'reset' option if an attack bogs down, a 'lock' to keep the puck in the offensive zone if the opposition tries to chip it out, and a potential sniper for a shot from the point if left unchecked. The temptation, of course, is to pinch down into the attacking zone and try and overload the opposition by rushing the net or stealing the puck on the boards. The danger in doing so is, of course, that the puck will get behind the adventurous D allowing a breakout and rush for the opposition (as they should in theory be facing that way and thus get a headstart over the stranded D in the mad scramble back).
I have found that playing D the most valuable skills are backwards skating, poke checking, position identification (ie, try and keep the attackers on the outside lanes) and the ability to keep both the play and the 'high' attacker (there'll usually be an opposition player who stays around the centre or even back in their attack zone, waiting an outlet pass from defence or to steal it on a reset for a rush). This last is best achieved by constantly moving across the floor so that one can keep one's opponent and the play in one's view at one glance.
For the 'easiest' position in the team to fill the role still has a lot of tasks, failure to perform any of which can have dire consequences for the team. Prime responsibility therefore lies in preventing the opposition getting a free shot on goal. All the rest is a bonus.
The three skaters of an inline team have quite a bit of floor space to cover and a number of roles to fulfill. Perhaps the most basic tactical formation is '2 up and 1 back', where the two wings are regarded as offensive roles and the centre is regarded as defence. Generally speaking, one of the wings takes the puck into the offensive zone, the other gives support, and the D remains always between the opposition and the goal.
Generally speaking, a line of three skaters will rotate through the D role during a shift, allowing the D opportunity to carry the puck up rather than pass it off to a winger. The nearest wing should take up a supporting role, and the other drop back to become the new D. Thus, D is on the lookout for opportunity for a counter attack.
When the puck is in the offensive zone the D moves up to about half way, with the intent of either providing a 'reset' option if an attack bogs down, a 'lock' to keep the puck in the offensive zone if the opposition tries to chip it out, and a potential sniper for a shot from the point if left unchecked. The temptation, of course, is to pinch down into the attacking zone and try and overload the opposition by rushing the net or stealing the puck on the boards. The danger in doing so is, of course, that the puck will get behind the adventurous D allowing a breakout and rush for the opposition (as they should in theory be facing that way and thus get a headstart over the stranded D in the mad scramble back).
I have found that playing D the most valuable skills are backwards skating, poke checking, position identification (ie, try and keep the attackers on the outside lanes) and the ability to keep both the play and the 'high' attacker (there'll usually be an opposition player who stays around the centre or even back in their attack zone, waiting an outlet pass from defence or to steal it on a reset for a rush). This last is best achieved by constantly moving across the floor so that one can keep one's opponent and the play in one's view at one glance.
For the 'easiest' position in the team to fill the role still has a lot of tasks, failure to perform any of which can have dire consequences for the team. Prime responsibility therefore lies in preventing the opposition getting a free shot on goal. All the rest is a bonus.
Thursday 12 June 2014
3 on 3 - structural differences between shinny and league
There isn't a lot available on the web about 3 on 3 tactics and strategy, so this post is the first of what will be several that contain some of my own observations on the subject.
I am being well exposed to 3 on 3 hockey these days, both inline and ice (Vikings league and Noarlunga shinnies respectively). Despite their similarities, there are structural differences between the two forms of 3 on 3, brought about primarily by the rules.
On the ice, we share a goalie so it's a game of not having to rush back for the backcheck. The teams assume their offensive/defensive roles when the defender carries the puck over the far goal line for a 'reset' before mounting an attack on the goal, now defended by the other team. As they reset the offensive team will generally have at least two players near the far wall, if not all three. There are no real breakouts or rushes in this type of game.
Inline 3 on 3, on the other hand, is composed mainly of rushes and mad backchecking. It is a game of punch and counterpunch. It, too, has a standardised reset option available to the teams, created by the permanent presence of the dedicated 'defender' available for a back pass should the going get too tough in the offensive zone (it seems all teams try and keep one of their players in the back half to help insure against falling victim to an offensive breakdown and resultant rush against).
I am being well exposed to 3 on 3 hockey these days, both inline and ice (Vikings league and Noarlunga shinnies respectively). Despite their similarities, there are structural differences between the two forms of 3 on 3, brought about primarily by the rules.
On the ice, we share a goalie so it's a game of not having to rush back for the backcheck. The teams assume their offensive/defensive roles when the defender carries the puck over the far goal line for a 'reset' before mounting an attack on the goal, now defended by the other team. As they reset the offensive team will generally have at least two players near the far wall, if not all three. There are no real breakouts or rushes in this type of game.
Inline 3 on 3, on the other hand, is composed mainly of rushes and mad backchecking. It is a game of punch and counterpunch. It, too, has a standardised reset option available to the teams, created by the permanent presence of the dedicated 'defender' available for a back pass should the going get too tough in the offensive zone (it seems all teams try and keep one of their players in the back half to help insure against falling victim to an offensive breakdown and resultant rush against).
Wednesday 11 June 2014
Fustration - old injury, new challenge
Way back when I was a teenager and my sports diet was basically aussie rules footy, soccer and all the crazy hijinks that country kids get up to, I incurred what has so far been my only injury that has a recurrence value. It happened in a country league footy game and I could barely walk after the game. From memory, I missed three days of school before seeing a doctor who diagnosed a torn muscle in my right groin. It was about six weeks before I next put on my footy boots.
Every few years since then I've had to wind back on whatever physical pursuit has been the current interest (generally bike riding or mid distance walking, none competitive) due a tightness or 'tweak' of the old injury. It has never inflamed itself to the point of when I was young, but I really don't want to repeat the experience.
Hockey is a sport where groin strains are one of the more common types of injury, almost always self inflicted. I am generally quite aware of the slight disability I have in my right leg, making sure that even if I do no other warmup stretches I manage to stretch out my groin muscles (and calf muscles, due this being the only place except my middle toes (!) where cramp is a consistent threat). Last night was no exception.
Never the less, when I came off the ice there was a tightness in the right groin. And it didn't go away by the time I crawled into bed. And this morning it was about the first thing of which I was aware once I opened my eyes. Although it's probably as tender as it's ever been since the first time I tore it, I can manage to walk and climb the stairs around the house without any major discomfort. I am quite aware of it, though.
It's lucky there's no Vikings training tonight and I had booked a non-skating activity in lieu (going to the Ice Arena to watch B's skating lesson, which got him all chuffed when I told him I'd be there as he hasn't had me watch any of his lessons due my own work and sport timetables). My next skating appointment is Saturday evening at Gawler in a game v the Shufflers. That's three more sleeps and four days away. The challenge will be to rest this leg and see how it's going come Saturday.
I went and googled 'groin strain' this morning with A my youngest grandson. It seems I have what would (barely) make it into the category of a minor strain, so there is a reasonable chance that if I didn't do much actual damage to the muscle I might be able to skate again by Saturday. I'll be using the last of our Arnica cream on it a couple times a day, ice pack for 20 mins four times a day, no stretching or major exertions with it. Sadly, will reduce the work I'd hoped to do around the house this week (I have a week's leave from work as my accrued holiday leave had crept over the allowable figure). Might even take some low level anti-inflammatory medication in the evenings.
And then see how I'm going come Saturday morning. And if I get through Saturday night, then see if I'm up to another Shinny on Sunday down South.
Fustrating.
Every few years since then I've had to wind back on whatever physical pursuit has been the current interest (generally bike riding or mid distance walking, none competitive) due a tightness or 'tweak' of the old injury. It has never inflamed itself to the point of when I was young, but I really don't want to repeat the experience.
Hockey is a sport where groin strains are one of the more common types of injury, almost always self inflicted. I am generally quite aware of the slight disability I have in my right leg, making sure that even if I do no other warmup stretches I manage to stretch out my groin muscles (and calf muscles, due this being the only place except my middle toes (!) where cramp is a consistent threat). Last night was no exception.
Never the less, when I came off the ice there was a tightness in the right groin. And it didn't go away by the time I crawled into bed. And this morning it was about the first thing of which I was aware once I opened my eyes. Although it's probably as tender as it's ever been since the first time I tore it, I can manage to walk and climb the stairs around the house without any major discomfort. I am quite aware of it, though.
It's lucky there's no Vikings training tonight and I had booked a non-skating activity in lieu (going to the Ice Arena to watch B's skating lesson, which got him all chuffed when I told him I'd be there as he hasn't had me watch any of his lessons due my own work and sport timetables). My next skating appointment is Saturday evening at Gawler in a game v the Shufflers. That's three more sleeps and four days away. The challenge will be to rest this leg and see how it's going come Saturday.
I went and googled 'groin strain' this morning with A my youngest grandson. It seems I have what would (barely) make it into the category of a minor strain, so there is a reasonable chance that if I didn't do much actual damage to the muscle I might be able to skate again by Saturday. I'll be using the last of our Arnica cream on it a couple times a day, ice pack for 20 mins four times a day, no stretching or major exertions with it. Sadly, will reduce the work I'd hoped to do around the house this week (I have a week's leave from work as my accrued holiday leave had crept over the allowable figure). Might even take some low level anti-inflammatory medication in the evenings.
And then see how I'm going come Saturday morning. And if I get through Saturday night, then see if I'm up to another Shinny on Sunday down South.
Fustrating.
Tuesday 10 June 2014
Academy - skilling drills
Got to Ice Hockey Academy tonight for fifth week in a row. Well and truly smashed my previous record from last year (three). Everyone in the group tonight had been there last week. This week, about a dozen skaters and John the goalie (who I last saw between the pipes on Sunday evening). Cory took the session unassisted.
I noticed a gathering of several prem c coaches were watching us as they talked amongst themselves nearby, not sure if they were scouting or just waiting for the c grade training session which was after ours, or what. Probably a mix of all three. Anyway, I didn't let it bother me one way or t'other and just got on with what was a pretty well paced training session.
We started with a few warm up laps, then some basic red to blue to blue to red skating runs. Left foot stops, right foot stops, backwards power strides, inside and outside edge c cuts, left and right foot glides, left and right foot edgework. Then red line to far blue, backwards to near blue, to far red, backwards to red pushing/pulling a goal (resistance training). Then crossover circles around all five circles in turn.
Then it was passing across half the ice to a partner, then fully across the ice, backhand passing. Then, a variation where one in mid rink and one on boards with puck. Board skates forwards, middle player skates backwards to maintain distance. When forward skater gets half way (and backwards skater is at the boards) then pass, and the exercise then immediately repeats the other way.
Next topic, some pointers while shooting from a half circle at about 20'. Basically, cross the arms over to maximise leverage from both arms and shift the wait forward. Thus, when we next shot from before the blue line on each side of rink, we took the shot with the weight on the back leg and stepped onto the front leg as we connected for the weight transfer, generating more power yet again. Very valuable lessons, which were immediately used in a one on one battle with both skaters racing from the corners at the same end of the rink to take possession of the puck in the centre, skating on for a shot on goal.
This segued into a skate up the centre drill, with two pylon players on opposite sides of the rink on the blue lines who's job it was to receive a pass from the skater and then pass it back. I was lucky enough to be one of the pylons in the first few run throughs, taking the pass on the boards as they skated in to the offensive zone, laying on the return so that they could have a shot on goal. A couple other skaters then took the pylon jobs and I got to skate up ice for a shot.
The second last drill was to form three lines at one end of the ice. From right to left they were 'puck carrier', 'defence' and 'puck support'. Everyone got to do all roles a couple times. I did my first ever real poke check at speed when I was defence the first time, robbing two of the better players of their little feast over my bones. I think they were a bit sheepish and I was just a little chuffed as we returned to do it all again.
The evening ended with a shooting circle again, and then an 'avenue' of deflection targets and rebound takers from close range shooting. One of my weak but accurate shots surprisingly became a rebound and was put in (counted as a score to me), and I slotted a loose puck which emerged at the back of a tangle of bodies in front of the net on another occasion.
The night ended with a chase the goalie, then chase the quickest skater, on a mad lap or two of the rink.
Time to go home. Great session. Good to see familiar faces from Sunday also. Looking forward to doing it all again.
I noticed a gathering of several prem c coaches were watching us as they talked amongst themselves nearby, not sure if they were scouting or just waiting for the c grade training session which was after ours, or what. Probably a mix of all three. Anyway, I didn't let it bother me one way or t'other and just got on with what was a pretty well paced training session.
We started with a few warm up laps, then some basic red to blue to blue to red skating runs. Left foot stops, right foot stops, backwards power strides, inside and outside edge c cuts, left and right foot glides, left and right foot edgework. Then red line to far blue, backwards to near blue, to far red, backwards to red pushing/pulling a goal (resistance training). Then crossover circles around all five circles in turn.
Then it was passing across half the ice to a partner, then fully across the ice, backhand passing. Then, a variation where one in mid rink and one on boards with puck. Board skates forwards, middle player skates backwards to maintain distance. When forward skater gets half way (and backwards skater is at the boards) then pass, and the exercise then immediately repeats the other way.
Next topic, some pointers while shooting from a half circle at about 20'. Basically, cross the arms over to maximise leverage from both arms and shift the wait forward. Thus, when we next shot from before the blue line on each side of rink, we took the shot with the weight on the back leg and stepped onto the front leg as we connected for the weight transfer, generating more power yet again. Very valuable lessons, which were immediately used in a one on one battle with both skaters racing from the corners at the same end of the rink to take possession of the puck in the centre, skating on for a shot on goal.
This segued into a skate up the centre drill, with two pylon players on opposite sides of the rink on the blue lines who's job it was to receive a pass from the skater and then pass it back. I was lucky enough to be one of the pylons in the first few run throughs, taking the pass on the boards as they skated in to the offensive zone, laying on the return so that they could have a shot on goal. A couple other skaters then took the pylon jobs and I got to skate up ice for a shot.
The second last drill was to form three lines at one end of the ice. From right to left they were 'puck carrier', 'defence' and 'puck support'. Everyone got to do all roles a couple times. I did my first ever real poke check at speed when I was defence the first time, robbing two of the better players of their little feast over my bones. I think they were a bit sheepish and I was just a little chuffed as we returned to do it all again.
The evening ended with a shooting circle again, and then an 'avenue' of deflection targets and rebound takers from close range shooting. One of my weak but accurate shots surprisingly became a rebound and was put in (counted as a score to me), and I slotted a loose puck which emerged at the back of a tangle of bodies in front of the net on another occasion.
The night ended with a chase the goalie, then chase the quickest skater, on a mad lap or two of the rink.
Time to go home. Great session. Good to see familiar faces from Sunday also. Looking forward to doing it all again.
Monday 9 June 2014
PT - Queen's Birthday Shooting
This afternoon I returned to the local schoolyard for a bit of puck shooting on the outdoor netball court. Weather was in the low teens and cloudy. I was gone almost two hours. Although the recent construction is now complete and the place has been cleaned up, there was a considerable amount of detrius on the court. It varied from the usual bark chips and small gravel, to bits of used gaffer tape and a lot of dirt. So, I cleaned up my goal circle and removed the most obvious rubbish on 'my' half of the rink and got into it.
Did sets of 25 at 15', FH snap and wrist shots, FF snaps and Backhand. Shooting score for each type of shot over 25 attempts was a modest 8/4/10/5. I didn't concentrate on the raw Breath / stance / weight transfer / point / gaze aspect, but rather on what I note has been missing in the last couple Wheeler's games and at the Academy and the Shinny (in other words, it is a consistent observation), a bit of power. I noticed that all the elements come into it anyway if one is to generate more force with the right focus. Reasonably happy with results in this aspect of my shooting (though still not what I'd call a 'hard' shot, albeit reasonably quick).
Then, for something a bit different, I skated away from the goal through centre, peeled off to right or left, down the edge of the court to the '15 foot line', curl in towards the goal on a track parallel with the backboards, have a forehand snap shot once I've crossed the goal front. I did 25 down the left wing, then 25 down the right. My shooting score was 3 and 4 respectively. In the 90' corners I took on my way towards the shot I practiced my puck handling to both fore and backhand sides. The pace built up as I did the drill.
I became aware of the rink's natural asymetry. Curling across the goal front from the left wing put the puck on the opposite side of my body to the goal and on my forehand. Coming in from the right wing, I had to end up trailing the puck behind me so I could swivel my upper body to face the goal while keeping the puck on the forehand. In both instances, opening the hips during the weight transfer tended to glide me directly in towards the goal (ie another 90' turn in the sequence) directly in line for a rebound from close in. Handy move.
When I had finished my 150 shots I decided to call it a day and skate home. I could have stayed there longer but would have been eating into both my body's energy reserves and my time. After the heavy load I put on my body last night and (hopefully) the academy again tomorrow, it was worth taking it that little bit easier today.
Did sets of 25 at 15', FH snap and wrist shots, FF snaps and Backhand. Shooting score for each type of shot over 25 attempts was a modest 8/4/10/5. I didn't concentrate on the raw Breath / stance / weight transfer / point / gaze aspect, but rather on what I note has been missing in the last couple Wheeler's games and at the Academy and the Shinny (in other words, it is a consistent observation), a bit of power. I noticed that all the elements come into it anyway if one is to generate more force with the right focus. Reasonably happy with results in this aspect of my shooting (though still not what I'd call a 'hard' shot, albeit reasonably quick).
Then, for something a bit different, I skated away from the goal through centre, peeled off to right or left, down the edge of the court to the '15 foot line', curl in towards the goal on a track parallel with the backboards, have a forehand snap shot once I've crossed the goal front. I did 25 down the left wing, then 25 down the right. My shooting score was 3 and 4 respectively. In the 90' corners I took on my way towards the shot I practiced my puck handling to both fore and backhand sides. The pace built up as I did the drill.
I became aware of the rink's natural asymetry. Curling across the goal front from the left wing put the puck on the opposite side of my body to the goal and on my forehand. Coming in from the right wing, I had to end up trailing the puck behind me so I could swivel my upper body to face the goal while keeping the puck on the forehand. In both instances, opening the hips during the weight transfer tended to glide me directly in towards the goal (ie another 90' turn in the sequence) directly in line for a rebound from close in. Handy move.
When I had finished my 150 shots I decided to call it a day and skate home. I could have stayed there longer but would have been eating into both my body's energy reserves and my time. After the heavy load I put on my body last night and (hopefully) the academy again tomorrow, it was worth taking it that little bit easier today.
Sunday 8 June 2014
Sunday Skate - Noarlunga Shinny
As mentioned yesterday, I recently had an invitation to join a shinny (scratch match) down at the diminutive Noarlunga ice rink this evening. After reorganising the weekend to some degree (taking advantage of the fact that there was no inline matches over this long weekend) I had the space, and so headed off in the mid afternoon to the deep south of Adelaide's urban sprawl. Getting there in plenty of time, there was no one I recognised but the rink confirmed that the ice was hired for a couple hours from 4. So I grabbed a cuppa and hung out to watch the troops arrive.
Which they duly did. By the time we were scheduled to start we had the ice set up and teams formed. The ice is squarish in dimensions, and smaller in length than the small ice at the Ice Arena. It's a cool little place, actually, set up originally by a Scandinavian emigre simply for the love of the ice, and it's kept going now for decades with a little government and a lot of community support. Anyway, its ice is more accessible than that of the Arena (both in terms of availability at civilised hours and cost). Which is ironic because it lies much further away for most of those that came than does the Arena, the majority of whom seem to reside in the northern suburbs. The rink manager manually prepared the ice while we were getting changed. It's all so much smaller in scale than Thebarton, and I wish I could use it more. So it was a total pleasaure to reaquint myself with it (I was last here 18 months ago, before I'd ever hit a puck with intent, so the experience was almost as new).
Our gathering of players was really what this was all about, however. Despite not being told who was likely to come by the fellow who invited me, I'd pretty well guessed many of the participants before I got there. Which was really cool, because if they consider me to be part of their cohort then that is an honour and privilege! Mitch I'd known from my first 'learn to skate' lesson, Ben from Wednesday evenings, most of the others from various phases of mine at the academy. There were a couple others, but good blokes so all was well. One goalie, two sheilas, three or four blooded C graders, for a total of 12.
The people side of the experience is pretty significant. Everyone present was of similar level in hockey ability, different abilities and skills meant that everyone had a role and no one was totally outclassed. More importantly, we mainly knew each other and there were no strangers. No ego and little uncouth emotion. Those I knew, I have seen under high pressure mental and physical and have respect for all as decent people. We all share the peculiar passion for this game which is a bond in itself, and were willing to put our safety into each other's hands to prove it. To an outsider, would have been interesting to see, the cameraderie and friendship as we came in, the no holds barred physical and mental struggle that followed, the business like friendly departures. It's a nice feeling of belonging.
We split into two teams white with the single red sweater v the coloureds. I had my Vikings sweater on and was thus with the coloureds. We played three on three, with a bench of two for each team. There was one goal set up, teams would take turns being offence/defensive, determined by puck possession. If a team gained possession while playing defence and carried it to within a couple metres of the far wall, they became the offensive team and could launch their attack.
We had two hours with three five minute breaks. Within my team we seemed to have more or less equal shift times, with only Nuono taking extra time out as he hasn't played for fifteen years (what a brave man!). Although I was tired at the end I was still able to function on the ice relatively well and use my head. This makes me pretty happy, there is no way I would have managed this six months ago. As I write this though, several hours later, I am pretty sore all over :-) and suspect I'll have an earlyish night.
My team was outplayed quite handsomly by the opposition and, consequently, I got quite a bit of defensive time. Think I might have only had two shots on goal, the one which scored actually being a deflection from a east to west dump into the crowded crease. Our main systemic problem was that we gave up possession too easily after getting it. I think by the end this was improving with a bit of 'stop and think' beginning to happen. Before that, we often just dumped the puck in hopeful long stretch passes.
I've never scored a deflected goal before, so that was a good experience. Other good experiences were application of various things we've been taught, like puck protection, backwards to forwards heel to heel transitions, poke checking, deception tactics, accurate passes, finding open ice, blocking lanes, tagging and screening. All great fun. And we're all peers, so even better!
So much so, I reckon I'll do it again next week, and then when possible.
Which they duly did. By the time we were scheduled to start we had the ice set up and teams formed. The ice is squarish in dimensions, and smaller in length than the small ice at the Ice Arena. It's a cool little place, actually, set up originally by a Scandinavian emigre simply for the love of the ice, and it's kept going now for decades with a little government and a lot of community support. Anyway, its ice is more accessible than that of the Arena (both in terms of availability at civilised hours and cost). Which is ironic because it lies much further away for most of those that came than does the Arena, the majority of whom seem to reside in the northern suburbs. The rink manager manually prepared the ice while we were getting changed. It's all so much smaller in scale than Thebarton, and I wish I could use it more. So it was a total pleasaure to reaquint myself with it (I was last here 18 months ago, before I'd ever hit a puck with intent, so the experience was almost as new).
Our gathering of players was really what this was all about, however. Despite not being told who was likely to come by the fellow who invited me, I'd pretty well guessed many of the participants before I got there. Which was really cool, because if they consider me to be part of their cohort then that is an honour and privilege! Mitch I'd known from my first 'learn to skate' lesson, Ben from Wednesday evenings, most of the others from various phases of mine at the academy. There were a couple others, but good blokes so all was well. One goalie, two sheilas, three or four blooded C graders, for a total of 12.
The people side of the experience is pretty significant. Everyone present was of similar level in hockey ability, different abilities and skills meant that everyone had a role and no one was totally outclassed. More importantly, we mainly knew each other and there were no strangers. No ego and little uncouth emotion. Those I knew, I have seen under high pressure mental and physical and have respect for all as decent people. We all share the peculiar passion for this game which is a bond in itself, and were willing to put our safety into each other's hands to prove it. To an outsider, would have been interesting to see, the cameraderie and friendship as we came in, the no holds barred physical and mental struggle that followed, the business like friendly departures. It's a nice feeling of belonging.
We split into two teams white with the single red sweater v the coloureds. I had my Vikings sweater on and was thus with the coloureds. We played three on three, with a bench of two for each team. There was one goal set up, teams would take turns being offence/defensive, determined by puck possession. If a team gained possession while playing defence and carried it to within a couple metres of the far wall, they became the offensive team and could launch their attack.
We had two hours with three five minute breaks. Within my team we seemed to have more or less equal shift times, with only Nuono taking extra time out as he hasn't played for fifteen years (what a brave man!). Although I was tired at the end I was still able to function on the ice relatively well and use my head. This makes me pretty happy, there is no way I would have managed this six months ago. As I write this though, several hours later, I am pretty sore all over :-) and suspect I'll have an earlyish night.
My team was outplayed quite handsomly by the opposition and, consequently, I got quite a bit of defensive time. Think I might have only had two shots on goal, the one which scored actually being a deflection from a east to west dump into the crowded crease. Our main systemic problem was that we gave up possession too easily after getting it. I think by the end this was improving with a bit of 'stop and think' beginning to happen. Before that, we often just dumped the puck in hopeful long stretch passes.
I've never scored a deflected goal before, so that was a good experience. Other good experiences were application of various things we've been taught, like puck protection, backwards to forwards heel to heel transitions, poke checking, deception tactics, accurate passes, finding open ice, blocking lanes, tagging and screening. All great fun. And we're all peers, so even better!
So much so, I reckon I'll do it again next week, and then when possible.
Saturday 7 June 2014
Saturday Arvo Skate
I was invited to a small ice game down at the Noarlunga rink by a fellow on Tuesday night, puck drop at 4:00 on Sunday for two hours of 3 on 3 (plus goalies). I'd provisionally passed due my regular Sunady arvo skate with B, but the invitation was left open. It took my missus to offer the obvious solution, go skating on Saturday instead of Sunday with B. Which is what we did. So tomorrow I'll have my first ever true drop in game.
B and I took along his friend E (11) today, for only his second ever session on the ice. Or so he says, I seem to remember at least one more. Be that as it may, E managed to show his resilience and capacity to learn by progressing from very clumsy on the small ice to braving the large. He was no longer dragging his feet as he pulled himself around and was generating a fair speed. So I'd say there's nothing wrong with his balance. B himself was looking pretty good again, doing whole circuits backwards, building mounds of snow with his stops, transitioning and crossovers at speed.
Me, for the first hour it was like my right legged hockey stop had seized on me and threatened each time to hurl me onto the ice (which it did twice). I persevered until eventually it began to function as it should. Besides this, my only other point of concentration was heel to heels, primarily as exit move from rearwards (both sides) and in the abstract drill of moving down the ice with them. My general point to watch was my edges, particularly on cross unders for acceleration and during corners. All good.
I took photos of a couple of teen girls for them at their request on their phone, showed another 'old fella' the secret path towards backwards skating (swizzles), and another couple of young women how to slow down / stop (snowploughs). Young father from SE Asia, words of encouragement as he tried to speak to me. Young girl that fell down and couldn't get her feet under her as mum tried to get up, fell down next to her and showed her how it is done (one foot under, push up, which she did). So, quite a social occasion in its own way.
Immediately afterwards I could see a bunch of youngsters begin to gather for what I knew was a Jamboree (scout gathering) which meant that Christian would be around (he's right into youth ice hockey, and I needed to catch him to get B into one of the few spots left in the next round of Ice Blast). I was right, and had managed to get B's mum to sign the registration form. So I gave the form and fee to Christian and B is now enrolled in Ice Blast for six weeks of introduction to ice hockey come August. Which made him quite pleased.
No inline hockey tonight (a long weekend break for the Club), so the odd experience of a Saturday night at home during season.
B and I took along his friend E (11) today, for only his second ever session on the ice. Or so he says, I seem to remember at least one more. Be that as it may, E managed to show his resilience and capacity to learn by progressing from very clumsy on the small ice to braving the large. He was no longer dragging his feet as he pulled himself around and was generating a fair speed. So I'd say there's nothing wrong with his balance. B himself was looking pretty good again, doing whole circuits backwards, building mounds of snow with his stops, transitioning and crossovers at speed.
Me, for the first hour it was like my right legged hockey stop had seized on me and threatened each time to hurl me onto the ice (which it did twice). I persevered until eventually it began to function as it should. Besides this, my only other point of concentration was heel to heels, primarily as exit move from rearwards (both sides) and in the abstract drill of moving down the ice with them. My general point to watch was my edges, particularly on cross unders for acceleration and during corners. All good.
I took photos of a couple of teen girls for them at their request on their phone, showed another 'old fella' the secret path towards backwards skating (swizzles), and another couple of young women how to slow down / stop (snowploughs). Young father from SE Asia, words of encouragement as he tried to speak to me. Young girl that fell down and couldn't get her feet under her as mum tried to get up, fell down next to her and showed her how it is done (one foot under, push up, which she did). So, quite a social occasion in its own way.
Immediately afterwards I could see a bunch of youngsters begin to gather for what I knew was a Jamboree (scout gathering) which meant that Christian would be around (he's right into youth ice hockey, and I needed to catch him to get B into one of the few spots left in the next round of Ice Blast). I was right, and had managed to get B's mum to sign the registration form. So I gave the form and fee to Christian and B is now enrolled in Ice Blast for six weeks of introduction to ice hockey come August. Which made him quite pleased.
No inline hockey tonight (a long weekend break for the Club), so the odd experience of a Saturday night at home during season.
Thursday 5 June 2014
Vikings Training - Breakouts - Post #100!
Last night I kept up my good record of attending training this season by getting to Gawler no more than five minutes late for inline hockey training. Being an off-week (no game scheduled this long weekend) there were less trainees than usual (I made six skaters plus a goalie and James the Coach) which was fine by me. Four of the skaters were Div 1 players and the two Div 2 players (Me and Alen) are amongst the better skaters in the Division so there was a higher standard and narrower band of skill for James to work with. Which was good.
We focused on one specific aspect of the game, breakouts. The session consisted of two variations of the same drill for about thirty minutes and then a half hour of 3 on 3 'games'. The breakout drill was simple, with one player starting with puck behind their goal and a player on each of the dots near where a blue line would be if this was ice. D passes to F1. As soon as it is clear who F1 is going to be, F2 curls up across the floor towards the centre for a pass, curling around the board on the side that F1 was on. By the time they are entering the zone, D has skated hard down the ice and is ready for the pass and subsequent taking of a shot. The variation to the drill had the two wingers skate in from centre through their 'spot' for the initiation of the breakout move by the D behind the goal. This made the whole exercise more dynamic in its pattern and got us used to constantly moving our feet (and hence, practicing 'thinking on our feet').
For the three on threes we simply divided into 'white tops' and 'dark tops' with no one on the bench. Their being only the one goalie, the rule was that the team that plays D, once it has gained possession off the attacking team, must all 3 skate back into the far third of the rink before coming forward as the attackers to try and get a goal.
The aim was to begin the attack with a breakout move as practiced earlier (ie reset from behind the goal, the (newly) defending team to not interfere with the initial passout from there). A couple of times my team made the right moves and cut through the opposition for a goal, but most of the time I felt I was constantly out of position. Or, at least, out of contention (ie not a threat). I tended to be either chasing the puck, double tagging the puck carrier thus leaving my guy free (a variation on chasing the puck), skating backwards watching the play waiting for a pass, or parking myself in the slot.
Chasing the puck puts me out of position, reactive rather than creative playstyle.
Double tagging came about through indecision about which of the opposition to cover generally when they crossed over and out players had to direct ourselves to either follow the man or hold the zone (ie we became confused when the target player(s) crossed the rink and thus crossed zones). I think the general rule was to stick to your player.
Skating backwards while on the offence is generally stupid. It is slower, less threatening, makes you vulnerable to a hit. As James says, be confident that your team will be able to pass it to you and skate forward with speed. Much more dangerous.
Sitting in the slot is futile in 3 on 3 as it removes you from the dynamic play and reduces the team's effectiveness majorly. One should always be moving. Thus, skate through the slot rather than park inside it.
The game is revealed in these essentials to be one of trust and communication. Which made this a good exercise with quite a bit to learn from it.
And, this is my 100th post in 97 days!
We focused on one specific aspect of the game, breakouts. The session consisted of two variations of the same drill for about thirty minutes and then a half hour of 3 on 3 'games'. The breakout drill was simple, with one player starting with puck behind their goal and a player on each of the dots near where a blue line would be if this was ice. D passes to F1. As soon as it is clear who F1 is going to be, F2 curls up across the floor towards the centre for a pass, curling around the board on the side that F1 was on. By the time they are entering the zone, D has skated hard down the ice and is ready for the pass and subsequent taking of a shot. The variation to the drill had the two wingers skate in from centre through their 'spot' for the initiation of the breakout move by the D behind the goal. This made the whole exercise more dynamic in its pattern and got us used to constantly moving our feet (and hence, practicing 'thinking on our feet').
For the three on threes we simply divided into 'white tops' and 'dark tops' with no one on the bench. Their being only the one goalie, the rule was that the team that plays D, once it has gained possession off the attacking team, must all 3 skate back into the far third of the rink before coming forward as the attackers to try and get a goal.
The aim was to begin the attack with a breakout move as practiced earlier (ie reset from behind the goal, the (newly) defending team to not interfere with the initial passout from there). A couple of times my team made the right moves and cut through the opposition for a goal, but most of the time I felt I was constantly out of position. Or, at least, out of contention (ie not a threat). I tended to be either chasing the puck, double tagging the puck carrier thus leaving my guy free (a variation on chasing the puck), skating backwards watching the play waiting for a pass, or parking myself in the slot.
Chasing the puck puts me out of position, reactive rather than creative playstyle.
Double tagging came about through indecision about which of the opposition to cover generally when they crossed over and out players had to direct ourselves to either follow the man or hold the zone (ie we became confused when the target player(s) crossed the rink and thus crossed zones). I think the general rule was to stick to your player.
Skating backwards while on the offence is generally stupid. It is slower, less threatening, makes you vulnerable to a hit. As James says, be confident that your team will be able to pass it to you and skate forward with speed. Much more dangerous.
Sitting in the slot is futile in 3 on 3 as it removes you from the dynamic play and reduces the team's effectiveness majorly. One should always be moving. Thus, skate through the slot rather than park inside it.
The game is revealed in these essentials to be one of trust and communication. Which made this a good exercise with quite a bit to learn from it.
And, this is my 100th post in 97 days!
Wednesday 4 June 2014
Academy - sobering
Last night I got to Ice Hockey Academy for the fourth week running, a record for me. As is sadly so often the case, I only arrived as they were about to go onto the ice so I only joined at the tail end of the first drill. Which I DID do, rather than join the start of the next because it was all about heel to heels, working one's way up the ice doing them alternating left and right. Followed by ankle bends on the boards, chasing one's own tail around the stick with 360' heel to heels, then chasing partner in looping pattern around paired end to end sticks, mixing it with heel to heels and crossovers over the middle.
It only struck me later how serendipitous this all was, with my interest in this move and its many uses since being introduced to it at Vikings training in late summer. James described it as an ice hockey technique that is very useful for inline also. Which I had evidenced in last week's game when I missed having at least one good shot on goal due my lack of training in the art (ie. by the time I thought of it, the moment had passed). Wrap arounds, puck protection, dynamic transitions, all use the basic move. But, more of that later...
Then, sprints the length of the rink, with knee drops and controlled slides from the first blue line, regaining one's feet at or as close to the second blue line as possible with stick held across the shoulders with both hands (to make us use our torso, and to a lesser degree, legs, to keep front on to direction of travel). This was the best that I've ever felt doing this particular drill, maintaining speed, distance and a sense of control to the whole exercise. Trickier than it looks.
Everybody bar one was to use the full (small) ice in a giant pelaton doing figure of eights. One person would skate the same figure, but in the opposite direction. There was only one red sweater being worn, by me. So I ended up being the red devil skating against the flow. I overheard later the reasoning behind this was 'to add chaos' to the already challenging figure eights (as skaters cross each other's path in the centre of the ice they need to keep their heads up and eyes open to avoid cross hitting collisions, while transiting from left to right crossovers). After the group set off, I confirmed my instructions to be skating in the opposite direction, and headed off into the fray.
I hospitalised my first ever victim on about the third hair raising lap. His was the first collision of the exercise. He was a pretty tall guy and a good skater, and for that reason I think I timed my 'angle of approach' into a cluster of skaters to take me nearer him than others I adjudged less 'safe'. My bad, because he didn't see me coming and turned right into me in what was a fairly high speed front on collision from my perspective. I bounced off him and back with a bit of a jolt, but nothing too heavy and was on my feet after a deep breath. He hadn't moved, but by the time I came over to him he was sitting up and gingerly holding his leg at the knee. He seemed to be quite alive, however, so as the coaches and sundry skating personages tended to him and conferred, I chased down the figure eight again.
I had two further collisions in the total of about 10 circuits, both with people taller than me, one of whom wasn't wearing protective armour beyond helmet and gloves. These guys each came to me later in the session and pointed out that they either hadn't been looking properly, or had been put out of their comfort zone due the actions of another skater, by the time I arrived in their face. I would have kept going (despite the carnage) except that the wounded skater was being taken from the ice so we had to stop.
We shifted to the old drill of stops on the blue lines, with forwards / backwards sprints back and forths (where for the first time I experienced a couple 'natural' outside edge crossunder accelerations out of a stop), and then the linkage back to heel to heels by using it for transitions from rearwards to forwards as a means of keeping momentum (rather than a rearward snowplough to stop and then having to accelerate back to speed).
Then, a horseshoe of shooting without a goalie, allowing one to shoot as often as one could grab a puck, the goal simply to practice the stroke and have it on net. After a half dozen or so shots I still hadn't had to do the pushups that followed a missed shot, albeit one otherwise errant puck only went in after it was struck in midair by another person's (which missed).
Then, a game. Groups in the corners. One skater races in from each group to seize the puck and score in the opposite goal. As soon as they cross the blue line, another skater comes out from the (now) defending group, creating a 2 on 1. If the 2 manage to get the possession before the 1 scores, they become the offensive team and rush the opposing goal. As they cross the blue line, a second skater enters from the (now) defending group and and it is 2 on 2. If it crosses back, 3 on 2. And the ice is full at 3 on 3. Exhausting but great fun.
I had to leave the ice to get my self together during the next exercise, which was basically a speed drill around the ice for a half dozen or so laps. I don't think I've sat out a drill before. I didn't sit it out because of the drill, I was heading off before I knew what was going to happen. I would have enjoyed the chase. I just did what my mind said I should do. Hockey's like that sometimes.
Second last drill of the day was a small ice battle game. Divided by colours (black, and white (with one red)), each side had either 2 or 3 skaters in each zone. They were to remain in their zone (offensive, neutral, defensive) and work the puck into their respective goals. After a few minutes the neutral group moved into an endzone (ie becoming either defence or offence) so that, after a few rounds, everyone had played in all the zones a couple times. All sorts of lessons to learn in this game about puck movement, positioning, passing and receiving, board clashes, etc).
Finally, a commando crawl across the ice to send us on our way (push up position with stick on the ice held by one's hands and feet dragging behind, 'walk' your way across the ice on your outstretched arms).
Excellent session, but I learned that the guy I'd collided with had been taken to hospital with a likely either broken ankle or major ligament damage (his edge had caught under him as he was knocked backwards by the impact).
Sobering.
It only struck me later how serendipitous this all was, with my interest in this move and its many uses since being introduced to it at Vikings training in late summer. James described it as an ice hockey technique that is very useful for inline also. Which I had evidenced in last week's game when I missed having at least one good shot on goal due my lack of training in the art (ie. by the time I thought of it, the moment had passed). Wrap arounds, puck protection, dynamic transitions, all use the basic move. But, more of that later...
Then, sprints the length of the rink, with knee drops and controlled slides from the first blue line, regaining one's feet at or as close to the second blue line as possible with stick held across the shoulders with both hands (to make us use our torso, and to a lesser degree, legs, to keep front on to direction of travel). This was the best that I've ever felt doing this particular drill, maintaining speed, distance and a sense of control to the whole exercise. Trickier than it looks.
Everybody bar one was to use the full (small) ice in a giant pelaton doing figure of eights. One person would skate the same figure, but in the opposite direction. There was only one red sweater being worn, by me. So I ended up being the red devil skating against the flow. I overheard later the reasoning behind this was 'to add chaos' to the already challenging figure eights (as skaters cross each other's path in the centre of the ice they need to keep their heads up and eyes open to avoid cross hitting collisions, while transiting from left to right crossovers). After the group set off, I confirmed my instructions to be skating in the opposite direction, and headed off into the fray.
I hospitalised my first ever victim on about the third hair raising lap. His was the first collision of the exercise. He was a pretty tall guy and a good skater, and for that reason I think I timed my 'angle of approach' into a cluster of skaters to take me nearer him than others I adjudged less 'safe'. My bad, because he didn't see me coming and turned right into me in what was a fairly high speed front on collision from my perspective. I bounced off him and back with a bit of a jolt, but nothing too heavy and was on my feet after a deep breath. He hadn't moved, but by the time I came over to him he was sitting up and gingerly holding his leg at the knee. He seemed to be quite alive, however, so as the coaches and sundry skating personages tended to him and conferred, I chased down the figure eight again.
I had two further collisions in the total of about 10 circuits, both with people taller than me, one of whom wasn't wearing protective armour beyond helmet and gloves. These guys each came to me later in the session and pointed out that they either hadn't been looking properly, or had been put out of their comfort zone due the actions of another skater, by the time I arrived in their face. I would have kept going (despite the carnage) except that the wounded skater was being taken from the ice so we had to stop.
We shifted to the old drill of stops on the blue lines, with forwards / backwards sprints back and forths (where for the first time I experienced a couple 'natural' outside edge crossunder accelerations out of a stop), and then the linkage back to heel to heels by using it for transitions from rearwards to forwards as a means of keeping momentum (rather than a rearward snowplough to stop and then having to accelerate back to speed).
Then, a horseshoe of shooting without a goalie, allowing one to shoot as often as one could grab a puck, the goal simply to practice the stroke and have it on net. After a half dozen or so shots I still hadn't had to do the pushups that followed a missed shot, albeit one otherwise errant puck only went in after it was struck in midair by another person's (which missed).
Then, a game. Groups in the corners. One skater races in from each group to seize the puck and score in the opposite goal. As soon as they cross the blue line, another skater comes out from the (now) defending group, creating a 2 on 1. If the 2 manage to get the possession before the 1 scores, they become the offensive team and rush the opposing goal. As they cross the blue line, a second skater enters from the (now) defending group and and it is 2 on 2. If it crosses back, 3 on 2. And the ice is full at 3 on 3. Exhausting but great fun.
I had to leave the ice to get my self together during the next exercise, which was basically a speed drill around the ice for a half dozen or so laps. I don't think I've sat out a drill before. I didn't sit it out because of the drill, I was heading off before I knew what was going to happen. I would have enjoyed the chase. I just did what my mind said I should do. Hockey's like that sometimes.
Second last drill of the day was a small ice battle game. Divided by colours (black, and white (with one red)), each side had either 2 or 3 skaters in each zone. They were to remain in their zone (offensive, neutral, defensive) and work the puck into their respective goals. After a few minutes the neutral group moved into an endzone (ie becoming either defence or offence) so that, after a few rounds, everyone had played in all the zones a couple times. All sorts of lessons to learn in this game about puck movement, positioning, passing and receiving, board clashes, etc).
Finally, a commando crawl across the ice to send us on our way (push up position with stick on the ice held by one's hands and feet dragging behind, 'walk' your way across the ice on your outstretched arms).
Excellent session, but I learned that the guy I'd collided with had been taken to hospital with a likely either broken ankle or major ligament damage (his edge had caught under him as he was knocked backwards by the impact).
Sobering.
Monday 2 June 2014
Villis - Adrenaline - Home
After our abbreviated public skating session on Sunday afternoon, me and the boys left the Arena early (heresy!) to go and get something decent to eat before our return for the Australian Ice Hockey League game between the Adelaide Adrenaline and the Sydney Ice Dogs.
It was also a good time between crowds to get our tickets. I'd had my name put on the door as a member of the Vikings, and I'd emailed for the boys as well, so we got half price tickets and no wait. Great value, as we headed out for a feed.
We went to Cafe de Villis, five minutes drive from the Ice Arena and probably the best value quick sit down meals with service within at least a half hour. How lucky are we?! By the time we returned the underground carpark and immediate street vicinity was full (much to bug eyed B's amazement) so we had to park a short distance away and walk back to see the game. As we walked up the outside of the building (blankets and jackets in hand) we could hear the national anthem being played. Great timing!
On the way in I bumped into the kid I'd skated with on Wednesday night, R. I think it is amazing that J had played footy with him in his western suburbs team last year. J certainly thought so (small world phenomena never ceases to amaze). Also bumped into Julianna and her just turned 4 daughter, N. N is about the most natural looking amazing little skater I've seen and it was good to hear how her mum had got her to the point where she's now playing hockey (!) and loving it. B, of course, happened to know N and her older sister, so it was all very cosy.
Working our way into the Arena itself, complete with national level hockey game on the big ice and temporary grandstand on the small, we found ourselves a seat at ice level for the first period. We might not get much of a full picture of the game (the boards get in the way of the view for much of the ice surface when you're at ground level) but you do get a much better feel for the speed and momentum, especially when there's a hit onto the boards right in front of one. Blake found it pretty exhilarating. Shortly after we arrived, Brendan and Merrilyn and Josh Pfeifer (from the Wheelers) turned up, took seats nearby. For second and third periods, we found a little niche at the top of the temporary stand, amongst the Gawler Vikings who'd made the trip (twenty odd of us). Pretty cool to be with my fellow Vikings, especially when 'our' Adrenaline member came out in the third period (Peter King, second goal tender for the Adrenaline, co-ordinator of the Vikings) and our cheer got the whole auditorium clapping.
The game itself was pretty good to watch, albeit the locals went down to the Dogs 2-0. Both of their goals were in the first period and scored off a breakaway from a giveaway. Several times later in the game it happened again, with the same speedy skater pulling a pace ahead by the time he entered the slot, but the score didn't blow out any further.
As for the home team, they just couldn't get the puck past the glove in a Dog's shutout. Me, I think that the Adrenaline stuffed around with the puck too often and too long in front of goal. Maybe it's just the fact that we did one timers in both ice and inline training this week, maybe that I'd discovered the joy of the one timer on Saturday night, but they weren't doing it. And, I think, lost as a result because they seemed to be on the attack a lot more than the Dog's.
So, at the end of the game it was into the car and take the boys home for a brief mad half hour when the kids could all play dressups in the hockey armour I'd bought during the week. Then I reclaimed 'my' equipment and headed home myself after what had been a skating and kid filled people weekend.
As is almost always the case with such things, all good.
It was also a good time between crowds to get our tickets. I'd had my name put on the door as a member of the Vikings, and I'd emailed for the boys as well, so we got half price tickets and no wait. Great value, as we headed out for a feed.
We went to Cafe de Villis, five minutes drive from the Ice Arena and probably the best value quick sit down meals with service within at least a half hour. How lucky are we?! By the time we returned the underground carpark and immediate street vicinity was full (much to bug eyed B's amazement) so we had to park a short distance away and walk back to see the game. As we walked up the outside of the building (blankets and jackets in hand) we could hear the national anthem being played. Great timing!
On the way in I bumped into the kid I'd skated with on Wednesday night, R. I think it is amazing that J had played footy with him in his western suburbs team last year. J certainly thought so (small world phenomena never ceases to amaze). Also bumped into Julianna and her just turned 4 daughter, N. N is about the most natural looking amazing little skater I've seen and it was good to hear how her mum had got her to the point where she's now playing hockey (!) and loving it. B, of course, happened to know N and her older sister, so it was all very cosy.
Working our way into the Arena itself, complete with national level hockey game on the big ice and temporary grandstand on the small, we found ourselves a seat at ice level for the first period. We might not get much of a full picture of the game (the boards get in the way of the view for much of the ice surface when you're at ground level) but you do get a much better feel for the speed and momentum, especially when there's a hit onto the boards right in front of one. Blake found it pretty exhilarating. Shortly after we arrived, Brendan and Merrilyn and Josh Pfeifer (from the Wheelers) turned up, took seats nearby. For second and third periods, we found a little niche at the top of the temporary stand, amongst the Gawler Vikings who'd made the trip (twenty odd of us). Pretty cool to be with my fellow Vikings, especially when 'our' Adrenaline member came out in the third period (Peter King, second goal tender for the Adrenaline, co-ordinator of the Vikings) and our cheer got the whole auditorium clapping.
The game itself was pretty good to watch, albeit the locals went down to the Dogs 2-0. Both of their goals were in the first period and scored off a breakaway from a giveaway. Several times later in the game it happened again, with the same speedy skater pulling a pace ahead by the time he entered the slot, but the score didn't blow out any further.
As for the home team, they just couldn't get the puck past the glove in a Dog's shutout. Me, I think that the Adrenaline stuffed around with the puck too often and too long in front of goal. Maybe it's just the fact that we did one timers in both ice and inline training this week, maybe that I'd discovered the joy of the one timer on Saturday night, but they weren't doing it. And, I think, lost as a result because they seemed to be on the attack a lot more than the Dog's.
So, at the end of the game it was into the car and take the boys home for a brief mad half hour when the kids could all play dressups in the hockey armour I'd bought during the week. Then I reclaimed 'my' equipment and headed home myself after what had been a skating and kid filled people weekend.
As is almost always the case with such things, all good.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)