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.