Sunday Skate - carry, shoot and work out.

It was a beautiful partly clouded day indeed on Sunday so, for second day in a row, I went inline skating down at the local school.  I was gone a bit over an hour and came back as the sun set.

I began the session with the usual shooting drill (ie. 4x25 shots with different strokes from the 15' circle).  Results were 4/9/8/5.  Not great, but the wrist shot has certainly improved.  At one point I was retrieving pucks that had rebounded into the back court and had a shot on the way in at 30'.  'Ding'.  Excellent.

I then moved into the dynamic part of my present routine, working my way through some skill drills, following the same theme from yesterday (albeit a little more coherently conscious in doing so).

- Put stick on ground, do heel to heels around the ends in a tight figure eight, crossovers in the middle.  It is different to the ice in that a push is needed after the crossover to give sufficient momentum to carry right around (the crossover itself is sufficient on the ice due the lower friction).  Ten each way.

- Put gloves on the ground, about 3-4 feet apart.  Assume hockey stance about 2-3 feet from them.  Dangle the puck at end of stick in figure eights around the gloves.  I started becoming alert to the art of sliding the lower hand up and down the stick to account for puck's relative distance from my body as I did this.  It's quite a fluid motion when it happens properly!  Ten times each way.

- Line up four pucks, about 8 feet apart.  Skate around them, doing complete circuits of each puck in alternating directions and concentrating on leading with stick/arms/shoulders into and through the turns.  Five each way.

- Repeat the above drill, this time carrying a puck.  Five each way.

- Line up the four pucks so they are parallel to the goal line, between the top of the 15' circle and the side line, about 7 feet apart.  Skate out from the goal to the centre line on the puck side of the goal, picking up a puck there and immediately doing a tight leading turn (trying not to telegraph it beforehand) towards the wing.  Skating down the boards at about 3/4 pace.  Turn towards the centre when reach the level of the line of pucks.  Skate towards the centre (top of the goal circle) by slaloming through the four pucks (leading with puck'n'stick through the turns), culminating in a shot on goal as come out of the last turn.  Go for the rebound if possible.  Ten of these, and quite tired by now.

Finish the evening with simple figure eights with transitions around the centre circles, ten each way.  Then do it a couple times each way with a puck on the inside and then outside (involves a deke or two).  Finally, maybe a half dozen flying shots from the 30' line as I gather the pucks before packing them up and going home.

(Actually, it was after doing the above that I decided to rattle off 25 quick shots from 15' to see if I could improve my forehand snap % for the evening.  I didn't (scored 3), so I picked up my puck and went home).

***

Today, my schedule said I should do an upper body session.  So I did it in the kitchen while cooking tea (rice, dahl and steak).  Timed to perfection, was doing my stretches while the meat 'settled' and was able to cool down for a few minutes before pigging out.  Perfect!

I didn't repeat the circuit, instead added a couple more exercises to it.  I took this approach when I realised how I was pushing it pretty hard at 15 reps for some of the dumb bell drills when I used the window as a mirror to ensure the angles were right and kept my consciousness on my balance and breathing to ensure that the muscle area that was working was the one we wanted to.  These weight sessions are, afterall, meant to be static drills.  Although static exercises are not common in hockey training, when aiming solely to build strength they do have a place.  And, doing a static exercise, one gets best value out of time and effort if the angles are true and muscle selection is focused.  

Although I am actually enjoying the process of the muscle building and training, much to my surprise I might add, it is not an end in itself and I don't want it to become one.  I might have to enquire about muscle maintenance during the season if I want to stop entirely at that point.  My guess is that if there are exercises to maintain as opposed to build, then they will take a quite different form.

Always more research!