Sunday, skating with A and down the school yard

It felt strange for a change to have a Saturday night without the need to get to Gawler for a game.  Nor the need to regulate my behaviour in the day(s) leading up to it with the game performance in mind.  I'll admit that, besides missing playing hockey, I did kinda enjoy the experience.  If it hadn't been for a social skate on Wednesday at the ice, I wouldn't have done anything on skates or with a stick in hand for a week.  Thank goodness all the hockey leagues have a holiday together.

Anyway, by Sunday morning I was starting to go through withdrawals.  This was made worse by not being able to get to Noarlunga for a shinny due a work commitment  :-(   and, when I thought I might just skive off for a couple hours so I could get a quick hour in at the end of the public ice session, that idea was scotched by the fact that I had to unexpectedly wait around at home for a couple hours due aforesaid work commitment being delayed for that period.  NB I get time in lieu as compensation for the work commitment, but it still is an absolute drag on my Quality of Skating Time index of living.

I put off resolving the problem by having a little (10 minutes) skate with A (4) and the new inline skates his nan had got him.  We had good fun, going up and down the thirty metre stretch of footpath alongside the only level area of my street (the frontage of our and our neighbor's houses).  He is learning to skate, so was taking it in little steps, learning that skating is not like walking, falling on his bum a few times.  We both were fully kitted in our knee pads, wrist protectors and helmets.  By the end of his third lap he was insistent on doing it himself (ie without me holding him or hovering too close).  Good fun.

It was getting depressing again by the time 3 pm came around and, though I was finally free from being stuck at home, I knew that even if I 'impulsively' went to an ice rink, I wouldn't be able to skate due time factors.  Which was about the time that I noticed that it still hadn't rained all day (poor A had had to wait from Wednesday to Sunday to use his new skates because it had rained in light showers intermittently throughout that period).  So, everything was dry, it wasn't about to rain, it was a Sunday afternoon, and I had nothing better to do.  So, I might as well go skating!

I chose to go to the school so I could do some basic stick'n'puck work, with less stress on the skating (if I'm not on the ice much, I don't want to feed my top levels of body memory with complex or long distance skating training, which are my basic alternatives to stick'n'puck work at the school).

I was gone seventy minutes, raising a mild sweat only in that time (gives an idea of the relatively cool temperatures).  On the skate to the school I reckon I greeted or was greeted by half a dozen different people, a surprising large number in our neighborhood.  Maybe they've missed seeing me go by - from a daily event in late summer to almost monthly in midwinter?

Be that as it may, I started with an old 'set' of four x 25 shots at the netball goal post from the edge of the 15' circle, shooting sets of forehand snap, wristshot, forward facing snap and backhand in turn.  Results were 4/9/7/6, an overall percentage of 26%.  This is in no way comparable to a game, mind you, as it is only measuring strike rate of shooting at a 2" target from that distance and thus only comparable to similar shooting sessions in past.  And, a hundred shots is too small a sample for valid statistical use.  But the percentage is reasonable as these things go.

I spent the rest of my time on the court doing base combination maneuvers (eg, stringing together heel to heels, figure eights and transitions) while setting simple goals for stick'n'puck (eg, keep it on inside/outside and/or foreand/backhand and/or deke during/between/after the maneuver, and/or shoot from either the 30' line or the 15' circle.  What was interesting is that of the three times I shot on a straight rush from centre to the 30' line I hit the target twice.  Potential.  And, fun!

I felt a lot better when I'd got home than when I'd left.

All in a Sunday afternoon.