Vikings Training

On Wednesday night I attended the regular Vikings inline hockey training at the Gawler Rec Centre.  There were about a dozen skaters there, of whom I think I traveled the furthest.  We went through basic drills etc in one combined group, the battle games at the end dividing us against each other but keeping us in the same activity.

We started with some passing games, pairing off and then skating the length of the rink doing many short distance passes back and forth, peeling around to come down the boards and get a smaller number of long passes in before curling back to the start point and doing it all again.  Remaining in our pairs we then skated one forward facing and one backwards, one in front of the other, the length of the rink while passing the puck back and forth.  At the top of the straight we pivoted and returned on a parallel track nearer the boards, having reversed roles in the forwards/backwards dyad, only to pivot at the original starting point and repeating the exercise.  We then did it all a few times, with the forward facing player using only their backhand.

Then a loose open rink exercise, where all players bar one had a puck and skated aimlessly anywhere they wanted across the whole rink.  One player started in the middle, their job was to snatch a puck from another player and shoot a goal between the undefended pipes.  If they were successful, the person who had lost their puck joined the 'defender' in trying to seize and shoot pucks, causing more players to take the defensive role with each such victory.  It was good to watch the stickhandling and footwork of the high grade players.  Very impressive and entertaining.

We closed the hour by dividing into two teams, each taking to the rink on opposing sides of the centre line.  Several pucks (6?) were set down in the centre and the two teams raced from the backline to claim possession of them.  Those with pucks had to shoot it and hit an opposing team member in the feet.  If they did this, the struck player left the rink for the sideline.  A team could have its skaters return one at a time from the boards if they put a puck in the net.  You couldn't cross the centre line.   The goal was to be the last team with skaters on the rink (we didn't get to this point).

I picked off several of the opposition, mainly by waiting until they were helpless or distracted and then firing it at them.  I scored no goals.  I got hit in the skates only once near the end of the exercise.  I spent most of my time cruising up and down near the centre line as a target, jumping and dodging pucks as appropriate.  I've never jumped that often in my skates before.  Considering that jumping is the one skating action that actually terrifies me, this was a good training drill for me as I wasn't even aware of what I was doing until after I'd done it most of the time.

I found it to be a less intense workout than the previous week had been.  It seems not uncommon in both the forms of hockey that  I play for the first training session after a break to be particularly grueling with suicide runs and explosive battles.  That's fine, but it's also nice to have sessions like this one, where the emphasis is more on looking, thinking and skilling it as opposed to the raw exhaustion that is the reward of the traditional heavy session.

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