Sadness

Team lists for the Adelaide Summer League Ice Hockey competition were announced last night and for the first time in six years my name wasn't there.  I had to make a very difficult decision earlier in the year which resulted in my not registering to play this season.  It was not an easy decision to make but I had no realistic options.  Life has gotten extremely busy with some intense family commitments that are unpredictable in their timing and duration, some new weekday commitments that make a heavy demand on my body, and financial contraints.  Any one (or even two) of these factors could have been worked around, but not all three.  I would have ended up taking a roster position on the Knights and not being able to make an indeterminate number of games.  Not very good, considering my circumstances prevent my from practice and training in any event.  So, to be fair to myself and to my team I let it slide for this season.

I didn't realise how much I would be affected by my withdrawal from the team.  On the night the team lists were released I found myself extremely maudlin, moping around the house looking at a grey world.  It's the closest I've been to being depressed for years and I didn't like it.  The next day a friend observed that this showed how much I enjoyed the game and all that goes with it.  He was right, over the past few years my commitment to the sport has been one of the constants in my life and my personal identity.  No wonder I felt aimless.

Not for long, however, because I have put in place a 'Plan B'.  I will aim at returning to the ice NEXT summer, and have even put my name down for a new Knights Jersey and number allocation to make this a 'real' possibility.  In the meantime, realising that I will have to keep myself in touch with skating skills and fitness, I will get out my inline skates and put in some concentrated work this summer on my own.  I know enough about the sport to be able to work myself up a program that works on individual skills and conditioning.  Then, come winter, I will aim at playing inline hockey at Gawler for a season.  Probably Division 2, considering that I won't have played hockey for over a year by then and won't be able to make team practice.  The aim of the inline games will be to satisfy the craving for competitive hockey, build up match fitness, and work on the team aspects in my development program.

It might not be as good as playing in the coming campaign, but at least it's a plan.

Now pardon my while I go away and have a good cry...

The season just gone

After a long hiatus I return!  Since last posting I played out a whole season of inline hockey.  It's only four weeks to my first game of the coming season on the ice.  I have started up a 'crash course' of fitness and conditioning.  Life is good.

My first season in Division 1 inline hockey at Gawler was played for the Rolling Dead.  Fast, physical and competitive.  Our leaky defence, amplified by poor offence (6th), subverted valiant goal tending (2nd) to ensure the Rolling Dead didn't make the playoffs.  We ended up fifth on the ladder (six teams).  I totally loved the jersey!

I made all twelve of our games.  Each was an experience unto itself for me.  Some games I shone on the face off, others I played an (almost) impassable defence, others I got good shots on goal and, in some, I scored.  There were a number of highlights and a few lessons (some of which I detail below) but the overall experience was one of steady improvement and continuing enjoyment.

I didn't attend a single training session for the whole season, either with others or on my own.  I didn't touch my skates except to play a game.  I did no physical training or exercises at home.  I did turn up for several games after a morning mixing concrete, chopping down trees, digging holes.  All of this and a two hour drive each way to get to a game in the first place.

A few events stand out in memory:

Turning up for my first game to discover that I'd be on the rink for the full game (we only had three skaters).  We played till it felt like we had nothing left and then we played some more, used a time out with ten minutes to go, conserved energy when we could, burnt it with gay abandon every shift.  We ended up with a victory, my fitness tracker recorded the highest performance metrics I've yet produced and I got my first goal at this level (pass from Brad in the corner to me in slot).  What a game!

In our third game we were soundly beaten 11-1.  The junior star of the opposing team scored six goals and made a couple of assists, our goal keeping was the lowest I've ever had on a team, but I still greatly enjoyed the game.  Mainly because I shut down their star for the second half by playing good solid defence (though he kept on scoring when our first line was on the floor).  In other words, and in spite of the score line, I grew more confident in my defensive abilities after this game.

In Game 5 I blocked five shots and scored a nice goal on the rush off of a desperate and accurate pass from Jess.

In Game 11 I single handedly scored game tying goal after taking advantage of my own centre face off win, backing my skating to thread a gap in the defence and quick release a snap shot at speed.  I also played out a couple of penalty kills, including the dying minutes (using my body and feet to good effect against bigger stronger players more than my stick).

In Game 12 I finally started to strip the puck from the opposition with more regularity (twice off of their best player) and deny them the slot when it counted.  I was also skated around twice by a better skater in the zone (once leading direct to a goal).  I then took part in a shift which was probably the strongest I've either witnessed or played in at my level, with Josh and Jess being the primary movers and me using every bit of my lungs and legs to give support as they tore off dangerous shot after dangerous shot and we controlled the puck for several minutes (and their goalie denied us each and every time we thought we'd scored (I hit the post twice)).  Great play, no result, they scored shortly after we made a change.  Sigh.

Lack of fitness work (ie neither training, nor High Intesity sessions as a substitute) or hockey training (neither team training sessions, nor private time with stick and/or puck to compensate) led to a decline in my capacity over the season, especially when combined with the 'external' factors of work around the house (lumber work, digging, concreting) and travel times (for example, arriving after a two hour drive to immediately get changed and play, no 'adjustment' time to compensate for the drive).

If I am content to continue to learn hockey sense from game to game, I can pick up that same game to a higher level by doing the following in future:
- sustained in-season strength and conditioning work, prioritising high intensity sessions (1 or 2 'tabata' runs or indoor cycle sessions per week), leg strength and agility (twice weekly) and skating/shooting/stick handling sessions (upto twice weekly).  That's a fair bit to work into a busy life, but I'll try.
 - getting to the game with time for my muscles and mind to recover from the drive before I have to focus on game.

As for my first Div 1 season, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, learned a lot about hockey and myself, and can't wait to repeat it next year.

Individual Stats: GP 12 G 3 A 2 T/P 5 PIMS 4
Rolling Dead Stats: W 5 L 7 T 0 GF 69 GA 71 SV% .805

Inline Update

I typed this on March 15 but for some reason never posted it (the pre-paid mobile internet didn't work out to be any quicker than dial-up used to be, perhaps).

I have been out of contact for the past month due the fact that I moved house twice in that time and only in the last day or so finally established a (mobile prepaid) internet connection.  I am now living in a cottage in the country about 150 kms north of Adelaide and waiting until May 7th (when we are scheduled to be connected to regular internet service).

Mar 12 - Mavericks 5 d Snipers 4 1-1-2 +1 GRAND FINAL
Awards:  Grand Final Medal, Season Highest Scorer and Most Valued Player trophies.

We played a poor first half and went into half time down 0-2.  The score had declined to 0-3 before Matt put one in for us through sheer determination.  They then scored to make it 1-4 and things looked grim but we found our mojo and took the lead in the final two minutes, killing off the remaining time to come out winners.  I scored the game tying goal off a pass from Natasha, and then myself provided the helper for Merrilyn's game winner.  A great way to end off this season and my time in Div II (have been promoted to Division I for next season).

It was a big evening for me.  Standing for the national anthem before the game was a buzz, moment of reflection and ambition.  This was book ended after the game when I went up to receive my trophies.  Receiving the applause of my sweaty peers meant more to me than the more abstract awards I've won previously in life.

Mar 5 - Mavericks 2 d Bumpers 0 1-1-2 +2 SEMI FINAL

Possibly our best game for the season.  Short shifts, good talking, accurate passing, physically determined, desperate.  My favorite play was the one that led to our second goal.  It was within two minutes of the end of the game when Craig got behind us on a rush, I set off in hot pursuit.  I had been about to end a tiring shift and so this was a major effort.  It didn't take me more than a step or two as I crossed the half way line that I realised I wouldn't catch him.  This didn't slow me down or stop me, however, and I was close enough to him when he took his shot to clip his stick with mine, resulting in a total miss on his part.  I was able to wheel and retrieve the puck much quicker than he was and I was shortly on my own one man mission up the board, cross through the centre, deke around their last defender before faking and pulling a shot so that Matt the Goalie committed himself.  Then taking stock of where the gaps were and picking one and shooting for it (between his right arm and leg) and getting it.  I sort of raised my stick but skated off for a quick breather before being sent back out by Brenton to see out the game.  Very spent the next day with a lot of upper body muscular soreness due several strength battles with Craig and Dallas.

Feb 27 - Mavericks 6 d Bumpers 2, 4-1-5 +4
Feb 20 - Mavericks 3 d Shufflers 1, 1-2-3 +3 PIMS 2
Feb 13 - Snipers 4 d Mavericks 3, 0-0-0 +/-0 PIMS 2

Regular season Stats - GP 10 G 22 A 13 Pts 35 +27 7/3/0 PIMS 10
Playoff Stats GP 2 G 2 A 2 Pts 4 +3 2/0/0

Game Day - Bumpers (4) d Mavericks (3) SO

Regular season Inline hockey returned to Gawler on Saturday Night.  We lost our Division II game against the Bumpers in a clean close-fought game that ended up in a them taking the shootout victory with a solitary goal by the adult rookie, Dallas, in his first game with the team.  With him on board they had five skaters, the same as us.  They had Matt the Goalie, we had Josh.  Neither team had a bench manager.

The game was important to both teams in terms of position on the ladder.  The Division is very competitive this year, three teams with one point between them (we were in first position coming out of the summer break, on goal difference) and only four games before finals and any of the four teams can beat any other on a good day.  The points were important.

I was on the first shift.  It was controlled and fluid.  Their 'new' guy game out after I had changed out, scored a goal shortly afterwards.  He has quite a shot and this was effectively his way of announcing that fact.  From that moment on the game was one of continuous catch-up and them never surrendering their lead.  At least, that's the way I recall events (the official game sheet, however, tells another tale).

Our first shift was good, strong skating, recovery from defence, passing to advantage and shots on goal.  Shouldn't have been too self congratulatory as they scored their first goal on the next shift.  Dallas, the new guy who'd been on our team in the Viking Cup, scored it from just over half way.  He was skating strong and showed his good shot at that time, putting the rest of us who weren't already on notice that this was a good (ie. Div I) player.

Ten minutes later we equalised with a deft shot by myself from the mid slot, off of a pass from Merrilyn in the left corner.  Between her and me were all three Bumpers.  What was cool was that she deliberately held the puck despite being charged so as to have a good look and find her moment for a pass to myself.  When it came it was a brilliant saucer pass, landing right on my blade allowing for what was effectively a one timer snapshot.

The game was 1-1 as we went into half time.  This turned out to be an extra long break due to Josh having trouble with his goalie gear (in the end he swapped out of the ones he had on originally to some that allowed him some flexibility of movement).  Although it was nice to have a long break and come back in virtually a rested state for the second half, it was disturbing to think that the opposition was also getting this benefit.  I think this worked to our disadvantage as our basic fitness and conditioning was superior to the Bumpers and we would have therefore had a bit more of an edge in the final minutes if half time was shorter.  Be that as it may, such is life.

I was on for their second goal, scored in the third minute by another shot from close to the centre line.  This time it was by Mel.  I was close to the flight of the puck and could have made an attempt to block it away if I had chosen.  Instead, I decided to leave it to the goalie and it fluttered through.  Nice shot, but what interests me now is that I (1) had time to consider options even as the puck was in the air, and (2) I chose to take the 'passive' approach and step back out of the puck's path to allow Josh a clearer view of it.  In respect of (1), this is good as long as I don't intellectualise on the rink.  In respect of (2), perhaps with the benefit of hindsight I can now say that I should have tried to block it.  Recent defelcted goals seem to have shaken my confidence, if only to the extent that I now leave the long shots to the goalie to deal with.

I wasn't on the rink for our answering goal, a pass from Merrilyn to Matt in front of goal and he slamming it home.  2-2.  Nor was I on for their next score, ten minutes. later.  I wasn't even watching at the time but noticed that all their players were crowding our net.  I gather he jammed it home from close in, an unusual goal for Craig. 

They were in front 3-2 as the final minutes ticked away and the game grew desparate.  I was on the rink for the final minute, had tried to rush the goal off an offensive face off, failed, found ourselves pushed back in our own end, me in the back left corner looking to get the puck forward for a final attack, notice Merrilyn coming out of the gate and springing up the right boards, wait, pass it in a long cross rink stretch pass that went tape to tape and allowed her to swoop in and score.  Very neat pass.

3 all.  Overtime.  We ran with myself, Matt and Merrilyn and failed to score.  On their side, Dallas scored the opener and then Mel and Craig failed to follow up.  Their win and no points to us.

No penalties in the game despite the teams and the intensity, though I think we all came close at some time.

Besides the tight passing that led to our goals, I most recall the physical nature of the game, an almost goal when I got outfoxed by Matt the Goalie, and the fact that we kept hitting Matt's body and pads when we shot at goal (need to find the corners more often).

In terms of physicality, two incidents typify its level.  On the first, I and Dallas battle on the boards behind our goal.  He pins me, prevents me clearing it, tries to push it clockwise.  I try and dig it out from under him and start trying to kick the puck out from him despite the pin.  He ties this up by getting his foot under mine between kicks and levering it upwards.  So we are pinned to uselessness against the boards and no one else can get the puck from between three of our four skates.  So, and unusually, the ref blow his whistle to restart the game at a faceoff.  Excellent battle.

The second example of the physicality occured AFTER we'd scored our final goal, off of a final attack by us that resulted in four bodies down in front of their goal, and everyone still pushing, shoving, slashing, except for me who is stretch right out to tie up their third player's stick as she tried to plunder the scrum.  Pretty funny to see everyone down, even if Brenton had been a bit stunned after being knocked down.

The goal I shoulda got but didn't was when I went behind their goal, tried the wrap around, ended up with the puck loose behind the goalie, my stick mere inches from it, and him grabbing and immobilising it in a manner so as the ref couldn't see it.  I was tempted to kick the puck in out of frustration but didn't.  Good sly goal tending.

The other thing Matt the Goalie did really well was position his body and cover with his pads.  The only goals we got were from elevated shots, we just didn't do them often enough.  And when we did we tended to shoot at the goalie rather than the gaps.  The official record says that they outshot us 21-19 but I'd say their victory was due to his goal keeping.  Well done Matt. 

Next game, Snipers.

GP 7 G 17 A 10 Pts 27 +20 5/2/0 PIMs 6

Inline 5

Game Day - Viking Cup Games 3 and 4

On Sunday morning I headed out to Gawler for the second half of the Viking Cup's round robin schedule.  The early game was against the Shufflers and at midday we would take on the Rockers.  At the end of that match the three teams would be seeded for their finals appearances, an elimination game between positions two and three, followed by a grand final between the winner of that game and the team that had come first during the round robin games.

I knew that I could not be in Gawler for the afternoon finals as I had to be back at the Ice Arena for the Knights final game of the regular season against the Rangers.  So, the best I could do for my team was try and help them get first position on the ladder to maximise their chance for a later victory.

We opened the tally with a 4-0 win against the Shufflers.  Good team effort on our part, especially as we had only five skaters (2 of whom were rookies, one of whom has a shoulder injury).  I got an assist for our second goal in the first period, but much of my game was defensive in nature as I fed the forwards and kept it in the zone.  I made it a point to cover the danger players of the Shufflers as they could each outskate all the others on our team.  It was a totally fun game, no penalties or bad blood on anyone's part.

The second Wheelers game of the day at Gawler resulted in a 1-1 draw against the Rockers.  If our team was about passing and positioning, the Rockers were mainly about strength and cunning.  It was a very close fought game, 0-0 at the end of the first half and both teams tiring a bit.  Each team scored in the final five minutes.  We unfortunately were penalised for too many skaters on the rink with twenty seconds to go, however they only got one face off before the siren went so it wasn't too bad.  Again, I spent much of my time picking up their loose skater through the game.

My greatest failing in both games was my passing, very often putting it straight into an opposing player rather than the intended target (though a surprising number did find the right person).  I will have to be a little more conservative with my passing game, holding the puck and playing for position more than I did, when the regular season returns.

For me, it was a case of pack up my gear and hop in the car and drive back to Adelaide for the Knights game in the afternoon.

For the Wheelers, it was an elimination game against the Shufflers.  Shufflers won that game, went on to lose against the Rockers in the Cup game.  Sigh.

Inline 4
 

Game Day - Viking Cup Games 1 and 2

I am enrolled for my first tournament, the Viking Cup.  I am in the Second/Social Division, composed of three teams in total.  We have six skaters and Matt the Goalie.  The other teams are similarly composed.  Most of the players are from Div 2 in the regular competition, though we have three rookies on our team who are all trying it out (all can play).  The usual combinations have been mixed up for the occasion.  On my team, only Nat and I are used to playing together.  Our team is the Wheelers.

Games comprise two twelve minute halves, with a minute for half time and two minutes between games.  There are two Junior divisions and two senior Divisions., each team plays two games today and two tomorrow, followed by finals in the afternoon (I'll have to miss the finals if the Wheelers make it, being required on the ice for the Knights clash against the Rangers).

Today we played the Shufflers first.  It ended up 2-2 draw.  I tied it up in the ninth minute of the second half with a ridiculous shot from the right boards only a foot or two above the redline.  This was my only score for the day.  I was a bit rusty overall, dropping the puck off my stick a couple of times most noticeably.  Had a good battle with Darryl, a dual citizen from Blackwood, through the game (he plays with the Shufflers in the regular competition and have had a good tussle with him there also).  We played most of our minutes with each other on the rink.

Our second game was five hours later against the Rockers.  This was a harsher affair.  We lost 1-2.  Dallas scored his second goal of the tournament for us.  I pushed myself harder in this game, and my energetics were still picking up by game end (peak HR of 193 was reached in the last shift and EPOC maxed out after the game was over).  The Rockers have a greater emphasis on strength than the Shufflers (who were more about skill - we are about speed and position) and it was definitely a more physical game.  Both teams were blocking a significant significant number of shots.

Most memorable moments for the day included my goal against the Shufflers and the general challenge of that game, wrestling Craig to the floor mid-rink as we twisted against each other's sticks, being beaten by him shortly after in a race to the boards and subsequent battle for body position, successfully blocking a shot by glancing it off my upper elbow guard (lower left bicep) and not even feeling it.

A fun day, with two more games scheduled for tomorrow morning before I hop into the car and drive an hour to the Ice Arena for the important last game of the season.

Inline 2

2016 - Welcome!

It's a month and a half since I last posted, the first lengthy break I've had from posting on this blog since it began.  It's funny how being slack with one game day review leads to a procrastinating guilty failure to blog the next, and the training session, and the milestones, and before you know it months can go by and then, no doubt, you can think 'why bother?' and that becomes the end of it all.  So, to avoid the last terminal step, I've posted this up in an effort to catch up with where my journey's taken me, and kick start the blogging process into the new year of skating, hockey and general all-round fitness and fun!

Ice Hockey Games Summary

Five games since last posting:

Rangers (2) d Knights (1)  4 PIMs
Knights (5) d Kings (3)  +2
Knights (3) d Storm (1)
Knights (9) d Generals (4) +2 0-2-2 2 PIMs
Knights (3) d Sharks (1) +1

GP 12 G 2 A 3 Pts 5 +6 8/3/1 10 PIMS

The Knights are a game clear in 3rd position on the ladder.  Starting on January 10th we play four games over three weeks to finish off the regular season.  We haven't quite clinched a playoff spot but are getting close.  I've continued to play defence, generally on the first pairing (when we have pairs and are not just rotating between three of us).

Roller Hockey Game Summary

Three games since last posting:

Mavericks (11) d Shufflers (0) +6 4-1-5 2 PIMS
Snipers (5) d Mavericks (4) 2-0-2
Mavericks (5) d Shufflers (4) +2 3-1-4

GP 6 G 16 A 9 Pts 25 +19 5/1/0 6 PIMS

The Mavericks are on top of the ladder due a superior goal tally and difference, though tied on points with the Snipers.  We have four games left in regular season, starting in February, followed by an elimination game and (hopefully) a grand final.  I am leading the Division in points, goals and assists.  For the first time since I played, all four teams have a degree of parity at the moment and it is a really good competition.

On-rink training Summary

4 inline training sessions at Gawler, the most recent being on 2 December.
8 ice training sessions, the most recent being 15 December.
2 public ice skating sessions, the most recent being 30 December.

I'll deal with my off-rink training, fitness data, and general thoughts in a later post.  For now, I'll leave it all by saying that I was on the ice 74 times over 2015 and in my inline skates 65 times.  It was a pretty good year!

Ice 74
Inline 65

Game Day - Mavericks (8) d Bumpers (6)

We played an excellent game of inline hockey against the Bumpers in Gawler on Saturday night.  We had five skaters, they had four.  They had Matt the Goalie, we had Josh in his first ever time in goalie gear.  Considering that the Bumpers have the strongest shot in the Division and we had a totally newb goalie I would consider it a fairly even match, despite the difference in number of skaters.  Although the closeness of the match up is reflected in the final scoreline it didn't seem so for much of the game.  But, indeed, that's one of the things that made it 'excellent'.  Sport is a funny thing!

We scored the first goal about 10 seconds (!) in, with me skating out of the circle with the puck and Matt getting to the corner post in time for my quick pass before putting it into the empty net.  I think we caught them on the hop!  Not to be outdone, Craig answered back a minute later.   Within two minutes, Natasha and I almost repeated the first play of the game, this time with me slotting the puck from a neat pass by Tash.  Still hanging in there, the Mel skated the Bumper's second goal in two minutes after that.  This was the last  time they weren't behind us after Merrilyn and I combined for her to put in our third goal.

Craig was getting a bit feisty, none of his shots were getting through, and subsequently took a roughing penalty.  First play off the faceoff resulted in a power play goal.  Craig hadn't been back on for a whole shift after that when he took another penalty for tripping Natasha (the 'victim' of the earlier roughing call).  They saw their way through that penalty and the half time siren went shortly afterwards.  We were 4-2 up.

In the first five minutes of the second half we put on two more goals, 6-2.  Craig kept their hopes up a minute later, but Merrilyn shortly afterwards put through what turned out to be the game winning goal when she slotted one on a joint assist from Brenton and myself, 7-3.  We were feeling pretty confident at this point, further enforced by another tripping penalty being called on them a minute later.

We didn't score and the powerplay and the game then took a rapid turn as they turned up the intensity and started finding the net.  Craig scored at the six minute mark and then again with only two minutes on the clock.  We still had a two goal buffer.  They called a time out and were able to keep their strongest line out for another shift.  This strategy was rewarded with another goal with one minute left on the clock.  One goal difference.  One minute to go.

I grabbed the puck with aggressive wing play off the centre face off and swooped straight past them all for a one man rush.  I could see a gap between the goalie and the left post and snapped a shot off at full speed.  It went straight to the back of the net and I looped back to the centre dot with I'd imagine a lot of confident pride in my stance.  I'd known that puck was going in from the moment I'd picked it up on my stick.  Weird.

 So.  It was a fun and close game.  We outshot them 32-16.  Each side hit the pipes square on at least once.  We blocked a lot of their shots before they got through to Josh, who was finding the goalie role quite a challenge.  As I said to him though, he saved enough shots to win us the game.  Which is all that really matters when it comes down to it.

I had another five point night against decent opposition.  Alltogether, we have collected 35 individual points in the two games we've played while scoring 18 goals.  That's quite amazing.  We are quite a force when firing on all cylinders! 

I think this procession will come to a crashing halt at some point soon, so I might as well enjoy it while I can!  Which is at least until tonight when we take on the Snipers.  We'll be short Matt and thus have only four skaters.  The last time we met the Snipers they had six skaters.  That would be pretty difficult.

GP 2 G 5 A 5 Pts 10 +8 PIMS 2 2/0/0

Inline 58
 

Vikings Training

Last night I went to inline hockey training at Gawler.  There were over a dozen skaters and a couple goalies.  The majority of skaters were Division II level, several of them being rookies.  When the group was split according to skill level I was placed with the beginners (fair enough, the advanced group contained several national level players).  The down side of this was that the training was pretty slow for most of the time.  The advantage was that I got to give little words of advice and encouragement to my peers.  Good bonding.

Simple shooting and passing games to begin with, followed by a shinny.  For the first part, my heart rate didn't get much above walking pace but it did get pushed up to 180 in the game of Red Rover that preceeded the shinny.

And then, a drive a back to Adelaide in the warm spring night.

Inline 57

Game Day - Mavericks (10) d Snipers (0)

The Mavericks began life as an inline hockey team on Saturday with a ten goal shutout against the Snipers, the other new team entrant in the Division.  Very auspicious for us!

We were composed of three Pfeiffers, Matt and me on skates, and Matt the Goalie filled in the pipes due Josh's absence at a cricket game.  The Snipers had five skaters (three Lukes, Bec and Mel) with Jess the rookie goalie.

The game narrative is fairly simple.  The Snipers began strongly on the attack.  Within five minutes we'd corrected this and I scored the first goal shortly afterwards off a pass by Brenton.  Merrilyn and Natasha each slotted another before half time.  There was one first half (minorly) controversial failed goal attempt by us when the puck ended beneath the goalie's pad and Tash wasn't able to shove it entirely over the line before the whistle sounded.  3-0 at half time.

We had had twelve official shots at goal in the first half to their two (!).  As if this wasn't a wide enough disparity it fails to account for what was probably that many shots again that we'd taken but which missed the goal entirely.  We were pretty happy with our efforts, agreed we only really needed to get more of our shots on net to allow the puck gods to reward us appropriately.

We seem to have inherited the old Wheelers' habit of playing a stronger second than first half and we managed to pile on seven more goals before the final siren ended the Snipers' misery.  We also officially put eighteen shots on net, so our shooting accuracy improved after half time.  As should be expected, this was reflected in the number of goals scored.  I took the only penalty of the game, a minor for interference midway through the second half.  We kept them scoreless albeit they got four shots on net.

A big debut win for the Mav's.  Even more encouraging, all five skaters shared in the points and we all scored at least one goal.  We recorded an impressive eighteen individual points (goals or assists) for our ten goals.  Good teamwork!

The Mav's are already showing some of the good qualities of our Wheeler forebears, namely a strong second half, good passing game, good defensive coverage.  What we seem to have added to the palate is a remergent Matt as playmaker in the forward zone, and a willingness to play forward in defence and deny unopposed rink space in the neutral zone to the other team.  If we only do this against the Bumpers we may have found our antidote to Craig and his slapshot.

My game

During the warmup I finally managed to crack the art of lifting the puck when shooting at goal.  It seemed every shot type I tried could be directed into the various quadrants of the net.  This is the first time this skill has 'clicked' for me so it was a tremendous pleasure to be successfully aiming at the top corner and getting it in there!  Sadly I wasn't able to do it much during the game and, even when I did, not with any real precision, but it is nice to know it's possible and I just need to keep working at it.

I was on our opening line up and had a major full frontal collision with Crystal behind their goal net.  It was jarring in its effect on me but I managed to keep my feet and check that she had too before continuing to skate.  I was a bit conservative for a minute or so after that while I got my breath back.  She skated off for a quick change.  I gather she was at least as stunned as I was.  It was a good reminder that Inline hockey is a collision based sport!

I scored the opening goal, then two more in the second half.  Both of those goals were off of assists by Matt, one such having been deliberately passed through the legs of the Sniper who stood between us!  That was probably my favourite moment, closely followed by a double assisted goal where Brenton put it into the back of the net off a cross crease pass from myself after receipt of another pass from Matt in the corner to me in the slot.  All one touch passes and shot, while moving.  Very slick!

My penalty was probably fair enough, though I didn't think so at the time.  I was called for interference after brushing off and down Dan Luke as he collided with me from behind.  He ended up on the floor as I skated off with the puck.  At the time I just thought that 'he hit me first,' which he had, but didn't account for the fact that his collision hadn't been deliberate and I had kept my feet, while I had meant to contact him and he didn't keep his feet.  Live and learn.

Speaking of Dan, he'll be a great skater as he seems to have his brother's speed and agility.  It won't take him long if he practices and the Snipers will have two of the best skater's in the division.  Josh gave me the strange experience of someone turning inside me, taking the puck, and then accelerating away quicker than I could catch them.  Not only this, but I caught him at least once using a toe drag to make a blind pass.  A challenge for sure to keep him in his box in future games!

I was directly involved in five goals and had a hand in a sixth.

GP 1 G 3 A 2 Pts 5 +6 1/0/0

Inline 56

Endings - Wheelers and Pre-Season

The winter inline season and my Pre (ice hockey) season ended within a few days of each other.  The summer inline season starts with training on the 7th of October and the first game on the 10th.  That's all within sixteen days.  Events have already got away from me as I post this (2 unblogged Knights games) so the reader will have to forgive me if this review of what has been is not as in-depth a post as it ideally should be.

Endings I - Wheelers Winter Season

We lost in the Grand Final against our Divisional foes, the Bumpers.  This was not only the end of the season but also the end of the current team formations.  This is because this Summer we are being encouraged to form our own teams, choose our own names, select our own jerseys (more on that later).  The organisers are of the belief that the Division has matured enough to allow for self formed teams (rather than centralised drafting for need).  As such, it seems appropriate to look back.

In the season just passed we fielded six skaters more often than not.  This was a major change from the past.  Our lines stabilised by the playoffs, albeit not entirely due on rink performance (a consequence of having two family groups, each with their own internal issues to juggle).  In this regard, the stats of Josh and Crystal look very good offensively but that was to at least some extent a result of putting our best defence with them (Merrilyn).  In goal, after a bit of chaos initially we settled in with Nicole between the pipes.  I think she was finding her game by season end.

In the longer term, I have played 48 games with the Wheelers across four seasons during which I went to four grand finals, won gold once and received an MVP.  My regular season stats have steadily improved over time but my post season stats remain woeful.

                                                               Regular Season          Post Season
                                                               GP   G   A  Pt     PPG
13/14 Summer C Grade    Wheelers     5     3   1   4      0.8     (3/1/0/1 0.33)   Silver
14      Winter        DivII        Wheelers   10    8   7   15    1.5      (2/0/0/0  0.00)  Gold MVP
14/15 Summer     Div II       Wheelers   12   12   8  20    1.67    (2/1/0/1  0.50)   Silver
15      Winter        Div II       Wheelers   12   11  14 25    2.08    (2/0/1/1  0.50)   Silver

Endings II - Ice Hockey Pre-Season

After a false start I began an off-season strength and conditioning program on July 1st.  I kept to my schedule pretty well for the first month, and then maintained an acceptable level of commitment through to the start of the season.  I had noticeable gains in leg, core and upper body strength, aerobic capacity and anaerobic performance, quickness and agility.  As the program wore through its second and into the third month I derived a great deal of satisfaction from my commitment itself, the activities themselves and the almost daily challenges such a program poses.

At the end of eleven weeks I was regularly going for a run, interval training, using a HR monitor (thanks Jess for the loan!) and pushing weights (again, thanks Jess!).  To a limited extent I'll be bringing all of these activities forward into the season proper, for both their game specific values AND the intrinsic pleasure I derive from them in themselves.  Who would have guessed it?

As to the value of the program, it was well worth it!  I had a small amount of weight gain (a primary goal of mine for years) and increased performance on many health related indicators.  Perhaps more importantly, the value has already shown itself in my inline games and the first two games of the ice hockey season.  They show themselves particularly in the following ways...

Increased ability to skate a shift and a game out
Better decision making through a game (due being less fatigued)
Decreased recovery time between both shifts and games
Greater strength along the board and in the crease
Quicker and faster
Increased confidence.
Greater knowledge about my own and other's bodies and physical capacity

All in all, a great advance in both my hockey and life potential.

Grand Final Game Day - Bumpers (7) d Wheelers (3)

The North Vikings Inline Hockey Club held its Grand Final extravaganza on Saturday.  All games from U10 up except ours were one goal games.  It was a great day, complete with flag, national anthem and a BBQ to keep the troops fed before the award presentations.  Profits from the BBQ and attendant cake stall went towards sending a Viking squad to the Barmera spring tournament.

We had a full roster, with Nicole in goal.  The Bumpers had their regular five with Matt the Goalie.  We had home advantage.  Game sheet is here.  What is not reflected on the game sheet is the penalty shot given the Bumpers when Crystal got called for unsportsmanlike conduct after losing her stick and throwing her glove towards/at (?) Craig (Nicole stopped the shot).

I have below posted video of various moments in the game.  I'll let it speak for itself.  There are a couple things I'd like to clarify however.  FIRSTLY, it was a closer game than the scoreline shows, though they did essentially outplay us and deserved their win.  There were two 'own goals' (one from a backwards pass that wasn't expected, another from a puck blinded goalie) and one that was a total 'fluke' (cleared hard up the boards by Craig, rebounded all the way to the back of the net).  Two goals were shorthanded.  Add to this the fact that I hit the post without reward and you can see that it was a close game.

The SECOND thing that (especially in retrospect) was memorable was the good feelings evident both during and after the game, more smiles than not and lots of hard but fair competition.  This despite the relatively large number of penalties (5 plus a penalty shot).

The Most Valuable Player in the game was judged to be Mel (Bumpers).  You can see in the video that her defensive play was tenacious, and she ended up with 1-3-4 on the game which is pretty darn good!

As for me, I scored one assist and was -1 for the game.  I had a quite a bit of energy left over at the end.  I was happy with my play, generally speaking, though there were aspects that could do with improvement (aren't there always!).

Things that I was happy, or at least satisfied, with include my general positioning and defensive coverage, nice sweep check (not caught on video), hardness of shots on goal and in-the-slot positioning, the fact I'm constantly moving, fitness level.

Things that need improvement include regulating the power of my passes (how often did the puck arrive too far ahead of a player to be of any use?), being a little more assertive onto the puck defensively (ie. aim at breaking up plays and turning over possession rather than a policy of denial), more talk.

A fitting game to end a fun season.

Off Season Day 81 - Week 11

Sep 13 Rest
Sep 14 Rest
Sep 15 Stickhandling, Run
Sep 16 Arms, Vikings Training
Sep 17 Run
Sep 18 Ice (sprints)
Sep 19 Wheelers Game 

September 13 and 14 were rest days.  Significantly warmer than we've had for months.  On the 14th I was at the Ice Arena to watch the final period of the Bantams Grand Final before returning a Peewee jersey and then again in the evening to watch the opening game of the C grade season between the Kings and the Predators.

On September 15 I spent almost twenty minutes in the morning doing some stickhandling practice.  Around midday I went for a run - 22 min, 55% in or above Zone 3, Avg HR 139, Max HR 169.  It is interesting that I was 3 minutes quicker than the previous run, despite having 7 walking periods this time (was 4 last time).  Again, I returned to running from walking mode as soon as HR dropped to 120.  I was using my breathing as the guide to when I thought I was getting close to 120, and then looked at the wrist unit of my loaned HR monitor to fine tune the time of commencement of my running.  which I was generally able to .  I was feeling it in the calf muscles more severely than the other day, I suspect because I haven't been eating as much as I should have the last few days.

On September 16 I started the day with a change up in the Arms routine.  I have now dropped the weight on the 'heavy' lifts to 4kg (plus 1kg for the bar) per dumb bell, and 2kg plus bar for the 'light' lifts, increased the number of reps to 15 per set and dropped recovery time between sets to 30 seconds.  I did two circuits.  Emphasis now has changed almost entirely to muscle endurance and power (previous weeks emphasised muscle building).  All done in less than 20 minutes.

In the evening I went to Gawler for Vikings Training.  I wore the heartrate monitor.  Sadly, wiped the data not long after seeing it, but memory serves to say that I had 66 minutes of data, about 3% of time below Z1 and over 60% of time in or above Z3, Max HR 197(!) and Avg was 148.  I put a lot of effort into the session, but recovered reasonably well when required and was still strong at the end (though the fading point wasn't far away).  The monitor said I burned over 800 calories.

Drills included variants of 1 on 1 race/battle/shoot from prone, the game of building numbers from 1 on 1 to potentially 1 on 4, one with one passing/protection game, 4 on 4 shinny and red rover.  A dozen skaters and one goalie.  I got given some good advice about keeping my stick in front of me rather than to a side when protecting a puck from an opponent behind me.

On September 17 I went for a run in the late morning.  Ran in spurts that took HR out to 155-165 then walked until dropped back to low 120s before running again.  Recovery HR dropped about 20 per minute, fairly consistent.  22 min, 15 min (65%) Z 2&3, Avg 138, Max 166.

On September 18 I made up for getting too late to training the night before by getting the rink in the morning 7of an already busy day and putting in a half hour of drills, including a run of 5 line sprints with 2 min recovery periods.  Probably 60 stops and pivots and half that of undercut takeoffs.  Time 30 mins, 45% Z2, 5% Z3, avg HR 134, max HR 163.

On September 19 I took it easy until playing in the Vikings Div II Grand Final for the Wheelers (we lost 7-3).  We kept to our line changes generally speaking, I double shifted only maybe twice (to take advantage of a Power Play and to work on the Penalty Kill).  I didn't have a HR monitor on (I forgot to bring it) but was pulling my breathing down to the 120 level within the minute during each recovery period, had energy to spare for the needs of each shift, didn't hold back on pushing myself to the limit when required.

On fitness and conditioning scales, in other words, I have reached the pass mark.  In terms of speed, I wasn't particularly aware of any failing.  Similarly with strength battles, whether on the boards or over a puck (including against a significantly larger stronger opponent).  Coped with knockdowns and slashing incidents well.  Overall, I am happy with my level of preparation for the ice season.

Week 11 in summary: am starting to scale back on strength, aerobic and, in effect, agility training, increasing the proportion of time devoted to on-ice activity and anaerobic conditioning in particular.  I failed to perform agility or speed exercises, so this will have to be commenced within Week 12 and I'll have to work on it during the early part of the season.  Overall for Week 11, a yellow grade.

Inline 54 & 55
Ice 36
 

Game Day - Wheelers (5) d Bumpers (4) - Finals Rd 1

We started our finals campaign last night with an intense one goal win over the Bumpers. 

The winner would go direct to the Grand Final on September 19.  Whoever lost this game would have to win an elimination game on September 6 against the winner of the game which followed ours (between the Rockers and Shufflers (Rockers won)) if they were to get there.  The winner of this first round would also have home rink advantage in the final (ie. able to change lines second at stoppages).

We had a full roster of Wheelers and Nicole between the pipes.  The Bumpers had four skaters, with Jana on IR due an upper body injury (received last week while playing up in Div I) and Kylie off to see her beloved Crows at Adelaide Oval.  They had Ashley as a fourth skater and Matt the Goalie in goals.

Our first line was composed of Crystal, Luke and Merrilyn.  Brenton, Natasha and I formed the second line.  The game featured frequent stoppages with few exceptionally long unbroken periods and practically no changes on the fly.  The lines themselves seemed to work well and we were all able to keep up a complete effort till the final siren.  The fact that the Bumpers only had four skaters and, due a major penalty, were then reduced to three with almost ten minutes to go (ie. no-one on the bench) certainly helped us on the night but I think that we would have coped just as well physically if they had had full lines (judging by the good condition we were still in at the end of the game).

The first couple shifts were pretty even.  That changed on the third, when Mel put one in for them from fairly close (deflecting in off of one of our players), and a minute later when Craig was given too much time and space near the centre line on the left flank and set up a crunching wrist shot that found a clear lane past all three of our skaters as it dipped and curved into the top left hand corner of the net.  A slashing penalty on Craig shortly afterwards didn't help our cause, and it took a single handed effort on Josh's part to score an unassisted goal and give us some hope as half time closed in.

We had three OZ faceoffs in the last thirty seconds of the first half.  We won all three and all ended in smothered shots on net.  I took the last face off, chipped it forward and burst past my opponent's sticks to rush the net with puck on stick, only to have Matt collapse himself onto the puck and hold it down until the half time siren whistled.  We were down 1-2.

The second half was one of the hardest periods of hockey I've yet played.  Josh opened the scoring off a pass from Merrilyn a couple minutes in to even the score, only to have Craig drop an impossible shot in from the corner a minute later.  Two minutes later Josh put in another equaliser, this time off a pass by Crystal, and the score was 3-3.  From our bench you could see them beginning to tire.

At this point the game got a bit stupid when a bit of verbal broke out on the rink.  I'm not sure exactly who started it nor over what the initial dispute was, but it resulted in an 2 minute minor against the Bumpers.  This was compounded shortly after by an initial refusal to leave the rink by the affected player, then by some bad mouthing of the referee, hurling of equipment and storming out of the barn.  This last resulted in a five minute major being levied.

While the theatrics played themselves out near the other team's bench we clustered around our gate, resolved to remain focused, make the most of our advantage.  Which we did with a power play goal a minute later (another score to Josh from a pass by Crystal).

At six minutes to go, the Bumpers called a time out to give their three skaters a chance to regather their breath.  We used it to reaffirm our intention to keep talking, passing, short shifting and pressing our advantage.

In the next play, things were starting to get desperate for them, resulting in their bear of a player (Craig) yelling a warcry as he approached the puck on the boards near our bench.  Not sure if his voice weapon was the culprit on its own or actual contact was made but Crystal went down and looked to be a bit in shock so I pulled her off on the fly and skated briefly with Merrilyn and Josh until the next whistle brought my own line mates out.  Next play, Natasha is down the OZ and puts in the game winning goal.

The last couple minutes were crazy with the Bumpers running on pure adrenaline and desire and on the attack.  This resulted in a single desperation goal from Mel, but there was nothing left in their tank during the final minute and we skated out winners 5-4.

My game was as good as its been in a puck possession sense, not surrendering any loose pucks without a massive struggle, pushing hard against their snipers in the neutral zone, kicking and scrapping on the boards to ensure forward motion, charging the net from the faceoff.  In my shotblock attempts I managed to make at least two minor deflections that probably weren't noticed by anyone but were sufficient to tip the puck over the net.  Had a couple comments made to me after the game about an apparent increase in my speed on the night (an artifact of skating practice at the Ice Arena the day before?).

Again, no points in a playoff game for me but, again, a valuable backup role and good last line player.

We go straight through to the Grand Final on September 19.  The Bumpers will have to beat the Rockers in the Semifinal next week if we are to complete a best of three end of season series against them.  We'll have to increase our intensity another notch if we wish to repeat this performance.

Inline 52

Off Season Day 51

Aug 18 Rest
Aug 19 Agility, Arms, Vikings Training
Aug 20 Knights Training

On August 18 I had finally had a rest day.  Although I moved some big furniture around and up stairs the rest of the day was casual and relaxed.  Calf muscles were almost crippling first thing in the morning, but within a few hours the tenderness had reduced to some quite specific points deep within the lower calves and there was no pain to speak of for the rest of the day.  I am thinking it was an extreme case of 'muscle soreness'.

I took advantage of the mild winter weather on August 19 to do my agility drills out under the back veranda.  Took about 20 minutes to go through sets of Forward and Backward Line Drills, Lateral Line Drill, Split Leg Shuffle and Split Leg 45' Shuffle.  Reps were between five and ten seconds each for the line drills, five seconds for the much simpler shuffle patterns.  I did five reps per set and kept the rest intervals between sets to 25 seconds.  The patterns were less confusing to my feet than they had been the first time I tried them.

I went straight from my Agility circuit to my arm strength circuit.  Kept up patterns of twin circuits of ten reps for each type of lift.  I am trying to increase the tempo of the lifts themselves, and have now reduced recovery time to 1 minute.  I might hold it here for a while as this was a challenge at a couple of moments in the circuit.

A couple hours later I set off for Vikings Training at Gawler.  There was a fair stress on anaerobic conditioning, with two sets of 'suicide sprints' (line sprint interval training) and a couple commando crawls.  My upper body strength was quite handy for the pushups and the commando crawl but my anaerobic threshold needs to be raised to be able to compete at the higher intensity of sustained anaerobic activity.

On August 20 I limited myself to going to Knights' training.  Don't want to inadvertently overwork myself in the leadup to Vikings finals and the season opener on the ice (besides, I was pretty darn busy sorting things out around the house). Coped pretty well with the aerobic and energy demands, lacking a bit in core strength (sore afterwards) and will need to brush up on skating techniques.

Vikings Training

This evening I went to Gawler for Vikings training.  I wasn't able to get there the past couple weeks due to work commitments (no longer a problem :)) so it was nice to make the trek again.  I hadn't been able to have any of my usual solid meals, so made the most of having a snack of this and a snack of that through the day.  As it got me through the training session this might bear looking into as a game day food strategy in future.

Session began with everyone bar one having a puck and skating randomly around the rink.  The one player starts trying to steal puck off another player and shoot a goal with it.  If puck goes in goal, original skater now joined by previous owner of puck in trying to get hold of other pucks and doing the same with them. Aerobic exercise mixed with stick work and puck management.

Then a set of suicide sprints.  Pure anaerobic torture.  Using this as my chance also to pratice inline hockey stops.  I haven't got them to the point that I can use them this season, but maybe next...

Then a series of one on ones, players racing to get puck and score goal from various starting scenarios.  This drill exercised the ATP-CP system as the sprints lasted no longer than a few seconds.

Then a passing game, ring of players around whole rink, two players in middle aiming to intercept the puck and trade positions to become one of the circle of passing players.  Rules were applied to the ringside players by the coach, these altered when he called out changes every few plays (eg, move your feet, don't move your feet, one touch only on the puck, stand on one foot, backhand, one hand only, hold your stick left handed if right handed, and vice versa, turn around on the spot before accepting the pass, etc).

Then a series of shots on goal from different spots around the rink, with those who don't get the puck in net having to complete a 'punishment' chosen by those who did.  The last of these punishing drills, and the one the session ended with, was a commando crawl 'for the whole length of the rink'.  Much to my surprise, I got further and faster than anyone else had before I stopped, gasping for air.

Again, all the training is starting to reveal its payoff?!

Inline 51

Game Day - Shufflers (5) d Rockers (2)

On Saturday night I played a second game of inline hockey at Gawler as a reserve for the Shufflers against the Rockers in their last regular season game.  Each team had five skaters.  The Shufflers had two 'oiginals' plus Crystal, Josh and myself from the Wheelers with Ethan in goal.  The Rockers had Nicole donning some skates as a reserve to join with Mel and Kylie from the Bumpers and two 'originals'.  They had Andy in goal.

The Shufflers scored three goals before the Rockers scored their first near the end of the opening half.  In the second, the Sufflers put on another two before a late answerer from the Rockers.  End scoreline was 5-2.

Me and Josh rotated pretty often off the bench, feeding minutes to the two Shufflers on the team.  It was, afterall, their team!  (Crystal came off when she remembered to, she admitted to me that she gets hungry for goals when playing and can forget about these things).  I found myself often changing direct with Mike, he played relatively short minutes and let me double shift several times in the second half.  I think his conditioning is down but that is not surprising considering his late start to the season as a skater and his preceding injury (he'd been the original Wheelers goalie until he cracked his wrist, requiring several months of recovery).  I would have been on the rink about 25 minutes.

My game was spent mainly playing the 'reset' option as the defensive point, often to Crystal and Luke as they went deep in the offensive zone.  I think I managed to save a couple goals for our team by backchecking hard against rushes from all three of their hard skaters at different times.  The physicality of the previous game repeated itself in this one, without the penalties, and we all enjoyed it.  As always, me and Pauline had a few clashes that ended up with one or both of us on the floor.  No harm done.

It was the Shufflers only win of the season.  Pity it was the last regular game.  Pity also that their most reliable player, Bec, wasn't there for this of all games.  I had been really looking forward to playing with her.

Inline 50

Game Day - Wheelers (2) tie Bumpers (2)

My 50th game of inline hockey (including when I have been a reserve for other teams)!

On Saturday night I played in the Wheelers' game against the Bumpers.  It was a top of table end of season clash.  Top spot on the ladder was theoretically up for grabs (if we won by eight goals or more we would enter the finals series with home rink advantage, an almost but not quite impossibility). 

Both teams began the game with four skaters.  This occurred due a prior engagement for Natasha and back injuries through the week to Brenton and Craig (Bumpers).  We had Nicole in goal, they had Andy.  They had Greg acting as Bench Manager. We had Josh on the gate and performed our usual act of anarchic democracy in managing it.

Before the game we determined amongst ourselves to keep to short shifts.  We did pretty well in this regard, essentially rotating ourselves in a disciplined turn-taking fashion.  As the second half progressed I noticed that the more fatigued players were tending to the less active roles on the rink as they waited their turn for a breather, gaps between plays were utilised for aerobic recovery by mutual consent, the pace slowed down considerably, and the rotation order became a little more fluid to cater to individual capacity in the stretch.  I was very pleased with this aspect of our game.

I scored the first goal, unassisted, in the eighth minute but I can't recall much about it.  I do recall triumphantly punching the air and pointing my tick towards my team mate who had originally taken the shot that bounced high off the goalie to land back in the crease, where my stick met it on point of landing to poke it over the line just ahead of the open net closing.  Sweet garbage goal!

Two minutes later, Jana scored, and then two minutes after that, Mel did.  The Bumpers had two tripping penalties called against them in the closing two minutes.  I drew the second of these.  Unusually, it was against their goalie, I having 'teased' him with the puck as I moved across the goal front, tempting the pokecheck attempt that contacted my wheels and sent me to the floor.  

The last play of the half was amusing.  I came off the bench with only about 20s to play, took the faceoff and charged the net.  I think both Josh and I hammered in shots from reasonable positions for rebounds, and a third shot was let loose as the siren sounded.  The referee saw the blitz that we were trying to create for what it was and joined me in a wry smile as the half ended.

The second half was a more dour affair, four on four hockey is pretty exhausting!  Luckily, Merrilyn combined with Josh to shoot an equaliser with five minutes to go.  No one scored after that and the game ended in a 2-2 tie, the only tied game in our division all season!

 I often didn't make time for passing lanes to open up, resulting in Jana (in particular) blocking, deflecting or intercepting many of my attempts to create a play with a team mate in good position (often in the central slot zone).  This was the main way I surrendered possession.  I found out later that they were trying to put her on the rink when I was on, presumably to use her good defensive play to counter what they perceived as my threat.  This made for an interesting game, but I will need to work out a counter-strategy by next week.

There was a fair bit of puck protection going on, with attacking forwards keeping the puck on the outside of the more central defender, pushing and shoving against use of the hips to force separation in close, screens and scrums and wide deking to those who could do so (Josh).  I fended off all of their players at different times, I think at some point I both knocked down, and was knocked down by, each of them.   Against a player coming in close with good agility, such as Mel, I could easily find myself having to hip check, stick check, poke check, kick and otherwise use body position to fend of a rapid weaving attack.

Both teams used the rearwards pass to good effect.  These were rarely intercepted though I grabbed at least a couple long backpasses to create a rush.  We will have to keep in mind that if Craig is playing for them next week he will often be lurking in the neutral zone, waiting to collect a back pass and take a shot.  He has grown fitter through the season, content to sit back as their 'defence' and snipe and able to do this for large portions of the game if not forced out of this comfortable groove.

Crystal took a lot of our faceoffs.  She won the majority of those she took.  I think that she is a good second centre behind Brenton in this respect.

I was on for one of ours and none of their goals.  I think I had at least ten shots.  Will need to learn to raise the puck rather than just hope for the rebound.

GP 12 G 11 A 14 Pts 25 +20 8/3/1

Inline 49

Game Day - Bumpers (11) d Shufflers (2)

I played a second game of Hockey on Saturday night, as a Reserve filling in a fourth spot on the Bumper's lineup.  I replaced Jana, who was at the Adrenaline game at the Ice Arena.  I'm told we play a fairly similar game and that made me the natural choice.  Brenton and Merrily were playing in opposition as reserves on the Shuffler's team, and Nicole was  in goal for them, so it was interesting to play against my team mates and see what they look like from the other side of the hill.

I took it relatively easy during the game, giving as much hockey time to the other three as I thought they could handle.  They were all hot and bothered at the end of the game, I was pretty cool by comparison.  Despite the cool, I did my best when on the ice to grab or keep control of the puck and shut them out of the game.

The game was a blowout at 11-2 of which I contributed 2 goals myself, both assisted.  I can't remember the first of them, but do recall the second.  I grabbed the puck in the corner and walked it in towards the goal, then danced across the goal face just out of reach of the goalie who was in a bind between trying to take the puck and fill his goal.  I was in a sense playing games with him, waiting my moment, which I seized when I had the chance.  I hit the pipes twice.

As for team tactics, they were pretty straight forward.  Craig hovered around the midzone, provided a good reset pass option and he was constantly calling for it.  All of his shots were from this outside zone.  Mel, on the other hand, deked and dangled her way in from the flanks, tended to score in close.  Kylie also scored in close, but came down the centre.  Handy to recall for next week.

As is the fact that Merrilyn and Brenton are not easy players to play against, their checking is very close but not too close and they skate faster than they look.  Another thing I learned in this game, as they were on the opposing team albeit I didn't clash against them too often.

A worthwhile experience, second reserve game for me this season.  It was also a handy recce on the Bumpers, our opponents probably for three of the next four games.

Inline 48

Off Season Day 42 - End of Week 6!

Aug 8   Vikings Games
Aug 9    Rest
Aug 10 Legs / Arms / Core
Aug 11 Run

On August 8 I played two forty minute C grade games of inline hockey at Gawler.  From a fitness and conditioning perspective the night showed my progress to date as I had energy to spare after playing the Wheeler's game early, enough to fill in competently as a reserve for the Bumpers in their game against the Shufflers.

During the first game it took about a minute on the bench after each shift to regain my composure.  Generally, I was right to go from that point and would get to my feet to indicate that I was ready to go out again.  While waiting for my next shift I would try to constantly keep my feet and legs moving on the spot as a means of minimising and delaying the onset of lactate build up.

For the second game I put myself onto pretty short minutes, essentially giving my team mates as much of a run as possible (it was, afterall, their game).  I didn't feel exhausted at all and put on the afterburners a few times on the rink to keep the game locked down for the team I was playing for.

That evening, once the endorphins had worn off, I felt the onset of fatigue.  This evolved into an overall physical tiredness the next day.

Therefore, on August 9, I declared the day to be a 'rest day'.  Which it wasn't really because I spent about five hours moving furniture in the afternoon.  Still, there were no extreme loads and I know my body appreciated it.  If I'd done Interval work as originally planned I'm sure that I'd be done for days.

In the morning of August 10 I realised that I was again at risk of falling behind schedule so spent a bit less than half an hour going through a basic Legs workout, stopping for only bare seconds between sets of the different exercises.

In the evening, due a combination of being delayed for over an hour at work and the passage of a cold front, I decided not to go for my planned run and instead do my arms workout (now two sets of ten reps each for each lift, often a killer effort required for the last lift) interspersed with core exercises in between.

I limited the periods between lifts and core exercises (and vice versa) to between five and fifteen seconds, but was careful to ensure that I didn't work out the same muscle groups on consecutive exercises and so managed to get away with it.  I spent forty minutes on the routine, making it about an hour of high density work for the whole day.  Quite productive.

Not bad for a day that wavered from being limited to a run, to being at risk of washing out in the threatened rising tide of 'rest days' (this despite the frequency of these days decreasing if I look at my activity log).  Afterwards, a general tiredness, particularly in the upper body and arms, less so through the core region (but still noticeable), and below-awareness-level in the legs (though I can feel that they got a workout recently in the weaker muscle groups).

It was a rainy evening on August 11 and again I so nearly decided to call off my limited plans and have another 'rest' day that it's scary in retrospect.  Stubborn pride, however, intervened and saved me from myself and I set off through the wet suburban streets.  I kept to the road mainly, because I could (most people, even in cars, stay inside on nights like tonight) and because it's a more stable and less potentially slippery surface than the varied materials from which our footpaths are constructed.  Didn't see any other pedestrians for the whole trip, and only about four cars in the 21 minutes I was gone.

It's been a while since I last ventured forth so I was careful to pace myself for the sake of both my breathing and my leg muscles.  There was an initial knot in my right calf muscle, not debilitating but enough to be aware of and 'manage' as I worked my way down to the river, where I ducked under a tree during the heaviest shower and did some stretches.  No more knotted muscle.

That initial period of running was probably the most painful, but it was made easier by the fact that within metres from home I was glad I was doing this (I think I actually like running for running's sake, truth be told).  After that, things got a little easier, I didn't drive myself too hard and gave myself short walks on several occasions.  My stretching stop at the school was a lot shorter than usual, and I ran the last kilometre (the hardest, hilliest kilometre) without too much effort except in the legs as I paced myself up the hill.

When I got home, my heartrate didn't seem to be elevated too much, and my breathing was pretty normal within a couple minutes (at no time had I laboured in my breathing, though as the pace picked up over the period it had definitely grown a lot more rhythmic and deeper).

With my run I qualify Week 6 on my schedule (see sidebar) as a 'yellow' pass, pretty good but didn't achieve all I had planned.  I will have to make a real effort to get some interval training underway over the coming week.