Bauer 160s on a Sunday Afternoon

As predicted, Santa brought me a pair of Bauer Supreme 160 skates.  Pretty exciting, and lots of ooh's and aaah's at the bright tiger yellow waxed laces that one of his elfs had put on them.  Saddest thing was, Xmas being on a Thursday and the Ice Arena being closed then and boxing day and we being out for a late xmas lunch on Saturday and commitments on Saturday night, it was only on Sunday that we'd be able to begin the painful process of breaking them in.

So I picked up B shortly after lunch and we met up with Jess and Craig at the Arena.  It was pretty quiet for a Sunday in terms of numbers.  Which was nice because it let us adults concentrate on the new(ish) skates we each had, and let B get on with doing the ten year old thing with school and hockey friends he bumped into.

Craig and Jess have also put wax laces onto their skates.  Jess seems to have slotted into her new Bauers with little or no pain, and is quite proud of her neon pink laces.  Craig is a bit dubious of his deep red laces and their length, having to retie them every ten or twenty minutes.  He's also suffering a bit from foot pain in his new skates.  I'm not sure if that's a sign that the fit isn't right, or is akin to the pain I felt when wearing my new skates on ice for the first time.  He has a oddly shaped foot but his Vapour skates are relatively rigid compared to a true beginner skate so the jury is still out about the source of discomfort.  As for me and my new Bauers, I'd forgotten how much it hurts to break in a new pair of skates!  And how debilitating it is to one's apparent skills.  At least I know there's a good reason for it and have the incentive to skate my way through the pain for a few hours.

Me and B stayed until stumps for the session, although there were several moments when I was tempted to get off early and relieve my feet from the all round constricting pain that my tightly bound bauers were causing.  However, there were also moments when I could feel the support of the boot while doing simple maneuvers and the 'solidity' of the blade's contact with the ice, so I hung onto these portents of a happy future and kept on going.  It was really nice at the end when I took off the boots and the immediate relief flooded over my feet - with no lasting pains of any description once the boots were off (in this way they're even better than my Vapor inlines, where I have a couple minutes of 'outstep' pain once I remove them).

Only about four more hours of this breaking in process to go.  Hopefully will have it done before season training recommences after new year.

Sunday Skate - a growing clan

On Sunday I was again invited to join the growing skating clan down at the Ice Arena.  A, B, J, Jess, Craig, me.  That's half a C grade team in the making!  A was great, at his young age he just needs to see things and it seems he can do them, or at least try.  Amazing.  He grinned for about two hours, and apparently that continued after he went home.

I couldn't skate too hard nor stay too long as I had to get home and get ready for my Knight's game at 5pm.  I did stay for a little while after Jess picked up and put on her new Bauer skates.  Very cool.  Her, me B and A all in our own skates.  Craig is still waiting for his to arrive, apparently something to do with his narrow foot.  Be that as it may, we're a clan with style!

Midday Skate (and Knights shutout Flyers)

Today, I went for a short river skate at midday to stretch the legs after a rainy day off yesterday.  I did it in the reverse of usual anti-clockwise direction for the express intent of giving me my hardcore hill climb at the end.  I gave myself short five pace sprints along the smooth river path, transitions along the smoothest stretch of quiet side street that I covered, and powered up the hill in less strides than I have in quite a while.  This was followed by a good stretch and a hearty lunch, as game preparation for Knights v Flyers later in the afternoon.

I'll post a 'game day' report later this week, once the videos have been uploaded (thanks Lizardking!) and I have seen the official match card.  For the present, suffice to say that we shutout the Division leader Flyers 4-0.  This was their second loss to us (both shutouts), their only losses this season.  Tommy was on song in the goals, we were playing more like a team than previously, I was on the ice for three of our goals (albeit one when I had literally taken one step onto the ice during a line change when it went in).

Sunday Skate

The Knights had the bye during the current round in Div II ice hockey so I had Sunday afternoon off.  Came through on my promise to B, that we'd get to the Arena on those weekends when I don't play on Sunday.  We were accompanied by Craig, who is definitely developing a taste for the sport of skating.

We were there just under ninety minutes.  I stayed on the rink the whole time.  I didn't go over once.  I took it very easy for the first fifteen minutes, then slowly worked my way through the various maneuvers, paying particularly careful attention to those that have previously given me discomfort or pain.  The only maneuvers that I drilled with any discipline were maybe thirty stops, tight gliding turns, 'running' crossovers.  I spent much of my time skating backwards, trying to replicate a few of the moves I do fairly comfortably forwards (eg C cut power strokes, slalom and outside edge turns, alternating crossunders).

By the end of the session I'd given my body a good workout, hitting about 90% effort at times.  The knee held up admirably, and didn't swell later.  Starting to regain my skating confidence.  It's now been four weeks since I was crashed and trampled.  On schedule, in other words.

I have Knights training on Tuesday, possibly a public skate on Wednesday, Wheelers game on Saturday.  I'll need to keep my priorities clear, DON'T injure myself again before the game on Sunday arvo, DO push my limits further with each session and start regaining game condition.

Busy Weekend

It was a busy weekend. 

On Saturday, I drove to Gawler and back to register for the upcoming summer inline season with the Wheelers.  I didn't stay long at the rink, just long enough to chat briefly to two new Wheelers (Craig, who once was a Wheeler but last season was a Rocker, and Crystal who was with the Bumpers for her rookie season over winter).  Alex isn't playing at all this summer, Matt the skater has been transferred to the Rockers (albeit he'll only start up after the xmas break) and we don't have a goalie with Matt the Goalie taking up full time skating in Div I (sounds like we'll be rotating Div II goalies).  I'll be #36 this coming season, third number in three yeas!  The Wheelers' season starts at 6:45pm on Saturday against the revamped Rockers.

Today (Sunday) I picked up Craig and we headed down the Ice Arena at opening time.  Were there for an hour.  I was mainly keen to see what I could do with my knee, this to determine if I'd play later in the evening with  the Knights against the Predators.  Except for a few stops I didn't drill myself at anything in particular, instead concentrating on just working out where my limits were.  The only points of concern remain an extended right leg when turning left, and difficulty with the power stride when accelerating.  I can counter the first by bending my knees, the second by extending out the ankle and pushing off from the toes.  As I should be doing these things anyway I decided that I could play in the evening and let my coach (Justine) know.

I think Craig is getting hooked on skating.  His hour was spent entirely on the ice.  I showed him a few of the basics (swizzles, snow plough stops, knee bends) and he seemed to cotton on and push himself fairly hard on them (but not too hard).  Good signs, he's a keen NHL follower for years and young and fit enough to make a good hockey player if he pursues it over the coming year.  Jess is pretty supportive, so he has a chance.

After returning home I gathered all my gear together, had a decent rice and curry meal, restrapped my knee much tighter than in past.  Before I knew it, time to get to the rink.

More on the game itself in the next post.
 

Sunday Skate - Testing the Ice

This morning I decided to bite the bullet and put on my inlines.  I spent about ten minutes out the front on the driveway and street, slowly doing figure eights, heel to heels and crossovers.  Most of it was okay, but felt discomfort and instability behind the knee when turning in the opposite direction, particularly when it was the trailing foot in a glide.  Not major, more a sensitivity than a sensation, there was no pain or disability afterwards.

So I went down to the Arena for an hour, including maybe 15 minutes off ice chatting with a fellow Viking (met a couple yesterday before the game also, Vikings are everywhere it seems).  At no time did I go fast or very fast(with one exception), generally limited myself to gliding strokes and edges.  Tried most maneuvers, however, including on my toes and three turns.  A lot less strain than the inlines, and could do most things at a reasonable pace.  Stops and transition caused no issues what so ever, even the gliding turn to the left (which was discomfiting on inlines) was fine, though an outward push did register negatively.  All maneuvers while skating backwards were fine.

I did try one sprint at full acceleration between the blue lines before I left.  This did put serious strain on the ligament again, though no harm done as it was no more than five strides.  It will be a limiting factor until I rebuild the strength there.

To that end, I have located a good guide to therapeutic knee exercises.  I hope to start on that tomorrow, knee permitting.  If I do that and core workout a few times this week I might be day to day proposition to play on Sunday.  I must remain honest with myself.

Sunday Skate - Shoot!

This morning I managed to get my energy levels up enough to go out for an hour on the inlines and get some shooting practice in.  I was a bit doubtful upon waking, what with an hour less sleep than normal (due the onset of daylight saving) and a moderate level of stiffness in my legs and in particular, my quads, after yesterday's hike.  But I made a deal with myself that I'd do nothing more adventurous than have some shots and took the bargain and headed out down the hill on a nice warm morning.

I just rolled down the hill today, absolutely nothing to increase speed except sticking in a straight line more than usual, and then an easy cruise to the school.  I was the only sporty person there this morning, a couple dog walkers on the oval being the only other sign of life.  I unloaded my pucks and got into it.

I put a first round of a hundred shots on the goal before deciding that another hundred would be good.  The only variety I added to the normal drill was to slot in three backward skating wrist shots before each set of 25 the second time through.  The idea for this came from watching Edmonton's pre season home game against the Canucks and seeing the potential use in both attack and defence of such a maneuver.  I did practically no skating for skating's sake until the return journey, where the only variation I added to my otherwise easy skate were four short 3-5 pace sprint accelerations as I came up the hill to home.  The logic of this last?  To work the thighs and see if I couldn't get rid of any of the painful kinks in the quads from yesterday's hike.

The shot percentage was pretty good again, and the pace of it all continues to pick up.  Much more controlled, to the point that few of the rebounds even on the full blown wristshot were getting past my waiting stick.  I managed to shatter another of the neon green pucks, so I'm down to three practice pucks again until I can restock.

After a good stretch out upon my return I seem to have removed most if not all of yesterday's soreness, and the tightness that remained in the quads seemed to be more about rebuilding muscle than a strain.  Mission accomplished.

'Score': 6/4/9/7 and 9/8/7/1

Sunday Skate - icing it

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day so, having nothing better to do, I hopped on a bus and headed down the Ice Arena (Nancy was up in the Flinders Ranges with our car).  I spent about seventy minutes on the ice and was gone from home less than two and a half hours (total travel cost = $1.85 as I managed to get on the return bus within two hours of boarding my ride there, excellent value).

It certainly wasn't crowded.  Which made things easy for me to concentrate on my goal, continuing to realign my muscles and neural pathways to the needs of the ice (and to push out my conditioning a bit).  I did about eighty stops, most of them in the corners concentrating initially on just maintaining balance but graduating to lifting the 'front' foot up for a crossover the other way while I was still in motion.  This is my newest way of trying to get the 'knack' of stopping on the outside edge alone.  Still haven't got it, but hopefully I will. 

I did maybe twenty or so 3-turns, of which maybe five were good ones.  Again, keep working on it is the goal.  The rest of my time was spent on tight turns forwards and backwards, transitions both ways along the boards, and about fifteen sprints between the blue lines to overspeed.  I went over about three times, twice onto my knees and the final time I would have ended up on them but managed to keep my legs above the ice by sliding on toe tips and hands.  No injuries.  All good.

This morning, could feel it in the groins in particular.  Still a lot to do.

Sunday Skate - back on the ice

This afternoon I went down the Ice Arena to get reacquainted with the ice.  Yesterday's realisation, of how rusty I am, made it a fairly easy decision to not go down to Noarlunga for a shinny.  Afterall, I haven't been on the ice for a month (!) so it wouldn't be surprising if I was not only out of condition, but also very vague on technique.  That's just asking for confidence-sapping mistakes and injuries if one doesn't use one's head.  But to pass on Noarlunga meant that I'd have to do something worthwhile with the time.  Hence a simple session at the Arena.  No major objectives except to find my ice legs again.

And so it worked out.  In no particular order I concentrated on particular elements of style and skill one after another, the general format being to do skill X a nominated number of times or distance on a lap, glide the remainder of the lap to recover, do it again until I'd done it a few times.  Then, work on skill Y.  And so on and so forth for about 70 minutes.  Forwards, backwards, transitions, power strides, swizzles, one leg balance, outside edges, inside edges, three turns, stops, pivots, speed, grace, acceleration.  Probably the major surprise was my ability to 'hop/glide' around on only my right leg for an entire lap on more than one occasion (my left leg was lucky to carry me in bunnyhops across the ice before giving in).  In this at least I could certainly feel the effect of my off ice work, the muscle still had quite a bit left in it.

Later this afternoon, depending on my energy levels, I might put on the inlines for a bit of a skate around the neighborhood.

*

This morning, I started my day as I often do at the moment, with some strength work.  Today, Lower body.  I worked up three circuits, each consisting of eleven ankle lifts on each ankle, 16 lunges and eleven squats.  It doesn't sound like a lot but it seems to work all the major muscle groups in my legs.  Will keep it up through this coming week leading into the Wheeler's grand final game, then will look at changing the routines.

Sunday Skate - river sprints

I've let my posting slip over the past week.  Sorry about that.

Last Sunday evening I was a little sore in the core after the Wheelers game the night before.  It was a lazy day and would have been very easy to just avoid the opportunity to go skating at some point in the afternoon.  Luckily, I resisted my inertia and got on my skates.

Was initially going to go down to the school and get a bit of stick n puck practice in, but upon reflection decided that skating is the core skill in hockey and that was what should therefore get first priority in my very limited skating time at present. 

The next issue, go down the school or the river?  I didn't make up my mind until I was at the bottom of my own street.  Feeling 'casual', I decided to go down the river.  Also, feeling 'guilty' about my constant negotiation with my 'lazy gene', I decided to build in something in the way of training for more than mere balance and cardio vascular exercise.  On the way, I decided, I would throw in a series of high intensity sprints.  This is, after all, the particular skating technique that I wanted to develop over winter.

I was gone for about 25 minutes, covered the 2-3 km 'short' circuit I have.  In that time I had about ten 'sprint sessions', where I just went flat out in a straight line for a limited distance.  The distance varied between 10 and 50 metres, and about half of the sprints were up some degree of incline.  On at least three occasions I got to the point where I felt the thigh muscles 'burning'.  After each sprint I cruised/glided with minimum energy expenditure for at least the time I'd been sprinting.  By the final uphill sprints I was finding that my body was recovering quicker from the exertions than it had during the first few.

A good use of a half hour of time on a beautiful evening.

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!

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.

Sunday Skate - Noarlunga Shinny

On Sunday I headed down to Noarlunga for a two hour shinny on the small ice.  I got there a little late, there being already about six on the ice and what looked to me like a helluva lot of players in the final stages of kitting up.  They were putting themselves through some simple 2 on 1 drills with our one goalie (John) as I got dressed.  I managed to play a couple times as the '1' (D) before it was time to break into teams and get the game going.

We had a total of fifteen skaters, which broke down into 'darks' (8) and 'lights' (7) plus the goalie.  I had a choice of sweaters, wore my (white) Canadian one to make the teams roughly even.  It sure was nice on this occasion to have a rotating bench with enough time to gather one's breath before heading back out, especially compared to last time when my team had only had a bench of one (!) which made it hard yards by the end.

I combined the decent sized bench with short shifting (between one and two minutes a shift) so that I was still firing on all cylinders in the final period.  I noticed that by then quite a few of my fellow players were slowing right down.  I don't think I was.

An innovation from the last occasion I was there was the use of the electronic score board.  We played three periods of twenty minutes, and about ten minutes at the end for everyone who was still willing to get on and go for it.

Basically, good match training.

At the end of the first period the Darks led 3-2.  This was surprisingly good as it seemed to me that they basically outsized and outskilled us (they had a couple of seriously proficient C graders who played to win), although our mosquito tactics ensured that we scored two goals to stay in touch close to the end of the period.  I spent much of my ice time trying to make position on the ice, chasing dumped pucks, racing opponents towards the boards.  I was on the ice for at least one of their goals.

The second period was great, scoreline at the end being tied 6-6.  I scored one of the goals on the play which followed one where I put the initial assist out of the slot to Ben(?) the playmaker on the boards, who passed it to the eventual scorer at point.  The goal I scored, I again had passed it to Ben in the corner, who passed it up the boards to our third player who in turn shot it across the goal to me who had drifted to the far post and I just had to tap it in.  Which I did.  The goal drew some applause.  It was a seriously good section of play in its teamwork.  It's ephemera such as this that make shinnys so magical.

The third period was their runaway one, skating out victors 13-7.  Matt with the Darks scored five goals in the period and seemed to have been the difference for the first ten minutes.  After that, our lot were a bit demoralised, though we closed the hemorrhage in front of the net at least.  I did note that I wasn't on the ice for many of their goals and I was on for ours, which was something.

It was a fun day, played at a higher level than previously.  This was partly due the incremental improvement in the play of the 'originals', also the injection of fresh faces after an invitation was posted on the C Grade page (which is more likely to be read by premium c graders than the more casual variety). 

There was quite a bit of physicality through the day, no mercy being shown to size or gender.  I was monstered on the boards a couple times before I got my own chance to dominate one of my tormentors.  I did it by immobilising his stick with mine, braced by one leg and using the other to kick the puck where I wanted it to go.  He took it a bit more cautiously against me in future.

Footwork was actually quite an important part of the repertoire for in-close puckhandling under pressure I noticed, from one of our premium whites' habit of kicking the puck as he carried it through traffic, to Ben using foot skills with the puck and his stick to go through a whole line to crash the net and force what I thought was the most gutsy goal of the game.  I should have known it would be like this (ie physical) when I had a visceral reaction against a big black bruins sweater someone was wearing during the pregame.  I've never really had a reaction like that.  No wonder Bruins fans love their Bruinness if it causes such a reaction more generally!  Maybe I watched too much NHL this year lol.

When I got home for another meal I had to admit it was a most magnificent way to spend a sSunday evening.

Sunday Skate - Keen Overspeed

I wasn't originally going to go skating on Sunday at all (gulp).  This was a combination of the fact that the what-sounds-like-a-regular-shinny at Noarlunga was this week only able to go ahead at 9-11 in the evening.  Which is too late for me on a Sunday unless it's a game or team practice.  So, unless I reverted to the usual skate with B in the afternoon, I wouldn't be getting on my skates (it was too wet for inline in the neighborhood).  This, in turn, didn't look likely as he had left a message for me on the Saturday that he wasn't able to come with me due an important event.

So, I called up B to confirm that we weren't going and we could agree to go next Saturday (can't go on the Sunday next week), which was him being diplomatic as his busy diary had reorganised itself in twelve hours and he was now free to come with me 'if I wanted to go skating'.  As if!  And then my missus reminded me that I couldn't go next Saturday arvo either, so I called him again and said that unless he had got something else already planned, we might as well go skating.  To which he agreed.

Although the afternoon session at the Ice Arena had already started by the time we had the above conversation, we got our respective acts together well enough that we still had an hour and a half from when we arrived.  Actually, B said he'd been ready since the day before.  Keen!  It wasn't excessively crowded for a Sunday, and this reduced as the afternoon progressed to the point that the rink had only a score or so of people for the last twenty minutes.  Excellent.

I stayed on the ice for the whole eighty minutes we had available, alternating between 'just skating' for the intrinsic pleasure, drilling myself on particular techniques, and resting against the sideboards watching everyone else circulating while catching my breath after skating hard.  Very few people I have regular interaction with, though a few as always.  B seemed to find himself quite at home talking to some keen teens lurking teenlike in the corner in between bursts of creative high speed skating.  He said later that he squeezed in over a hundred hockey stops while he was there.

Me, I did ten sets of five stops each way with at least three paces between, picking up the intensity and hence the speed a little compared to last week (though still not pushing it to the max).  I did maybe ten laps backwards, getting the feel of my outside edges for pushing off on (again, not pushing it to a high level).  No jumps this week.  Maybe five laps of quick puck protection transitions along the board to my right (or a pretend board on my left).  The main energy well, however, was the ten laps I did where I accelerated hard on my toes between the blue lines in a clumsy stumbling attempt to get into overspeed mode.  I reckon I reached it a couple of times.  Will see if can't pump this up somehow and get some perceived control into it.

Then, a quick visit through the Powerplay skateshop to check out junior inline skates and sticks, a banana and orange juice afterwards, and then home.

Sunday Skate - Back at the Arena

Yesterday I went down to the Arena with my skate Buddy, B (9).  He had been very understanding of my requests to go and play in the Shinnys down at Noarlunga over the previous fortnight so I thought that the least I could do to make it up to him was go for our usual weekly skate this week.  The guys in the Shinny group had been equally understanding when I had told them that I was unlikely to turn up this week.  Without even knowing them, B has a bunch of allies there who empathised with his need to skate!

B was his usual charming self, patiently waiting in the queue for us to get in, having eaten breakfast and drunk some water before we left, and two hours after we started skating he even called me off the ice five minutes before we had to (!) so we didn't get caught up in the crush to get out of there ('just one more lap, B!'). 

For the first time he had a go at tightening and tying his own skates unassisted and made a not bad job of it (gives him good incentive to work on is lace tying skills lol).  More imporantly, he told me about an hour into the session that he thought his laces needed retightening - I'd said I'd be happy to do it if/when he thought it needed doing.   He was working in small segments of time on the various skills he has either been taught at his skating lessons (eg. forwards and backwards skating, turns, crossovers, one foot glides) or that he has taught himself (hockey stops).  In between, he just cruised around and seemed as always to be well in tune with himself and his fellow skaters.  I am quite proud of him!

For me, I stayed on the ice for one lap longer than B, which means that I didn't get to stop except to tighten laces for two hours.  I was a bit sore from the Wheeler's game the night before, so took a while to warm up.  Over the two hour session I did maybe ten sets of 5 each way back and forth stops with three accelerating steps between (aiming at getting the acceleration occuring as the change in direction reaches its point of transition by crossing over as I finish the stop and pushing under on the outside edge as the first impetus).  A couple of times I felt it 'flow', so it won't be too long and this skill will become operational.

I had breakthrough sessions in two other base skills I've been pursuing for months now; balancing/skating on the toe tips (maybe doing ten or so blue to blue tottering runs on my toe tips - where once for a few strides I felt the 'click' as posture and skate handling and momentum combined to move me quicker than my running motion alone could do), and repeat jumping in sets of ten while skating across the rink on the red line with landings occuring on alternating sides of the line as  did so.  With the jumps, I lifted my legs high for the first time and it probably looked either weird or spectacular.  I was doing the jumps in a bounding motion - probably not the safest.  I did maybe five of these drills.  So, for skill acquisition, it was pretty valuable session.

For the rest of the time, I just enjoyed cavorting around and basically playing around with the various techniqes I know to have fun.

Excellent day!

Sunday Skate - Noarlunga Shinny

For the second week in a row I traveled down to Noarlunga for a two hour shinny on the small ice.  The traffic was a bit heavier than last week and I got a lot of red lights, which on top of leaving about 20 minutes later than I'd hoped to meant that I got there twenty minutes after the booking had started.  The crew were out there hitting pucks around and doing a few drills when I got there.  Gave me a chance to do a sweater count before picking which of the ones I had brought I should wear.  To even the on ice colour combination, I went with my white Canada 'away' sweater.

Again, we had one goalie (John).  This time, only the one female (Rene).  I think there were three blooded C graders.  We had a total of nine skaters plus the goalie, which split to 3 white plus 1 orange (Joel, Michael and me, and Rene, respectively) versus 5 of the dark colours (Matt in a black blackhawks, Anthony in his beloved blues, an oiler and a plain black, and Lachie in his Canucks top).  The Blues team had the most 'emotionally investive' competitive players as well as the least skilled skater,  We had a work/wo/man like crew.

By the time I got onto the ice it was nearly 4:30 pm (puck drop).  We played two twenty minute and one thirty minute period, with intermissions of about ten and five minutes between them.  The last five minutes of the last period were 'all in'.  I kept my own personal tally (3 goals, 1 clear assists), found out from the competitive ones that the score was 7-7 at the end.  This added a smile to my face because I'd got the last goal to finish the last play of the evening!  That's the second tied game of my weekend.  At least I managed to put the puck on net when it counted tonight, unlike in last night's Wheelers game!

The final fifteen minutes saw a general drop off in skill execution.  At least once in that time I went down due my legs giving out, and had to really struggle to find the energy to get back to my feet.  I wasn't the only one that had that experience.  My brain at least didn't shut down (as evidenced by the options evaluation and shot selection for my final skate in (culminating in the game tying goal).

Despite the hard playing and eventual fatigue, there weren't any significant injuries.  I probably copped the worst one, when  a slapshot puck ricocheted off of my right inner forearm.  In almost fifty sessions of ice hockey this is the first time the puck has found the gap between glove and elbow pad.  It stung at the time and there's a red welt there now, but that seems the limit of the damage.

'Team White'

Our team (Joel, Mike, me and Rene) had all been together the previous week so, by accident more than design, we also got the chance to experience a bit of team development.  I think it really showed in how we played, and that's possibly the greatest lesson to take away from the whole experience.

I felt that I was much more aware of where my team mates were, and we were all much more willing to communicate with and trust each other (maybe the secret of here doesn't lie in juxtaposition, but an evolving feedback loop) to the extent of passing off and resetting, holding the puck to give off a pass rather than take a weak shot, etc.  Thus, more offensive puck protection, as well as looking for ice amongst the non puck handlers.

We had three relatively strong skaters, two good stickhandlers, and three skaters under thirty (the oppo had four such), and we are all at least minimally competent at the various arts of the sport, and we all have heart.  Despite the oppo's scorecounting competitiveness and size (they had the three largest, and four of the top five) we seemed to be more likely to out muscle it, even after an hour and a half of battling.  And, perhaps most importantly, our defence held strong with aggressive checking, slot, player and lane coverage.

My Game

My own game continues to improve in its effectiveness (and not just on the scoreline).  When defending, I concentrated on keeping both opponent and play in my field of view and shielding the slot.  Occasionally I'd pinch in a race to the puck or to take over the pressuring role on the puck carrier.  Around the boards I didn't leave an easy clearance for them, and tried to always make them feel under pressure.  The main attack dog role was taken by Mike and Joel, I tried to always be able to be in a position allowing them an outlet or support if they needed it.  I even did some creative stick checking, using position to lever an oppo's stick into practical immobility (despite their superior strength) or flicking that extra inch at the outstretch to just put the shot or pass off.  A certain ferociousness in the one on one battles certainly added a bit of spice to the whole thing.

Offensively, my game involved more seizure of the puck, when it came up for dispute, a little bit more thought about where or who to pass it to if I didn't have a good shot, and on several occasions the creation of enough time in the slot to select a shot that pierced the goalie's guard (a backhand on a flyby, taking up position by the weakside post to receive a pass, and the final shot from the top of the slot as their skaters covered all my team mates, momentarily creating a clear shooting lane for a 'saucer shot' that fooled the goalie as it dipped).  My shots aren't necessarily strong, but the slower puck can still easily lead to a goal (Rene was there and unchecked for the rebound on that final shot).

My skating is improving, though I need to continue to reduce skating backwards when supporting the puck carrier.  I am more quick in my accelerating starts, wasn't beaten today.  Will need to continue to work on this.  My fitness was a minor concern earlier, especially having played last night.  After the first ten or so minutes, however, I got into the rhythm.  I had good team mates who were happy to give me the shorter shifts I felt warranted with only four of us, and felt that I pulled my weight in time on ice.  None of us got blown.  In other words, my match conditioning is improving.

The technical aspects of my passing were satisfactory, with the puck pretty well always going where I wanted it to.  The decisional aspects, however, were very poor tonight.  I turned it over at least ten times by poor selection from my options (I probably stole it that many times also, so didn't feel as bad about this as I should do).  My shooting, as said earlier, was not strong but it was on net and I did use my head enough to get a couple goals.  The assist was a very neat pass, part of a larger passing sequence, involving delaying and controlling the puck in the corner long enough for Rene to get into shooting position and then passing it to her tape to tape.  The later goal when we combined culminated after a swooping series of passes between her, me and Joel where we all deserved a point and even the oppo applauded the way we put the play together.  Speaking of which, my puck reception seems to be improving, didn't lose any to bounces off my blade tonight.

At the end of the session, it was a case of pay up and get out of there as broomballers started arriving.  I made sure this week I did some stretches before getting in the car, and had a nice warm shower after putting away all my gear and before eating dinner.  So my body feels better than it did last week at this time, despite what I know to have been a more intense past 48 hours.

All good.

Sunday Skate - Noarlunga Shinny

As mentioned yesterday, I recently had an invitation to join a shinny (scratch match) down at the diminutive Noarlunga ice rink this evening.  After reorganising the weekend to some degree (taking advantage of the fact that there was no inline matches over this long weekend) I had the space, and so headed off in the mid afternoon to the deep south of Adelaide's urban sprawl.  Getting there in plenty of time, there was no one I recognised but the rink confirmed that the ice was hired for a couple hours from 4.  So I grabbed a cuppa and hung out to watch the troops arrive. 

Which they duly did.  By the time we were scheduled to start we had the ice set up and teams formed.  The ice is squarish in dimensions, and smaller in length than the small ice at the Ice Arena.  It's a cool little place, actually, set up originally by a Scandinavian emigre simply for the love of the ice, and it's kept going now for decades with a little government and a lot of community support.  Anyway, its ice is more accessible than that of the Arena (both in terms of availability at civilised hours and cost).  Which is ironic because it lies much further away for most of those that came than does the Arena, the majority of whom seem to reside in the northern suburbs.  The rink manager manually prepared the ice while we were getting changed.  It's all so much smaller in scale than Thebarton, and I wish I could use it more.  So it was a total pleasaure to reaquint myself with it (I was last here 18 months ago, before I'd ever hit a puck with intent, so the experience was almost as new).

Our gathering of players was really what this was all about, however.  Despite not being told who was likely to come by the fellow who invited me, I'd pretty well guessed many of the participants before I got there.  Which was really cool, because if they consider me to be part of their cohort then that is an honour and privilege!  Mitch I'd known from my first 'learn to skate' lesson, Ben from Wednesday evenings, most of the others from various phases of mine at the academy.  There were a couple others, but good blokes so all was well.  One goalie, two sheilas, three or four blooded C graders, for a total of 12.

The people side of the experience is pretty significant.  Everyone present was of similar level in hockey ability, different abilities and skills meant that everyone had a role and no one was totally outclassed.  More importantly, we mainly knew each other and there were no strangers.  No ego and little uncouth emotion.  Those I knew, I have seen under high pressure mental and physical and have respect for all as decent people.  We all share the peculiar passion for this game which is a bond in itself, and were willing to put our safety into each other's hands to prove it.  To an outsider, would have been interesting to see, the cameraderie and friendship as we came in, the no holds barred physical and mental struggle that followed, the business like friendly departures.  It's a nice feeling of belonging.

We split into two teams white with the single red sweater v the coloureds.  I had my Vikings sweater on and was thus with the coloureds.  We played three on three, with a bench of two for each team.  There was one goal set up, teams would take turns being offence/defensive, determined by puck possession.  If a team gained possession while playing defence and carried it to within a couple metres of the far wall, they became the offensive team and could launch their attack.

We had two hours with three five minute breaks.  Within my team we seemed to have more or less equal shift times, with only Nuono taking extra time out as he hasn't played for fifteen years (what a brave man!).  Although I was tired at the end I was still able to function on the ice relatively well and use my head.  This makes me pretty happy, there is no way I would have managed this six months ago.  As I write this though, several hours later, I am pretty sore all over :-) and suspect I'll have an earlyish night.

My team was outplayed quite handsomly by the opposition and, consequently, I got quite a bit of defensive time.  Think I might have only had two shots on goal, the one which scored actually being a deflection from a east to west dump into the crowded crease.  Our main systemic problem was that we gave up possession too easily after getting it.  I think by the end this was improving with a bit of 'stop and think' beginning to happen.  Before that, we often just dumped the puck in hopeful long stretch passes.

I've never scored a deflected goal before, so that was a good experience.  Other good experiences were application of various things we've been taught, like puck protection, backwards to forwards heel to heel transitions, poke checking, deception tactics, accurate passes, finding open ice, blocking lanes, tagging and screening.  All great fun.  And we're all peers, so even better!

So much so, I reckon I'll do it again next week, and then when possible.  

Sunday Skate - the strength of a sport lies in its youth

I completed my big skating/grandkid weekend by taking B and J down to the Ice Arena for our usual Sunday arvo skate, followed by an early dinner at Villi's bakery and return to the Arena for the Adrenaline's game against the Sydney Ice Dogs.  Left at 12, back a bit after 7.  Quite a day.

*

We had an hour and a half on the ice before we'd have to go and get something to eat.  This included about 10 min for a resurface, so not long as these things go.  The first people I recognised were fellow Vikings, down in the big smoke for a skate before the big game.  Had a good chance to speak to fellow Vikings Amanda and her daughter Laura a little about the balancing act of sport and life if you like the ice and live in the country and are still in the early teens.  I hope I helped with my comments.  Amanda plays for the Rockers and scored three goals in their win against the Shufflers last night, so was good to have a bit of a chat about Division 2 stuff for a while also.

Not long after, did a few circuits with my fellow Knight, Christian, who's keeping himself busy with Old Timers' hockey and running the junior 'Ice Blast' introductory program over the off season.  He commented to me that inline habits are visible in my ice skating technique (specifically, trying to heel to heel in the closing turn of a wraparound move (read Game Report from last night to find out why I was practicing this - the only 'drill' that I attempted this afternoon)).  We asked about the next Ice Blast 'season' [early August - three spots left - picked up contact details to get B enrolled].

The cool thing here was the way B has stepped up his presence on the ice since last week.  It was clear to me from the moment he started that this kid has found his rhythm, looked like someone who 'knows' rather than someone who is 'learning'.  When I mentioned B's interest to Christian, he turned to B (who just 'happened' to be skating alongside at this moment) and asked if he could skate backwards.  Whereupon B immediately did a transition to the rear to demonstrate his answer, before skating off.  Being a kid, he got into his own world pretty quick and sprinted to the wall before pulling off a very cool looking hockey stop.  We, being adults, of course were still watching him.  I could only agree with Christian that he'd be able to slip into pee wees next season, and that he appeared confident and comfortable on the ice.

Wound up doing a few final laps with my fellow young Saskatchewan fan of the Edmonton Oilers, talking Oilers gossip and opinions.  Cool indeed!  Not long after and me and the boys were off, to grab something to eat from Villis before returning for the afternoon game.

 It had been a very 'people oriented' afternoon, a change from the usual concentration on the technical act of skating per se.  All part of the course for hockey development (there's a whole series of potential posts I could write about this social aspect of sport/hockey once I start thinking about it).

The theme would continue upon our return from our tea for the big game.

Sunday Skate & Other Deeds

After the game last night I wasn't late in getting to bed but unfortunately still managed to awaken a couple hours before dawn.  Resigned to the fact that this would necessitate a mid morning nap so I'd have the promised energy to go ice skating with B, and that therefore I wouldn't be able to get a mid morning inline puck'n'skate session in, I instead watch a recording of the second NHL game of the current Western Conference Final series and then had my nap.

Waking up again late in the morning, it wasn't long and B and I had had some watermelon (wonder sports food) and were down at the Ice Arena.  First thing on the agenda was to get a lace tightening tool for him so he can be responsible for putting on his own skates nice and tight (it's tough enough on forty plus year old fingers, let alone for those under ten (just)).  And then, out on the ice for an hour and a half of moderately crowded public skating time.

As seems to be the pattern these days, I didn't really try to push any particular agenda too hard, tending just to enjoy watching other skaters, cruising to the music, and continually doing simple and single 'moves' as I just took my time.  As the ice began to empty over the last half hour I picked up the pace for a few laps, and became more flamboyant in the techniques which had gained most of my attention earlier.  Namely, 'grapevining' backwards/forwards (which is, the way I do it, good practice drill for undercutting outside edges), backwards to forwards transitions, combined with a preceding forwards to backwards on the same foot along the boards on later runs, and the previously mentioned combination of inside edge C cuts and outside undercut, crossed over from standing or pivoting start, forwards and backwards.  Seem to be on top of them all (famous last words).

We left as the Old Timers were turning up for their games later that afternoon/evening.

Quick trip home and a bit of 'down time' while we heated up some food and got some energy back into ourselves, before a trip to the North East suburbs to check out some protective gear which B's Uncle Shaun had spotted being advertised for sale second hand on the web the night before.  He'd emailed for pictures, had forwarded them to my missus who had then emailed the lady.  Eventually I had given her a ring to organise an inspection of the gear and had sadly had to disappoint her that both the guy she'd mailed pictures to and the lady she'd emailed had both been connected to my call (ie not as much interest as she'd thought).  Lol.

Anyway, cutting a long story short, we rocked up bang on 5 pm and were testing the fitting on quite a few items of equipment on B in the dusk.  Turned out that would be able to get practically everything he'll need except for hockey pants and socks (Vince's son is apparently a bit taller in the legs than B).  I made an offer, and then this guy invited me to make an offer for the whole collection.  Which I did.  And that was the final agreed price.  After a down payment, to collect later in the week, we departed for the lengthy trip home discussing the ins and outs of off-ice practice and the value of inline for stick'n'puck'thinking training, the theoretical milestones that would be needed for an Adelaide boy to play NHL (I thought, club-state-national-scholarship-tryout if you're good enough would be the route) and so on and so forth.

I think what we ended up purchasing were two caged helmets (both Itec, white and yellow), throat guard (Bauer), three sets of shoulder pads (CCM and two Bauer), elbow pads (Bauer), two sets of gloves (Itech), hockey pants (CCM), shin pads (Itech), hockey shorts (like boxershorts with a protector in them), three sets of green and gold hockey socks, a black practice sweater and a Bauer kit bag complete with shoulder strap.  Some of it is hardly used, all has been well looked after  $350.  Seemed fair all round.

After finally dropping B off home and then heading home myself, I could only think that I had been a very useful engine and it had been a very busy day. 

All good.

Sunday Skate - four ice-skateers

Yesterday afternoon I went skating with the three Lizard Kids, by popular demand.  They'd been up pretty late, and I'd been up ridiculously late watching the F.A. Cup Final (ended at 3.30am our time), so it took a bit of finessing to keep every one moving (except for B, who was keen as mustard to get out on his new skates) and it didn't help that I forgot my skates and we had to go back and get them.  Be that as it may, we got there about 1:30pm, leaving us one and a half hours before an early closing of the rink to allow for preparation for the Adrenaline game an hour later.

J seems to have relaxed and isn't trying to prove himself outwardly, and hence looks much more confident and natural.  B continues to push himself and try out new techniques, not afraid to drill on the boards in his stationary moments and getting a buzz out of life on the edge (quite literally, as he is discovering the importance of his edges on the ice also).  E just looks cool, and had worked her way onto the big ice by the time the session had ended.

Me, I didn't do anything too much in particular and just basically went through a lot of my various 'moves' and 'projects' but in a non dogmatic and playful manner.  Always looking for a gap in the crowd to give me a few seconds of freedom I continued to work on my exit from transition from rearward to forward skating with a left leading foot.  It's becoming a bit more natural to take an inside line with my right foot rather than crossing over as I had unconsciously been training myself to do.

Quite a crowd had gathered for the game by the time we were leaving.  As cool as it would have been to stay we were all buggered and needed to get back to our respective homes before sunday evening.