27 August Legs, Ice (tech/sprints), Stickhandling
28 August Rest
29 August Rest
August 27 began with a morning legs workout before breakfast. Brought back supine lateral leg lifts to the mix (ten each side for 5s) and traditional and figure four squats (sets of ten for the former, five each leg for the later).
In the afternoon I went down the Ice Arena for a fairly concentrated 45 minute session. I did the various drills Corey had led us through on Monday, with the addition of several repetitions of my (wide) lateral line drill and three line sprints as an anaerobic workout.
In the evening I spent about twenty minutes on a lino floor with golf ball and hockey stick. Am already noticing the difference in the softness of my hands and, correspondingly, in the increased degree of control of the ball.
I then went up country with the Missus on August 28 and 29. I took the opportunity to concentrate on what was happening around me in the world, didn't even think of hockey for a couple days, let alone maintain my off season program. As long as I get back into it sooner rather than later the break will do me no harm, and quite probably will add to my overall progress as I enter the final intense fortnight before the season starts.
Overall for Week 8 I think I did okay. I have given the week a 'yellow' rating because for once I ticked all of the boxes, albeit didn't really reach required level for either aerobic (only one run) or anaerobic (counted my ice line sprints, but still did no hardcore interval training) activity. It will be interesting if I can get back to green entries during the stretch.
Ice 31
Fridge
Sunday, 30 August 2015
Wednesday, 26 August 2015
Off Season Day 57
Aug 23 Run, Agility, Stickhandling
Aug 24 Arms, Legs, Ice Power & Edges
Aug 25 Rest
Aug 26 Arms, Agility, Stickhandling
In the evening of August 23 I forced myself to get ready and go for a run. More of a wind than there has been before, still daylight, cool to cold. I hadn't ran for five days so I knew it wouldn't be the easiest. Which it wasn't, I had four walking periods of varied length which I used by being 'mindful' of the breathing/muscle/heart/brain interactions as I recovered for the next running phase. I did, however, push it harder during the actual running through the middle phases, reaching pretty high running speeds along the river, to the school and on the final short slope to home. Total time was 21 minutes.
After getting my breathing fully back I moved straight into a set of Agility exercises. I built up what I'd done last week except that I increased the reps to six for each set and kept count of my best score amongst those reps in each set. Will be interesting to measure the improvement now that the actual movements are pretty well secured in my neuromusculature.
Later in the evening I took the opportunity to do some stickhandling training during a twenty minute break between other, more domestic, activities. I limited myself to two 'sets' each of two simple drills. I will try to get the neuromuscular imprint fixed before working up the speed (treating this as an extension of agility training methodology).
The first drill involves facing a coffeetable from about 3 feet away, lay a hockey stick on the table edge with the grip end at my feet so as to form a diagonal obstacle between the edge of the table and my feet, then tap a golfball from one side of the obstacle to the other, performing whatever variants on the basic pattern I feel like doing at the time. This drill requires the upper hand to pull/push the stick through the relatively stationary lower hand to control the height of the blade off the ground.
The second drill has two tins on the ground about shoulder width apart and about 18" in front of me, using them to form various improvasitional deking patterns, again using the lower hand to both rotate the stick for forehand/backhand sides but also to raise and lower the stick through the lower hand depending upon where the golf ball is.
I did each drill for about two minutes, twice.
In the morning of August 24 I did an arms workout. 2 circuits of ten reps each set, 1 minute recoveries between sets. I backed this up with an almost full circuit of leg drills (minus lunges and squats, though I did Sumo Squats). In both legs and arms sessions I reached the stage of moderate fatigue by the end of most sets.
In the evening I went down the Ice Arena for a 'Power and Edges for Ice Hockey' session with Corey. Besides the technical side of things it was also a good anaerobic workout. A short slalom event of tight turns and stops, crossovers (lateral extensions and cross under), T starts (glides), outside edges, backwards take off and first step (cross under on first couple steps), transitions, several long 'sprints' around all the circles incorporating above, line sprints, balance, recovery, core strength. A good hour.
August 25 I declared a rest day.
August 26, in the morning I completed an arms workout paced by agility exercises during my 1 minute recovery periods, and then completed the agility circuit, with six reps per set. Have now added the wide variant to the lateral line drill, which is introducing distinct pylometric aspect to training.
In the evening I had about fifteen minutes stickhandling on the lino in the kitchen with a golf ball and my Bauer stick. The lino is conveniently marked out in a grid composed of 6" squares which makes it fairly easy to create standard (and not so standard) patterns designed to exercise the various technical components of the act of stickhandling.
Ice 30
Aug 24 Arms, Legs, Ice Power & Edges
Aug 25 Rest
Aug 26 Arms, Agility, Stickhandling
In the evening of August 23 I forced myself to get ready and go for a run. More of a wind than there has been before, still daylight, cool to cold. I hadn't ran for five days so I knew it wouldn't be the easiest. Which it wasn't, I had four walking periods of varied length which I used by being 'mindful' of the breathing/muscle/heart/brain interactions as I recovered for the next running phase. I did, however, push it harder during the actual running through the middle phases, reaching pretty high running speeds along the river, to the school and on the final short slope to home. Total time was 21 minutes.
After getting my breathing fully back I moved straight into a set of Agility exercises. I built up what I'd done last week except that I increased the reps to six for each set and kept count of my best score amongst those reps in each set. Will be interesting to measure the improvement now that the actual movements are pretty well secured in my neuromusculature.
Later in the evening I took the opportunity to do some stickhandling training during a twenty minute break between other, more domestic, activities. I limited myself to two 'sets' each of two simple drills. I will try to get the neuromuscular imprint fixed before working up the speed (treating this as an extension of agility training methodology).
The first drill involves facing a coffeetable from about 3 feet away, lay a hockey stick on the table edge with the grip end at my feet so as to form a diagonal obstacle between the edge of the table and my feet, then tap a golfball from one side of the obstacle to the other, performing whatever variants on the basic pattern I feel like doing at the time. This drill requires the upper hand to pull/push the stick through the relatively stationary lower hand to control the height of the blade off the ground.
The second drill has two tins on the ground about shoulder width apart and about 18" in front of me, using them to form various improvasitional deking patterns, again using the lower hand to both rotate the stick for forehand/backhand sides but also to raise and lower the stick through the lower hand depending upon where the golf ball is.
I did each drill for about two minutes, twice.
In the morning of August 24 I did an arms workout. 2 circuits of ten reps each set, 1 minute recoveries between sets. I backed this up with an almost full circuit of leg drills (minus lunges and squats, though I did Sumo Squats). In both legs and arms sessions I reached the stage of moderate fatigue by the end of most sets.
In the evening I went down the Ice Arena for a 'Power and Edges for Ice Hockey' session with Corey. Besides the technical side of things it was also a good anaerobic workout. A short slalom event of tight turns and stops, crossovers (lateral extensions and cross under), T starts (glides), outside edges, backwards take off and first step (cross under on first couple steps), transitions, several long 'sprints' around all the circles incorporating above, line sprints, balance, recovery, core strength. A good hour.
August 25 I declared a rest day.
August 26, in the morning I completed an arms workout paced by agility exercises during my 1 minute recovery periods, and then completed the agility circuit, with six reps per set. Have now added the wide variant to the lateral line drill, which is introducing distinct pylometric aspect to training.
In the evening I had about fifteen minutes stickhandling on the lino in the kitchen with a golf ball and my Bauer stick. The lino is conveniently marked out in a grid composed of 6" squares which makes it fairly easy to create standard (and not so standard) patterns designed to exercise the various technical components of the act of stickhandling.
Ice 30
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
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
Sunday, 23 August 2015
Off Season Day 53 - Week 7 Summary
Aug 21 Ice
Aug 22 Wheelers Game
On August 21 I went down to the Arena for an hour's skate in the afternoon. Had half the ice due Ice Factor team practice on the other half. Shared the space with a couple figure skaters. I spent about ten minutes in recovery time.
Individual drills which I did were sideways walking, stops, first 'stride' backwards, first stride from transition (backwards to forwards), power stride recovery action, pivots. Most technical was the exit from forwards transition onto the left leg. Most measurable gain was power stride recovery. Least satisfactory were the pivots.
On August 22 I played in the Wheelers' Round 1 win in winter season finals. We played with six skaters and thus were able to avoid double shifting. Had a lot of energy left in the tank for the final minutes, could have played out another period. Very physical game where strength on puck came into it, leg and core up to the task. Several comments afterwards about apparent increase in my 'speed'. I didn't think this while playing.
What was noticeable to me, however, was that I spent more of my time in a 'high energy state' than is usual (ie. race to shut down uncontested space, open up a lane, etc). This elevation in intensity came about due to increase in ability (physical strength and first step technique) as well as willingness to do so (no holding back energy for potential double shift, fact it was a final), wasn't an increase in speed per se. That's what I think, anyway.
Week 7 Summary
I have only given myself an 'orange' rating for this past week. Again, I didn't make quota on anaerobic conditioning (interval training) nor on Off Ice Technique (stickhandling). I did make the cut on everything else, however, which wasn't too bad considering it was a rather busy week.
Ice 29
Aug 22 Wheelers Game
On August 21 I went down to the Arena for an hour's skate in the afternoon. Had half the ice due Ice Factor team practice on the other half. Shared the space with a couple figure skaters. I spent about ten minutes in recovery time.
Individual drills which I did were sideways walking, stops, first 'stride' backwards, first stride from transition (backwards to forwards), power stride recovery action, pivots. Most technical was the exit from forwards transition onto the left leg. Most measurable gain was power stride recovery. Least satisfactory were the pivots.
On August 22 I played in the Wheelers' Round 1 win in winter season finals. We played with six skaters and thus were able to avoid double shifting. Had a lot of energy left in the tank for the final minutes, could have played out another period. Very physical game where strength on puck came into it, leg and core up to the task. Several comments afterwards about apparent increase in my 'speed'. I didn't think this while playing.
What was noticeable to me, however, was that I spent more of my time in a 'high energy state' than is usual (ie. race to shut down uncontested space, open up a lane, etc). This elevation in intensity came about due to increase in ability (physical strength and first step technique) as well as willingness to do so (no holding back energy for potential double shift, fact it was a final), wasn't an increase in speed per se. That's what I think, anyway.
Week 7 Summary
I have only given myself an 'orange' rating for this past week. Again, I didn't make quota on anaerobic conditioning (interval training) nor on Off Ice Technique (stickhandling). I did make the cut on everything else, however, which wasn't too bad considering it was a rather busy week.
Ice 29
Friday, 21 August 2015
Knights Training
On Thursday night I packed my armour and went down the Ice Arena for a Knight's training session. It went for about 70 minutes. There were close to twenty players, all from Div I (Bombers), Div II (Knights) or the Ice Academy so the skill levels weren't as far apart as they have been during some sessions in past. For a change I donned my North Vikings I.H.C. jersey, it fits quite well over full armour on the ice.
As is usual with Justine's sessions, our time was divided pretty evenly between an opening game of 'baseball' to warm up and kick the aerobic system into gear, a three player free form passing game, defence (1 on 1) and breakout (3 on 2) drills to push us anaerobically and a quick blast of 3 on 3 hockey to pull it all together.
My baseball game was good. 'At bat', I got the puck into the backzone and myself across the line before the 'fielders' were able to score a goal In the 'field' I picked up several deep hits and passed them into the OZ (only to see the rest of my team waste the opportunity to pass - pass - score by lack of communication and puck chasing).
My passing game started poorly due the fact I wasn't looking properly before making my pass. I got better once I started concentrating again.
My defence game was inconsistent. I was not getting good backwards acceleration, letting simple shots through my legs, not keeping a close gap to the better skaters as they cut across the ice or put on the afterburners to get by me on the transition. Encouragingly, I seem to be developing a reasonably active stick, stripping the puck from more of the skilled players than not (nothing glorious, but neutralised their attacks). The trick to doing this seems to be quick pokes, keeping the central ice, not stretching or committing too soon. What really pleased me was that, even with only four defenders (ie work-rest ratio of 1 to 1 due drills being run simultaneously each way), I had a lot of legs left and didn't tire at all.
My favourite moment in this drill was 'standing up' on a big fast skating forward who got mesmerised by his own puck as he cut across the ice on the forward diagonal. All I had to do was apply a small amount of deceleration and brace myself before he slammed into me. Quite legal, probably looked good (it drew a bit of applause from the sideline).
We then moved into the breakout/rush game, where D passes to W on the boards, chips it out to C as forwards leave the zone, then the three turn around and return into the zone but this time the D is trying to stop them. I played in a forward line with Cam and a new Knight, Richard. Cam played C (he wants to move there this season from D). We actually got it together quite nice a few times, weaving and tape to tape with our passes, someone on net and someone else in the high slot for outlet passes and so on. Quite funny when you think we're a defence unit.
For a final drill we played a few minutes of three on three. I didn't get out there overly much as some of the younger ones seemed much keener. It wasn't that I wasn't able, more that enjoyed watching.
My skates didn't cause major issues in either slippage or comfort. They should be right for start of season. Fitness and conditioning held up, I would have been in the top third in this regard. My skating technique needs to sharpen up and I will need to adjust to the relative speed of play in contrast to inline. Apart from that, pretty happy with the session.
Ice 28
As is usual with Justine's sessions, our time was divided pretty evenly between an opening game of 'baseball' to warm up and kick the aerobic system into gear, a three player free form passing game, defence (1 on 1) and breakout (3 on 2) drills to push us anaerobically and a quick blast of 3 on 3 hockey to pull it all together.
My baseball game was good. 'At bat', I got the puck into the backzone and myself across the line before the 'fielders' were able to score a goal In the 'field' I picked up several deep hits and passed them into the OZ (only to see the rest of my team waste the opportunity to pass - pass - score by lack of communication and puck chasing).
My passing game started poorly due the fact I wasn't looking properly before making my pass. I got better once I started concentrating again.
My defence game was inconsistent. I was not getting good backwards acceleration, letting simple shots through my legs, not keeping a close gap to the better skaters as they cut across the ice or put on the afterburners to get by me on the transition. Encouragingly, I seem to be developing a reasonably active stick, stripping the puck from more of the skilled players than not (nothing glorious, but neutralised their attacks). The trick to doing this seems to be quick pokes, keeping the central ice, not stretching or committing too soon. What really pleased me was that, even with only four defenders (ie work-rest ratio of 1 to 1 due drills being run simultaneously each way), I had a lot of legs left and didn't tire at all.
My favourite moment in this drill was 'standing up' on a big fast skating forward who got mesmerised by his own puck as he cut across the ice on the forward diagonal. All I had to do was apply a small amount of deceleration and brace myself before he slammed into me. Quite legal, probably looked good (it drew a bit of applause from the sideline).
We then moved into the breakout/rush game, where D passes to W on the boards, chips it out to C as forwards leave the zone, then the three turn around and return into the zone but this time the D is trying to stop them. I played in a forward line with Cam and a new Knight, Richard. Cam played C (he wants to move there this season from D). We actually got it together quite nice a few times, weaving and tape to tape with our passes, someone on net and someone else in the high slot for outlet passes and so on. Quite funny when you think we're a defence unit.
For a final drill we played a few minutes of three on three. I didn't get out there overly much as some of the younger ones seemed much keener. It wasn't that I wasn't able, more that enjoyed watching.
My skates didn't cause major issues in either slippage or comfort. They should be right for start of season. Fitness and conditioning held up, I would have been in the top third in this regard. My skating technique needs to sharpen up and I will need to adjust to the relative speed of play in contrast to inline. Apart from that, pretty happy with the session.
Ice 28
Thursday, 20 August 2015
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.
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
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
Wednesday, 19 August 2015
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
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
Tuesday, 18 August 2015
Off Season Day 48
Aug 15 Vikings Games
Aug 16 Arms
Aug 17 Agility, Run, Legs
In the afternoon and evening of August 15 I played in two games of inline hockey at Gawler. This was the second week in a row I've done this. I think I coped with it better despite both games being more demanding than their counterparts from the week before. Importantly, the next morning I was nowhere near as sore either.
The first game had been four v four (ie. only one on the bench for each team) and every player could skate. Thus, recovery periods were short and shifts were long and one had to be disciplined. In the second game I played the role of 'responsible reserve' and tended to give as much time as they wanted to the team's own players. This time, though, there were only two 'naturals' playing with us, so that led to more and harder minutes than the week before.
My aerobic recovery on the bench was sufficient to the task in both games and I was able to sustain play through extended shifts allowing others to recover. Keeping my legs moving as soon as I had regained breath and, importantly, through the period between the games dissipated much of the lactic build up I was probably suffering and, I think, made a big difference the following morning.
The improvement from the week before is probably most due to a 'conditioning effect', of knowing what to expect (allowing conscious mindfulness) and having prepared the body for the experience (freeing up the mind). Although I had eaten sufficient for the task through the day, probably the easiest way to further improve my performance will be through better dietary energy loading.
On August 16 I was still a little fatigued (though less than I had been in the previous week) and thus was again in danger of declaring the day an unplanned 'rest day'. I did manage, however, to motivate myself to the extent of doing an arms session, usual weights, two circuits of ten reps, cutting the recovery time from 90s to 75s.
On August 17 I commenced my new life as a self funded layabout (having taken a package in return for my day job) so I put my status to good use and spent about ninety minutes on training activities. I started with 25 minutes of agility drills, limiting myself to the four 'easiest' of them and trying to keep all movements slow and measured so I can drill into my neuromuscular self the movements needed before I step up the pace. I did five reps of each drill, limiting myself to about the 5s per rep that is recommended for beginners with 25s recovery periods.
I found that by the end of the fifth rep I generally had the gross movement patterns down and was starting to concentrate on the 'popping' of the steps (removing the pause between contraction and extension motions), the point of the exercise. If the motions are drilled in it will be interesting to see how the quickness develops in the next agility session. For the record the four agility drills I commenced today were Forward (and Backward) Line Drill, Lateral Line Drill, Split Leg Shuffle and Split Leg 45' Shuffle.
I then went for my usual run. I didn't stop to stretch and walked only twice (about 100m each time). I was taking smaller steps than in past due pain in my calves from some ill considered isometrics I was doing yesterday (serves me right, I should know better) so my time was still relatively slow at 24 minutes. Going at the slower pace, however, also allowed me to be a little more fine tuned with my breathing awareness, able to track VO2 efficiency (I suppose) against energy demand as I varied the pace. Hopefully the legs feel better tomorrow.
To finish off the day's exercise I spent about a half hour going through my core leg exercises. I left hardly any time between sets, and generally only 5-15s between reps. Even so I didn't manage to fit the whole routine into the time available (no squats or Swedish Ball Planks).
Aug 16 Arms
Aug 17 Agility, Run, Legs
In the afternoon and evening of August 15 I played in two games of inline hockey at Gawler. This was the second week in a row I've done this. I think I coped with it better despite both games being more demanding than their counterparts from the week before. Importantly, the next morning I was nowhere near as sore either.
The first game had been four v four (ie. only one on the bench for each team) and every player could skate. Thus, recovery periods were short and shifts were long and one had to be disciplined. In the second game I played the role of 'responsible reserve' and tended to give as much time as they wanted to the team's own players. This time, though, there were only two 'naturals' playing with us, so that led to more and harder minutes than the week before.
My aerobic recovery on the bench was sufficient to the task in both games and I was able to sustain play through extended shifts allowing others to recover. Keeping my legs moving as soon as I had regained breath and, importantly, through the period between the games dissipated much of the lactic build up I was probably suffering and, I think, made a big difference the following morning.
The improvement from the week before is probably most due to a 'conditioning effect', of knowing what to expect (allowing conscious mindfulness) and having prepared the body for the experience (freeing up the mind). Although I had eaten sufficient for the task through the day, probably the easiest way to further improve my performance will be through better dietary energy loading.
On August 16 I was still a little fatigued (though less than I had been in the previous week) and thus was again in danger of declaring the day an unplanned 'rest day'. I did manage, however, to motivate myself to the extent of doing an arms session, usual weights, two circuits of ten reps, cutting the recovery time from 90s to 75s.
On August 17 I commenced my new life as a self funded layabout (having taken a package in return for my day job) so I put my status to good use and spent about ninety minutes on training activities. I started with 25 minutes of agility drills, limiting myself to the four 'easiest' of them and trying to keep all movements slow and measured so I can drill into my neuromuscular self the movements needed before I step up the pace. I did five reps of each drill, limiting myself to about the 5s per rep that is recommended for beginners with 25s recovery periods.
I found that by the end of the fifth rep I generally had the gross movement patterns down and was starting to concentrate on the 'popping' of the steps (removing the pause between contraction and extension motions), the point of the exercise. If the motions are drilled in it will be interesting to see how the quickness develops in the next agility session. For the record the four agility drills I commenced today were Forward (and Backward) Line Drill, Lateral Line Drill, Split Leg Shuffle and Split Leg 45' Shuffle.
I then went for my usual run. I didn't stop to stretch and walked only twice (about 100m each time). I was taking smaller steps than in past due pain in my calves from some ill considered isometrics I was doing yesterday (serves me right, I should know better) so my time was still relatively slow at 24 minutes. Going at the slower pace, however, also allowed me to be a little more fine tuned with my breathing awareness, able to track VO2 efficiency (I suppose) against energy demand as I varied the pace. Hopefully the legs feel better tomorrow.
To finish off the day's exercise I spent about a half hour going through my core leg exercises. I left hardly any time between sets, and generally only 5-15s between reps. Even so I didn't manage to fit the whole routine into the time available (no squats or Swedish Ball Planks).
Monday, 17 August 2015
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
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
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