I went skating at Meehan Auditorium on Thursday afternoon, and I also went to the Kennedy Plaza rink on Friday because I was absolutely craving ice time even if on a small sheet with a lot of people on it. I only got about a half hour time for each session, but I did have just one focus for the entirety of my weekend ice time: knee bend.
In my last video post, it was incredibly obvious that my legs were practically straight on the ice. This phenomenon, despite my conscious effort to bend my knees and try to avoid being straight-legged on the ice. So on Thursday at Meehan, I did the strides drill from HowToHockey's second video on skating fundamentals.
In starting out, I wanted to take things to an extreme, so I made sure to keep my knees really bent, feeling almost like I'm in a seated position. The short time on the ice (as well as the fact that Kennedy Plaza is a very public skate) didn't allow me to capture any video, but I definitely felt closer to the ice than before. The difference in my balance is drastic. While I felt pretty steady even before focusing on my knee bend, keeping myself that low to the ice really secured the feeling on my skates and allowed me to take confident strides. The low level also helped with my speed because of the coverage I got with a single stride; the extreme knee bend eliminated any feelings of sluggishness and limited speed I would occasionally get from feeling like I was pushing and making an effort but still moving more slowly than I usually do.
The problem I noticed coming up the most that seems to have corrected itself with a shift in focus has to do with maintaining the knee bend well throughout my skating. As Scott and Jeremy mention in the video, one of the big problems people have with skating this way is maintaining the knee bend. It can happen for various reasons, from fatigue to laziness to lack of mental awareness. But focusing on my legs and making sure I stayed low to the ice, keeping my knees bent and over my toes, helped me keep my head on the same horizontal plane so that I wasn't shifting up and down and wasting energy picking up my knees then bending low again.
I'm noticing having a good, solid knee bend is actually helping my overall skating ability out quite a bit. The next step is to make it a habit, to make it automatic. Like every skating ability, I should just do it without needing to think about it.
Monday, December 16, 2013
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Skating Journal Updates (video)
So it finally worked! Blogger finally uploaded this video, and I can finally do some analysis of my skating before my game tonight!
0:00-0:41
One-step lateral movement drill, forward and backward. Probably the one good thing I do in this drill is keep my head up. (And that's probably also the only good thing I do throughout this video.) It's one thing to be on the ice and think that I'm bending my knees, and a pretty surreal experience to see myself on video and see almost no knee-bend whatsoever. A good, solid knee-bend would certainly go a long way toward making sure I do this drill right and make it at least look competent.
I can pinpoint two other things I can improve on. The first is that when I stop on the side, I'm sliding across the ice most of the time instead of getting to the other side as quickly as possible. That may partially be an equipment issue because I haven't sharpened my skates since the summer, and as I've mentioned numerous times before, my skates aren't the best possible fit since my left boot is just slightly too big that I can notice it affect my skating ability. But a better push off the side should help me with those quick stops and get moving to the other side more quickly.
The second point of improvement deals with my actual movement side to side. My inside leg is static. A better knee-bend will help because I'll actually have something to use and somewhere to go, but I need a much better push on my inside leg when I crossover to the other side. So I load up my weight on the outside leg, push off that leg, crossover, and as I'm crossing over, my leg that's staying on the ice can do a better job of pushing me toward the side. As a lateral movement drill, the point is that I should be able to move side to side and also cover as much ice as I possibly can. In my first game this season (post coming soon!), I got beat a few times to the outside because I couldn't step in front of the guys quickly enough because I couldn't cover enough ice laterally, so I got turned much more than I would like or should be considered acceptable.
0:42-1:27
Two-step lateral movement drill, forward and backward. I think some of the problems with my one-step lateral movement drill just become exaggerated when I do this drill. I'll work on the one-step and see what happens with the two-step once I make those adjustments.
I will say though that I do have a somewhat difficult time adjusting to this drill and keeping it from becoming a backwards crossovers drill once I go from forward to backward. Here's an instance of where I really feel my skate sizing issue affects my skating ability because my left foot can never seem to land comfortably, and it always seems to want to cut its own path in the ice. Short of getting another pair of skates, I'm not entirely sure what to do about this problem other than keep trying and see if it corrects itself when I make other adjustments and get more comfortable in my skating.
1:28-1:59
Agility drill. My arms flail around because they're not holding anything. I've done this drill with a hockey stick before (off camera), and my hands were much more in control when they had something in them like my hockey stick.
Aside from my hands flailing, I think my pivots are actually getting better. I need to work on not making them pull me off to the side so much like at the end around 1:55 where I pivot to the last part of the drill where I back-skate to the other side of the circle.
Here, you can see the obvious deficiencies in my lateral movement. I slowed down a lot going from left to right to avoid falling. I see Jeremy Weiss demonstrate this drill in his video describing it, and I wonder how I can get my lateral movement to look anything close to that. Just some things to work on when I get back home for winter break and can get more stick-and-puck time as well as skating space.
Monday, December 2, 2013
Skating Journal 12-2-13
So I was originally going to post this with a video, but Blogger is being quite unhelpful with uploading a video with this post. The video itself is nothing terribly remarkable, but it's much more helpful to actually see what's going on instead of just have me attempt to describe it here. There were lateral movement drills and an agility drill, but I can't really talk about what specifically happens in the video unless the video can be uploaded. Instead, I'll talk about something else that's come up in recent weeks.
I haven't been able to skate as much as I thought I would be able to this semester, but there are definitely other hockey related skills-building things I've done in the meantime to try to make up for the lack of ice time.
On the ice, though, it's been an interesting last few months. I've been trying to find ways to improve, and aside from learning skills that I don't yet know how to do or do very poorly, I've been trying to delve deeper into my stride. There are skating sessions where I feel like I'm the fastest I've ever been, and the next time out, the ice feels like trying to skate through concrete. I don't particularly consider myself a skilled hockey player in any facet of the game, but I do think my best asset is my skating ability, so developing consistency there would go a long way toward shoring up the rest of my on-ice skills. It probably helps that skating is the only thing I can work on since there's hardly any time I can get for stick-and-puck practice on ice while I'm here at school.
I love HowToHockey and the video's he's posted on hockey fundamentals, and I think I'm starting to find some answers with his most recent videos on proper skating stance:
And a second:
Going all the way back to my last blog, and even including the video I was planning to upload with this post, something always seemed off to me about my skating stride and stance, especially on lateral movement drills. On the ice, I always felt like I was bending my knees and trying to stay low to the ice to maintain my power skating stance; after video review though, my legs make it look like I never bend my knees while skating, and it was very apparent in the video I was planning to post today that my knee-bend looked non-existent on video.
I've already played one game of intramural ice hockey this season (which will be its own separate post if I ever get around to it), and while I didn't get a chance to really work on my skating to try to implement this insight into knee-bend and adjust my skating stride before the game, I did make a conscious effort during the game to get low especially in races for the puck. I definitely felt faster than I had been in recent weeks, and even though the ice was really choppy because we were the second game that night and there was no zamboni between games, the ice didn't feel like trying to skate through concrete when I made a conscious effort to bend my knees more than I might have considered necessary. It didn't detract from my balance even though I hadn't worked on my stride in a while (in fact, the lower stance helped my balance overall especially when I tried skating at full speed in puck races), and it also didn't hinder any of stick skills, which is encouraging because I've been experimenting with my hockey sticks lately after finding something absolutely fascinating on the Internet (topic for another post).
Whenever I can actually make it to the rink to practice my skating again, I'll definitely be working on maintaining my knee-bend as a conditioning exercise, as a leg workout, and as a speed exercise.
I haven't been able to skate as much as I thought I would be able to this semester, but there are definitely other hockey related skills-building things I've done in the meantime to try to make up for the lack of ice time.
On the ice, though, it's been an interesting last few months. I've been trying to find ways to improve, and aside from learning skills that I don't yet know how to do or do very poorly, I've been trying to delve deeper into my stride. There are skating sessions where I feel like I'm the fastest I've ever been, and the next time out, the ice feels like trying to skate through concrete. I don't particularly consider myself a skilled hockey player in any facet of the game, but I do think my best asset is my skating ability, so developing consistency there would go a long way toward shoring up the rest of my on-ice skills. It probably helps that skating is the only thing I can work on since there's hardly any time I can get for stick-and-puck practice on ice while I'm here at school.
I love HowToHockey and the video's he's posted on hockey fundamentals, and I think I'm starting to find some answers with his most recent videos on proper skating stance:
And a second:
Going all the way back to my last blog, and even including the video I was planning to upload with this post, something always seemed off to me about my skating stride and stance, especially on lateral movement drills. On the ice, I always felt like I was bending my knees and trying to stay low to the ice to maintain my power skating stance; after video review though, my legs make it look like I never bend my knees while skating, and it was very apparent in the video I was planning to post today that my knee-bend looked non-existent on video.
I've already played one game of intramural ice hockey this season (which will be its own separate post if I ever get around to it), and while I didn't get a chance to really work on my skating to try to implement this insight into knee-bend and adjust my skating stride before the game, I did make a conscious effort during the game to get low especially in races for the puck. I definitely felt faster than I had been in recent weeks, and even though the ice was really choppy because we were the second game that night and there was no zamboni between games, the ice didn't feel like trying to skate through concrete when I made a conscious effort to bend my knees more than I might have considered necessary. It didn't detract from my balance even though I hadn't worked on my stride in a while (in fact, the lower stance helped my balance overall especially when I tried skating at full speed in puck races), and it also didn't hinder any of stick skills, which is encouraging because I've been experimenting with my hockey sticks lately after finding something absolutely fascinating on the Internet (topic for another post).
Whenever I can actually make it to the rink to practice my skating again, I'll definitely be working on maintaining my knee-bend as a conditioning exercise, as a leg workout, and as a speed exercise.
Sunday, November 17, 2013
8/31/13
The date of my last update to this blog. The last time I had a draft saved was 9/7/13.
Life is starting to sort itself out again, just in time for Thanksgiving and the rest of the holiday season to throw it out of whack. Again.
Intramural hockey season for the 2013-14 school year was supposed to have started this past week, but it's been delayed a week because of reasons. So hopefully that will start up this week.
I will have many updates on random tidbits in the coming weeks, but this is a post to let you all know I'm back from my unannounced blogging hiatus and to expect a video with the next post here. I won't be posting every day, and I'm not entirely sure how I managed to post as often as I did when I restarted this blog the first time.
Life is starting to sort itself out again, just in time for Thanksgiving and the rest of the holiday season to throw it out of whack. Again.
Intramural hockey season for the 2013-14 school year was supposed to have started this past week, but it's been delayed a week because of reasons. So hopefully that will start up this week.
I will have many updates on random tidbits in the coming weeks, but this is a post to let you all know I'm back from my unannounced blogging hiatus and to expect a video with the next post here. I won't be posting every day, and I'm not entirely sure how I managed to post as often as I did when I restarted this blog the first time.
Saturday, August 31, 2013
The Bruised Brother elsewhere on the Internet
I'm really proud of this comment I made on this post:
“advanced” stats are called “advanced” for reasons that i couldn’t tell you. we all seem comfortable talking about goalie save percentages and goals against average, yet we bristle at the thought of what a player’s points per 60 or goals for % is.--uvgt2bkdnme
as J.J. said and i would like to emphasize, advanced stats are absolutely NOT crucial to appreciating and enjoying the game. i had a lot of fun watching hockey before i ever heard the word Corsi, but considering the direction that hockey analytics seems very likely headed, i decided to familiarize myself with them. you likely won’t ever see me searching out Corsi or any of those numbers myself because that’s just not how i describe the game or interact with other fans. i’ll inevitably say something dumb in the future, but generally, i just listen when the discussions move toward player comparisons using these metrics. considering i’m also learning to play hockey myself, i’m also slowly gaining a more complete understanding of tactics. granted, that process will be long, slow, and arduous, but that’s just how i engage with the game.
as for the stats themselves, i do find it helpful to distinguish between the different kind of non-traditional stats. most of the traditional stats are just simply counting stats—goals, assists, points, plus-minus, PIM, and the like. goalie stats can help ease you into how certain metrics are calculated: GAA is simply GA/60 minutes played for a goalie, or how many goals a goalie gives up on average per game. when talking about rate stats for skaters, these usually manifest as G/60 or P/60 or A1/60 for primary assists and A2/60 for secondary assists. you’ve got percentages, which there are a ton of: shooting %, save %, goals for/ against %. then you have the possession stats Corsi and Fenwick and all the various metrics associated with them like quality of competition (QUALCOMP). this is a lot of name-dropping, i admit, so don’t fret if you didn’t understand it the first time. the thing i hope you take away from this paragraph is that “advanced” stats encompass a lot of ways of looking at the numbers you’re already familiar with, like goals and points, and seeing what patterns emerge as well as looking at other numbers like shots and shot differentials. they’re just different ways of looking at players and the game.
the inevitable strawman that seems to pop up in the debate over advanced stats concerns their predictive power. when someone says that Corsi is the best and most reliable indicator of long-term predictability or repeatability for players and teams, they mean it exactly as it sounds: it’s the best long-term indicator. compiling all the players’ Corsi and goalie stats and throwing them into a machine can give Vegas betting odds, but it won’t tell us if the Red Wings are going to win opening night against Buffalo, or the Winter Classic against the Maple Leafs, or Lidstrom night against the Avalanche. dealing with hockey on a game by game and period by period basis, the numbers have almost no value because periods and games are examples of small sample sizes that swing the numbers into a wild variance. the numbers can tell us who will likely make the playoffs, and even to a certain extent how far teams will go in the playoffs, but even in the long-term, there is still a level of uncertainty in their predictive power over the influence of the outcome of a hockey game, season, or playoff series.
so to answer your questions: advanced stats usually refer to anything that doesn’t show up on NHL.com’s stats pages that can still tell us something useful about players and teams. they’re important for the information they tell us, but always keep in mind that no one number can possibly capture everything in a hockey game. even advanced stats need context and proper interpretation to be utilized to their full analytical potential. but they’re not absolutely crucial to watching and enjoying a hockey game or season.
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Hockey Journal 8-25-13
I fly back to Providence on Wednesday for my senior year at Brown University. Unfortunately, I won't be able to go to any stick time or do any skating until then, but thankfully, starting with the second week of school, Meehan Auditorium will have plenty of University Skates for me to work on my skating.
The ultimate drawback to this whole setup is that my skating, while not terribly great especially in skates that aren't the best fit for me, is still my greatest asset. It would be much more productive for me to do more hockey-specific stick and puck work because I still can't make a clean pass to save my life. I've come a long way from my trial-by-fire first game where I literally played without ever having actually learned to play hockey even though I knew all the rules but practiced none of the skills except skating, and it won't be fun to have to put all the progress on hold until I can manage to find a way to get some stick and puck work in.
Until the intramural season starts in November, though, I'll have plenty to work on on- and off-ice.
--I've managed to make my lateral movement and back crossovers more comfortable by adjusting how I put my left skate on and pushing my toes toward the front of the boot. Unfortunately, it seems like this setup is at the cost of good tight turns because now the little bit of space is in my heel, but nonetheless, my tight turns in both directions absolutely need work.
--Speaking of back crossovers, I should definitely work on those too. I can do them, just not terribly well, and at a certain speed, I start to lose control. If I can do forward crossovers at high speeds, I should be able to do the same backwards, in both directions.
--Stops and starts. I should work on my hockey stops more, especially since 95% of my stops happen with just my front foot, and the back foot just kind of stutters on the ice. I don't know if I should learn how to do a T-stop separately, or just keep working on hockey stops until my back foot figures out what to do. More importantly, though, I need to be able to start again quickly after I've stopped. It doesn't help that sometimes my feet drag on a stop, especially if I'm stopping at high speeds, but it's becoming a consistent problem that I'm too slow to react and make my next move after I come to stop.
--I've finally found a good core workout that seems to be working well at least for making my muscles work consistently. Now that I have good, equipment-less workouts I can do regularly, off-ice fitness and conditioning will certainly be a goal to focus on as well.
I'll admit that I'm slightly terrified that if I can't find a way to do stick and puck work on the ice, even if I still find a way to do it off-ice, I'll lose the gains I made this past summer. But until the time comes, I'm just going to keep working and improving what I can.
Thanks for reading!
The ultimate drawback to this whole setup is that my skating, while not terribly great especially in skates that aren't the best fit for me, is still my greatest asset. It would be much more productive for me to do more hockey-specific stick and puck work because I still can't make a clean pass to save my life. I've come a long way from my trial-by-fire first game where I literally played without ever having actually learned to play hockey even though I knew all the rules but practiced none of the skills except skating, and it won't be fun to have to put all the progress on hold until I can manage to find a way to get some stick and puck work in.
Until the intramural season starts in November, though, I'll have plenty to work on on- and off-ice.
--I've managed to make my lateral movement and back crossovers more comfortable by adjusting how I put my left skate on and pushing my toes toward the front of the boot. Unfortunately, it seems like this setup is at the cost of good tight turns because now the little bit of space is in my heel, but nonetheless, my tight turns in both directions absolutely need work.
--Speaking of back crossovers, I should definitely work on those too. I can do them, just not terribly well, and at a certain speed, I start to lose control. If I can do forward crossovers at high speeds, I should be able to do the same backwards, in both directions.
--Stops and starts. I should work on my hockey stops more, especially since 95% of my stops happen with just my front foot, and the back foot just kind of stutters on the ice. I don't know if I should learn how to do a T-stop separately, or just keep working on hockey stops until my back foot figures out what to do. More importantly, though, I need to be able to start again quickly after I've stopped. It doesn't help that sometimes my feet drag on a stop, especially if I'm stopping at high speeds, but it's becoming a consistent problem that I'm too slow to react and make my next move after I come to stop.
--I've finally found a good core workout that seems to be working well at least for making my muscles work consistently. Now that I have good, equipment-less workouts I can do regularly, off-ice fitness and conditioning will certainly be a goal to focus on as well.
I'll admit that I'm slightly terrified that if I can't find a way to do stick and puck work on the ice, even if I still find a way to do it off-ice, I'll lose the gains I made this past summer. But until the time comes, I'm just going to keep working and improving what I can.
Thanks for reading!
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Sticktime 8-17-13
After a scheduling snafu that meant no sticktime on Friday night, I went back out after calling the rink beforehand to make sure sticktime was happening Saturday night. 8:30-10:00pm, and I really needed it after not being on the ice for 9 days and having my soul slowly eaten up by moving to a new house.
I felt awkward on my skates at first, but that feeling dissipated quickly. I still have problems with my left skate because of the size discrepancy, but ever since I started putting my toes up toward the front of the boot, I've seen a marked improvement in my skating comfort and slightly higher proficiency in my skating ability. Hockey skating is starting to become a much more automatic endeavor, a huge improvement over my days where I had to think about every movement that wasn't straight forward and back skating. My crossovers backward and forward in both directions are improving, and my heel transitions are so much smoother than at the start of the summer. Skating at Sabby's clinics have really helped my skating skills even though they weren't the primary focus of going to the clinics.
For about the first fifteen minutes, there was only one goalie because the other goalie was still getting dressed. I spent most of my time in the goalie-less end while everyone else was skating in and shooting on the goalie. More ice for me. I practiced taking slap shots against the boards, and I'm actually getting legitimate slap shots off. Without taking video and slowing the whole motion down, I don't know if my stick actually flexes at all on the shot (I'm trying to get used to an 85 flex rating and work my strength up toward it), but the shots coming off my stick tonight were legitimate slap shots instead of just slap attempts at the puck that barely slide across the ice. Of course, those pitiful slap attempts also happened, so consistency is the new issue with my slap shots, but now that I have more confidence that I can actually pull it off, maybe it'll actually become a weapon in my shot arsenal.
Once the second goalie showed up on the ice, we skated around and shot pucks while I did some mild skating drills. One of the guys brought the net to the other end of the ice, and we had a 3-on-3 scrimmage using the space of the offensive zone.
The best player on the ice was on the other team. Pretty much no one could stop him, and even three of us had a rough time actually getting the puck off him. Thankfully, he tried to get his teammates involved, and whenever that happened, it generally turned out in our favor. They scored some goals, of course, because that's just what happens when you allow a ton of shots like that. But my teammates were awesome, even if they were pretty happy to jump up in the play and miss the guy waiting in front of our net for a pass and an easy goal.
I don't know where this jump in my play came from, but even though the other guy pretty much walked over us for most of the night, I played my best stretch of hockey . . . literally ever. I had some pretty tough turnovers and missed passes, but I caught 90% of passes given to me (compared to about 20% before), I broke up a lot more plays that I usually do (though that's pretty easy to do when you can just anticipate that the other two players are just going to pass to the best player on their team), and I put a bunch of shots on net. I scored only two or three goals (compared to the other guy's 12 or 13), but I set up my teammates for lots of good shots, and my skating wasn't a hindrance. I still need to learn how to play along the boards, and I still need to remember to keep focus on the man in front of me and keeping his upper body in front of me, and I need to cut down on the dumb turnovers, but compared to the rest of the times I've played hockey before? I was lights out tonight.
I do have one major concern health-wise, looking forward. I've been drinking a lot of water this summer. It's pretty necessary considering lots of Los Angeles days this summer have reached the upper 90s and even 100+ degrees Fahrenheit. But even when I drink plenty of water beforehand, I still reach a point when I'm playing where my head feels tight in my helmet, and I start feeling like I need water. Badly. Thankfully, I've never needed to get off the ice or receive medical attention because of dehydration, but I wonder what else I can do during hockey sessions to improve my hydration. I've considered just simply drinking more water in the middle of playing, but there are two problems I run into almost all the time: 1) it gets really uncomfortable to get back on the ice quickly if I drink too much water, so I essentially take myself out of the game to focus on rehydrating and 2) for sticktimes, and even during Sabby's clinic, I don't really get a chance to sit on the bench for an extended period of time. Of course, I'm not looking to stay on the bench because I love playing, but I definitely need to improve my conditioning and somehow improve my hydration during hockey.
This is almost certainly going to be the last sticktime I go to until December when I return home for Christmas. Unless I can find something in Providence that's easy to go to by bus or by foot (with all my equipment in tow without my own car), it'll be a lot of off-ice work until the intramural season starts in November. I might be able to go to Sabby's clinic one last time on Thursday before I fly out the next Wednesday, but that remains to be seen. I just really hope I can maintain the gains I've made this summer and improve on what was a fun but stellarly lackluster first season of hockey.
I felt awkward on my skates at first, but that feeling dissipated quickly. I still have problems with my left skate because of the size discrepancy, but ever since I started putting my toes up toward the front of the boot, I've seen a marked improvement in my skating comfort and slightly higher proficiency in my skating ability. Hockey skating is starting to become a much more automatic endeavor, a huge improvement over my days where I had to think about every movement that wasn't straight forward and back skating. My crossovers backward and forward in both directions are improving, and my heel transitions are so much smoother than at the start of the summer. Skating at Sabby's clinics have really helped my skating skills even though they weren't the primary focus of going to the clinics.
For about the first fifteen minutes, there was only one goalie because the other goalie was still getting dressed. I spent most of my time in the goalie-less end while everyone else was skating in and shooting on the goalie. More ice for me. I practiced taking slap shots against the boards, and I'm actually getting legitimate slap shots off. Without taking video and slowing the whole motion down, I don't know if my stick actually flexes at all on the shot (I'm trying to get used to an 85 flex rating and work my strength up toward it), but the shots coming off my stick tonight were legitimate slap shots instead of just slap attempts at the puck that barely slide across the ice. Of course, those pitiful slap attempts also happened, so consistency is the new issue with my slap shots, but now that I have more confidence that I can actually pull it off, maybe it'll actually become a weapon in my shot arsenal.
Once the second goalie showed up on the ice, we skated around and shot pucks while I did some mild skating drills. One of the guys brought the net to the other end of the ice, and we had a 3-on-3 scrimmage using the space of the offensive zone.
The best player on the ice was on the other team. Pretty much no one could stop him, and even three of us had a rough time actually getting the puck off him. Thankfully, he tried to get his teammates involved, and whenever that happened, it generally turned out in our favor. They scored some goals, of course, because that's just what happens when you allow a ton of shots like that. But my teammates were awesome, even if they were pretty happy to jump up in the play and miss the guy waiting in front of our net for a pass and an easy goal.
I don't know where this jump in my play came from, but even though the other guy pretty much walked over us for most of the night, I played my best stretch of hockey . . . literally ever. I had some pretty tough turnovers and missed passes, but I caught 90% of passes given to me (compared to about 20% before), I broke up a lot more plays that I usually do (though that's pretty easy to do when you can just anticipate that the other two players are just going to pass to the best player on their team), and I put a bunch of shots on net. I scored only two or three goals (compared to the other guy's 12 or 13), but I set up my teammates for lots of good shots, and my skating wasn't a hindrance. I still need to learn how to play along the boards, and I still need to remember to keep focus on the man in front of me and keeping his upper body in front of me, and I need to cut down on the dumb turnovers, but compared to the rest of the times I've played hockey before? I was lights out tonight.
I do have one major concern health-wise, looking forward. I've been drinking a lot of water this summer. It's pretty necessary considering lots of Los Angeles days this summer have reached the upper 90s and even 100+ degrees Fahrenheit. But even when I drink plenty of water beforehand, I still reach a point when I'm playing where my head feels tight in my helmet, and I start feeling like I need water. Badly. Thankfully, I've never needed to get off the ice or receive medical attention because of dehydration, but I wonder what else I can do during hockey sessions to improve my hydration. I've considered just simply drinking more water in the middle of playing, but there are two problems I run into almost all the time: 1) it gets really uncomfortable to get back on the ice quickly if I drink too much water, so I essentially take myself out of the game to focus on rehydrating and 2) for sticktimes, and even during Sabby's clinic, I don't really get a chance to sit on the bench for an extended period of time. Of course, I'm not looking to stay on the bench because I love playing, but I definitely need to improve my conditioning and somehow improve my hydration during hockey.
This is almost certainly going to be the last sticktime I go to until December when I return home for Christmas. Unless I can find something in Providence that's easy to go to by bus or by foot (with all my equipment in tow without my own car), it'll be a lot of off-ice work until the intramural season starts in November. I might be able to go to Sabby's clinic one last time on Thursday before I fly out the next Wednesday, but that remains to be seen. I just really hope I can maintain the gains I've made this summer and improve on what was a fun but stellarly lackluster first season of hockey.
Friday, August 9, 2013
Responding to @DownGoesBrown's NHL Fixes
I am a big fan of Sean McIndoe, better known (to me at least) by his blog name Down Goes Brown, and have been ever since I found his blog. I've been fortunate enough to still be able to breathe normally after laughing at such gems as this and this and this.
McIndoe's latest post on Grantland identifies 23 different ways (or sub-headings) to fix the NHL game right now. Give it a read because, while I do vehemently agree with certain changes that need to be changed yesterday, I feel that some changes either do nothing to solve the original problem, aren't really a problem in the first place, or make the problem worse. Don't worry, I'll give you a minute.
McIndoe's latest post on Grantland identifies 23 different ways (or sub-headings) to fix the NHL game right now. Give it a read because, while I do vehemently agree with certain changes that need to be changed yesterday, I feel that some changes either do nothing to solve the original problem, aren't really a problem in the first place, or make the problem worse. Don't worry, I'll give you a minute.
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Shawn Burr
The Red Wings family lost Shawn Burr too soon. George Malik has a wonderful write-up commemorating his time with the Red Wings as a player, as a person, and as Red Wings alumni president, coming back to the organization he spent 11 seasons with as a player.
I was only 4 years old by the time Burr moved on from the Red Wings as a player, and even then, I wasn't really into hockey until later in the '90s. So I'll defer to the people who saw and knew him to be an outstanding human being.
Requiescat in pace
I was only 4 years old by the time Burr moved on from the Red Wings as a player, and even then, I wasn't really into hockey until later in the '90s. So I'll defer to the people who saw and knew him to be an outstanding human being.
Requiescat in pace
Monday, August 5, 2013
Sabby's Clinic 8-1-13
I better get to writing this before I forget everything.
Thursday, I went to the Valley Ice Center for a session of Sabby's Clinic. There were about 10-12 of us, so we got to see a wide variety of players and skill levels. I can definitely learn a lot by watching some of these guys, and a few others are pretty awesome at this hockey thing. Almost like they've been playing it for longer than I have.
As is usual, we started off the session warming up and just shooting pucks around like a regular sticktime session. I mostly like getting some skating work in, especially to get my heart rate going since I need to work on my conditioning, but skating work during this period allows me to work on my skating with pads on as opposed to most other times I work on skating exclusively. That's not to say I didn't shoot a couple pucks or do some light stickhandling before the drills started, but there was one especially proud moment early on in the clinic. I brought my Warrior Mac Daddy out for the second time on the ice, and when I went to load up for my first slap shot, I hit that sucker right on the money. It wasn't a particularly hard or fast shot (on an absolute scale), but my form was pretty good, especially since I was skating into it instead of practicing from a stand-still position, I got good wood (composite) on it, and I could actually see the puck spinning as it traveled about thigh-high off the ice and into the net, glove-side. I took only one other slap shot all day, and it wasn't anywhere near as good as that one was. Probably my best slap shot ever. I'm really happy with my new hockey stick.
All our drills used the entire ice. For our first drill, we lined up behind the goal line on one corner. (I seriously thought we were going to do suicides on the ice, which would have probably killed a lot of us.) We skate up the ice with a puck to the opposite blue line. Once there, pivot and skate backwards, making a full circle around the entire neutral zone before doing a heel transition to skate forward again and take a shot on net, then get back in line. I don't know what this drill is called, and if there is a Youtube video of it that I can show to make it clearer, I'd certainly appreciate it. This drill definitely tested our puck control as much as our skating ability.
Because I only get to do these things a few times, I try to go as fast as I possibly can. This means that I inevitably screw the drill up, usually by losing the puck, so I slow the drill down by a lot trying to get the puck back and pick up from where I left off. Since I can't exactly do this slowly and practice it to get it up to speed, I'm not entirely sure how to evaluate my approach. If I could come to the rink and practice like this more often than once a week, then I'd happily do it slowly until I worked my way up to speed, but since I do a drill like this only at most 3 times on one side, I figure I'd benefit more from pushing the pace since it gets my game speed instincts sharper and gives me more of a workout. It's unfortunate because I do lose the puck a fair bit, so I'd like to be able to get sharper on drills like this, but I think a nice benefit is learning to deal with my own mistakes and trying to take everything in stride. The game doesn't stop to let me correct a mistake, so I better get used to figuring out how I would address something like losing the puck while backskating or trying to keep the puck while turning from back to forward skating.
After finishing this drill on the other side of the ice, we then formed two lines behind the same goal line and at each corner. Side one would start with the puck. Side one and side two would skate toward each other through the crease while side one passes the puck off. Side two guy carries the puck while both guys skate toward the boards then up ice to the first blue line. Both guys turn while the puck carrier passes the puck across the blue line. Skate to the boards again and up through the neutral zone before skating across the width of the opposite blue line, again passing the puck. When both players skate up ice again, skate in on the goalie and prepare for a shot on goal or a one-timer. Line up behind the opposite goal line and prepare to do it again, going up ice in the opposite direction.
This drill went predictably awful for me because even though I had an ok time handling and making passes (which I'm getting better at in general, but again, I really think my new hockey stick helps a lot especially since I have a better idea of where on the blade I want to catch the pass and because I have a lot of blade to work with), I had a tough time keeping the puck while I was turning at the boards to skate up ice. This made for some awkward moments where my drill partner would park himself at the far post waiting for a one-timer which I eventually fed to him. They weren't the greatest passes, but I still think he could have done better with getting a one-timer on net. We all have stuff to work on.
There was one unfortunate moment in this drill. On the whistle, one guy and I started. I received the pass through the crease to start. We skated toward each other at full speed, but it was too late for the both of us to realize we were going to hit each other. Him being the bigger and stronger guy, I got the worse of the contact, getting hit in the left shoulder and chest and knocked on my ass into the net (since we hit each other in the crease). It didn't hurt per se, and like any hockey player, I got up and kept going with the drill. It was actually a pretty gnarly hit even though I didn't get hurt, especially since I wasn't expecting it. I was expecting him to skate in front of the crease while I would carry the puck through the crease, but I was a little too far forward in my lane, so BAM! Full-on contact. Now I know what it means to get the wind knocked out of you. I was fine and felt no more aftereffects of the hit after about 10 minutes, but my chest and shoulder felt a little bit tighter directly after contact.
We finished the drill portion of the clinic with a backward skating drill. We lined up along the boards, two lines at opposite blue lines along the boards on opposite sides of the ice. (This drill is going to be a doozy to explain without video.) On the whistle, player one starts skating backwards toward the other blue line. Player two sends him a pass which player one skates to the middle of the ice before passing to a waiting guy in the other line. After passing, player one pivots backwards to the boards and gets the pass back from the waiting guy in the other line before skating back up ice and giving the puck back to player two, the guy he got the puck from in the first place when he skated back to the opposite blue line. He gets the pass back again as he skates up ice for a shot on goal. Got that? Good, because it was a bit confusing at first on the ice, but there was a pattern to it and we eventually got a good rhythm for it.
Essentially, there are four players doing something in one drill rep. The players in the front of the line are doing the skating, first skating backward to the opposite blue line then receiving the pass, skating across the blue line and giving the puck up to the guy waiting in the other line. They pivot from forward to backward and get the puck back before skating to the boards and passing to the next guy in his original line. Skating guy gets the puck back as he's going up ice and shoots on the goalie. The guys in line directly behind skating guy (or the second guys in line) stay where they are until the next whistle for them to skate, but they're also participating in the drill. They make the first pass to the back-skating guy, then receive a pass from the guy doing the same drill on the opposite side. They give the puck back and then receive another pass from the guy skating up ice before giving the puck up to him for a shot on net and get ready to skate on the whistle. As terribly as I have been at trying to explain it, the rest of us were actually pretty good at this drill, once we got the hang of where we and the pucks were supposed to go. I didn't have too many problems handling the puck, and there were only a couple errant passes.
We ended the clinic with a full ice 5-on-5 scrimmage. I got two breaks, about a minute long each. I started at center before eventually being put, predictably, back on defense (mostly because of a substitution since he was the only man back and I had to stay there), though I struggled keeping people in front of me more than I usually do. I was actually pretty useless in my own zone for this game.
One good thing that happened for me: After the other team couldn't hit the bar (we only had one goalie), I picked the puck up and started skating up ice on the left side. Pretty much no one came near me until I got to the blue line, and even then, I had a head of steam going up ice so I backed the defense off pretty well. I had a guy on the right side open, so I sent him a hard pass that went off the stick of the defenseman but landed on my teammate's tape anyway. He fired a shot top glove, across the net that sent pretty much everybody in a tizzy because, yeah, it was an awesome shot. The best part about getting the primary assist on this goal? The guy who scored was the guy who hit me earlier in the crease during the weaving drill. Yeah. No hard feelings.
Thursday, I went to the Valley Ice Center for a session of Sabby's Clinic. There were about 10-12 of us, so we got to see a wide variety of players and skill levels. I can definitely learn a lot by watching some of these guys, and a few others are pretty awesome at this hockey thing. Almost like they've been playing it for longer than I have.
As is usual, we started off the session warming up and just shooting pucks around like a regular sticktime session. I mostly like getting some skating work in, especially to get my heart rate going since I need to work on my conditioning, but skating work during this period allows me to work on my skating with pads on as opposed to most other times I work on skating exclusively. That's not to say I didn't shoot a couple pucks or do some light stickhandling before the drills started, but there was one especially proud moment early on in the clinic. I brought my Warrior Mac Daddy out for the second time on the ice, and when I went to load up for my first slap shot, I hit that sucker right on the money. It wasn't a particularly hard or fast shot (on an absolute scale), but my form was pretty good, especially since I was skating into it instead of practicing from a stand-still position, I got good wood (composite) on it, and I could actually see the puck spinning as it traveled about thigh-high off the ice and into the net, glove-side. I took only one other slap shot all day, and it wasn't anywhere near as good as that one was. Probably my best slap shot ever. I'm really happy with my new hockey stick.
All our drills used the entire ice. For our first drill, we lined up behind the goal line on one corner. (I seriously thought we were going to do suicides on the ice, which would have probably killed a lot of us.) We skate up the ice with a puck to the opposite blue line. Once there, pivot and skate backwards, making a full circle around the entire neutral zone before doing a heel transition to skate forward again and take a shot on net, then get back in line. I don't know what this drill is called, and if there is a Youtube video of it that I can show to make it clearer, I'd certainly appreciate it. This drill definitely tested our puck control as much as our skating ability.
Because I only get to do these things a few times, I try to go as fast as I possibly can. This means that I inevitably screw the drill up, usually by losing the puck, so I slow the drill down by a lot trying to get the puck back and pick up from where I left off. Since I can't exactly do this slowly and practice it to get it up to speed, I'm not entirely sure how to evaluate my approach. If I could come to the rink and practice like this more often than once a week, then I'd happily do it slowly until I worked my way up to speed, but since I do a drill like this only at most 3 times on one side, I figure I'd benefit more from pushing the pace since it gets my game speed instincts sharper and gives me more of a workout. It's unfortunate because I do lose the puck a fair bit, so I'd like to be able to get sharper on drills like this, but I think a nice benefit is learning to deal with my own mistakes and trying to take everything in stride. The game doesn't stop to let me correct a mistake, so I better get used to figuring out how I would address something like losing the puck while backskating or trying to keep the puck while turning from back to forward skating.
After finishing this drill on the other side of the ice, we then formed two lines behind the same goal line and at each corner. Side one would start with the puck. Side one and side two would skate toward each other through the crease while side one passes the puck off. Side two guy carries the puck while both guys skate toward the boards then up ice to the first blue line. Both guys turn while the puck carrier passes the puck across the blue line. Skate to the boards again and up through the neutral zone before skating across the width of the opposite blue line, again passing the puck. When both players skate up ice again, skate in on the goalie and prepare for a shot on goal or a one-timer. Line up behind the opposite goal line and prepare to do it again, going up ice in the opposite direction.
This drill went predictably awful for me because even though I had an ok time handling and making passes (which I'm getting better at in general, but again, I really think my new hockey stick helps a lot especially since I have a better idea of where on the blade I want to catch the pass and because I have a lot of blade to work with), I had a tough time keeping the puck while I was turning at the boards to skate up ice. This made for some awkward moments where my drill partner would park himself at the far post waiting for a one-timer which I eventually fed to him. They weren't the greatest passes, but I still think he could have done better with getting a one-timer on net. We all have stuff to work on.
There was one unfortunate moment in this drill. On the whistle, one guy and I started. I received the pass through the crease to start. We skated toward each other at full speed, but it was too late for the both of us to realize we were going to hit each other. Him being the bigger and stronger guy, I got the worse of the contact, getting hit in the left shoulder and chest and knocked on my ass into the net (since we hit each other in the crease). It didn't hurt per se, and like any hockey player, I got up and kept going with the drill. It was actually a pretty gnarly hit even though I didn't get hurt, especially since I wasn't expecting it. I was expecting him to skate in front of the crease while I would carry the puck through the crease, but I was a little too far forward in my lane, so BAM! Full-on contact. Now I know what it means to get the wind knocked out of you. I was fine and felt no more aftereffects of the hit after about 10 minutes, but my chest and shoulder felt a little bit tighter directly after contact.
We finished the drill portion of the clinic with a backward skating drill. We lined up along the boards, two lines at opposite blue lines along the boards on opposite sides of the ice. (This drill is going to be a doozy to explain without video.) On the whistle, player one starts skating backwards toward the other blue line. Player two sends him a pass which player one skates to the middle of the ice before passing to a waiting guy in the other line. After passing, player one pivots backwards to the boards and gets the pass back from the waiting guy in the other line before skating back up ice and giving the puck back to player two, the guy he got the puck from in the first place when he skated back to the opposite blue line. He gets the pass back again as he skates up ice for a shot on goal. Got that? Good, because it was a bit confusing at first on the ice, but there was a pattern to it and we eventually got a good rhythm for it.
Essentially, there are four players doing something in one drill rep. The players in the front of the line are doing the skating, first skating backward to the opposite blue line then receiving the pass, skating across the blue line and giving the puck up to the guy waiting in the other line. They pivot from forward to backward and get the puck back before skating to the boards and passing to the next guy in his original line. Skating guy gets the puck back as he's going up ice and shoots on the goalie. The guys in line directly behind skating guy (or the second guys in line) stay where they are until the next whistle for them to skate, but they're also participating in the drill. They make the first pass to the back-skating guy, then receive a pass from the guy doing the same drill on the opposite side. They give the puck back and then receive another pass from the guy skating up ice before giving the puck up to him for a shot on net and get ready to skate on the whistle. As terribly as I have been at trying to explain it, the rest of us were actually pretty good at this drill, once we got the hang of where we and the pucks were supposed to go. I didn't have too many problems handling the puck, and there were only a couple errant passes.
We ended the clinic with a full ice 5-on-5 scrimmage. I got two breaks, about a minute long each. I started at center before eventually being put, predictably, back on defense (mostly because of a substitution since he was the only man back and I had to stay there), though I struggled keeping people in front of me more than I usually do. I was actually pretty useless in my own zone for this game.
One good thing that happened for me: After the other team couldn't hit the bar (we only had one goalie), I picked the puck up and started skating up ice on the left side. Pretty much no one came near me until I got to the blue line, and even then, I had a head of steam going up ice so I backed the defense off pretty well. I had a guy on the right side open, so I sent him a hard pass that went off the stick of the defenseman but landed on my teammate's tape anyway. He fired a shot top glove, across the net that sent pretty much everybody in a tizzy because, yeah, it was an awesome shot. The best part about getting the primary assist on this goal? The guy who scored was the guy who hit me earlier in the crease during the weaving drill. Yeah. No hard feelings.
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Player Card
Name: Joseph Cadabes
Position: D, C
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 140 lbs.
Bio: Joseph began skating in the summer of 2012 before deciding to join a friend of a friend's intramural hockey team. Having only a pair of skates to claim as his own, and receiving a very sudden notice on the day of his first game that there was in fact a game that night, he managed to slog his way through 6 games against varying levels of hockey-playing college kids with all his extremities intact despite never learning to play the game and only skating for a few months beforehand.
Position: D, C
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 140 lbs.
| Year | League | Team | GP | G | A | P |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| '12-'13 | Brown Intramural |
Motley Crew | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Bio: Joseph began skating in the summer of 2012 before deciding to join a friend of a friend's intramural hockey team. Having only a pair of skates to claim as his own, and receiving a very sudden notice on the day of his first game that there was in fact a game that night, he managed to slog his way through 6 games against varying levels of hockey-playing college kids with all his extremities intact despite never learning to play the game and only skating for a few months beforehand.
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Perfect Game for the Perfect Human: 10-12-13 vs. Philadelphia
It's been a foregone conclusion for a long time now that Nicklas Lidstrom's number 5 is going to hang from the rafters at Joe Louis Arena (and the new arena, projected to be finished in 2017). After deciding not to do the number retirement ceremony last season because the wounds of the lockout were still so very fresh, the Red Wings will retire it this season but have yet to announce a date. In the spirit of trying to find material to write about during the offseason, I'll go game by game on the Red Wings' schedule (home games, obviously) and weigh the merits and pitfalls of holding the ceremony before that game.
October 12, 2013: 7:00ET vs. the Philadelphia Flyers
Wouldn't it be nice to shove highlights of the 1997 Stanley Cup Finals right in the faces of Flyers fans?
Once more, with feeling.
I should get back on topic. Moreso than the first two opponents in the Sabres and in the Coyotes, Philadelphia would be a grand opponent to host the number retirement. Compared to the lack of history between the Red Wings and Sabres on the ice and despite the recent success Lidstrom and the Red Wings had against the Coyotes, Lidstrom helped end Detroit's 42-year Stanley Cup drought with a series sweep of the Flyers in the 1997 Stanley Cup Finals. Even though it's a small sample size 7-game series, and even though that series was 16 years ago, it's still an important part of the Red Wings' modern history, especially in the context of the current run of 22 straight playoff appearances and as the kickstarter of the dynastic run between '97 and '08 and of the Red Wing Renaissance started by Steve Yzerman.
I said this about the first two games, and it'll very likely still apply through all the home games in October: this game is still early enough in the season that it looks like they're trying to get Lidstrom's number up into the rafters where it belongs, and where it should have been last season except for that pesky lockout. (Side note: I'm really tempted to start #peskylockout on Twitter.) Any game in November and beyond could still be a good candidate, but it won't have the "early season game" reason going for it that would support the assumption that the Red Wings want to get this done as soon as possible. What's that quote? "Be quick, but don't hurry." Lidstom's number retirement should be done right, of course, and the Perfect Human will get a perfect number retirement ceremony (assuming the visiting team cooperates), so it shouldn't be rushed, but there really shouldn't be any reason that doesn't involve "Lidstrom can't make it" to delay the ceremony very long into the season.
Pretty much the only reason I wouldn't want to use this game as the number retirement game is the possibility that the Red Wings would lose to Steve Mason. Any special significance attached to any game has the risk of being at least partially ruined by the home team losing, but I most certainly wouldn't want to taint the Perfect Human's record by having "Red Wings losing to Steve Mason and the Flyers on Lidstrom number retirement night" become a part of his perfect biography. Then again, there's also the narrative of most Red Wings teams over the past decade losing to teams they should beat handily.
Should the Red Wings retire Lidstrom's number before this game? MAYBE.
October 12, 2013: 7:00ET vs. the Philadelphia Flyers
Wouldn't it be nice to shove highlights of the 1997 Stanley Cup Finals right in the faces of Flyers fans?
Once more, with feeling.
I should get back on topic. Moreso than the first two opponents in the Sabres and in the Coyotes, Philadelphia would be a grand opponent to host the number retirement. Compared to the lack of history between the Red Wings and Sabres on the ice and despite the recent success Lidstrom and the Red Wings had against the Coyotes, Lidstrom helped end Detroit's 42-year Stanley Cup drought with a series sweep of the Flyers in the 1997 Stanley Cup Finals. Even though it's a small sample size 7-game series, and even though that series was 16 years ago, it's still an important part of the Red Wings' modern history, especially in the context of the current run of 22 straight playoff appearances and as the kickstarter of the dynastic run between '97 and '08 and of the Red Wing Renaissance started by Steve Yzerman.
I said this about the first two games, and it'll very likely still apply through all the home games in October: this game is still early enough in the season that it looks like they're trying to get Lidstrom's number up into the rafters where it belongs, and where it should have been last season except for that pesky lockout. (Side note: I'm really tempted to start #peskylockout on Twitter.) Any game in November and beyond could still be a good candidate, but it won't have the "early season game" reason going for it that would support the assumption that the Red Wings want to get this done as soon as possible. What's that quote? "Be quick, but don't hurry." Lidstom's number retirement should be done right, of course, and the Perfect Human will get a perfect number retirement ceremony (assuming the visiting team cooperates), so it shouldn't be rushed, but there really shouldn't be any reason that doesn't involve "Lidstrom can't make it" to delay the ceremony very long into the season.
Pretty much the only reason I wouldn't want to use this game as the number retirement game is the possibility that the Red Wings would lose to Steve Mason. Any special significance attached to any game has the risk of being at least partially ruined by the home team losing, but I most certainly wouldn't want to taint the Perfect Human's record by having "Red Wings losing to Steve Mason and the Flyers on Lidstrom number retirement night" become a part of his perfect biography. Then again, there's also the narrative of most Red Wings teams over the past decade losing to teams they should beat handily.
Should the Red Wings retire Lidstrom's number before this game? MAYBE.
Monday, July 29, 2013
Skating Journal 7-29-13
I discovered a section of the Valley Ice Center's website dedicated to adult skating sessions. I had a feeling that these would be like skating at the rink at school, except with older adults instead of college students and maybe a couple faculty. And to my utter non-surprise, I turned out right. Same open ice because there aren't that many people, no huge amounts of kids that a regular public session would have, it's on the big and clean ice, and it's at a reasonable time at noon instead of the 9:30am public session on the curling ice which just kills all motivation to skate. However, unlike at school, I wasn't fearing for my life because none of the figure skaters were skating backwards with their legs up in the air and blades sticking out.
So I went to the adult skating session on Friday afternoon. Despite it being pricier than a regular public session, I definitely think it was worth the extra money to get much more open ice on the regular rink instead of the curling rink. I came away from the rink with a much more intense workout under my belt than I normally get when I go to the morning public session on the curling rink. So I think this is definitely money well spent.
I started with sprints. While I don't think my hockey lessons are quite at the level I want to be skill-wise, I definitely think I get winded way too easily. So after I did some crossovers and went around the ice for a couple minutes, I got on the goal line and went blue line and back, red line and back, other blue line and back, other goal line and back. After a minute rest, I got back on the line and went half rink and back, whole rink and back. Heart rate up, I thought about going whole rink one more time before doing more skill drills, but I figured I would have plenty of time to do more conditioning later on. My only skill criticism is that as I got fatigued, my confidence in stopping at high speed dropped exponentially, so that when I went the whole rink and back on the second set, I was stuttering on my stops. Fatigue definitely factored in, but I really need to get over my fear of falling on the ice without equipment on.
I wanted to focus on back skating, especially back crossovers, because I definitely feel that my back skating of late has fallen off a cliff, especially after a little scrimmage game at sticktime on Monday where I wasn't at all smooth trying to keep guys in front of me while I played back. But before I got into the teeth of my workout, I wanted to do some detail work on tight turns. I'm convinced that I won't get my tight turns right until I get another pair of skates because the off-fit of my left boot gets really distracting and even disconcerting performing certain skills at high speeds. But I did try to do some tight turns at medium speed before picking up the pace, and I feel much better after doing that bit of detail work because I developed the habit of moving with my hips and legs and not leading with my head and shoulders. My turns are still wider than I would like them to be, but at least I'm not throwing my body into them and instead am letting my shoulders lead me into them. (Also: watch Pavel Datsyuk own at tight turns.)
For the remaining 60 minutes or so on the ice, I spent at least 50 of them on back skating work. At a certain point, everything became a blur both because of my overall focus on my workout and because of my legs crying out from fatigue from the nonstop movement, so I truthfully don't know where to begin.
The two big things were back crossovers and back quick starts. I stayed in one end of the rink, using the faceoff circles as a guide and trying to do back crossovers at medium speed while staying along the circle. The first sign I was having trouble with this exercise was that I could not maintain my pacing for my exercise. Although I would try to work up to full speed, I kept trying to maintain half speed so that I could hyper-focus on my movement during the skill, but the choppy motion of moving one leg over the other meant that I was picking up more speed than I wanted to and that I couldn't really do much detail work. I eventually got the motion figured out, on both sides, so while I was still having some speed control issues, I felt like I was getting more fluid in my motion, though I was still stronger crossing left over right than right over left. Part of the issue that I'm figuring out now involves my not being incredibly stable skating backwards on one foot. This instability leads to me putting my crossover foot back down sooner than I want to if I want to go at less than full speed.
Oy, back quick starts. I'm not terribly good with them if my left foot is in front, but I'm comfortable doing it from that side. Conversely, I'm not too comfortable with them if my right foot is in front, but when I can execute it, I do it much better on that side.
I have plenty of problems with form. I'm getting better at the initial dig into the ice, but when my left foot is doing the initial dig, I have a tendency to go more sideways than straight back. On both sides, I'm definitely not keeping my head up or my body aligned so that I can see what's in front of me since the point of this exercise is to get me used to skating back quickly while still being able to see the ice and follow where the play is going as everybody moves into my defensive zone. When I lead with my left foot, I end up looking at my skates too much, not so much to the point where my entire upper body is leaning down or hunched over, but my head is definitely down and looking at the toes of my skates as I execute the drill. When I lead with my right foot, my entire body, not just from the waist down, is perpendicular to where I should be looking or where I should be skating backwards. I'm not entirely sure there's something I can do about this problem aside from recognizing it and trying to keep my head up.
I'm the most comfortable I've ever been just back skating in general, but my back crossovers and back quick starts definitely need a lot more work. I don't know if I've actually managed to get my backwards skating speed to be as fast as my forward skating, but I'm definitely at the fastest I've ever been while skating backwards. I don't know when the next time I'll go to a dedicated skating session will be, but I'll see if I can't start working to incorporate some skating drills into my sticktime practices.
I'll definitely need to do something about my skates in the future. I've talked before about how my skates are very likely half a size too big for me to fully utilize their potential, but I've also noticed in recent weeks that my left skate isn't oriented the same way as my right skate. I don't know if this is the product of stopping too much leading with my left foot (since I'm most comfortable stopping left foot first) or if it came to me this way when I bought it and didn't notice it until now, but my left runner and holder look and feel like they're pointed slightly to the right of center underneath my toe. It would certainly explain why I don't seem to have any ability to use my outside edge on my left skate, especially on crossovers (either direction), but I've managed to not be a total train wreck on skates with them so far. I definitely want to correct the sizing issue at some point when I have enough funds, but I'll probably also want to pay attention to the holder and runner too. I know Easton's recent Mako skate intentionally has an asymmetric design for better turns, but I'm not so convinced my Bauer Vapor X3.0's were supposed to be created the same way. Maybe they were and I just wasn't paying attention or a good enough skater yet to know the difference, but it's definitely something new to keep my eye on the next time I buy a pair of skates.
So I went to the adult skating session on Friday afternoon. Despite it being pricier than a regular public session, I definitely think it was worth the extra money to get much more open ice on the regular rink instead of the curling rink. I came away from the rink with a much more intense workout under my belt than I normally get when I go to the morning public session on the curling rink. So I think this is definitely money well spent.
I started with sprints. While I don't think my hockey lessons are quite at the level I want to be skill-wise, I definitely think I get winded way too easily. So after I did some crossovers and went around the ice for a couple minutes, I got on the goal line and went blue line and back, red line and back, other blue line and back, other goal line and back. After a minute rest, I got back on the line and went half rink and back, whole rink and back. Heart rate up, I thought about going whole rink one more time before doing more skill drills, but I figured I would have plenty of time to do more conditioning later on. My only skill criticism is that as I got fatigued, my confidence in stopping at high speed dropped exponentially, so that when I went the whole rink and back on the second set, I was stuttering on my stops. Fatigue definitely factored in, but I really need to get over my fear of falling on the ice without equipment on.
I wanted to focus on back skating, especially back crossovers, because I definitely feel that my back skating of late has fallen off a cliff, especially after a little scrimmage game at sticktime on Monday where I wasn't at all smooth trying to keep guys in front of me while I played back. But before I got into the teeth of my workout, I wanted to do some detail work on tight turns. I'm convinced that I won't get my tight turns right until I get another pair of skates because the off-fit of my left boot gets really distracting and even disconcerting performing certain skills at high speeds. But I did try to do some tight turns at medium speed before picking up the pace, and I feel much better after doing that bit of detail work because I developed the habit of moving with my hips and legs and not leading with my head and shoulders. My turns are still wider than I would like them to be, but at least I'm not throwing my body into them and instead am letting my shoulders lead me into them. (Also: watch Pavel Datsyuk own at tight turns.)
For the remaining 60 minutes or so on the ice, I spent at least 50 of them on back skating work. At a certain point, everything became a blur both because of my overall focus on my workout and because of my legs crying out from fatigue from the nonstop movement, so I truthfully don't know where to begin.
The two big things were back crossovers and back quick starts. I stayed in one end of the rink, using the faceoff circles as a guide and trying to do back crossovers at medium speed while staying along the circle. The first sign I was having trouble with this exercise was that I could not maintain my pacing for my exercise. Although I would try to work up to full speed, I kept trying to maintain half speed so that I could hyper-focus on my movement during the skill, but the choppy motion of moving one leg over the other meant that I was picking up more speed than I wanted to and that I couldn't really do much detail work. I eventually got the motion figured out, on both sides, so while I was still having some speed control issues, I felt like I was getting more fluid in my motion, though I was still stronger crossing left over right than right over left. Part of the issue that I'm figuring out now involves my not being incredibly stable skating backwards on one foot. This instability leads to me putting my crossover foot back down sooner than I want to if I want to go at less than full speed.
Oy, back quick starts. I'm not terribly good with them if my left foot is in front, but I'm comfortable doing it from that side. Conversely, I'm not too comfortable with them if my right foot is in front, but when I can execute it, I do it much better on that side.
I have plenty of problems with form. I'm getting better at the initial dig into the ice, but when my left foot is doing the initial dig, I have a tendency to go more sideways than straight back. On both sides, I'm definitely not keeping my head up or my body aligned so that I can see what's in front of me since the point of this exercise is to get me used to skating back quickly while still being able to see the ice and follow where the play is going as everybody moves into my defensive zone. When I lead with my left foot, I end up looking at my skates too much, not so much to the point where my entire upper body is leaning down or hunched over, but my head is definitely down and looking at the toes of my skates as I execute the drill. When I lead with my right foot, my entire body, not just from the waist down, is perpendicular to where I should be looking or where I should be skating backwards. I'm not entirely sure there's something I can do about this problem aside from recognizing it and trying to keep my head up.
I'm the most comfortable I've ever been just back skating in general, but my back crossovers and back quick starts definitely need a lot more work. I don't know if I've actually managed to get my backwards skating speed to be as fast as my forward skating, but I'm definitely at the fastest I've ever been while skating backwards. I don't know when the next time I'll go to a dedicated skating session will be, but I'll see if I can't start working to incorporate some skating drills into my sticktime practices.
I'll definitely need to do something about my skates in the future. I've talked before about how my skates are very likely half a size too big for me to fully utilize their potential, but I've also noticed in recent weeks that my left skate isn't oriented the same way as my right skate. I don't know if this is the product of stopping too much leading with my left foot (since I'm most comfortable stopping left foot first) or if it came to me this way when I bought it and didn't notice it until now, but my left runner and holder look and feel like they're pointed slightly to the right of center underneath my toe. It would certainly explain why I don't seem to have any ability to use my outside edge on my left skate, especially on crossovers (either direction), but I've managed to not be a total train wreck on skates with them so far. I definitely want to correct the sizing issue at some point when I have enough funds, but I'll probably also want to pay attention to the holder and runner too. I know Easton's recent Mako skate intentionally has an asymmetric design for better turns, but I'm not so convinced my Bauer Vapor X3.0's were supposed to be created the same way. Maybe they were and I just wasn't paying attention or a good enough skater yet to know the difference, but it's definitely something new to keep my eye on the next time I buy a pair of skates.
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Perfect Game for the Perfect Human: 10-10-13 vs. Phoenix
It's been a foregone conclusion for a long time now that Nicklas Lidstrom's number 5 is going to hang from the rafters at Joe Louis Arena (and the new arena, whenever that's built). After deciding not to do the number retirement ceremony last season because the wounds of the lockout were still so very fresh,* the Red Wings will retire it this season but have yet to announce a date. In the spirit of trying to find material to write about during the offseason, I'll go game by game on the Red Wings' schedule (home games, obviously) and weigh the merits and pitfalls of holding the ceremony before that game.
October 10, 2013: 7:30ET vs. the Phoenix Coyotes
I should clarify that the number retirement is in Detroit, not* in Phoenix.
There's certainly a history of recent postseason success against the Coyotes that could make part of the career highlight montage. And there's the fact that Phoenix has basically become a second home for the Detroit Red Wings, so I guess you could say that one bad thing about the new divisional alignment is that Detroit will have fewer home games since they won't play in Phoenix as often.
This game is Detroit's second home game of the season, but 8 days after their home opener. Since they won't have opening night festivities to deal with like against Buffalo, they could have a night dedicated to Lidstrom AND still have the number retirement happen as soon as possible. Granted, considering Detroit goes on a brief road trip after the home opener, it won't be as soon as we'd like, but we can always complain about other scheduling issues that are bound to come up during a Winter-Olympic-break-including regular season.
The other thing I've been considering but haven't been able to find information for is if Detroit already has a schedule of promotions they plan on holding during the season (aside from the obvious Winter Classic related events and the Winter Classic itself). Might be awkward to hold Lidstrom's number retirement on the same night they do a hypothetical Pavel Datsyuk bobblehead night. (Side note: If someone can make, market, promote, and distribute Datsyuk dangle-puck dolls or make paddle balls except with Datsyuk's stick and a puck, I will love you forever.) On the other hand, it would be fitting if they held the retirement the same night as a hypothetical Swedish Heritage Night.
Should the Red Wings retire Lidstrom's number before this game? MAYBE.
*RIP Ruslan Salei
Addendum: Yzerman's number retirement ceremony was announced on August 31, 2006, and the ceremony was schedule for January 2, 2007. I'm not necessarily arguing that Lidstrom's number retirement announcement and game selection will follow a similar pattern, but it's something to go off of. At this rate, I could possibly get through about 15 games or so before we hear an official announcement for Lidstrom's ceremony date. If I could, I would use one of my Winging It in Motown BOLD Predictions to select which date the ceremony would be, but I don't think the Red Wings are going to wait that long before making an official announcement.
October 10, 2013: 7:30ET vs. the Phoenix Coyotes
I should clarify that the number retirement is in Detroit, not* in Phoenix.
There's certainly a history of recent postseason success against the Coyotes that could make part of the career highlight montage. And there's the fact that Phoenix has basically become a second home for the Detroit Red Wings, so I guess you could say that one bad thing about the new divisional alignment is that Detroit will have fewer home games since they won't play in Phoenix as often.
This game is Detroit's second home game of the season, but 8 days after their home opener. Since they won't have opening night festivities to deal with like against Buffalo, they could have a night dedicated to Lidstrom AND still have the number retirement happen as soon as possible. Granted, considering Detroit goes on a brief road trip after the home opener, it won't be as soon as we'd like, but we can always complain about other scheduling issues that are bound to come up during a Winter-Olympic-break-including regular season.
The other thing I've been considering but haven't been able to find information for is if Detroit already has a schedule of promotions they plan on holding during the season (aside from the obvious Winter Classic related events and the Winter Classic itself). Might be awkward to hold Lidstrom's number retirement on the same night they do a hypothetical Pavel Datsyuk bobblehead night. (Side note: If someone can make, market, promote, and distribute Datsyuk dangle-puck dolls or make paddle balls except with Datsyuk's stick and a puck, I will love you forever.) On the other hand, it would be fitting if they held the retirement the same night as a hypothetical Swedish Heritage Night.
Should the Red Wings retire Lidstrom's number before this game? MAYBE.
*RIP Ruslan Salei
Addendum: Yzerman's number retirement ceremony was announced on August 31, 2006, and the ceremony was schedule for January 2, 2007. I'm not necessarily arguing that Lidstrom's number retirement announcement and game selection will follow a similar pattern, but it's something to go off of. At this rate, I could possibly get through about 15 games or so before we hear an official announcement for Lidstrom's ceremony date. If I could, I would use one of my Winging It in Motown BOLD Predictions to select which date the ceremony would be, but I don't think the Red Wings are going to wait that long before making an official announcement.
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Stick Taping
Notes:
I recorded this video on Wednesday, so “yesterday” was
Tuesday.
Tape overlap: Overlapping this way also creates a dual-layer
at the bottom without using a second strip of tape just to cover the bottom of
the blade. So now the ice needs to wear through two layers of tape instead of
one.
Using a stick without tape: I actually used only one stick
without tape, and it was for at least two on-ice sessions. Easton SY50, wood.
The blade started cracking at the bottom, and over time, the blade’s started
coming apart and now I can start to see the layers that make up the blade of
that stick. It holds together pretty well when I tape it up, but it’s hard to
re-tape it because I have a difficult time getting all the old tape off since
it can get stuck in the little cracks in the wood.
Here’s a video on another interesting way to tape the butt-end of the stick. I tried doing this before, but the “grip” actually felt
worse to hold than a simple wrap-around job.
Cutting sticks: Only one stick, I got cut: the Sherwood
9950. The corners and edges, even after the people who cut it for me sanded the
thing off, felt like they could hurt me any second before I taped them up.
How much tape on the knob? I’ve seen so many people use a
lot of tape going from the top to about a quarter or even as much as a third
the way down the shaft. Personally, both in the interest of saving tape and for
my sanity, I just use enough so that my hand covers it when I hold the stick. There
is another way I’ve seen NHL players which involves creating a spiral that
covers the whole area where the hands would be. I have absolutely no interest
in trying out that particular method of taping the stick, but I’m really
curious about what they’re trying to achieve with that tape job.
Friday, July 26, 2013
Perfect Game for the Perfect Human: 10-2-13 vs. Buffalo
It's been a foregone conclusion for a long time now that Nicklas Lidstrom's number 5 is going to hang from the rafters at Joe Louis Arena (and the new arena, whenever that's built). After deciding not to do the number retirement ceremony last season because the wounds of the lockout were still so very fresh,* the Red Wings will retire it this season but have yet to announce a date. In the spirit of trying to find material to write about during the offseason, I'll go game by game on the Red Wings' schedule (home games, obviously) and weigh the merits and pitfalls of holding the ceremony before that game.
October 2, 2013: 8:00ET vs. the Buffalo Sabres
Home opener. Using this game is quite bold and amibitious. You have the opening night ceremonies with the introduction of the entire Detroit Red Wings lineup and then another 30-60 minutes or so for Lidstrom's number retirement ceremony? I would hate to be the person in charge of coordinating everything if this were my assignment.
That Detroit will be playing in the Eastern Conference this season no doubt will interest many fans because we'll all see opponents we hardly ever did under the old divisional alignment. Unfortunately for Lidstrom's number retirement, this fact means that teams like the Sabres won't hold any special significance as "the perfect game" for the ceremonies. Of course, there's also the argument that the opponent really doesn't matter. I loved that Steve Yzerman's number retirement happened against the Anaheim Ducks because I got to watch the ceremony on local TV (since Los Angeles also gets the Anaheim games). But aside from that benefit for me, nothing about the Ducks really stood out in terms of Yzerman's career because most of what spawned the current rivalry with the Ducks happened in the '07 and '09 playoffs after Yzerman retired. If the opponent really mattered, maybe it would have happened against the Colorado Avalanche or Washington Capitals (when Yzerman won the Conn Smythe in the '98 playoffs). In Lidstrom's case, he probably has more teams with significant meaning than Yzerman did--the Pittsburgh Penguins, the same Colorado Avalanche, the Carolina Hurricanes--but it's still difficult to argue for a particular game just based on the opponent.
The best thing going for opening night's bid to retire Lidstrom's number is that it doesn't delay something that should have happened last season but for a wholly stupid and unnecessary lockout. Number 5 takes its rightful place up in the rafters where it should already be. NBC Sports Network broadcasting this game also provides a nice push as it potentially showcases the career and legacy of one of the greatest players ever to a wide audience hungry for hockey after what always feels like a terribly long offseason. But I think the sheer logistics of combining a number retirement ceremony with opening night festivities combined with each ceremony detracting from the other by holding them both in the same night means this game is out of the running.
Should the Red Wings retire Lidstrom's number before this game? NO.
*Considering Lidstrom endured two lockouts during his NHL career, I think holding it during the shortened season would have fit pretty well, despite the twisted symbolism.
October 2, 2013: 8:00ET vs. the Buffalo Sabres
Home opener. Using this game is quite bold and amibitious. You have the opening night ceremonies with the introduction of the entire Detroit Red Wings lineup and then another 30-60 minutes or so for Lidstrom's number retirement ceremony? I would hate to be the person in charge of coordinating everything if this were my assignment.
That Detroit will be playing in the Eastern Conference this season no doubt will interest many fans because we'll all see opponents we hardly ever did under the old divisional alignment. Unfortunately for Lidstrom's number retirement, this fact means that teams like the Sabres won't hold any special significance as "the perfect game" for the ceremonies. Of course, there's also the argument that the opponent really doesn't matter. I loved that Steve Yzerman's number retirement happened against the Anaheim Ducks because I got to watch the ceremony on local TV (since Los Angeles also gets the Anaheim games). But aside from that benefit for me, nothing about the Ducks really stood out in terms of Yzerman's career because most of what spawned the current rivalry with the Ducks happened in the '07 and '09 playoffs after Yzerman retired. If the opponent really mattered, maybe it would have happened against the Colorado Avalanche or Washington Capitals (when Yzerman won the Conn Smythe in the '98 playoffs). In Lidstrom's case, he probably has more teams with significant meaning than Yzerman did--the Pittsburgh Penguins, the same Colorado Avalanche, the Carolina Hurricanes--but it's still difficult to argue for a particular game just based on the opponent.
The best thing going for opening night's bid to retire Lidstrom's number is that it doesn't delay something that should have happened last season but for a wholly stupid and unnecessary lockout. Number 5 takes its rightful place up in the rafters where it should already be. NBC Sports Network broadcasting this game also provides a nice push as it potentially showcases the career and legacy of one of the greatest players ever to a wide audience hungry for hockey after what always feels like a terribly long offseason. But I think the sheer logistics of combining a number retirement ceremony with opening night festivities combined with each ceremony detracting from the other by holding them both in the same night means this game is out of the running.
Should the Red Wings retire Lidstrom's number before this game? NO.
*Considering Lidstrom endured two lockouts during his NHL career, I think holding it during the shortened season would have fit pretty well, despite the twisted symbolism.
H2H3
Background reading.
I participated in this during H2H2, and boy was it a fun time, even though I couldn't make the game with everyone else. I don't remember what the propositions I made were, but it came out to $47, which I then rounded up to a flat $50, which was just enough for poor college student me to be able to donate comfortably without stretching myself thin.
The guys who run it are great to work with, and while it is a little annoying getting letters mailed to me from Children's Hospital of Michigan every other month asking for more (especially when they address me as "Ms. Joseph Cadabes"), the cause is worth it and it's a fun way for many people to give to charity. As is often touted during any fundraising drive, "every little bit counts" and H2H3 is no exception.
In case you decided to skip the background reading I conveniently provided for you (why did you?!), there are 11 games starting in December that will count as "pledge games." During these pledge games, you can make certain bets such as "$2 for every Jimmy Howard save" that will accrue through the listed pledge games. At the end, you'll receive an email with your calculated donation and how you can send it out. Of course, there's always the option to set a minimum standard in case your bets don't come through; for example, if you pledge "$3 for every broken stick" during these games, and no one breaks a single one, you can donate a "minimum $3" if you so choose. And of course, you can bypass the bets all together and just give your donation without the contingencies.
I made my pledges. Have you?
$1 per PIM by every former Red Wing. Minimum $6.
$3 per point by Stephen Weiss against the Florida Panthers. Minimum $6.
$10 bonus if Gustavsson is credited with the win against the Toronto Maple Leafs on 12/21. $5 more if a shutout.
$5 bonus if Lidstrom's number retirement happens at one of the pledge games.
Happy donating!
I participated in this during H2H2, and boy was it a fun time, even though I couldn't make the game with everyone else. I don't remember what the propositions I made were, but it came out to $47, which I then rounded up to a flat $50, which was just enough for poor college student me to be able to donate comfortably without stretching myself thin.
The guys who run it are great to work with, and while it is a little annoying getting letters mailed to me from Children's Hospital of Michigan every other month asking for more (especially when they address me as "Ms. Joseph Cadabes"), the cause is worth it and it's a fun way for many people to give to charity. As is often touted during any fundraising drive, "every little bit counts" and H2H3 is no exception.
In case you decided to skip the background reading I conveniently provided for you (why did you?!), there are 11 games starting in December that will count as "pledge games." During these pledge games, you can make certain bets such as "$2 for every Jimmy Howard save" that will accrue through the listed pledge games. At the end, you'll receive an email with your calculated donation and how you can send it out. Of course, there's always the option to set a minimum standard in case your bets don't come through; for example, if you pledge "$3 for every broken stick" during these games, and no one breaks a single one, you can donate a "minimum $3" if you so choose. And of course, you can bypass the bets all together and just give your donation without the contingencies.
I made my pledges. Have you?
$1 per PIM by every former Red Wing. Minimum $6.
$3 per point by Stephen Weiss against the Florida Panthers. Minimum $6.
$10 bonus if Gustavsson is credited with the win against the Toronto Maple Leafs on 12/21. $5 more if a shutout.
$5 bonus if Lidstrom's number retirement happens at one of the pledge games.
Happy donating!
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Hockey Journal 7-25-13
As much as I look forward to any ice time I can get, I'm most likely not going to get my money's worth when it comes to these hockey lessons.
When I first started my ice skating lessons last summer at Pickwick Ice in Burbank, I lucked out quite a bit. I had already been skating before, at least a dozen times over the previous two winters at downtown Providence's Kennedy Plaza, but I decided that since I'd never had any formal instruction whatsoever, I'd likely be better off starting from the very beginning. It worked out marvelously. My mom and uncle and I all took the class for the first half of the summer, and since I already knew how to stand on skates and get around (albeit very slowly at the time) and stay on my feet, my instructor started me off a little further. It was a small class, so while the time was short--it was only a 30 minute lesson--she very capably gave all five of us in the class individual attention.
After the halfway point, the second half of the summer was structured like a second semester for the skating school, so it was a separate registration. I decided to keep going, and exactly no one else in the class continued after the first six weeks. So as I mentioned, I lucked out quite a bit: paid for a class and wound up being the only one in the class, so I essentially got private lessons. Even though I didn't technically start from zero knowledge about ice skating when I first started, I still made great progress by the time I had to fly back to Providence for my junior year.
My general thought process went exactly the same way before I decided to take hockey lessons. I basically went through a baptism by fire in deciding to play a mid-division intramural league after having absolutely no experience playing hockey at all, but like my skating, I had never received any formal instruction before, so I thought taking a class from the same place I learned my skating would work well because the idea worked beautifully last time.
The first lesson proved quite ominous when the instructor asked me, "So what do you want to work on?" as if he didn't already have something planned. Sure, I had played before, but I was still really new to everything, really green. I had no idea what to work on or what to practice out of the myriad skills involved with playing the game. Even my skating needed work, but I didn't shell out the money or get on the ice to not make use of my hockey stick to try to get better at playing the game.
The class itself also isn't terribly conducive to my improvement. Whereas last year, my skating instructor could give people individual attention, to the point of me getting private lessons in the second half of the summer, this year, I'm in a hockey class with 5 other kids who couldn't possibly be older than 10. Given that my instructor is the only other physically mature skater out there, he's the only one on my level that I can practice with to get better, but since he's the instructor, he also has to tend to the kids to make sure they're getting some work in too. It's a tough job since he probably wasn't expecting someone like me to be participating in the class, and while I wish I could do more or learn more, I think he's done a decent job of keeping me engaged while he also has an eye on the kids.
All that said, though, I really could be using my time (and the money spent on the class) better elsewhere. I could go to the "Pickwick power play" they have late on Wednesday nights, but there's the simple problem of it being late at night--10pm to midnight. My instructor also told me about some other group of roller hockey players making the adjustment to ice hockey that meets Friday nights . . . at midnight, until about 2:30am. Granted, it is a Friday night, but I also hate sleeping in, which is very likely what would happen on Saturday mornings.
Where I did find something for me was a weekly clinic at the Valley Ice Center. Sabby's Clinic on Thursdays from noon until 1:30pm. I went a couple weeks ago, and for my level (which, I'll admit, is pretty difficult to determine because I'm not an absolute beginner, and my skating can probably make me look better than I actually am, but it's still a struggle to feel competent at times), it was perfect: we started with warmups where we could just skate and shoot around, then we did a couple drills that were very nicely paced and got us practicing various skills and getting a workout in, and we finished with a scrimmage. (I was terribly overmatched by a few of the highly skilled players, but I'll only get better by playing people better than I am and reaching their level.) If I had started the summer doing that, for the same amount of money I put into my hockey lessons, I could have gone to 8 clinics, learned more, practiced more intensely, and gotten a chance to get into game situations.
Alas, the Pickwick hockey lessons are now a sunk cost, but it's really difficult to pass up the ice time. I'll probably go to Pickwick for another lesson next week, but after that, I think I'll spend August going to Sabby's Clinic. I can't really go to both because my lessons are Wednesday night and Sabby's Clinic is Thursday afternoon; I wouldn't get as much out of Sabby's Clinic on the inevitably low energy that I would have if I decided to go to both. (Side note: I should probably improve my conditioning by about 1000-fold.) I'll see how I feel after next week. Maybe I'll be surprised, but I think I've got my plans set for August hockey, and I have a very strong feeling I'll be spending it in the Valley.
When I first started my ice skating lessons last summer at Pickwick Ice in Burbank, I lucked out quite a bit. I had already been skating before, at least a dozen times over the previous two winters at downtown Providence's Kennedy Plaza, but I decided that since I'd never had any formal instruction whatsoever, I'd likely be better off starting from the very beginning. It worked out marvelously. My mom and uncle and I all took the class for the first half of the summer, and since I already knew how to stand on skates and get around (albeit very slowly at the time) and stay on my feet, my instructor started me off a little further. It was a small class, so while the time was short--it was only a 30 minute lesson--she very capably gave all five of us in the class individual attention.
After the halfway point, the second half of the summer was structured like a second semester for the skating school, so it was a separate registration. I decided to keep going, and exactly no one else in the class continued after the first six weeks. So as I mentioned, I lucked out quite a bit: paid for a class and wound up being the only one in the class, so I essentially got private lessons. Even though I didn't technically start from zero knowledge about ice skating when I first started, I still made great progress by the time I had to fly back to Providence for my junior year.
My general thought process went exactly the same way before I decided to take hockey lessons. I basically went through a baptism by fire in deciding to play a mid-division intramural league after having absolutely no experience playing hockey at all, but like my skating, I had never received any formal instruction before, so I thought taking a class from the same place I learned my skating would work well because the idea worked beautifully last time.
The first lesson proved quite ominous when the instructor asked me, "So what do you want to work on?" as if he didn't already have something planned. Sure, I had played before, but I was still really new to everything, really green. I had no idea what to work on or what to practice out of the myriad skills involved with playing the game. Even my skating needed work, but I didn't shell out the money or get on the ice to not make use of my hockey stick to try to get better at playing the game.
The class itself also isn't terribly conducive to my improvement. Whereas last year, my skating instructor could give people individual attention, to the point of me getting private lessons in the second half of the summer, this year, I'm in a hockey class with 5 other kids who couldn't possibly be older than 10. Given that my instructor is the only other physically mature skater out there, he's the only one on my level that I can practice with to get better, but since he's the instructor, he also has to tend to the kids to make sure they're getting some work in too. It's a tough job since he probably wasn't expecting someone like me to be participating in the class, and while I wish I could do more or learn more, I think he's done a decent job of keeping me engaged while he also has an eye on the kids.
All that said, though, I really could be using my time (and the money spent on the class) better elsewhere. I could go to the "Pickwick power play" they have late on Wednesday nights, but there's the simple problem of it being late at night--10pm to midnight. My instructor also told me about some other group of roller hockey players making the adjustment to ice hockey that meets Friday nights . . . at midnight, until about 2:30am. Granted, it is a Friday night, but I also hate sleeping in, which is very likely what would happen on Saturday mornings.
Where I did find something for me was a weekly clinic at the Valley Ice Center. Sabby's Clinic on Thursdays from noon until 1:30pm. I went a couple weeks ago, and for my level (which, I'll admit, is pretty difficult to determine because I'm not an absolute beginner, and my skating can probably make me look better than I actually am, but it's still a struggle to feel competent at times), it was perfect: we started with warmups where we could just skate and shoot around, then we did a couple drills that were very nicely paced and got us practicing various skills and getting a workout in, and we finished with a scrimmage. (I was terribly overmatched by a few of the highly skilled players, but I'll only get better by playing people better than I am and reaching their level.) If I had started the summer doing that, for the same amount of money I put into my hockey lessons, I could have gone to 8 clinics, learned more, practiced more intensely, and gotten a chance to get into game situations.
Alas, the Pickwick hockey lessons are now a sunk cost, but it's really difficult to pass up the ice time. I'll probably go to Pickwick for another lesson next week, but after that, I think I'll spend August going to Sabby's Clinic. I can't really go to both because my lessons are Wednesday night and Sabby's Clinic is Thursday afternoon; I wouldn't get as much out of Sabby's Clinic on the inevitably low energy that I would have if I decided to go to both. (Side note: I should probably improve my conditioning by about 1000-fold.) I'll see how I feel after next week. Maybe I'll be surprised, but I think I've got my plans set for August hockey, and I have a very strong feeling I'll be spending it in the Valley.
Missing History
So, uh, hi.
Welcome to The Bruised Brother. For those of you who don't immediately follow the allusion, it's an homage to the "Bruise Brothers" nickname given to the duo of Bob Probert and Joey Kocur who terrorized the NHL in the mid-late '80s as members of the Detroit Red Wings. Probert would end up having a much better scoring touch at the NHL level than Kocur, and Kocur would get his name on the Stanley Cup, but they both spent plenty of time pummeling people and sitting in the penalty box.
The blog name inspiration stems from these two things: my reading of Probert's autobiography Tough Guy: My Life on the Edge,* and my progression as a hockey player from know-nothing newbie to know-something plug. I really wish I were alive to have seen Probert play for the Red Wings, but at least I got to see Kocur on the Grind Line with Kris Draper and Kirk Maltby en route to winning Stanley Cups. But the Bruise Brothers theme puts the stamp on this blog as a Red Wings blog.
Learning to play hockey's been a very rewarding and exciting and frustrating experience. I've yet to play full contact hockey, but even without that, I'm still going to bet there will be a few bumps or bruises, both literally and metaphorically, as I try to establish myself as a relevant player. (SPHL, here I come?)
I had another blog previously, and though it hasn't yet been deleted, it will be once I wipe the entire Google account associated with that particular blogspot. It chronicled my first year of skating and playing hockey, and while I looked back, at the encouragement of a friend, on the archives with fond memories, I really didn't find anything particularly worth keeping. So once that Google account is deleted, that whole record will be wiped from the face of the Internet.†
So consider this a continuation of that blog, if you followed it before. If not, welcome to the journey.
*In the wake of other notable NHL enforcer deaths--Wade Belak, Rick Rypien, and Derek Boogaard--the book is a great read for insight into the enforcer mindset. "I protect my teammates, not score." (Though Probert did plenty of scoring early in his career).
†Yes, I know this is the Internet, where nothing every truly dies.
Welcome to The Bruised Brother. For those of you who don't immediately follow the allusion, it's an homage to the "Bruise Brothers" nickname given to the duo of Bob Probert and Joey Kocur who terrorized the NHL in the mid-late '80s as members of the Detroit Red Wings. Probert would end up having a much better scoring touch at the NHL level than Kocur, and Kocur would get his name on the Stanley Cup, but they both spent plenty of time pummeling people and sitting in the penalty box.
The blog name inspiration stems from these two things: my reading of Probert's autobiography Tough Guy: My Life on the Edge,* and my progression as a hockey player from know-nothing newbie to know-something plug. I really wish I were alive to have seen Probert play for the Red Wings, but at least I got to see Kocur on the Grind Line with Kris Draper and Kirk Maltby en route to winning Stanley Cups. But the Bruise Brothers theme puts the stamp on this blog as a Red Wings blog.
Learning to play hockey's been a very rewarding and exciting and frustrating experience. I've yet to play full contact hockey, but even without that, I'm still going to bet there will be a few bumps or bruises, both literally and metaphorically, as I try to establish myself as a relevant player. (SPHL, here I come?)
I had another blog previously, and though it hasn't yet been deleted, it will be once I wipe the entire Google account associated with that particular blogspot. It chronicled my first year of skating and playing hockey, and while I looked back, at the encouragement of a friend, on the archives with fond memories, I really didn't find anything particularly worth keeping. So once that Google account is deleted, that whole record will be wiped from the face of the Internet.†
So consider this a continuation of that blog, if you followed it before. If not, welcome to the journey.
*In the wake of other notable NHL enforcer deaths--Wade Belak, Rick Rypien, and Derek Boogaard--the book is a great read for insight into the enforcer mindset. "I protect my teammates, not score." (Though Probert did plenty of scoring early in his career).
†Yes, I know this is the Internet, where nothing every truly dies.
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Hockey Journal 7-24-13
Last Wednesday, I went to the rink early to get my skates sharpened before my hockey lesson. It had been a year since I got my skates sharpened, but I never really noticed that drastic a dip in performance, and I skated for some pretty intense workouts frequently over the course of the first year of owning my first pair of skates. Pretty much, the only real problem I sometimes had with them was stopping, since I wouldn't stop very cleanly sometimes, even to the point of traveling another 5 feet in a very choppy motion while I tried to stop. But largely, I had no problems sharpening my skates in August and not doing so since then.
While the guy behind the counter was sharpening my skates, I was going through the stick rack. Lots of Eastons. Lots, and lots of Eastons. They were shelved blade up, so I got a good look at the blades of the sticks since they were right in front of my face.
Then I found it. A Warrior Mac Daddy stick.* Jovanovski curve. I had a to wait a few days to scrounge up enough money (thanks, Mom!) before I could buy it, but I got it at a marked-down $75, and the shop gave me 10% off too. After having it for a day and about to take it onto the ice tonight for my hockey lesson, I'm so ridiculously happy with it.
I can't find any info on specs for the materials used, and I'm an amateur at best at identifying them, but it's a one-piece composite (not sure if fused or true one-piece), 85 flex, and as mentioned a Jovanovski curve. I've been looking for a stick with a square toe curve for a while because I have a terrible time getting the puck off the boards with rounded toe sticks. The only other square toe I could find these days is on a Getzlaf curve, but I've only ever seen those available in separate blade + shaft combos (and I don't have the money for the two pieces together). A nice bonus with this stick is the long blade, longer than any blade on any of my other hockey sticks, so I should get much better at receiving passes than with my Sherwood 9950 or Easton SY50.
I'll be doing a separate product review of the stick in the future, and I'll also be doing a video of how I tape my sticks using this Warrior Mac Daddy as my guinea pig. I can't wait to take it out on the ice tonight.
*I don't particularly vouch for that review, but it's literally the only video on this stick I can find on Youtube or on a Google search. Also, I don't really care much for the name "Mac Daddy," but that's what it's called.
While the guy behind the counter was sharpening my skates, I was going through the stick rack. Lots of Eastons. Lots, and lots of Eastons. They were shelved blade up, so I got a good look at the blades of the sticks since they were right in front of my face.
Then I found it. A Warrior Mac Daddy stick.* Jovanovski curve. I had a to wait a few days to scrounge up enough money (thanks, Mom!) before I could buy it, but I got it at a marked-down $75, and the shop gave me 10% off too. After having it for a day and about to take it onto the ice tonight for my hockey lesson, I'm so ridiculously happy with it.
I can't find any info on specs for the materials used, and I'm an amateur at best at identifying them, but it's a one-piece composite (not sure if fused or true one-piece), 85 flex, and as mentioned a Jovanovski curve. I've been looking for a stick with a square toe curve for a while because I have a terrible time getting the puck off the boards with rounded toe sticks. The only other square toe I could find these days is on a Getzlaf curve, but I've only ever seen those available in separate blade + shaft combos (and I don't have the money for the two pieces together). A nice bonus with this stick is the long blade, longer than any blade on any of my other hockey sticks, so I should get much better at receiving passes than with my Sherwood 9950 or Easton SY50.
I'll be doing a separate product review of the stick in the future, and I'll also be doing a video of how I tape my sticks using this Warrior Mac Daddy as my guinea pig. I can't wait to take it out on the ice tonight.
*I don't particularly vouch for that review, but it's literally the only video on this stick I can find on Youtube or on a Google search. Also, I don't really care much for the name "Mac Daddy," but that's what it's called.
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