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.
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