Silly Stick Time

We’ve missed our Thursday morning stick times the past two weeks. Even though I promptly curled back up under the covers after turning the 5 am alarm off, I wasn’t going to miss it this week.

As I got in the truck, I saw our “Sharks territory” sign. They sent a bunch out to people they can take pictures of them while on vacation. We got a few on our trip up to Seattle last weekend.

 

I’d forgotten to take the sign out of the truck. So it was back into the house to find the camera – if there are only the two of us on the ice, why not be a bit (okay, a lot) silly?

 

I remembered to put the camera in my gear bag, but I forgot the sign. by the time Keith mentioned it, we were already half dressed. I considered walking out to the truck wearing half my hockey gear but for some reason decided against it.

 

The ice was, once again, all ours. Not quite as perfect as some mornings; there were a few ruts here and there but they weren’t deep. We managed to ignore the camera for the majority of the hour. Did some transitions and I fell and smacked my head on the one I tried with speed. Doh! Then I fell and smacked my head again while doing crossovers. Double doh!

 

After that, I decided to just skate and not challenge myself. By the end of the hour, crossovers/lane changes were smooth on both sides, and right foot stops were beginning to feel “right” again. No huge leaps of improvement, but a good skate overall.

 

We couldn’t ignore the camera completely. All that ice and just the two of us… even without the Sharks sign, we managed to get more than a bit silly. 😀

The dropzone is having it’s annual party – the American Boogie – this weekend.  Four days of skydiving, four nights of partying.  I won’t be jumping but I will be heading out to visit (and drink) with friends. Good times!

Moments of Adequacy

Last Wednesday we hit stick time at Vacaville.  Stuck closely to the plan we’d made and we both had an excellent skate.  I mean, really.  How could it have not been excellent when there were only six of us on the ice?

Yes, I said six.  We had half the rink to ourselves for most of the session, as the other four were all about the same skill level and they did drills together at the other end for awhile.

Started with a couple lazy laps and some stretching to warm up, then did skating drills from board to board.  We practiced everything we’d done in class the Sunday before, including knee slides and Supermans.  I saw progress in the one foot swizzle (C cut) and we both saw progress in left side stopping.  Then we pulled the pucks out and worked on all the puckhandling and passing skills we’ve already been taught.  We finished up the session with 5 minutes of fast and fun skating, chasing each other around and enjoying having all that ice to ourselves.

By yesterday, we were both ready for more ice time.  People are starting to arrive earlier for class; the bench was already full when we walked out in our gear.  An advantage (or disadvantage?) of being ready early is getting on the ice shortly after 7; an extra 15 minutes of ice time.  The disadvantage is if you wear yourself out in the first 15 minutes; class is going to be tough if you’re already pooped when it starts.

We did our first skating drills board to board and then we did knee slides and supermans skating the full length of the rink.  Those are fun.  I suck at getting back up but they’re still fun.  I find myself giggling as I’m sliding along the ice struggling to get my feet back under me.

This week we did skating with Jeff first when we broke into groups.  It was a big night – he introduced forward crossovers  and more advanced backwards skating (one footed C cuts and waggle that butt).

Crossovers.  Sigh.  I see much time spent scraping up the sides of my hockey pants before I get those figured out.  I could do them on quad roller skates as a kid, no problem.  But on ice skates?  I didn’t fall down while practicing them last night, but I wasn’t pushing real hard either.

The backwards skating was easy and fun.  Adding the butt waggle really helps you pick up speed.  I need to learn how to stop backwards without snowplowing or transitioning to forward first.

Next we did puckhandling with Spencer.  It was Spencer’s 21st birthday last weekend, and his attention to his students and his teaching style last night showed it.  He set us up a tough drill; some of us did okay at it, the rest of us pretty much flailed and there was little to no individual coaching going on.   But any time spent moving a puck around the ice is time well spent at this point.

Our last station was with Brian working on passing.   Wanted to pass with Keith, but we ended up not running a single drill together.   This week we passed between cones, then made a run on the goalie.   Let’s just say my performance was less than adequate… The passing was okay, it was the positioning once we were through the cones that I was having issues with.

No scrimmage time again, as there was a game scheduled on that rink right after our class.   But the first game of the new bronze league season was going on the other game, and the teams playing were both made up of former classes.  We grabbed a beer each and sat and watched some of the game with Jeff and a few others from the class (Skatetown has a great viewing window of one of the rinks from the snack bar).

Overall it was a good class.  We have a few new things to work on at stick time and a strong desire to do more than one stick time before our next class, but life is probably going to deny us that this week.

Saturday is the last Sharks game of the season and WE GET TO GO!!!  😀

Bonus Time

We found ourselves with a free afternoon and evening together yesterday.   No stick times at Vacaville on the weekends, but Skatetown had a whole bunch of them scheduled.  We decided to go for the 7:15 pm one hour session.

Arrived an hour early and were the first two on the list.  The place was empty.  There was broom ball going on the rink we’d be using and a pick up game on the other rink.  We sat by the big screen in hopes of getting the channel changed from basketball to the Sharks game.

Got to watch most of the first period, not including either goal, then it was time to start getting ready.   Gearing up is going faster each time I do it.  Two things remain a bit difficult – getting the jersey over the pads and tightening the skates while wearing the shin guards.  I did a much better job of both last night than I have previously.   It’s the little things…  Also, I’ve added a bandana to my hockey gear.   Wearing it as a do-rag makes my helmet fit much better and it acts as a sweat absorber.

Speaking of sweat… yeah.  Hockey is a good workout, and the smell of some people’s gear shows it; when you can smell the stink from six feet away on the ice it might be time to think about airing your gear out, eh?  I’m trying hard to keep our gear from ever getting that way.  We pull it out of the bag and lay it out to air under a fan over night after every use, and I’ve started spraying each piece with Febreze as well.   It only goes back in the bag when it’s completely dry.

We shared the ice with a guy that we recognized as being from our class,  four pre-teens that are way too good and six or seven adults (also way better than we are).  Stick times are unstructured and a bit chaotic, especially for noobs like us.  I almost got taken out a couple times while puck handling across the neutral zone – luckily I was also working on a basic rule of hockey at the time, keeping my head up!

Started the skate with some slow cruising around the rink, a little forward, a little backwards.  Worked some more on the carving turns – coming along nicely to the right, not as good to the left.   Also worked on stopping with the right foot leading.

Then we picked up a puck and starting doing some passing while skating.   Spent the majority of the next forty minutes working together on passing, with a bit of puck handling and stopping thrown in.  The last ten minutes of the hour we focused on skating, mainly carving around a point and stopping.   We’re both doing well with the turns to our “stick side” – right for me, left for him.  That’s the side I can have both hands on the stick and really use it to pivot with; to the other side I can only use the left hand on the stick, can’t get as tight a turn out of it.

Stopping with the right foot leading is getting easier, so I tried leading with the left foot a bit.  Not quite as easy and I didn’t try it with any kind of speed.  It’ll come.

The only thing I wanted to try that I didn’t was crossovers.  Hopefully those are on the list for tonight’s class.

Which, of course, I’m sitting here counting the hours until we can leave for…

Hockey Day in America!

It’s Hockey Day in America!   Sitting here in my Sharks toque, pj’s and a “playoff territory” tshirt with NBC on the HD, watching games where I don’t care who wins or loses.  Really enjoyed the pregames coverage, especially the bits on female players.  Seeing that over 40 womens’ team having loads of fun makes me feel a bit better about learning the sport at my advanced age.

Stoked that Setoguchi got his first NHL hat trick last night.  He’s my favorite Shark (since JR retired), and it was good to see the puck go his way again after the slow start this season.

Hit the midday public skate at the rink in Vacaville yesterday.  We were the first ones on the ice; twenty minutes into the session there were still only 10 or 15 people total.  It got busier, but was still better than most weekend sessions.

Vacaville’s ice is awesome.  They keep the rink areas a lot colder and the ice a lot smoother than Skatetown.   It’s also nice to get to skate the whole rink instead of having 1/3 of it blocked off for the beginners.  The rink is 10 miles closer to home as well.  Costs 50 cents more for the public skate session, but it’s worth it.

As I expected, currency is  big deal in skating too.  I was much smoother on the ice and much more confident in my transitions.  Making the front to back transition to my “off” side (for me, that’s to the right) is coming along, although I’m not trying it with any kind of momentum yet.

Backwards skating is getting smoother as well.  It feels really cool to be moving backwards on the ice with speed.

Played with the “hockey stop” a bit too.  At slow speed.  Near the boards.   I’ll feel like a hockey player when I can do a hockey stop with speed in the middle of the rink!

We took Keith’s skydiving camera helmet with us.  Each of us skated around filming the other one for a few minutes.  I’ll edit the video and put it up here in a few days.   Don’t I look like a dork? LOL!

 

Hockey Fan to Hockey Player

The Sharks play Nashville tonight.  The Western Conference is super tight, with only three points separating third and eighth.   Nashville is one point ahead of San Jose, in sixth position going into this game.  The Sharks really need to win tonight. Of course I’ll be watching.   But how I watch a hockey game is starting to change as I’m starting this journey from hockey fan to hockey player.

For the first forty years of my life, I didn’t get hockey.  At all.   Growing up in a place without snow or local ice rinks, hockey just wasn’t a part of my world.  Dad watched all kinds of sports, but hockey wasn’t one of them.  The guy I moved in with shortly after high school watched no sports at all.  And my son knew better than to put sports on the tv when I was home.

That all changed in 2005.  Shortly after moving to northern California, my new beau asked if I’d be interested in going to a Sharks game; he’s in with a group that gets two season tickets every year.   Awesome seats too; at that point they were 7 rows from the glass in the corner, the current ones are 5 rows from the glass in the corner.  It was a pre-season game, so the intensity that I like to watch now wasn’t quite there, but I was hooked.  The power and grace of the players as they skate, the fast pace of the game, the energy of the crowd.  Hockey is the coolest sport ever to watch!

He didn’t know he was creating a monster.   He used to go to games with his best friend; now he goes with me.   I try to make a point of “giving up” a game so he can go to at least one game with Chris every season, but wow it’s hard to do.  I was really jealous when they went to a first round playoff game last season… until I got to go see the Sharks eliminate Detroit in the second round.   That was an amazing evening!

Despite watching it for five years now, I still know very little about the sport.  When I watch hockey games, I’m watching the puck and the play around it.  Which is handy when watching games on tv, since that’s where the cameras tend to be pointed.   Since deciding to become a hockey player instead of “just” a hockey fan, I’m very much interested in watching position play – what the defense is doing when the play is in the offensive end, what the forwards are doing when the play is in the defensive end, what areas of the ice each position is responsible for…  These things are hard to follow on tv.

Yes, I know that the class will cover all this stuff, but that doesn’t stop my obsessed brain from wanting to know NOW.

Anybody have any tips on watching hockey for learning rather than only for fun?

The Story So Far

Born in southern California, raised along California’s Central Coast, having spent several years in the California high desert, a year on the east coast of Florida and the past six years happily in the Sacramento Valley… at 45 years of age, I suppose most people wouldn’t expect me to take up the sport of ice hockey.  Exceeding expectations.  I like that idea.

Growing up hundreds of miles from the nearest ice skating rink meant that my first time on skates was in high school.  Rented skates, loosely tied, while on a ski trip.   Didn’t think that was much fun, which helps explain why my next time on ice skates was after age 40.   Two trips with my significant other after age 40, on rental skates, loosely tied, didn’t convince me that skating was something to do more than once every couple years or so.

I grew up in a household where sports were on tv pretty much every time sports were on tv if Dad was home.  Baseball, football, basketball, racing, golf, bowling… the only sport Dad didn’t watch was hockey.   Which anybody who watched television in the 1970’s can almost understand; the screens were small and the definition was far from high, making it difficult to follow the action (ie the puck) if you didn’t know the game.

Hockey came into my life shortly after moving to northern California in 2005.  My new beau was a long time Sharks fan, and he asked if I’d be interested in going to a game.  Even though I knew nothing about the game, I was hooked after that game, and have since become a rabid Sharks fan myself.

I’ve been skydiving since 1990, but have recently hung up my rig.   We needed a new thing to do together.  A bit of luck got me a pair of free used hockey skates and him a pair of bargain new hockey skates.  There’s a rink in Vacaville and a rink in Roseville, but we tried our skates out first back in December at a public skate on the rink used by the minor league team, the Stockton Thunder.

Since then we’ve been skating quite a bit.  One one trip we discovered that the rink in Roseville, Skatetown, has an adult intro to hockey course coming up, with a free clinic in early March.  We’re all signed up for the clinic and if our skating skills are good enough, we plan to take the 23 week course.

At 45 years of age, with a messed up back and a lack of upper body strength and aerobic capacity, this ought to be interesting.   Hope you decide to follow along as this broken down old woman learns to play hockey.