Pre-Summer Season Thoughts

After last night's rush of becoming 'oriented' for ice hockey this summer, today was an opportunity for a bit more sober reflection amidst the chaos which is my work-a-day life.  Approaching a season as a season and not just a bunch of games is probably the way to get the most out of the experience.  It is a pretty major commitment, so might as well go for it.

Being a Viking on a Saturday and a Knight on Sunday does have a nice ring to it, but it is going to get pretty wearying by the end if I don't watch myself carefully.  I think it's a challenge I can rise to, as long as I remain disciplined.

There is a season schedule, stretching from this Sunday to early April next year.  Seven months (including playoffs).  The main season runs for 21 weeks plus a couple weeks off over xmas, during which there are 17 Knights games (and 3 byes).  In a seven team Division, that means that we play one team (Redwings) twice in the season and the other's thrice.  Our first game is against the Flyers. 

Vikings games will be early Saturday evenings (they haven't released schedule yet), 14 of the Knights 17 games are on a Sunday evening (with one each on a Saturday, Monday and Thursday).  When adding the fact that there are probably only 12 Vikings games (plus a couple final's days) this means that there will generally be stability in the weekly schedule, with just enough variety to keep it interesting and a break over xmas.  Doable.

On a 'typical' week I'll play a game on both Saturday and Sunday.  I'll have to measure my energy expenditure on the Saturday so that I don't suffer on the Sunday.  Thus, concentrate on skill acquisition and intelligent play rather than speed and power with the inline.  Done properly, I'll feel a bit energised for Sunday's game, especially if I eat properly and improve my general conditioning.

Off Ice, I think that I need to keep up with the core development, but can scale back on upper and lower body (with the emphasis between the two later being on the upper body).  Thus, a weekly schedule looking something like this...

Sunday - Game
Monday - Rest
Tuesday - Core/Upper
Wednesday - Core/Upper
Thursday - Lower
Friday - Core till xmas, then 'rest' on Fridays
Saturday - Game

In an ideal world, down the Arena on the Wednesday AND/OR Knights training, inline puck'n'stick practice on at least three sessions across the week (including as morning warmup on game day) and a slightly extended version of my summer swim habits (morning and evening dip).

Sounds busy.  So, I need to remind myself that's it's a game, not make the little one's suffer from my obsession.  Will see how we go...

*

Off Ice tonight, I completed core and upper body workouts.  Upper Body, reduced to ten reps each drill and upped the speed a bit over the two circuits (will maintain these numbers this week, drop to nine next week).

Knight #63!

All my fears were misplaced and I will get to dress up in my old #63 with the Knights in the IHSA C Grade summer comp, starting this Sunday afternoon.  Bring it on!

I went down for the sign-up at the Arena tonight, was glad to see quite a few faces with which I've become a bit more familiar over the past few months.  And it was extra nice to be met by smiles and handshakes from my team mates once I'd confirmed that we still existed and that we were all still together (except for those that went up to Premium or B Grades).

We're still short a goalie, the schedule hasn't yet been released, we'll likely only ice two lines for our first game and this has all arrived very suddenly.  But, hey, that all pales into relative insignificance when compared to the facts that we'll sort a goalie, we play on Sunday, there are more lines coming, and rather the season started with a rush rather than a slow drag.

More as it comes to hand...

2014 Inline Winter Season Review - Evolution?

Wheelers Season
2nd in Regular Season (7/4/1 GF 54 GA 37)
Gold Medalists in Playoffs (2/0/0 GF 4 GA 1)


Best Game: Grand Final - when it all came together when it counted, and we were all present and correct.  See my comments in the Game Day report.

Worst Game: Game 9, Shufflers (8) d Wheelers (6).  I wasn't there for that game.  The Wheelers were up 5-0 in first half, 5-2 at half time and overwhelmed in the second half.  I had previously advised that I wouldn't be there, so Mal was brought in as a reserve.  Then, to compound the absent player problem, Matt the Goalie injured himself earlier in the day and so we had to import a goalie as well at the last moment.  What contributed to the 'worst' rating was that this was against the Shufflers, our longest term closest rivals in the Division.  I gather it was all very demoralising for our players, which showed the next week when we went down to the Bumpers 2-4 (again, I wasn't present for that game, which was Dylan's first ever game as goalie as a reserve for us due Matt's ongoing injury).

General note, we were separated by one game from the league leaders, the Shufflers, at end of season.  They had one more 'goal for' and one less 'goal against' than we did.  Alex (Wheelers) tied with Mark (Shufflers) for goals scored, and led the assists and points scored.  Shufflers had second and third spots in both goals and assists (and points).  Very close season.

Personal Season
Regular Season - 7/2/1
GP 10 G 8 A 7 Pts 15 +14 - Game Winning Goals in first and last games.
Playoffs:GP:2 G/A/Pts:Nil +/-0 2/0/0
Gold Medalist, MVP

Best Game: Grand Final.  I seemed to be everywhere and involved in everything without driving myself by ego.  It all came together for me and for my team.  Maybe the two are related?

Worst Game: Game 8, our 1-4 loss to the Rockers.  This despite me scoring our team's sole goal.  I was not happy with my game at the time, nothing seemed to work for me (except the play that resulted in my nice backhand goal).  It was also the greatest margin of defeat that we suffered (3 goals), though that in itself was not a problem.  Afterall, in all my other games I was reasonably pleased with my own performance (whatever the result).  Not, however, Game 8.  I was especially disappointed because this was one game where, contrary to the usual when a team can carry someone on an 'off' night, I needed to be firing on all cylinders and I wasn't.  The need was there because, while they had two good skaters brought into their roster as reserves, we were missing our gun forward.  I was the only one who should have been able to consistently tag the oppo, and I didn't.

General Notes on my season
Game smarts, skills, physical capacity all improved through the season, with a major change in play characteristics occuring in the later part.  Essentially, my skating time plummeted from several times per week to less than once.  As this occurred, I commenced my 'off ice' program of exercise.  Thus, there appears to be a link between my shift from playmaker and pointmaker to disruptor and distributor and the type and degree of training I am putting into my sport.  Also, perhaps the later phase, being marked as one characterised by thinking, making position, searching for the pass, and reacting as or before things occur, is also a product of taking the foot off the accelerator for a while and allowing the grey matter to catch up with the rest of me.

To get what I mean, check out my joy at the new experience of finding time and space to look and think before doing in my first game of the season, to the almost sublimated approach to this experience in the Grand Final.  Evolution?

I've now played 30 games for my team in ice (10) and inline competitions (20) combined, so one could expect the game experience to be notching itself up from the novelty of sensory overload during that first game with the Knights almost a year ago.

Great season.

*

Off ice - I did another core workout this morning.  During the day a few other things clicked about the periodisation of conditioning training through the off/ pre/in/post-season phases of a hockey life, resulting in me doing a modified upper body workout in the evening.  Basically, the new 'cut back' upper body work was an acceleration of the tempo of the reps, and reduction in their number from 12 to 10.  This is in keeping with a scaling back of strength work into the (ice) season as the season will itself take quite a toll without adding to it.  The speeding up of the circuit starts pushing up the body's familiarity with quick expenditures and recovery of energy, hopefully assisting in games by the post season.  I'll probably drop it back to (say) 8 reps by next week, and hold it there.

The idea is to work on such things as agility, quickness and skills through the season, slipping into 'maintenance' mode with muscle conditioning.  A delicate balance I'm sure.

Live Centre - Core Stability - Upcoming Team Allocation

After posting here on Wednesday I did go ahead as foreshadowed and sign up to NHL Game Centre Live.  I took out the annual subscription (which will now automatically renew on my birthday unless I cancel it).  So now I can watch any game any time through the coming season, last season's games, and any of about 800 classic games from the last fifty years that they have in 'the vault'.  All for about $100.  Hopefully the Oilers will put on a better show than last year so I can get my full value!

This morning, I started on the next phase of my off ice program (the first phase having been the last couple months of strength work).  Using 'The Anatomy of Core Stability' as my guide, I tried out their 'begninner' workout to start the hard work of working on my core.  It took about a half hour, didn't hurt at the time (though feel like turning to Jelly between knees and belly at the moment).  In short, consists of plank, side planks, scissors, quadraped, body saw, straight leg raise, and side lying hip abductions.  I'm thinking maybe three times a week, possibly four, to compliment a couple strength circuits.  We'll see how it goes as the competitive seasons warm up.

Speaking of which, on Monday evening there are team and jersey allocations at the Ice Arena, as well as meet the coach sessions for us Div II C graders.  I wonder if I'll still be a Knight?

Finally, a beautiful day today.  Will be taking B to his final Ice Blast session this afternoon.  With any luck, will also be able to get at least a hundred shots off at goal later at some point.

Happy CKA Ice Arena Birthday Skate

Happy Birthday to Me!  Also cause to celebrate, it's the second anniversary of me on the ice (got my skates and went out on them for the first time two years ago today).  So, it was a buzz this morning when I finally got to open the parcel my sister brought back from her skating trip to St Petersberg (Russia) earlier this year.  She'd given it to me with the strict instruction to not open it until my birthday.  Which I finally got to do this morning.

It's a almost perfectly fitted Kontinental Hockey League hockey jersey in the home colours of the CKA St Petersberg Hockey Club.  Basically, royal blue with red 'CKA' and a star, outlined in white, on the chest, and a white band with thick red centre strip around the waist at top of 'hem', elbows and across shoulders.  There's also a small red star on the upper forearms.  On the back of the top, 'Kovalchuk 17', one of the great players (still playing with them).  The CKA stands for something like 'The Army Club' and refers to the club's origins in the officer's training schools of Leningrad.  It used to be known at the Kirov Club in the forties.  Very very cool top.

Then it was off to work.

Then I came home and so I put on my CKA top and went out for a birthday dinner with family.  I spent much of the meal talking hockey with my daughter's partner, much of the time listened to avidly by my 5 y.o. grandson.  Everyone is pleased with my MVP award and I guess that's a good buzzy boost to me before I get brought back to ice level when hockey season starts.  It was a great pizza birthday meal with good company.

And then, once I'd confirmed that the big ice was available to public skating, it was off to the ice arena for an old fashioned Wednesday night skate.  Got about 80 minutes of skating.  Caught up with quite a few familiar faces, including the fellow (Phil) who's ankle I broke earlier this year.  We got to trade stories and experiences and tie up loose ends from our respective perspectives on that traumatic moment.  He's well over six foot tall indeed, so the whole thing seems almost surreal (I'm 5'6").

Turns out his ankle broke when he landed on it with his bum.  He was in a cast for six weeks and then into a moon boot.  He reckons he was back on the ice two days later with a much weakened leg.  He's been skating every second day ever since and, to my eye, looked pretty good.  He reckons he's come back a better skater than he was because he had to think about it so much, reading and watching videos and all the non skating ways we train ourselves to do things.  Good luck to him, he seems a nice enough chap.

The ice was possibly the worst I've seen there, full of holes and divots.  Not sure why.  The figure skaters blamed the hockey players.  I actually think they got caught out by the warmer weather we've been having recently as usually hockey does not cause that much damage to the ice.  It was potentially dangerous enough that there had to be quite a few witches hats put over the various hazards.

Partly for this reason, partly because of all the bits of chit chat that happened, partly because I'd had a big day at work, partly because it's my birthday, I mainly just cruised around doing whatever maneuvers I felt like doing as they came to mind.  A handful of sprints, maybe three dozen stops, a dozen three turns, and countless transitions and tight turns, backwards undercuts and accelerations.  Went over a couple of times, once sprinting and once transiting.  No harm.  And the CKA jersey felt great!

And finally, after admiring the lovely handmade cards I've received from nephew and grandson, I'm going to sign up to NHL Live Centre so I can watch all the oiler's games I want to over the coming NHL season.   First game is October 9.

Can't wait!

*

Off ice this week (so far) I have limited myself to double and triple circuits of upper and lower body respectively (with 12 reps) on Sunday evening and Monday morning.  Looking at maybe keeping it to twice a week for these cycles for the next period, stepping up with core development to fill the gap.  Hopefully, starting that on Thursday eve with plank, side planks, and glutes.  Will see how we go.

 

Sunday Skate - icing it

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

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

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

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

Grand Final Thoughts

It is very nice to have won the premiership!  I have never before had the experience.  It would have been nice to be at the presentation dinner, but I was otherwise committed.  I will apparently be able to collect my gold medal and MVP trophy at the start of next season.  Looking forward to it.

The Grand Final MVP award (Most Valued Player) was a surprise, I must say, when I checked the Vikings' website this morning to discover it.  Looking back at the game however (see previous posts), I can perhaps see why.  And that is without mention of the fact that I was often playing onfield director with our team, taking instruction from Matt the Goalie, but otherwise directing our resources when it was required and I was involved (eg. one of our players skating to recover or pressure the puck, I can do it more efficiently and do so, instruct my team mate that this is the case (eg. "I got it/him,") and what they should do (eg. "you take him / her /", "go here/there", etc)).

Without really realising it, I seem to have developed from someone who plays hockey into a hockey player (there is a difference) over the season.  This only came through with clarity in the final game game of the season.  If so, just in time for the upcoming ice hockey season!

*

After the Grand Final it was interesting to hear some of the feedback (beyond the mutual congratulations amongst those who'd played).  Total strangers seemed to mention, for example, my crashing of the net in the first half.  Though only a minor incident in terms of the game, it obviously left a great impression on them.

The three best players of the opposition drew reference to the fact that our team outpositioned their's, that we always seemed to have them covered while preventing them covering us.  It certainly didn't feel that way to me while I was out there, but I would probably agree that we nearly always managed to provide at least an outlet option to a pressured team mate and almost always covered the slot when they had possession.  Beyond that, we improvised the whole way.  I think, though, that our various half time mantras through the season all came into play during this game, and sum up what we managed to do as a team.

Put most simply, "Defence, Passing, Possession and Position."  Brenton should be proud!

Shaun was impressed by the speed and level of physicality in the game.

James (who'd arrived around half time and would later give me a lift home) pointed out a final aspect of my game that I hadn't even considered previously.  This is the fact that I absolutely don't shy away from the physical aspects of the game, in particular the crash of body onto floor or board and the clash of body colliding with body.  I've always known this about myself - a certain level of 'no fear' when the blood is hot.

What I hadn't accounted for is others' reaction to it.  For example, James pointed out how at least one of the opposition had backed off of a puck contest as I bored in.  And I myself had seen others take a second thought about their intended action as they realised I was heading their way with disruption in my eyes (mission accomplished, from my perspective, at this point!).

*

Season over, it's now time to turn my attention towards Ice Hockey.  It will be interesting to return to it after my inline experience.  It will also be interesting to see how I manage to play both forms of hockey competitively over summer.

The next steps?  A final season review for the inline, and a season prospectus for the ice.

Onwards!

Grand Final Game Day - Second Half

This is the third of three posts about the Grand Final game, inline Winter Season 2014.   For the other posts see here and here.

The Wheelers took the Division II 2014 Winter premiership at North Vikings Inline Hockey Club by defeating the Shufflers 1 - 0 in a tight Grand Final yesterday afternoon.  Alex scored the only goal from an assist by Merrilyn about five minutes into the second half.  Also in the second half, each team received a single two minute minor, Shufflers losing Mark for high sticking and Wheelers losing Brenton for tripping.  Each team got about twenty shots on goal.  I thought the goalies were the stars of the game but the judges said that I was, so I got the MVP award for the day!

The second half of the premiership game was as torrid as the first, plenty of bodies hitting boards and floor and exhausted players changing on the fly.  Again, my memories are patchwork and non sequential, excepting the opening and closing plays.

Our first line was me, Merrilyn and Alex.  I took the faceoff (I think they got the puck, but not to advantage).  Opening shift was almost two minutes long this time, ending up with me changing at the next stoppage.  Again, I found myself playing a two way defensive role, rarely penetrating the top third of the rink and spending most of my game in the defensive zone.  My role in this half was more 'fireman' and 'puck distributor'.

In the 'fireman' role, on a couple of occasions, I had to race to make defensive coverage when one or more of the opposition got behind us and in possession.  If outnumbered, had to try and pick the play to remove the most dangerous option (usually a pass).  Thus, picking off errant passes, winning races for deflected pucks on the end boards, hussling their defence when he tried the same (stymie his outlet and give me time to swing back into the D zone while our carrier moved forward).

The Shufflers started putting their best line forward during this period, I found myself scanning the opposition to try and track who was where (one of their skaters could blow away all of ours except me so I had to ensure he was covered if he discovered what he thought was a skating opportunity).  On several occasions I found myself skating hard on the forecheck, pressuring their puck distribution service while it was still in their back third.  In retrospect, I knew that their offence worked best with two wings advancing, so it was good to tie one up lopsided!

In the 'distributor' role I collected the puck from behind our net or in our corners, slowed up possession until my team mates had found some room, passed.  Sometimes I skated the puck up, sometimes I just held it in the backlines.  On a couple of occasions I skated it up the boards, chipping it past my opponent and thus creating a three on two for a brief moment.

It was one of these moments which led to the only goal of the game, with me going up the right board, crossing to Alex and swinging towards the centre as Merrilyn moved up the centre for Alex's rebound.  There ensued a number of shots, rebounds, gather and pass between Alex and Merrilyn, with me at one time providing a deep 'reset' option for Alex as two of the opposition bore in on him.  Eventually, she passed it through a scrum to Alex who took a moment to aim and then popped it in the high net.  The Wheelers went one up.

The ensuing period of the game was very tense.  Fatigue was threatening some of us, the less motivated becoming tunnel visioned and not getting on the backcheck, let alone the forecheck, when it was needed.  Not only that, but not getting off the rink when it was obvious fatigue had set in. 

Unsurprisingly, each team also took a penalty over the following five minutes.  They went first, while I was on the floor, for a high sticking incident.  I was deep in an offensive corner and had crossed the puck in to the slot.  There were three or four players present there.  I was about to drop back to cover the centreline when the whistle blew.  I stayed on through the ensuing power play.  This ended early because we managed to get a tripping foul called on us.  Again, I was in the corner and had put it into the slot to Brenton.  Somehow in the melee that threatened, he was called.

I stayed on for most of our penalty kill, taking quite an aggressive approach.  In other words, I threatened to harass their deep 'reset' passes and puck distributors, causing a fair bit of needless passing on their part.  Of course, this would have just left us exposed if I hadn't also gotten back first to cover the slot as our deeper defender fought for the puck.  So I was pretty buggered when I crashed the boards near our gate and dumped the puck forwards so I could change on the fly.  I was back out again before I had my breath completely back under control, necessitated by the fact that Merrilyn who'd been there for the whole penalty kill needed to come off and I was the most able replacement.  Tough gig.

And it got tougher as the clock clicked down.  I was out there for the final couple minutes, generally tying up the puck on the face off and killing time with possession.  With eight seconds to go on the clock there was what we thought would be a final faceoff, which turned into a brief timeout as the referees conferred with the time keepers before informing us that there was an additional 15 seconds to be added.  The final face off was a tied affair, with me pushing it towards the boards and then covering the puck and obstructing the opposition until I could chip it a few feet up the boards where Alex had made position.  And thus it went until the siren sounded.  We'd won!

Our only real celebration, a group hand clasp with a resounding '1-2-3 Wheelers!'  Very resolute!

Premiers!

Grand Final Game Day - First Half

This is the second of three posts about the Grand Final game, inline Winter Season 2014.   For the other posts see here and here.

Our opening line was myself, Alex and Brenton (who took the opening face off).  I noticed that the Shufflers had split their top two players, with Alun on the wing and Mark still on the bench.  Last game, they'd put out their strongest line whenever possible.  I thought this would make our job in the opening shift a little easier.  As with our previous game, each side managed a high speed breakthrough rush in the first minute, both being repelled by the respective goalies.  Brenton and I completed our first shift at the first stoppage of play just after the first minute (disadvantage of not having full bench and thus not having complete line changes - someone always has to double shift).

And so the first half went.  Both goalies stopped everything that got through to them, both teams managed to block almost as many shots as got through, both teams fanned on almost certain scoring shots from wicked passes through the crease in front of an open goal, both goalies stopped at least one shot literally on the line.

My own impressions of the half are a montage of moments, hard to peel apart and of no defined sequence.  Most memorably, skating at full speed to break through their defence down the middle for a hard pass from Matt which I managed to receive from behind, the need for continued speed to stay a pace ahead of Mark in full pursuit, the rapid approach of the goalie filled goalmouth, the struggle to get the puck to a spot relative to me that I could get some kind (any kind!) of shot on, the realisation that the choice was to get the shot off or peel off and avoid collision, the decision to go for the shot and failure to put any force on it, diving over the goalie (making glancing contact with her shoulder with my thigh), head and shoulders glancing off the crossbar and I slid into the net and dislodged the goal.  Looking up to see everyone smiling at me (except the goalie who remained totally impassive focused).  After the game, btw, it was this incident that was probably mentioned to me most by viewers, at least five times by different people in the first few minutes. I guess it looked spectacular.  What it was was me not succeeding at a complicated maneuver in overspeed.

There was a lot of action in each goal crease, serving to neatly show the difference in character between styles of play of the two teams.  The Wheelers tended to be within stick range of the goalie, jamming at the puck as she tried to cover it, whacking it always from the wing into the slot and hammering at rebounds.  On one occasion the puck was loose under a pileup, with a clear 'tunnel' to the line.  The only thing preventing Matt the Skater pushing it through was the difficulty in manipulating his stick so that the blade was at exactly the right angle relative to the floor to slide between the gap in bodies to touch the puck.  Another occasion, Matt jamming at a puck standing on its edge on the goal line, only the post and tip of the goalie's blocker preventing it wholly crossing over.

Contrast this to the Shuffler's assaults on our goal, which tended to be accurate and hard shots from outside coming in on the angle, deflecting or rebounding to the opposite boards for another, tighter angle shot.  This would continue for a flurry of up to four shots before the play broke down.  The pattern of such a play meant that the first shot in the sequence was generally the most dangerous.  This was due to the angle being most direct on the first shot (exposing more of the goal than the subsequent, more acute, shots in the series), and this while the defence was likely to be still organising itself trying to contain the breakout).  It was disappointing in a sense because we should have been putting more pressure on the puck.  On the other hand, our skaters were busy denying them the slot or a passing option, so the shots were the price we paid to deny them better shots.  A risky method of dealing with the Shufflers snipers, but Matt was on song so it worked.

My own game during the first half was a continuation of the evolution that has been occurring in recent games.  My 'defensive' game continued and I took only two shots only on goal (the aforementioned crash over the goalie, and a less spectacular shot at about 15' from the right slot at speed that was easily caught).  I made sure I chased the puck hard defensively, so Matt didn't face as many flurries of shots from the boards as he did when I was on the bench.  I ended up swooping behind our goal to retrieve the puck or cut off an option on a number of occasions, not always winning the puck but always buying time for my team mates to pick up their player.  I didn't get caught pinching up to provide a short passing option to our attackers when they were threatened, and I didn't miss any passes.

Quite a bit of my play was in the defensive corners, retreiving and shielding the puck, or pressuring the carrier.  A lot of crashing into the boards to deny space and maneuver, a lot of close in work where a poke check could so easily become a trip (each time pulling my stick out enough to not bring them down, though on a couple occasions their own skating took them down over my blade on the floor when we weren't even near the puck).  Once,I chased down a breaking Mark as he streamed towards the low slot, caught and jostled him just sufficient to ensure that he wasn't in on balance in centre and couldn't take the cross.

I played probably six shifts, twice going off on the fly (my shifts would have averaged about ninety seconds).  When half time came it was still nil all and we were all operating at the outer edge of efficiency.  I think we were pretty happy with the general aspects of our game, being possession, passing and defensive coverage.  It was nice for once to be saying to ourselves, 'stick with what we're doing and good things will happen.'

We had (just) recovered our breath and pulse when the siren sounded for the second half.
 

Grand Final Game Day - At the Rink

This is the first of three posts about the Grand Final game, inline Winter Season 2014.   For the other posts see here and here.

The day was a blue sky sunny 20'C with a mild fresh breeze.  After my morning skate (see previous post) I packed my bag and caught a taxi to Wayne's, chatting sport and world affairs with my indian taxi driver who has made Australia home.  From Wayne's, me and Shaun piled into Shaun's old car and headed up the expressway to Gawler.  There, we dropped my gear at the rink and then went and dropped his car off at his home.  We returned to the rink by taking a nice twenty minute stroll along the river.  I was in a good frame of being as I organised myself and kitted up.

My pre-game warmup was a bit different from usual.  The first part, a bit of general skating in the gallery or outside while one waits for the previous game to finish, had evolved from last time.  Then, I had uncertainly put myself through the various basic skating maneuvers, trying to make sure that my body would remember how to do them.  Then, a couple minutes on the rink with the team, taking turns at shots on goal to warm up the Matt the Goalie.  On this occasion, however, both of these elements changed (another topic for a separate post - the pre game warm up).

This time, I did practically no skating before entering rink.  I was mildly warmed up by my walk, and my muscle memory had been activated by my morning skate.  So, once my equipment was comfortable it was out onto the rink - possible only because the format on Grand Final Day allowed for longer times between games and thus a longer period available for the teams to go through their warm up on the rink.

We had a total of about seven minutes available to us.  For whatever reason, Matt the Goalie left the rink so we couldn't revert to usual practice of shots at goal.  Matt the skater and I were the only ones out there for much of the time, so we just passed pucks between ourselves at a fairly high rate.  Probably got more puck time than either of us had had with a team mate except for in a game!  For the last minute, all five Wheelers skaters were out there getting into the rhythm in an improvised horseshoe passing game.  I thought it was valuable time.

Morning Skate

I put on the inlines and went for a 50 minute morning skate at about 8am this morning.  I didn't want to push myself too hard.  Afterall, the Grand Final game was in about six hours and I still had to have a main meal.  So, I collected stick and gloves and headed to the primary school.

It felt a lot less exhausting on the way there than it had last Saturday, so maybe my minimalist increase in skating time over the past week is paying off afterall?  Down at the school, I did the usual 100 shots, ended up with a fairly low score of 3/4/6/1.  To be fair, however, I didn't concentrate at all on technique except incidentally.  Rather, my emphasis was banging in sets of four shots as quick as I could (I have four pucks left that haven't yet shattered).

I capped it with 25 shots taken in a nominally shootout style, skating in from the half way line and banging at my target from no closer than 15'.  What's interesting is that when I did it with multiple deking beforehand (and more slower and deliberate) I put in only one out of 20, yet when I skated in at speed (maybe throwing in a deke, maybe not) and shooting from 5'-10' further out, I got 2 of 4 on target.  Food for thought as I skated home up the hill, taking advantage of what is definitely a more powerful stride than a couple months ago to do it in 10% less strides than has been the norm.

Muscle memory reminded of what it needed to do later in the day, a good morning stretch to finish it all, and it was into doing stuff before heading up to Gawler.

Game Day - pre game, pre season and fees paid

Today is the Grand Finals Day at the North Vikings Inline Hockey Club.  My team, the Wheelers, play at 2:45pm against our most consistent opposition from across the season, the Shufflers.  It should be a good game.  They probably have the best pair of shots, and match our best two skaters with theirs.  We have have better depth, however, so it will be a tight game I expect.  Hopefully no shoot outs!

I haven't had much skating time since my last game.  This is not ideal, but work has been almost crushing in its intensity over the past month so there's been little choice.  I am glad that I went out last weekend for a bit of shooting practice and a bit of ice conditioning.  I might go out for a short morning skate shortly just to remind the muscles of what is required.

I'll be having to get to the rink in a fairly convoluted fashion, taxiing it to Wayne's, driving Shaun's car up to Gawler, dropping the gear off at the rink and then taking the car to Shaun's before walking back to the rink.  Putting a positive spin on it, the walk should serve as a warm up before getting my gear on.

Getting back won't be much simpler, starting with a walk to the train station, an hour trip back to the city, and then wait and catch the bus back home.  Hopefully I'll be able to catch most of the last half of Port Power's game (they're battling Hawthorn in a Prelim Final for the right to take on Sydney next week in the Grand Final).

*

I've paid my first instalment of season fees for Summer Ice Hockey season, so it won't be long now before my name turns up on a team list.  I am assuming that if the Knights still exist I'll be wearing the green again.  This would be my preference, but we'll wait and see what happens.  I'm thinking of busing it down to the Arena tomorrow afternoon to keep up my 'getting to know the ice again' period of pre season conditioning.

*

Off Ice, I did my best to keep up a routine with my strength training through this week.  Yesterday, double circuit of 12 reps upper body in the evening, and a triple 12 rep circuit lower body workout in the morn.  Thursday and Wednesday were crowded out with work.  Tuesday was single 11 rep upper body in the evening.  Monday, 11 rep upper body in the morn (single circuit) and triple 11 rep circuit lower body in the eve.

Sunday Skate - back on the ice

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

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

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

*

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

Stepping it up - shooting, blast and the power

Today I seemed to have stepped up the intensity of pre season build up.  Started with an inline skate to the school, gone about 70 minutes.  Realised I'm way out of condition by the time I'd finished gliding down the first hill.  I reversed the usual order of my session, starting with simple skating and some puck carrying and finishing with the usual 100 shots.

I didn't concentrate quite so much on elements of technique in the shooting.  Instead, aimed at quickness.  Thus, lined up the pucks and shot them as rapidly as could comfortably do (moving from puck to puck rather than remaining stationary).  My score was quite respectable, considering how little I've done this over the past few months (5/9/9/5).

After I got home (could feel my mojo returning as I pushed it up the hill to home) it was a twenty minute break and then catch a bus to the Ice Arena (the missus was captaining the car) for B's Ice Blast session.  He got there late, but not so late that I don't think he wouldn't have been pretty worn by the end.  I noticed a lot more contact between him and his main peer this time, and that he seemed to be quite at home on his skates.  I had to rush and catch the bus home before he'd changed out of his gear, but I reckon he's about ready for Hockey Academy if he's keen.  That should put him in good stead through summer as the build up to peewees begins.

Anyways, after I got home it was do a good solid double upper body circuit (using 11 reps in each set, up from yesterday's 10) before having some mushrooms and half a pizza.

On reflection, I reckon that I could feel the benefits of the off ice work I've done over past couple of months while skating this afternoon.  Despite the difficulty posed by the lack of conditioning I in some ways found the work easier, in that my muscles were not being pushed to their outer limits without going further.  We'll see how this observation holds as I get my aerobic and anaerobic systems back on line.

And now it's half time in Port Adelaide's elimination game over in Fremantle.  They're losing, but not out of it yet, so I'm going to leave this post and get back to the footy!

Later edit: Port wins by three goals, coming back from 31 points down at one point.  Go the POWER!

:)

Intellectual goons - I'm a Knight again!

This evening I finally got around to registering with the S.A. Ice Hockey League, enabling me to play in the upcoming summer season.  C Grade has changed, with four teams forming a First Division, six teams in a Second.  Not having played in Premium (winter) League, I'm by default in Div II.  Of the teams available I nominated myself into the Knights.  Three others had done so, Tom Andy and Michael.  I noticed that there's four, three, two and none in four of the other teams, with about fifty names in the sixth (nominated as a 'collection point' for names that will be subsequently distributed amongst the teams).  Because I'm a Knight, and because there was an evil rumour that the team that would be cut would be ours (apparently a bunch of 'intellectual goons'), I decided to vote for my team at the same time as selecting myself for it.  We'll see if it works.

*

Off ice, I have stepped up the frequency of my strength training as I approach the transition point to more play based training and conditioning.  This evening, a couple circuits upper.  This morn, couple circuits lower.  Yesterday eve, lower.  Wednesday eve, upper.  Wednesday morn, lower.  Tuesday eve, upper.  I can feel the effect and am quite pleased that I have stuck it out so far.

This weekend, I'll have to lace on my skates and start the move to getting in shape.

Game Day - Wheelers (3) d Shuflers (2)

My first inline hockey game on Saturday night was the Qualifying Final at Gawler Vikings.  We'd played the Shufflers four times over the season, 2-2 with us winning the first and last games.  The winner of the QF would go straight to the Grand Final in two weeks time.  The loser was to play a Preliminary Final on Sunday.

Being a finals game, each team was expected to field its own players (ie no reserves except for emergency).  Each team thus put five skaters onto their roster and their own goalie.  In our case, this meant that Matt the Goalie was back between the pipes.

Just as well he was, for he played a stirling game.  Both of their goals were more due our defence failing the goalie than him failing us (he saved many other tough shots).  Their first goal came about five minutes into the first half when all our skaters were sucked into the offense, leaving Alan free to take the breakout pass and skate it into the net.  Alan is a good enough shot that I was half expecting him to score as he took the pass.  He didn't disappoint.

We went into half time 1-0 down.  They'd put nearly twice as many shots on goal as we had.  I hadn't had a single shot, concentrating on playing 'lock' defence (especially after Alan's goal).  We were playing chase the puck (dumping it first if we were lucky), they were playing 'split the defence with board to board passes' up the wings.  If Matt the goalie hadn't been so on song, and our defence hadn't been so desperate, it could have been much worse.  Our mid time chat was, unsurprisingly, about puck possession and passing.

We made good in the second half, with quite sharp passing that allowed us good shots on goal.  Their goalie kept herself in our way, but it was beginning to look dangerous.  Matt the skater bulldozed the first one in after about five minutes.  Five minutes later, Brenton shot it in from the right slot and it just crossed the line in the corner.

Before we could grab an insurance goal they'd equalised, with me scambling backwards in front of a charging deking Mark.  In the end he shot it through my legs at goal.  I felt it very slightly deflect as it went through.  I could hear that it had hit the back of the net by the Shufflers bench.  Sigh.

I was also involved in the next goal.  With about a minute to go we split up their team with some wide and accurate passing of our own before I set off down the middle of the floor with Alex ahead of me to the left.  Matthew back in Defence shot the puck up to me.  I let it through my legs and it got to an unchecked Alex who took his time and put in the winner.

A good win for the Wheelers.  We went straight through to the Grand Final for the second season running.  The Shufflers were third last season, now had to play a Preliminary Final on the Sunday against the winner of the evening's second game (Bumpers (5) d Rockers (1), I played as a reserve with the Rockers in my first back to back games (see post from yesterday)).

UPDATE - On Sunday, the Shufflers (6) d Bumpers (4) so we get to play the Shufflers in the GF for the third time in as many games.  That's in two weeks time.

Game Day - Bumpers (5) d Rockers (1)

The elimination final for Winter 2014 season was the second game played last night in the North Vikings inline final's series that I played in.  I was called in as a 'reserve' (after my own team's game, but more of that in my next post) for the Rockers.  Having just played a game, I think my state of physical tiredness would have made up for any perceived skating skill advantage my presence might have otherwise generated.  I gave it my best shot, but that certainly wasn't my 'best' by that stage of the evening!

I think I was on for two of the Bumpers' goals.  One of these probably wouldn't have been counted as a goal if there'd been a video review facility.  It would have been the third goal I directly saved as it was my blade in the corner of the net that was keeping the puck from entirely crossing the line.  Ach well, them's the breaks.  One of my other saves involved me crashing over the immobile goalie in a scramble to get to the incoming puck before it crossed the line (I made it, in a heap), the other had me racing to get the puck as it drifted in front of open goalface before the opposition's swooping forward could tap it in.

Whilst I succeeded on this final save, I ended up crashing in a heap up against the back board, somehow in an almost upside down position, sliding into the board while on my shoulders with chin tucked up to my chest.  I ended up on my back against the board, but was able to move everything and nothing hurt until I tried to get up.  My left thigh was sore to put weight on, for a moment the prospect of a torn muscle obtained in a supplementary game loomed.  I tried it again.  The referee was looking at me with an enquiring look on her face.  I realised I could put weight on the leg, that it was cramped or corked (ie not strained or torn) and gave her the thumbs up before hobbling to the centre on one effective leg for the last half minute before half time.  In the second half the leg got better but it was still sore.  It still is a bit tight as I type this.

The Rockers went down, and were hence eliminated from the finals.  On the following day (today) the Bumpers had to come back and play the loser of the earlier qualification final in an afternoon preliminary final.  For the record, the Bumpers lost 6-4 in the preliminary final and will thus end the season in third place.  The Grand Final in two week's time will determine who get's gold medal!

*

Off ice, I did lower body/core circuits on Tuesday evening and Friday morning, and an upper body circuit on Thursday morning.  After my two games yesterday, I think I'll make today a rest day and then get back into it.  Will be shifting into skill training and skate conditioning in the next fortnight, so need to make the most of this 'off season' before evaluating the results.

EOI's, registration and the core

The Vikings are looking for expressions of interest to play in the coming summer season.  I've sent mine in, nominating that I continue to play Div II with the Wheelers.  There's a few major changes to the Club's operation next season.  If granted, my choice would result in me playing every Saturday evening between 6pm start and 7:30pm finish (Div II, two games in the period, each game with halves of 20 minutes).  A new junior 'premium' division has been formed, they and the existing junior divisions will play before us on a Saturday.  Division 1 and Pro League will play on Sunday afternoons.  Not only do I think I am not quite Division I standard yet, I also think that I couldn't make many of the games on a Sunday. 

Why not?

Ice Hockey season starts soon!  They'll be playing mainly on Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays.  Registration is being urged now, with first instalment of season fee to be paid by a date later this month.  Looks like it'll start shortly after then.  That will be my third year of skating, my second year of hockey.  I'll need to get registered once I've been paid.

So, it's about a month to go before I'll be playing two competitive games of hockey a week.  I'll be stepping up the inline skating as the days get longer.  Will need to be showing my face on the ice for at least one session a week of skating.  There won't be a lot of time to continue the physical 'off ice' training.  Which gives me a month to conclude my project to build strength, and to pump up my match conditioning.

To this end, after my 'sick leave' on Thursday and Friday, I did twin circuits of lower body/core exercise on Saturday and Sunday.  Monday was a day off.  Tonight, another twin circuit on core/lower.  I'll keep this up for maybe a couple more weeks (interspersing with upper body sessions), and then wind back the 'gym' work and step up the High Intensity Stuff (eg my River Skate Sprints from Sunday) in the lead up to the summer season.

Sounds like fun.