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Saturday 31 January 2015

Gameday - Wheelers (6) d Rockers (3)

Vikings' games started up again for the year today at Gawler.  We played the last game of the evening and came out victors against the Rockers.  The win puts us in second spot on the ladder on 8 points, 5 behind the Shufflers and 2 ahead of the Rockers (though we each have three wins, the Rockers have four losses whilst we have two losses and two ties).  There are five games left in the regular season.

Both teams had six skaters, which was nice.  We were given another new recruit, Rick, so we have six on our roster.  Hopefully no more games with only four players!  And we had Jordyn in goal, so we fielded a full Wheelers team for only the second time in my 29 games on the team.  The Rockers were in the same situation, though with a rotated goalie.

The first half of the game began with (I think) Krystal, Merrilyn and me on the rink.  It was a long shift with several good rushes on our part.  I was the last off, more than five minutes after the game began (with no faceoffs to give a breather or opportunity for a change).  Merrilyn put in two unassisted goals within a minute on her second shift.  The second in particular was pretty classy, being a long shot from almost half way as she was about to be shut down before she could truly break away.  The Rockers put up an answering goal eight minutes later on a shot that Jordyn actually had stopped by collapsing down onto it, but she began raising herself almost immediately and before the puck had lost all its momentum.  So it trickled over and we went into half time 2-1 up.

We started the second half with me, Krystal and Tash on the rink.  We had turned over the lines by the five minute mark, when the Rockers equalised with a thumping point shot from their prime scorer.  Five minutes later I was on the bench again, when the Rockers took the lead with a nice piece of contested rushing by Craig until he was behind us, followed by a nicely waited (and weighted) shot into the net.  In the next few minutes we upped the pressure, resulting in a close in equaliser by Krystal off a feed from myself.  We took the lead a couple minutes later with a crisp snap by our newbie.

We never looked back, despite several trips from behind and a general blizzard from the opposition (I think they hit the pipes twice in the last five minutes).  Krystal had a penalty shot for I think the first time.  The experience was pretty good for her (she commented on the 'pressure' later), despite not slotting it.  With less than two minutes to go I got behind them and had a shot on the rush from about 30', finding the back of the net on the blockerside and half way up.  Rick managed to snap another in from the slot shortly afterwards and we went to full time 6-3 victors.  Sweet.

*

I was happy with my game.  I (as is usual these days) emphasised my defensive game, generally playing the high slot in offence unless I was chasing for a breakaway.  I had a couple ferocious plays in the second half, the first to chop and disrupt Craig as he tried to protect the puck on a break out along the boards, and then in a battle on the boards with Paul behind their goal that seemed to go on and on and had the audience go quiet waiting for a penalty as we pushed and shoved and kicked and blocked and heaved and hacked and slashed and hung on until a whistle went to restart play.  Generally I managed to close the gap on their shooters at the right moment, otherwise keeping a restrictive gap on them with sufficient space to push them to the outside.  I blocked one shot and deflected another, and didn't fall down unassisted after the first minute, made a couple tight turns while protecting the puck.  Need to start trying to create passing options.  My ice hockey role and training is beginning to show itself in most aspects of my game.

Our team performed really well, although we need to tighten up on the shift times.  We won't always have as much help from our goalie and we will therefore need to be skating harder at all times to keep up our new momentum.

GP 7 G 8 A 6 Pts 14 Pmin 4 3/2/2

Inline 4


Friday 30 January 2015

Knights and Friends training

On Thursday night we had a training session, with Knights from Div II, Bombers from Div I, an equal number of A and B grade Blackhawks, and some hockey friends from all the grades.  There were even a couple tyro players out for their first time beyond the hockey academy.  Quite a smattering of ability and skill, and a pretty enjoyable evening where I think I ended up learning a few things (always a good thing in a training session).  I made sure I brought my new Bauers on this occasion!

The first half of the hour was spent doing traditional drill style training, with C Graders up one end of the big ice and the rest down the other.  We had Tommy in goals from the Knights (Nicko was in goals for the higher grades).  They'd been going a while by the time I got there.  The simple initial drill was a loop while carrying the puck from the corner up through centre ice and back for a shot on goal.  I think I only got to do four or five, and managed to hash most of them up in one way or another.

Then we did about fifteen minutes of our breakout drill, with a forward line passing it into the 'defence zone' for collection by a defender.  The forwards would then reset facing 'up ice' for the breakout pass from the defender and the centre would curl up for the quick pass and breakaway.  The forwards then skate up past the blue as though moving onto the attack.  Meanwhile, the defenders (who'd started the breakout) now change roles to defence and set themselves to take on the forwards after they in turn have looped through centre ice and now come back in an attempt to get into the zone and put the puck in the net.  Very good fun.

The pacing of the drill was pretty quick, and it required a bit of consideration to make it work, so there was plenty of opportunity for keen participants to do drill after drill until they needed a rest - and in both forward and defence roles if they so chose.

I spent much of my defence time in the slot, harassing anyone that came there that shouldn't, trying to contain people in the corners, putting a bit of pressure on a shooting point, trying to intercept or disrupt the cross ice passes of the forwards.  I need to make my time in an otherwise vacant slot (important role, dominating this space) more productive - perhaps varying my height on the ice and keeping an active stick in order to restrict passing lanes, retaining occuption of the shooting zone at the same time?

I played forward a few times, setting up one goal with a screen against resistance, and at least one other with a micro pass to a team mate.  It was fun, but perhaps not as challenging as D.

The second half of the training hour was spent on a largescale shinny, with teams divided by jersey colour (white v the rest).  It was good fun to be out there when there were good players motivating around, and a true pleasure to find oneself facing a fellow C grader on the rare occasion it happened.  As a D, I spent much of my time in a containment role, delaying and disrupting until help arrived.  My best moment was in the last play of the evening, when I poke checked the puck off a centre and prevented the 3 on 1 from forming beyond the blue line.  The move was almost identical to, but not as clean as, the similar check I made in the third period of last Sunday's game against the Sharks.  On both occasions I chose my moment to close the gap and simultaneously struck with my stick.  Both times too quick to actually think about what I was doing.  The benefit of training on the weekend?!

Good fun session.

Ice 9

Hootin Tootin Wednesday Night Skate

On Wednesday Night I made the usual summer trip to the Ice Arena for the 'Classic Hits' social skate session.  I went with Jess and Craig, neither of whom has been on the ice for a couple weeks.  I got a huge surprise on arrival when I went to grab my skates from the car and discovered that I'd brought my old Bauers (which I haven't worn since last year).  I'd picked them up unthinkingly at home from 'the usual spot', neglecting to recall that we moved all our stuff around a bit on Australia day to make room for the hungry throng at our BBQ.  No drama, I'd been wondering what they'd feel like for awhile. 

Entering the Arena the first thing I noticed was that there was more than the usual levening of hockey players amongst the Wednesday night crowd.  It was pretty cool to realise that on this occasion many of them were fellow C graders (there'll be an increasing number of senior grade players turning up randomly over the next few weeks as they approach the start of their (winter) season).  Equally as good, quite a few from the early Noarlunga Shinnies were there.  Made for a more social evening than usual.

Initially I thought that it was the Redwings on a training skate, but amongst them were Sharks, Predators (who were having a 9:30 training on the small ice later), Flyers and even another Knight.  As a pack they looked like a unit when moving around the ice.  Was good to see them.

I think Jess felt the reactivation of her skating muscles and appeared quite surprised at the experience.  Craig just motored himself around as quick and as long as he could.

As for me, I put myself through short periods of specific skating maneuvers, the new introduction for the night being a return to practicing my pivot as an alternate to a mohawk means of transitioning from forwards to backwards with minimal loss of momentum.

My old skates didn't feel as all-encompassing as my new ones do, but I was much more agile in them still.  It will take a while to get the new ones to that state, but they will be fantastic when they are.  I have since described my skating as 'mosquito like' on the evening, and I know I was making some difficult things look relatively natural.  Or so it felt.

Ice 8

Wednesday 28 January 2015

Australia Day Skate

On Australia Day (Monday) we had a bit of a BBQ at our place in the arvo so the only chance for a skate was in the morning.  As the kids were busy I wasn't going to go down the Ice Arena so it was a case of lace up the vapors and skate down to the school for an hour.

I spent about ten minutes stick handling my hockey ball in the spaces between the four pucks I had placed in a row across the neutral zone as I skated down one side then the other of them, followed by sweeping slaloms while deking the puck with tight turns at each end.  I then did the usual hundred shots at 15', reasonable results at 7/4/7/3.  In between my four sets of 25 I did my figure eight transitions with poke check at the end of each loop and in the central crossover.  Finished up the session with a some sprints across the neutral zone with the puck on my stick and a shot at 30'.

The first guest had arrived by the time I skated home and a great afternoon was had by all.

Inline 3

Tuesday 27 January 2015

Game Day - Sharks (3) d Knights (0)

We went down on Sunday night to the fourth place Sharks.  They starred Matthew Peterson in goals and he pulled off some amazing saves.  In our net, Tommy similarly made some amazing saves but we left him open and exposed twice too often, and one of their players put in a howitzer shot from behind the blue line to make three.  We were down on players, Tom and Andy in particular were missing, as well as Lachy.  So, we were down to three D and two forward lines, although it was worse than that as Cam had got out of his sick bed to make up the numbers on defence, where we were really therefore about two and a half D (me with ten games in the position behind me, Mike with four times that).  Foxy and Baden returned, and Beau turned up for his third (or fourth?) game, but we were done a player compared to them.  The lack of defenders in particular was a bit harsh.

Despite all this it was a hard fought game and much closer than the scoreline indicated.  The teams were separated by less than a game on the ladder before the game.  The sharks now control their own fate in the final third of the season, and we probably need to win at least five of the remaining six games to give us a realistic shot at making the playoffs.  If we play as well as we did against the Sharks, with at least two of the absent three players turning up to even up the numbers, and if Cam gets better, then we're not without a chance.  But, they're a few ifs...

The game itself was tied at 0-0 at the first break, we having survived a too many men on the ice penalty.  I was on for the penalty kill, and then had a short break before they also had a penalty and it was four on four for about a minute.  That was fun!

They scored their first goal with five minutes left to go in the second.  I can't recall now how it came about, but I was involved in the precedent play and made a bad choice that led to their opportunity.  Very disappointing.

In the third period they scored once early and once late, the second being the previously mentioned howitzer shot and the third being a rushed goal.  They also copped another penalty in the third but we didn't capitalise on the chance (I played little if any on the power play).

When the final siren sounded it was a much more friendly conclusion than our last game against them had been.  Rarely for us we even went and thanked their coach for the good game when it was done.

As for my own game, despite being on the ice for all three of their goals (helping set the first up, but almost blocking their second (it missed me by bare inches)) I think it was my best game yet.  I was reading the play pretty well, defended the offensive blue line quite well a few times, looked for my breakout passes, iced it only once, jammed their forwards out from the crease, covered the goal mouth once when Tommy was down and shielded him with my body once when he was on the ice and the puck was loose in front of him.  I sent a couple of shots in towards their goal, one of which was just barely tipped out by the outstretched foot of their goalie.  Most surprisingly, in spite of playing over thirty minutes I reckon I had another period left in me at the end!

There were a couple of successful pinches on my part, as well as collecting the puck from faceoffs.  I knocked them off their stride a couple times, and did a couple really good poke checks.  I was keeping the gap closer, only got skated around once.  Going in a forward direction I matched their speed, and almost did so when going backwards.  This game I kept my feet a lot better and the transitions were relatively smooth so I was pretty pleased with myself, despite the vanishing playoff chance and the loss.

GP 11 G 0 A 0 -9 5/5/1

Ice 8

Monday 26 January 2015

More Schoolyard

Early Sunday afternoon, once all the chores were done (or, at least, those I couldn't ignore) I kitted up and was back to the local school for some more inline work.

I did the standard hundred shots from 15', 5/8/8/4, breaking them up with short skating drills the same as yesterday (ie figure eights with transitions (concentrating on holding stick close into body and poke checking on the transition) both ways, and the walking crossovers exercises).  Before shooting I slalomed for ten minutes through the neutral zone with the pucks lined up as obstacles (stickhandling).  After shooting I accelerated five times with puck through the neutral zone to shoot from 30'.

Felt more in control of my skates than the day before.  Would have kept going if didn't have a game in the evening, but I did so I skated home.

Inline 2

Sunday 25 January 2015

Pregame Thoughts

Tonight's game against the Sharks is very important for the Knights.  They are fourth on the ladder with two more points than us.  A regular time win could put us into fourth, depending on the result of the Predators v Flyers game (Preds are even with us on points).  A loss would leave the Sharks a game clear of us and give the Pred's some breathing space if they were to win.

Looking at the video from our last clash, several things leap to mind.  It was a rough game, with quite a bit of forward feistiness.  They have a couple of 'excitable' big guys.  They like going up the boards at speed.  Their defence maintains position quite well.  They didn't emphasise mid-ice stick handling as much as the King's centres did last week.  They are quick onto the forecheck.  They often left the point open when in our zone.  We outshot them, their close in opportunist goals were the difference.

My game against the sharks was still dominantly characterised by the state of my knee as it then was, especially after getting knocked down in the first few minutes by a monolithic forward and then again by one of our wingers.  This aside, there were several aspects of play that I can improve on (and, I believe, have done so though we shall see).  These include the way that I made my approach when chasing a loose puck near the boards (several times they brushed through as I vainly poked my stick towards the puck rather than put my body in the way, or got their second and was thus off balance if pinching).  Also, that my defensive positioning was way too deep for much of the game and the gap on their rush was thus way too large.  I failed a couple of times to get possession when pinching forward from the point (allowing them to get behind and break away).  My neutral zone play was characterised by not picking up the puck cleanly when I had the chance, and poor transitions when I did (losing my feet).  Not enough defence of the blue lines.  After successfully checking a rushing forward, I would remove the pressure on them (releasing them to rapidly get into a dangerous position).

It wasn't all bad.  My passing was pretty good, albeit perhaps not careful enough with my selection of breakout pass (often through not taking enough time to look).  Getting the puck into the danger zone led to a goal for us.  I protected our crease pretty well most of the time.

Tonight, let's try and put the following into action:

- Calibrate decisions and moves so that am playing within my physical limits and planning to do so accordingly (rather than constantly fail to meet the too high performance standard required for successful execution of an overly ambitious move).  My knee is much improved but I still don't have the strength and quickness I had leading into the season.
- Only pinch forward when I know I can get possession, or at least contain the puck.

- Play Up!
- Defend the blue lines.
- Don't play too deep.
- Close the gap against their rush.

- Get my body into position and on the boards first, and then keep it there.
- Don't puckwatch, complete the check.
- Keep my feet in the neutral zone.

- Look for the best breakout pass.

Final observation - most of the above are about my play without the puck.  What does this say about the game of hockey, and my game in particular?!

Back to School - 2015 Edition

Yesterday I donned my inline vapor skates for the first time in four weeks and went down the local primary school for a practice hit out.  It's about time I did as the season recommences next week.  Also, with the list of identified weaknesses from my game last Sunday and my failure to attend Knights training on Thursday night (bloody pressures of work, grrrrr) I have been feeling a real need to do something to improve the aspects of my game that so let me down.

I was gone an hour.  In that time I went through my hundred shot routine from the 15' circle, hitting the target pole 6/8/5/3 times with wrist snap, writs shot, forward snap and backhand respectively. 

Before I commenced the shooting I spent about ten minutes stickhandling a puck at low to moderate speed on a slalom course.  In between sets of the 25 shots I performed short exercises in skating agility (figure eights with transitions each way, left and right, and then the 'crossover walk' each way, crossovers only and then crossovers interleaved with cross behinds).  After my shooting I did five max accelerations between the 'blue lines' from a rolling start (pushing me into the anerobic zone).  Pushed myself extra hard up the hill on the skate home.

It felt a bit disconnected for a training session.  I will know today when I go and repeat the dose what aspects are having a (marginal) immediate effect.  But the main value was just getting myself back on the inlines and getting the blood pumping.

Inline 1

On the ice on Wednesday

Wednesday evening I spent about an hour on the ice for my only between games skate this week.  I only really decided to go at the last minute so didn't round up any of my (now) usual companions to join me.  It felt a bit unusual to be there 'alone' on the public skating session - even though that's what I've done for most of my skating career.

I spent more time than I have on other recent skates pushing myself at moderate to high speed laps.  Although my speed is still there I have lost a lot of the quickness/acceleration I was working towards in the pre-season.  I got the feeling that a lot of this drop off is neuromuscular, I need to retrain myself into quickness.  I know what to do, at least, though will be a hard slog to do it in-season.  Still, if we are to make the playoffs I will be glad to have done so.  And, if we don't, my winter season inline game will surely benefit.

My transitions have smoothed out significantly between and left and right over the past few months (the value of hundreds of repetitions), but this isn't of as much value in itself without high acceleration out of the move.  Lowering my stance through it will assist to patch the weakness, but more training required.

Continued with backwards crossbehinds drills, now much smoother and a reasonable exercise.  I think the effect is coming through when I revert to proper backwards cross overs, the outside edge push offs add more power to the stride.

After a good hour the feet weren't sore at all and the skates are now feeling pretty comfortable.  I went over a couple of times, once from loss of edge and once to avoid collision with a tyro skater.

As much work as fun.

Ice 7

Friday 23 January 2015

(Late) Game Day - Kings (5) d Knights (2)

We played our first game of 2015 last Sunday, going down to the Kings 5-2. We'd beaten them 7-2 earlier in the season.  They held onto third spot on the ladder, we dropped to sixth.  We are now two points off of a playoff spot with seven games to go in the regular season.

We had ten skaters, the Kings had nine.  Considering their narrow defeat the week before, when they'd only had six skaters, this should have set all the warning bells going.  We were missing Baden and Foxy, whereas we had gained Beau for his second game of the season at the cost of no Dan.

They scored two strong goals in the first period, we put on one in the second which was quickly followed by their reply, and we got a final goal in the third followed by two for them.  We had a total of 22 minutes of penalties (including a game misconduct for Christian), they had a total of 6.  The Kings certainly had a couple of skilled forwards who were firing on all cylinders and everyone else on the team fulfilled their roles to suit.  We had no-one shining, played reasonably well as a team initially but that started lapsing after a while and resulted in clumbsy and self destructive moments on the ice (eg. collisions and confusions, creating gaps).  They were powering along quicker than us for much of the game and, when their lead finally stretched back to two goals, it just got worse.

Not for want of trying, mind you.  I suspect that we had an 'off' night, and paid a price for having had the bye last week when all the other teams had been shaking off their cobwebs.

For me, the most disturbing aspect of play was my lack of urgency.  The goal that I hold myself somewhat responsible for was one where I found myself 'cruising' towards a pick up of a loose puck on the offensive boards and failing to control the puck at all.  The end result, their centre swoops and they're off with a two on one rush that results in a sweet shot into the back of the net.  This wasn't the only moment I was aware of my lack of 'compete', but it was probably the worst.

I played the whole game in defence, with Tom as my partner (though I seem to play a fair bit on the ice with Mike also).  I'll call us the 'first' pairing because Tom and I usually are there for the opening faceoffs.  I pulled quite a bit of time on the Penalty Kill (the first time I've ever got to try and play within a 'box' defence), including a couple times of 3 on 5.  Scary.

I got a couple nice passes off out of the zone, including a ripper in the first five minutes to an accelerating Christian.  Also found Andy up the wing on a couple stretch passes from the zone which he commented on later.  My skating felt competent for 90% of the game (after a couple slipping falls in the first few minutes on my new skates) but nothing spectacular.  My stickhandling was very mundane, and totally failed me on a couple occasions (see above for the play I stuffed that led to their second goal).  I generally covered my zone, a couple of times allowing someone through for a clear and strong shot, though I think always from out of the slot.  By the end of the third I was closing out their star into the boards and matching his ferocity, but too little too late.  I should have been doing it from the moment he showed a willingness to try and deke around me (which is something I allow to happen far too often - need to watch the body not the puck like in training).

It was interesting to hear after the game from a couple viewers that my skating appeared to be better than ever, and my positioning to be solid.  Though the frank acknowledgement that my stickhandling was 'crap' accorded well with my own perceptions.  For what it's worth, these same viewers were puzzled at what we got all our penalties for.  I just shrugged this off and said 'we're the Knights' but it does make one think.

I was on the ice for four of their goals and none of ours (that'll wreck my plus/minus rating!).  I was pretty instrumental on one of their goals (see above) and I was reliably informed by a viewer that I also had a hand on a second of their goals (whilst on the penalty kill).  The other two, I shouldn't have done anything other than what I did (and they were rocket shots).

This coming Sunday, the Sharks.  To give us a run for the finals, we will need to beat these guys.  Last time we met, they won.  Pressure is on.

GP 10 G 0 A 0 -6  5/4/1 

Ice 6

Sunday 18 January 2015

Knights Training - with the big boys on the big ice

We'd learned that we'd lost our usual Tuesday night training slot over the xmas break, so Justine had organised a combined training with her B grade Blackhawks team (and a couple of their A grade friends) and the Div I Bombers on the big ice.  Although regular on Thursday nights, the times will be varying for the next month.  For this first session of the year, we had the ice from 8:15.

I wasn't as well prepared as I would usually like to be.  No real meal beforehand, a bit rushed in the transition from work through home to rink, only sheer stubbornness with which to combat lack of sleep from previous evenings.  I did manage to tape up my knee, however, and again took out the thick socks.

The session was divided into two portions.  In the first, two simple drills.  For the first drill, we divided into C Graders at one end and higher grade players at the other.  We C graders did the relatively simple pass and follow around the five points of the attack zone drill, a little over five minutes each on both forehand and backhand sides.  I felt my skating speed isn't what it was the last time I did this drill, but that my pass accuracy has increased.

Second drill was combined with all grades, defenders in the centre and passing into a diagonal corner simultaneous with another D doing the same into the opposing corner.  Then the D's skated around the centre face off circle to pick up the rushing forward the other D had passed to and try and defend them out of goal.  I kept getting outskated by the better guys and at least half my attempts resulted in an unresisted shot on goal.  On the other hand, half my attempts were to some degree successful in that I at least made them work to deke around me, or I managed to disrupt them long enough to put them into a less dangerous corner zone, or I managed to poke or sweep check the puck away.  Started feeling my stride and transitions returning.

The last half of the session was in the form of a shinny.  I spent the whole time in the defence, only making one howler mistake (an unobserved pass across the central slot).  I generally managed to keep position on the attacking blue the few time we got it in there, and found myself picking up the lead forward on their rush and trying to keep the slot clear when they pinched behind.  By the end of the session I was building a bit of confidence even against those players who were several grades above me, utilising my head and spatial sense to minimise the harm they were doing while others on my roster swung into action.

At the end of the evening I felt really good about having come, my feet didn't hurt, and agreed with my teammates that we were looking forward to taking on the Kings on Sunday.

Ice 5

Wednesday Night Skate

A relatively short skate on Wednesday night, mainly due the fact that young A (5) was being brought along by Jess for his first skate since last year after his return from Bali.  He was sooooo cute when he rocked up in his toque and proudly bearing his Bauer skates for us adults to help him put on.

Cutting a long story short, the little fellow was hampered by the fact that he'd grown a couple foot sizes over the past four weeks, was tired, and had a tired mum (who, as a result, was a little shorter than usual in her demands for independence from her son) and it all ended in tears.  Ce la vie.

I stayed there about an hour longer with Craig.  I'd remembered to tape my knee this time and concentrated mainly on backwards cross behinds.  Making progress, could feel the outside edges biting when I reverted to the more usual crossovers.  Used thick socks for the first time in the new skates, had no dramas with foot pain.

Maybe I will be able to wear them into the back half of the season afterall?

Ice 4

Wednesday 14 January 2015

Cross Behinds on Sunday Skate

On Sunday I went down the Ice Arena and met up with Craig and Jess.  It was moderately busy.  The ice was pretty hard for social skating because (a) the atmospheric temperature had dropped quite a bit, and (b) the ice temperature was no doubt turned down due the fact that there were five back to back hockey games to be played on the rink after social skating was over..

As seems to be my midseason habit, I didn't push myself too hard but kept up a steady pace throughout.  I had watched M2Hockey training video about 'cross behinds' on Youtube prior going so that I had something new to work on (always important) now that the skates are beginning to settle onto my feet.  This was pretty cool, as I have been trying to find out the technique for how to do something I saw in a P.K.Subban video over winter, but until now have been unable to find it.  Maybe I just had to trust the universe to let me find it when I was ready?

The first few minutes I found it quite difficult to do (skate backward, cross over behind the lead leg onto the outside edge, push out) but by the end was able to do it moderately competently, albeit slow to moderate speed.

We were there almost two hours and felt quite fatigued by the end of it all.  I went over four times, none of them painful, twice due my outside edge catching on the ice.  Skates caused no additional pain after the first five minutes, so must be not far from breaking them in.  Had my knee taped up for the first time in a month.  Not so necessary as it was back then, but a source of comfort none the less.

Pizza afterwards was delicious.

Ice 3

Friday 9 January 2015

Return to Off Ice Training

With just over a week before returning to the back half of the Ice Hockey season I thought it was about time to get back into some sort of training regime.  On Tuesday Knights training recommences, but that and the once or twice more I'll get onto the ice won't be enough in itself.  Justine recommended a bit of running in the lead up, but it's been too hot over the past week and now it's pouring with rain (typical Australia, we had both fire and flood stories leading the news bulletin yesterday and today), and I was never much for running for running's sake.

So I put myself through a shortened workout of all three major muscle groups that I was concentrating on before the season (ie upper body, lower body, core).  Only did one complete circuit with ten reps on each exercise.  Burned energy, but not extremely so.  The knee and its surrounding muscle groups strained a little to keep up, but no dramas.

It's been over three months since I was last game to work out to this extent. Will see how I feel tomorrow.

Thursday 8 January 2015

Wednesday on ice water

We've had a cool summer this year, generally speaking, so it was only last night, after five days over 35'C, that we finally got that special experience that ice skating in Australia offers, skating on the ice water as the power burns at the rink as more people than usual come to challenge it in its task of keeping the rink cold.  Who can blame the people for coming?  For me and Craig it was a blessed relief from the muggy heat outside.

We were there only about seventy minutes, but both stayed on the ice throughout.  Again, I hadn't taped my knee so had to keep my exertions in check.  I stayed active, however, and kept a reasonable pace up throughout.  Concentrated somewhat on my edges.

My skates no longer keep piling on the pain as they get broken in (this would have been my sixth hour of skating in them).  The discomfort at the end was no worse than it was after five minutes.  Hopefully this means I am coming through the worst of breaking in the boots.  Just in time for training to recommence next week.

I went over twice, and two narrow misses after my edge caught on the right foot.  Didn't hurt myself, but got a bit wet.

Ice 2

Friday 2 January 2015

Skating on a hot day

Today was very hot (43'C) so it wasn't that much of a surprise to get a call from Jess asking if I wanted to meet her and Craig at the Ice Arena in the afternoon.  I wouldn't have gone if someone else hadn't asked, but I don't want to be the wet squib so I said yes and headed down at the appointed time for my first skate of the year.  I didn't pick up B on the way, thinking that he needs to be doing other ten year old things in his holidays.  He'll probably pay me out about it, but that's a grandpa decision.

Me and Craig continued the relatively painful process of breaking in our new skates.  He seems to be making a fair bit of progress, working with his laces and the internet together to help get himself set up.  It sounds like the pain is going and I could see the increasing ease of his skating.  I didn't have a lot of energy so didn't go full on at any point, instead continuing to work the edges and balancing.  Probably didn't generate enough heat in the feet for the 'baking' process (whereby skates made of modern materials mould themselves to a foot if sufficient heat is applied, generally through hard skating), but it wasn't a debilitating pain.  The second hour went a lot quicker than the first.

Jess was beginning to do proper backwards swizzles and continues to work on her stopping.  Peter from Melbourne gave her a few tips and I think she found that quite helpful.

Met a lass from Darwin who asked me, with ten minutes or so to go, if I could show her 'how to do all my tricks'.  What do you say to a kid who asks that with all the earnestness of the young?  Especially a bright lassie who has a natural grace on her skates.  Who's from Darwin, where there is no ice rink?  I thought about it a bit, suggested she watch Youtube.  As she does have inline skates, but is interested in figure skating, I told her mum that the figure skaters I know at Gawler use quad skates, not inlines.  I think mum was planning how to score some quad skates as they left.

As we got home through the heat it was nice to feel that I'm a couple hours closer to having broken in my skates.  We all felt 'jelly legs' when we got home, age seemeth to not single me out in this respect yet.

Here's to another year of good skating experiences!

Thursday 1 January 2015

Final Skate of 2014

Wednesday afternoon our band of four brave skaters somehow managed to coordinate our busy holiday schedules to sneak in a final visit to the Ice Arena for 2014.  Jess, Craig and me continued to break in our new skates, B continued to buzz around and have fun as is his wont.

Jess hasn't had much dramas with her skates, continues to work on her backwards skating.  Will soon be doing crossovers is my bet.

Craig is displaying obstinacy worthy of our family, continuing to persevere through the pain of his new Vapors.  I think he was beginning to flag after about an hour, to be rescued by B and his enthusiasm showing him a few basic maneuvers.  To Craig's credit, he hung in there to the end and I think realised that the pain was becoming less than an issue than it had been.  Maybe he won't have to trade in his skates afterall?!

For me, my 160s started out smooth but after an hour had developed into all around ache in the feet.  So I took the old school approach, took them off for a wee while and had a cuppa and a smoke while my feet recovered.  When I laced them up again I noticed that there was again no pain and, an hour later, very little ache.  Maybe the end is in sight of this process for me also?

Here's to 2014 which was a very good year for me and mine and our skating in Adelaide!

And here's hoping that 2015 becomes a very good year to me, mine, and all the regular readers of Puck'n'Skate!

Sad Streaming News - Demise of Wiziwig

Only a week after I found it, Wiziwig has been (hopefully temporarily) shut down by its operators in response to changes to regulatory environment in its host nation Spain.  If you read the blurb I've linked to you'll see the explanation.  In short, the Spanish have made it so that on the unsubstantiated complaint of a broadcaster they can fine and will soon be able to jail the site operators without recourse to court of law (ie as an administrative action of government).

At the risk of sounding political, it's this sort of governmental lackeying to capitalist conglomerates that is the greatest threat to about the only thing going that offers humanity a way out of its global race towards environmental and cultural destruction, the internet.

Sigh.

I've located a couple other streaming sites for those leagues that aren't shown here at all.  I'll post the links when I've ensured to my own satisfaction that they don't damage the soul.