Breakfast Club: Week Seven with Laura

Have you ever had your mind wound-up around so many issues that you can't sleep? Last night was one of those. Among other things, I was mulling over what to write today. You see, Kirk and I traded emails yesterday. Have you noticed the blog has been a bit gender imbalanced lately? Yeah. It was supposed to be the boy's turn to write, but boy emailed girl and said (a) he's sick, and (b) his job is a nightmare right now, and so (c) between the intersection of those two factors, there was a high likelihood that he was going to miss this morning's skate. So girl assured boy that she would blog again, tag you're it, many hands make light the load, rah rah rah, we're all one big team, of course I'll do it because you'd do it if the tables were turned ...

So back to my sleepless last night. Besides trying to plot how I would embarrass Kirk in this morning's blog, I also had a sudden moment of awe and appreciation for our Wednesday instructors, Scott and Lyle (I'm not sure who's covering the Tuesdays this session). Not that I don't daily stand in awe of our instructors' abilities (ooh, it's getting deep in here) but I was suddenly overcome by true and heartfelt appreciation last night around 3:45 am. You see, I gave up pretending to sleep around 1:15 am, got up to work on the spreadsheet from HE double hockey sticks that was weighing on my conscience, and finished around 3:30 am. Staggering back off to bed, realizing that I'd be getting up again in about 60 minutes to go to hockey practice, I pondered that I had the luxury of not really needing to do that if I didn't want to. True, I had promised Kirk that he could beg off this week, seeing as he's feeble with the flu and overworked, and so if I didn't show I'd be re-nigging on my promise to blog. But frankly I may only be writing for me and Kirk anyway, and so who knows if anybody would really care that no one blogged today. I could have chosen to reset my alarm for a more decent wake-up time than 4:45 am, and life would have gone on just fine without me if I had skipped hockey this morning. But Scott and Lyle don't have that option. It's kind of like being the bus driver for the school, ain't it boys? If you spend a sleepless night or you wake up feverish, you don't have the option of resetting that alarm and snoozing through the practice. If you don't show, who's gonna be able to cover for you with no notice? If one of us skating fools fails to show, the class goes on. But if our instructors fail to show, well, we have no class at all. So whoo hoo, hats off to you, sincerely, for making the effort to show every week to teach us skating fools.

But maybe that's the motivation -- they unwaveringly show to teach us each week, because the skating fools will always give them something to smile about!?

Like this morning; plenty of Kodak moments to smile about. Let's take the two-on-0 with the one-on-one return loop that we did as the first major drill. How hard can a two-on-0 be? Pretty hard if you can't actually pass it to your partner. Likewise, it's difficult if, on the one-on-one return loop, you manage to trip over the paint as you cross the lines. But let's not dwell on the comic relief; let's talk about what we did right. Like avoiding to take out any of our classmates, a.k.a. the human pylons, during our pre-drill deking warm-up. Skate down the lane, bust a move at each pseudo-pylon, and take a nice warm-up shot on our goalies. On any given week, we usually can count on at least one skater-to-person-pylon collision. But we were accident free today! The workplace safety dudes should have been proud.

Same goes for the shooting drill. Catch the pass from the corner, and quick release your shot at the goalie. I don't think any of the bystanders took a wrist shot to the nether regions today. Usually, we can count on at least one wild wrist shot tagging an inattentive bystander during a drill like that. But today, even though there were still some errant wrist shots, the bystanders were alert and I believe we avoided having anyone hit in the zone-of-death (a.k.a. off to the side of the net) by a puck.

These may seem like little victories, but a big part of hockey is making sure you're paying attention 100% of the time. Not just those times where you've got the puck, or are actively trying to gain the puck. But all of the time. Because you never know when your time may be coming. You may be thinking you've got time to la-dee-da, and then BAM someone gets you when you're not looking. Life's like that, too, huh? Here you are, looking forward to having a relaxing morning of playing hockey, and doggoned if things like pesky little viruses and that mind-numbing job don't get in the way of your having fun.

So, rest up, Kirk. Come back healthy, and do it soon, please. Because we need someone for Lyle to pick on during the drills. None of the rest of us are quite such a suitable target for persecution as you, my dear boy. And if you can't manage to come back because you miss me ever so much, Kirk, then do it for Lyle. Because Lyle's dragging his bum out of bed every week to be there for you, Kirk.

Keep your head up, and your eyes on the goal.

Breakfast Club: Week Six with Laura

T minus one and counting. Meaning, it's the day before Thanksgiving, and there is so much left to do. Like go get biscuits. That's it, biscuits. OK, you got me, there is not really anything left to do. So all the better to hit the ice with a clean conscience! Yeah!

The crowd was slightly lighter in turn-out, but not nearly so much as I feared it might be. It's nice to know I'm not the only psycho ... I mean, dedicated hockey student.

And, boy oh boy, did this student need her schooling this morning. The brain and the body were definitely not in sync. And now, for the entertainment portion of our program, we have Laura, falling down and losing the puck for no apparent reason. Heck, I even managed to be in the wrong place when Lyle was explaining one of the drills, so that he nearly skated backwards right into me because I was where I shouldn't have been. I am trying to figure out how to turn this little bit into a Lyle dig, Kirk, but I can't fathom how to dig Lyle over me being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sorry, dude, I'm going to have to leave the Lyle jabs to a higher power. Enough self-pity, girl.

Today we did a lot of work on passing. Stationary, moving, stop-n-go, give-n-go, two-on-O (or is it too-on-oh-oh???). Ronnie was our sole goalie, so we adapted accordingly. More maroons than greens today, so the half-ice scrimmages left the green team perpetually short-handed. Very well matched, I must say, because the maroons never seemed able to exploit our one-man advantages. I love the mini-games, because it gives me a chance to try to put into use all the stuff we worked on for the prior hour or so.

Back to passing. Saucer passes. Snaps. Touches. Cross ice. Drops. So many different flavors to choose from! Kind of like one of those Leatherman tools, you need to pick the right pass for the right situation. Don't use the Phillips blade when you need the scissors. Drops only work if your partner is able to pick it up before it gets picked off. A wobbly saucer pass is next to impossible to catch. So that's why we practice, practice, practice these basics, so that they will hopefully work well when we try to use them for real during a game.

Frankly, I can't imagine playing in the beer leagues and never getting any practices in. I know I'd never be getting any better. Now, granted, the progress curve is not exponential like when I first started playing back about four years ago. The instant improvements don't happen as instantly anymore, but they're still there. Moving past the low-hanging fruit, as the saying goes. You ARE all registered for the next session, which starts in January, aren't you?

Geoff filled in for Scott, who was missing today. And, speaking of missing, hmm, I don't recall seeing Lyle carrying his customary cup of Tim Horton's coffee. Does Scott have secret powers, able to conjure coffee from thin air and thus his absence today meant Lyle was reduced to having to actually buy his own coffee, which he forgot to do? Did Lyle have that coffee anyway, and I was just too out-of-it this morning to even notice? And where does Geoff fit into this mystery? My mind is reeling. I'm sure a hearty helping of turkey will clear the fog. Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving, dear skaters, and see you next week. In the meantime, keep your head up and your eyes on the goal.

Breakfast Club: Week 5 with Laura

Wow, talk about using all 90 minutes of class this morning. I felt sorry for the second group to do the edge drills as the first group really chewed up the ice pretty deep. Isolating the different components of your cross-over really causes your weak spots to stand out now, doesn't it? Ahem, yeah. Same goes for the round-robin shooting drills. Scott keeps trying to tell me that the rink ain't the place for the chicken dance, but doggoned if I can keep those wing flaps tucked normal when I'm pretending to shoot.

There wasn't any Kirk to kick around this Wednesday. Don't know if he snuck off to the Tuesday class, or if (gasp!) he had something better to do than hockey. I can't imagine what would be better to do than hockey, but hey I was a no-show last week myself. Not because I had something "better" to do, though, trust me. Let's see: (a) sit through four mind-numbing days of German-language PowerPoint presentations, or (b) play hockey? Hmmm, let me think... don't rush me ... Yeah, you know where my vote would be if I truly had a choice there, folks. But sometimes, even us dyed-in-the-wool anti-establishment grudgingly-compliant malcontents need to play the corporate game.

Speaking of playing games, the end-of-practice scrimmage was killer fun. Love it, love it, love it, even if the two-minute shifts kick me in my 40-something posterior. The other Laura dashed off to the showers to get a head-start on her day, but me and Emily stuck around, yielding one token female for each shift, thank you very much. Don't let those boys take your puck, girl!

Final thought for the week: How many of you are coaching, dear clubbers? I hope all of you are. You are ideal coach fodder, if you didn't know. Why? Because you care enough about getting better that you're getting coaching yourself. How many of your beer league buddies will admit that they could stand to improve on this or that? How many of those same buddies will make the time and commit to improving their game? Yeah, that's what I thought. You are doing both, and being a humble and enthusiastic student makes you an ideal coach. If you don't have a kid who is playing, that doesn't mean you can't coach. In fact, dare I say, there is an entire program full of eager young hockey players right here at Suburban that could always use your help. Check out the girls-only "Adorabelles" and "Incredibelles" learn-to-play programs at www.MichiganIceBreakers.com, and the mostly-boys "Mighty Mite" and Mini-Mite programs at www.SuburbanHockeyClub.com.

My favorite coaching moment happened last spring. Our team had just lost their umpteenth game in a row, when one of the kids gave me the biggest, sweatiest hug and said "I'm having the most fun I've ever had, Coach Laura!" How often do you get to hear that in your average day, huh? … Beats German-language PowerPoints by a long shot. So keep your head up and your eyes on the goal, and see you next week where we'll skate off all that turkey in advance!

Breakfast Club: Week 4 with Kirk

I didn't have all my stuff today on the ice. Did you see Coach Scottie smile when we were doing our backward skating drills while dropping down to your knee? Don't try that without a lifeguard on the scene. He loves to see us suffer.

How ‘bout the full-ice drill while stick handling, all was going well until the kick the puck piece of the drill. I had to circle back a couple times when I missed the kicking part, I only think half the class noticed as they watched in amazement. Scottie made up for lost time today following his bad attitude last week. That boy can generate a little speed but the problem is his stopping move is unreliable. Always keep one eye on Scottie … you don't want to become an ice rink statistic.

Laura was a no-show today – Germany trip for work. Laura II and Emily made it. Donnie J had an honors code violation, suspension in the works. Yes Lyle, I'm still perfecting my snap shot, it takes a little time.

Trivia question - does anyone know how many shots of Tim Hortons coffee Lyle needs to get his voice in shape for the practice? Besides the sounds of Coach Lyle's voice ringing in our heads, what is your favorite sound of hockey? Mine is the puck hitting the goal post and then the puck going in the net if I shot it.

OK, so we were tossed and turned in a lot of different ways today, why, to put us in situations we're not normally in. Do you notice when you try that new move or position the first time you resist it but doing it the second and third time you actually can begin to do it. The whole process is what helps us develop new skills. Albeit small steps, these steps build on one another until you'll see noticeable improvement. Yes, there are times when I view my hockey as my failed experiment but I quickly snap out of it when I objectively view my progress in 2-3 month intervals. Hockey is a very tough sport; it's not like playing darts at the pub. Pinched hit for Laura today, she'll be back and writing next week. Kirk out