Breakfast Club Session II: with Kirk

Last class of the winter session and just another plain ol' excellent day on the ice. Lyle and Scottie had us on the move from the first minute. I kinda like to ease into it a bit but not with these guys. No time off during class I'm reminded from the coaching staff. Thanks for noticing. Excellent hard skating one-on-one drills today. All eyes were on the two bulls going after it, Todd and Scottie. There was fur flying every match-up and entertaining to watch. One or both players were down on the ice after each drill. A possible penalty or two but the refs didn't call it. All of the one-on-one drills today were very game-like situations and great practice. Good drill tempo today. Since I managed to destroy most drills last week by going first, I went last for each drill. Lyle tagged me as the master drill buster.

Skated at the Joe last Thursday, another great experience. Played 3 lines of 4 on 4. Good thing we had 3 lines because guys and gals were gassed by the end. Did you notice the hardness of the ice? The boards were really solid. The player benches weren't that fancy either. Oh yes, the big difference is 20,000 empty red seats watching every move you make. Check out the website, Courtney took some pictures. We did have 2 maintenance folks cleaning the glass, I'm sure they were entertained compared to watching the pros. We did see the Dallas Stars equipment folks setting up the players equipment for the days skate and the game that evening. Nice stuff and bundles and bundles of sticks. Saw some of the Red Wings making there way in including Chris Chelios, the inspiration for us older guys.

Okay, so the NHL'ers have nothing on us; we are professionals too, albeit at slightly lower levels. This is a year-round sport folks so make sure you enroll in the spring and summer sessions. You need to keep improving and can't slip by taking time off. Actually folks, we know hockey is a very difficult sport. I think progress is measured in inches not yards. Today for example, I felt I had no game at all as oppossed to last week, I felt I was making progress. That's the nature of the game but if you look at your game in 3 or 6 month increments, you'll see the improvement. The improvement comes when you practice new aspects of your game not by doing the same stuff you always do. I think that's where the BC comes in, it forces you out of the comfort zone. Lyle, Scottie and Joe do a great job at that. Okay I'll say it, sometimes you want to cuss the instructors for turning us into pretzels but that's all part of the joyful learning experience.

Lastly folks remember the other reason we show up at the rink at 5:30, there are no finer people than hockey people. See ya at the spring session, Kirk out.

Breakfast Club Session II with Laura

The token female from Wednesday does a little date shifting this week, and lo and behold I find that there are three sister skaters who skate with the Tuesday Farmington group. A virtual swarm o’ sistahs in hockey terms. We have Martha, Fiona and Sarah. Courtney, hey, I thought you were clubbing, too? If you were there, we could have had a full chick line during the half-ice scrimmage at the end.

But I’m jumping ahead.

So what’s wrong with jumping ahead, anyway? Not the kind of jumping ahead where you try to take what is due to someone else. No, I mean jumping ahead as in improving your own position. Improving your own situation does not necessarily mean someone else has to suffer. You can jump ahead by skating faster. You can jump ahead by keeping your head up and “on a swivel” so you are always aware of where the play is going. You can jump ahead by controlling the puck. You can jump ahead by zinging a blistering wrist shot. All the kinds of things we work on each week. Why? So we can jump ahead.

I can’t comprehend playing beer league hockey at my current level for the rest of my life. I can’t imagine never getting better. But, if all you do is show up once each week to play beer league hockey with a bunch of other fools, the likelihood that you’re going to improve your game is remote at best. In all likelihood, to be blunt, you will probably not only fail to get better but you will probably get worse over time.

In a game, you rarely take risks. You do what you do because you’ve always done it, and you don’t do something you’ve never done because you’ve never done it. A very convoluted way of saying you stay in your comfort zone. Unless you play on a team that takes itself way more serious than any beer league team that I’ve ever seen, your team will never practice together. You will simply play games week after week...in your comfort zone. Which, as you get older and your body isn’t quite as strong or quick as it used to be, your comfort zone starts getting narrower. Until it less resembles a zone and looks more like a rut.

I enjoy playing hockey way too much to let myself fall into a rut. If I ever allow myself to feel satisfied rotting in my rut, please, do me a favor and invoke hockey euthanasia on me.

So keep your head up, and your eyes on the goal.

Breakfast Club Session II with Laura

oops, forgot to blog from last week. It would seem that both Kirk and Todd were AWOL, so you are stuck with the view from the Laura once again.

We had a good turnout last week for the Wednesday morning class. We ended with a scrimmage, I do remember that, because we had (amazingly enough) not only a good turnout but also a good pairing mix of greens versus maroons. And, no, I did not say morons, I said maroons, as in jersey colors. Although sometimes I wonder if my performance in the drills has unfortunately earned me the title of moron. That's why we call it practice, right? Practice, practice, practice. If we had it perfect, we'd be getting paid to play hockey. I don't know about you, but I think I need to keep my day job because I'd be a very hungry hockey player if I had to feed my family based upon what I could earn playing hockey.

But that doesn't discourage me. Not in the least. The transitions drills are a good case in point. Getting that nice crisp hop so that your blade doesn't drag in the slightest... yes, definitely made some progress there. Maybe because I've spent these first few years of my limited hockey career playing defense, I have a special appreciation for a good transition. It can mean the difference between getting beat versus getting the glory for the poke-check of the gods.

The one-on-ones reinforced the need for solid defensive skills. Skate up, transition, maintain proper gap control down the lane, and then make the challenge before the player gets across the blue line. You guys who can skate fast and shoot, yeah, yeah, that's all well and good, but you're not a complete player if you can't shut down someone just like you when the tables are turned.

Actually, truth be told, I graduated to being the utility player on my women's travel team, and I have to credit that to the things we work on and try to perfect each week. That was a goal of mine -- to be the utility player. To be the player that my team could turn to and ask to have play forward or to play defense. So check that box. Now I just need to graduate to being the player they turn to for every penalty kill...

We're almost at the end of the winter session, and my registration for spring is hot off the presses. I don't know about you, but I have lots of skills that I still have yet to perfect, and I know the only way I'm going to do that is to stay dedicated to attending clinics like the Breakfast Club. So watch out, the queen of the penalty kill is coming at'cha! In the meantime, keep your head up and your eyes on the goal.