Breakfast Club Spring Ending Session

Uhh! No way! Say it ain't so!

This was the last week of spring breakfast club??! It snuck up way too quickly. Maybe because Easter was so early this year, maybe because spring started out hot but then cooled back toward March weather when it was May, or maybe it's because I just can't count that well.

Either way, it's been eight weeks, come and gone. And now what am I going to do until the summer session starts in July?

Well, for starters, I'm going to throw down the gauntlet and try to embarrass Kirk and Gary and Todd into signing up for the next session while the May 31st discount is still available. Skate with me, AND save 10%. What more could you want?

What more could you want, versus what more do you need?

Well, for starters, I need to apologize to one of the other youth coaches. I let something simmer and fester, and then managed to really goof things up. Ugh, been kicking myself for a week over it...

And then there's want. As in I want to get better. Each week, each skate, each time on the bench. Maybe measured in inches instead of miles, but better nonetheless. Today's one-on-one lane drill was a good example. Control that defensive gap, and make the challenge at the blue line. Even with my stick upside down, I managed a few poke checks that made me smile. A smug little "yeah for me" that keeps you coming back.

We did a lot of one-on-one, two on's, mix and match. There are 10 skaters and two goalies in any given game, but it's really a series of one-on's and two-on's that ebb and flow. So our warm-up drill, two skaters up around the center circle and back at the net, left and right lane...it's about pace and positioning and keeping your feet moving so the goalie isn't quite sure when that puck is releasing. And the one-on-one's, again, are about pacing and using speed changes to your advantage. How about those two-on-one's? Now you've got options and choices. No half-way's allowed, right? Go big or stay home, as the saying goes. If you're on the attack with the odd-man advantage, how are you going to use that? If you're defending, how are you going to neutralize?

Moving up in numbers but not necessarily complexity, we did some 3-on-2's, kind of like the second part of a breakout drill. Just because it's 3-on-2, though, don't forget that all you really have is one set of one-on's and a second set of two-on's. If your defensive partner is challenging the puck carrier, you've got the make sure there isn't any good out for the puck carrier to pass to one of the other two forwards. If you are the third forward in, you need to see where the challenges are being set, so that you are the option for your partners and so that you are presenting a distraction for the defense and the goalie.

No morning is complete without a little scrimmage. Always fun, and always a good chance to try to put into action the things that Lyle and Scott tried drilling into our noggins. It actually looks like hockey out there!

Go Wings!

See you in July, and in the meantime keep your head up and your eyes on the goal.

Breakfast Club: Spring Hockey II

A little light on the turnout today. But not to worry - Joe, Scott and Lyle kept us quite busy.

First, some deking. Find a partner, one defends while your teammate practices drawing to the forehand, drawing to the backhand, passing it under your stick, whatever it takes to get it past the defender...which shouldn't have been that hard, especially since the defender's stick was upside down..and they were standing still.

Yep, shouldn't have been too hard.

Next, some passing. Find a partner, spread out cross ice, line up facing shoulder to shoulder and pass on your forehand. Hard. Tape to tape. Now, open up and face your partner. Same thing. Now, one-timers. Now, do it while traveling backwards and forewards, always facing your teammate.

Doggoned if we weren't beat and sweating...just from passing!

Moving on, we broke into three groups.

One was with Scott, working on stationary one-timer shots from the left, right and center key. If your body isn't in the right position to start with, how exactly is it that you think yor one-timer will be that smooth catch, load, release that it needs to be?

The middle group, with Lyle, was working on passing around the circle. Just like tightening lugnuts, the puck was passed around the circle in a star pattern. One puck. Then two at a time. Then three. Four. All the way up to where everyone's passing and receiving at the same time. Heads up! Pass to where they need it, or else the whole rotation falls apart.

Meanwhile, Joe had the other end working on shooting on the move. Skate eight's around the face-off circles, catch the pass as you're coming around the top and release all in one fluid motion. Sometimes you're catching where you're already in good positon, but the other half of that eight you'll be catching on your fade. And passers: send it crisp and to where the skater is going to need to be. Timing and accuracy matter.

All of that sounds so easy. Yeah, easy...not.

Great skate, though, despite my lingering inadequacies. I haven't pulled that kind of sweat in a while.

As if all of that didn't leave us sweaty enough (yeah, Tom, it's barely 7 am, and shhhheee-ooot, we've got another half hour to go), we moved on to some lane skating. Up, accelerate around the center circle and full speed to the other end. In batches of three. The first hundred or so rounds, we avoided bowling for teammates. But as the gas tanks started hitting vapors, the edges weren't as solid around those accelerating turns. Lyle said wiping out was good, though, because it meant you were pushing out of your comfort zone. But then he had a Fruedian slip, and let us know that falling was just plain amusing, too. Yeah, yeah, I'm here to learn and also to dish up your weekly fix of entertaining moments. Win-win all the way around, eh Lyle?

Let's put a bow on this day by finishing with some zone games. Greens trying to score westbound, yellows shooting eastbound. If you were in the west and east ends, you were either trying to score or trying to prevent it. The middle zoners were the transition team, snagging that which was intentionally or accidentally cleared, and sending it back into the appropriate scoring zone for their color team. Three pucks in play at all times. Every two to three minutes or so (or, in Lyle time, every 45-60 seconds) rotate zones.

Besides being Kirkless, my morning was a success. I made sure to dish sufficient portions of sarcasm upon Lyle, enough so that he hopefully didn't feel deprived by Kirk's lack of attendance. It's an obligation that I take seriously.

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

Spring Hockey

Ah, yes, spring hockey. You would think it'd be easier getting up, seeing as the sun is rising earlier than when we're leaving the rink. But, the sun is also setting later, and so we're doing things like yard work after dinner and going to bed more tired than we did in the winter. And, of course, those 10 p.m. starts for the playoff games certainly aren't helping to make it easy to get to hockey in the morning.

But here we are ... even if we're a bit sore from raking, and even if we're sleep-deprived from watching the game last night. I was out of town for two weeks, one for vacation, and another for unforeseen scheduling conflicts. So, boy, was I surprised to such a bright spring crowd this morning. It looked like a sea of jonquils! All of that bright yellow and grass green! Talk about spring hockey. Definitely spring colors, and it largely appeared to be a bunch of hockey players, so put them together and you've got your spring hockey.

I saw some new faces this morning. Welcome, boys. We're all here to learn, and it's good to see some new afficiandos of this great sport. Don't feel too intimidated; you'll be amazed at what you look like in just a few months. Commiting to clinics is the fastest way to rapidly improve both your skills and your confidence. Lyle and Scott are great (no they didn't pay me to say that) and your fellow clubbers are the salt of the earth. We had some interesting issues this morning. Kirk broke a blade on his skate. Clean in half. You'd think he would have been "out" for the rest of the day, huh? Nope, no such luck you slacker! The rink fixed Kirk up with a rental skate, and five minutes later he was back in the mix. Me, on the other hand, I felt out of the mix this morning. Not due to anyone excluding me, not at all. More due to me not really having my brain fully engaged. Like in the warm-up drill -- skate with the puck in a "S" path from one end to the other, shoot on the goalie. Should have been pretty easy. So what was the deal with losing the puck, huh? Then some one-on-ones down the ice. The way we did it this week wasn't so much for honing defensive tactics, though. Lyle wanted the puck carriers to get confidence in their deking. Stick deking and body deking. Next, some skating and passing. Pass it up to center ice, and while the center group passes the puck around within the circle, the two skaters go up and then back. Receive the pass, crash the net, and if your first shot doesn't score then your trailing partner should be looking to capitalize on the rebound. The goalies, of course, were focusing on not giving up any rebounds. And let's not forget "bowling for teammates", a.k.a. skating in circles in groups of three. This is where I really caused chaos. Sorry! I hope you're not too bruised-up!

Some parting shots? Well, I was going to say something about Jason's goalie cut jersey, making him look like a parachuter with one of those flying squirrel suits. But I've decided not to say anything after all. Same thing about Kirk's loaner skate, being in those Batman colors of black and red. But again I've decided not. Because heaven knows, Kirk might actually dust off that keyboard and hunt-and-peck another column one of these days, and then I'll be the one getting roasted online. So keep your head up and your eyes on the goal!