Breakfast Club with Laura - Winter Session Day One
It’s the start of a new year, and the start of a new session of the Breakfast Club. By a strange twist of fate, Kirk and I are no longer in class together. I’ve heard that this separation has been very hard on Kirk, and so I’d appreciate it if you didn’t remind him about me because the poor boy just might bust out … crying? Heck no, more like giggling maniacally. Bwah ha ha ha ha! You know the sound…
Speaking of sounds, I think I heard the sound of the angels singing. Laaaaaa! Due to some scheduling issues, I was going to have to miss this session of the BC entirely, and I was understandably bummed out. But then it seems that some phone calls were made, favors called in, I’m not sure if any incantations were uttered but I did hear there was a sacrifice offered to powers of Tim Horton’s coffee. In any event, Breakfast Club is now running Wednesdays and Thursdays at Suburban Farmington 6am-7:30am, and Thursdays at Rochester Onyx 6:30am-8am. If you were sitting on the fence waiting to see what was gonna happen with the Tuesday class, well, didn’t you read the part I just wrote about the sacrifice to the hockey gods? The Tuesday class has been reincarnated as the Thursday class. Which, seeing as all the chicks are enrolled in the Thursday class, it would seem the Thursday class was reincarnated with all of the higher life forms.
For our first week back, accounting for the hideous weather and the rearranging of schedules, it wasn’t too surprising that we were a little light on turn out. Scott used that opportunity to go back to bed, leaving poor Joe to fend for himself with the bunch of us. We tried to be good little hockey players. We couldn’t have misbehaved too badly, because Joe indulged our request to beat each other up towards the end with a little tag-in chase the rabbit. Two players go in, and whoever gets the puck first has the option of trying to score right away or of tagging in a team mate waiting outside the blue line to create a 2-on-1. If the defender gains possession, he similarly has the option of trying to score or of tagging-in a second defensive (now offensive) team mate. So it could be a 1-on-1, 1-on-2, 2-on-1 or 2-on-2, depending on the situation and the decisions that were made. Because there is no such thing as “just like in practice” when you get to the game. Every situation is a little different, and so being able to make better decisions is the best skill to hone. We can only tweak so much more out of our aging bodies, strength and speed-wise, but at least some of us still have some brain cells firing. Use all of the tools in the toolkit.
Not that anyone was in need of some Mr. Fix-It repairs. Yes, there were a few human Zamboni moments, like doing the tight turns and losing an edge. Hmmm, where did I leave my inside edge? Must be around here somewhere... Tight turns toward the boards when you’re evading a defender creates a natural barrier between the puck and your opponent. That barrier being, your big ol’ posterior. Of course, to do a tight turn well, you need to use both skates, not just the inside edge of your outside skate. So we practiced turning just on one edge. First inside edge of the outside skate, and then the outside edge of the inside skate. It’s amazing what happens when your upper body cooperates, directionally, if you’re trying to do the outside edge-only turns. And, conversely, how an uncooperative upper body will harpoon your best-intentions of thinking you’re gonna turn.
I’m sure I could go on and on and on and on and on and on and on… (slap!) OK, so enough of me blabbering. Get your duff to the rink, and see you on the ice. In the meantime, keep your head up and your eyes on the goal.
Speaking of sounds, I think I heard the sound of the angels singing. Laaaaaa! Due to some scheduling issues, I was going to have to miss this session of the BC entirely, and I was understandably bummed out. But then it seems that some phone calls were made, favors called in, I’m not sure if any incantations were uttered but I did hear there was a sacrifice offered to powers of Tim Horton’s coffee. In any event, Breakfast Club is now running Wednesdays and Thursdays at Suburban Farmington 6am-7:30am, and Thursdays at Rochester Onyx 6:30am-8am. If you were sitting on the fence waiting to see what was gonna happen with the Tuesday class, well, didn’t you read the part I just wrote about the sacrifice to the hockey gods? The Tuesday class has been reincarnated as the Thursday class. Which, seeing as all the chicks are enrolled in the Thursday class, it would seem the Thursday class was reincarnated with all of the higher life forms.
For our first week back, accounting for the hideous weather and the rearranging of schedules, it wasn’t too surprising that we were a little light on turn out. Scott used that opportunity to go back to bed, leaving poor Joe to fend for himself with the bunch of us. We tried to be good little hockey players. We couldn’t have misbehaved too badly, because Joe indulged our request to beat each other up towards the end with a little tag-in chase the rabbit. Two players go in, and whoever gets the puck first has the option of trying to score right away or of tagging in a team mate waiting outside the blue line to create a 2-on-1. If the defender gains possession, he similarly has the option of trying to score or of tagging-in a second defensive (now offensive) team mate. So it could be a 1-on-1, 1-on-2, 2-on-1 or 2-on-2, depending on the situation and the decisions that were made. Because there is no such thing as “just like in practice” when you get to the game. Every situation is a little different, and so being able to make better decisions is the best skill to hone. We can only tweak so much more out of our aging bodies, strength and speed-wise, but at least some of us still have some brain cells firing. Use all of the tools in the toolkit.
Not that anyone was in need of some Mr. Fix-It repairs. Yes, there were a few human Zamboni moments, like doing the tight turns and losing an edge. Hmmm, where did I leave my inside edge? Must be around here somewhere... Tight turns toward the boards when you’re evading a defender creates a natural barrier between the puck and your opponent. That barrier being, your big ol’ posterior. Of course, to do a tight turn well, you need to use both skates, not just the inside edge of your outside skate. So we practiced turning just on one edge. First inside edge of the outside skate, and then the outside edge of the inside skate. It’s amazing what happens when your upper body cooperates, directionally, if you’re trying to do the outside edge-only turns. And, conversely, how an uncooperative upper body will harpoon your best-intentions of thinking you’re gonna turn.
I’m sure I could go on and on and on and on and on and on and on… (slap!) OK, so enough of me blabbering. Get your duff to the rink, and see you on the ice. In the meantime, keep your head up and your eyes on the goal.
posted by Suburban Hockey @ 7:26 AM
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