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!

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.

Breakfast Club Session II with Laura

It's good to be back. In the week that I was gone, everyone must have gotten better. Either that, or my week off was showing.

A little light on the turnout today, only 13, 10 of whom were maroon so no scrimmage today. But that's OK, because Scott and Lyle kept us going so hard that we wouldn't have had much gas left for a scrimmage anyway.

Two goalies, which was nice. Full ice 1-oh's for the warm-ups, take it right lane, center and then left. Next? 2-oh's down the one side, passing back and forth. Whoever doesn't take the shot curls up and back, while the shooter takes a pass from the corner and you go back 1-on-1 to the other end.

Continuing on with the theme, one D, one back-checker and two forwards. Ready, set, go! Mix it up, take turns, test yourself in each position. That's why it's called practice!

Oops, can't forget the long passes. Cross ice, first round you're skating along the blue, pass across and then curl toward the zone, get the give-n-go, and go go go! Next time through, take off along the boards, curl across along the blue, catch that long pass and bust it for the net.

One end? Lyle's working you on transitions. So many different ways to work on transitions. Going around the end, facing the boards the whole time, switch those feet from forward cross-wise to backwards cross-wise. When you get it going, the rhythm is intoxicating. The hockey equivalent of a runner's high.

Other end? My personal fav! The cross-ice one-on's and two-on's. Beat each other up, then when the whistle blows you skate away completely gassed and grinning from ear to ear. Great way to start the day!

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

Breakfast Club Session II with Kirk

Great skate today, due to my schedule I couldn't skate on my normal Wednesday so I skated Thursday at the Dearborn Ice Skating Center, a nice rink. Hey Scottie O, no I didn't sleep in you big ......... Sorry folks to clean the dirty laundry in public. A smaller class, 11 good skaters, yes Laura including one woman. I recognized a few guys from a few years ago when I skated at a class there. Coach Joe does the class solo. He keeps it moving and nobody was complaining about ice time. A few winded players at times, including myself.

Started off with full ice crossover drills while receiving passes and then shooting on goal. How often does this happen in a game situation? Safe to say alot. Looking back at my several distinguished pro years of BC Warrior experience when I first started these types of drills I was happy just to maintain my speed. Today Joe was stressing acceleration in the turn: quick feet, knee bend, shoulder turn, GET ON THAT EDGE KIRK (yes I heard Lyle's voice reminding me of that), and pushing off with the toe. You get this technique clicking and you'll have some moves to shake off defenders and fly into the offensive zone. We all know speed is a great weapon especially while in a turn. Isn't that a demotivator when you get smoked by a player cranking up the speed. Oh, do you have a strong side? Mine is turning left. Now practice going the other way.

We changed it up and had some two player quick passing in around the net for a scoring chance. Stressing today the quick release. We know that we will rarely have enough time to make a perfect shot so practicing a quick quality shot even on the off foot will pad our scoring stats. Talk to me baby. I think I had a quality shot on goal less than half the time and that was with no defenders. So with defenders, you get the picture. The goal scorers probably shoot about 75-80% quality shots in those situations. I pulled that stat out of my .....ear.

Overall, a great skate. To my fellow Wednesday brothers and sisters, I actually did not cause any serious drill disruption today. It makes a big difference when the other players don't know me well enough to chirp at me yet. Notice no verbal slashes on my teammates or Joe today, I can't even make up stuff on these guys. They are squeaky clean unlike some of the Wednesday convicts I hang with. I feel incomplete without drying someone out.

I would encourage you folks to try another day, to skate with other players and hear another coach describe technique and tactics it can give another perspective that can hit home. Good skate today Joe.

Lyle you may need to get a large Timmy Horton's next week there is too much nicey nice stuff going on around here. I'm storing up double trouble for next week. Okay speak up, Scottie, Donnie, Todd, Matt, Tom, Ronnie, Jeff, Mike, who sat in my spot on Wednesday, show a little respect for the veteran players. Kirk out.