The six sticky notes pasted to my monitor, the Outlook alert, Jess (our sharecare nanny), and Al all reminded me to go to hockey practice last night; if they hadn't, I probably would have missed it again. Truly, Monday evenings are chaotic around here, and it's easy to forget which way is up when everyone comes crashing through the door at 6pm and I'm not yet done fixing a bug. At the last minute Al and The Beaner decided to come with me, and when The Beaner realized he was invited, he said, "mommy daddy play hockey!" I was so surprised; I don't think I've ever heard him say that before. I replied, "well, mommy's going to play hockey." He just kept repeating "mommy daddy play hockey!" until about an hour later, when he and Al were sitting in the stands eating dinner while I practiced. At that point he switched to "mommy play hockey! daddy eat pizza!"
I realized as I was getting dressed that I last played hockey in June. Wow, long time. Would I remember what the hell I was doing? Would I fall down as soon as I got on the ice? (Luckily I double-checked for skate guards before leaving the locker room, as I'd left one on.) It turned out that I did remember (mostly) what I was doing, and that I could get around OK. My shot seems weaker, despite all the bicep-boosting Boopster carrying, and I found I got winded easily, but the biggest problem I had was with the drills, which are still quite unfamiliar to me.
We ended up doing that two-man-weave passing drill that Lisa showed us, and I still couldn't get it right. I usually pass and then forget to cross, or I try to pass and cross at the same time, or both. I got paired with a girl who seemed incredibly exasperated with my ineptitude, which didn't help. There's nothing like being written off as an idiot at your first practice to build your confidence. I also fell once during the skate to the redline, stop, skate to the blueline, stop, skate to the...[you get the idea] drill, when I couldn't decide which side I wanted to stop on until it was too late. I'm actually lucky I didn't break my ankle on that one. (Afterwards Bill told me we always stop facing the clock. He might have said it in the original instructions; his accent is a bit hard to parse in the echo of an empty ice arena, so I missed a lot of what he said.)
I had much better luck with the forechecking drill (which is really just like a game situation, and I love forechecking anyway) and the two-on-one drill that was designed to help a defensive player (not necessarily the D) read the play in order to stop a rush. In both drills I got to skate flat out, carry the puck, pass, and shoot, and I learned a lot about what I need to work on most: namely, Hockey Head. I use this term to describe what many coaches would call "heads-up hockey", where you're skating with your head up, looking for passing targets, reading the play, and making quick decisions. It turns out that I'm not very good at this. I'm not so bad physically, but my decisionmaking is, in my opinion, poor. I don't always look before I pass. I pass when I should skate and shoot, and I skate when I really should pass. I'll definitely go after a player and forecheck/backcheck like a fiend if I see signs of weakness, but I take too long to read those signs and then act on them. I shouldn't be starting from a dead standstill when I decide to attack.
So I realize that everything I just said sounds quite negative, but really, the practice was not bad for my first time on the ice in 4 months. Most of the women I met seemed friendly and nice, and I can already tell that having coached practices is going to help my game. It'll also be nice to practice and play regularly. Oh, and I seemed to be about middle-of-the-pack skillwise, so this is the right level for me. Our first game is this Saturday (it turns out there's also one on Sunday that I didn't know about and will therefore miss, but since the large roster will necessitate some of us sitting out games anyway, it's not a big deal).
Finally, on an unrelated note, Al has been unable to find a team to play on this season. If your Philadelphia/South Jersey-area team needs a C-level guy who can play D or Forward, let me know!
Posted by Lori in Freeze ~ Fall/Winter 2006 | October 17, 2006·02:56 PM