I was very excited about this practice to be on the ice with an old friend. He and I hit the ice, I did my stretching and skating drills. I feel my skating in a strait line has gotten significantly better. Occasionally I'll catch a rut and get off balance, but it is time for me to now resharpen my skates.
The bag of pucks was once again dumped in the neutral zone, and I did the stick handling of each of them as fast as I could. They'd get away, and I didn't have to chase them. A good feeling. I tried a couple of toe drags, and wasn't able to connect on them even at a medium speed. What this does is it helps you get used to just gliding the puck across the ice. I try to go as far apart as I can, at a reasonable speed.
During drills, it was reinforced that the weakest part of my game is the skating. Edgework and balance was our focus. I am not able to skate balanced. I'm not able to fall balanced, or get up in a balanced way. I need to work on my strength and balance. I'm going to get out my balance board again.
The scrimmage, I played D for the first 70% of the night. It was clear that I need to work on my patience and positioning. I don't play D often, so it is no wonder why I don't do as well as I'd like. In my defense though, the forwards just kept skating backwards on top of me. We basically let them take it into our zone no problem. Once I moved up, I made sure we fore checked, and it caused a lot of problems for the other team. All three forwards had some experience and worked well together for a good 3 minutes of zone time. I would dig in corners, a bigger guy had no problem shooting the puck, and the other winger would constantly be picking up rebounds.
I think the intensity annoyed the opponents because we weren't letting them bring up the puck. The problem is those guys were on a team together. If we just let them skate it up, how does that help them? It doesn't. And that is the problem with a scrimmage in general. The areas that are not practiced will never be improved on. And it shows in my game. As a result, I try and fore check. I try to move players out of the crease and I don't mind some contact.
Anyway, an okay night for me. Not my strongest performance, but definitely helpful. The drills showed me what I need to work on.
Showing posts with label classes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label classes. Show all posts
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Chicago Bruins Adult Hockey Class 2010-12-06
I went into this week fully prepared and ready to improve on the last performance. I switched back to my old stick during warm ups after having a difficult time with my stick last week as well. As the pucks were dumped out, I went there, and just tried to get used to the stick again. I forgot how big of a difference a light stick makes. I fumbled the pucks pretty quickly but I kept improving. It is a drill I'd like to keep doing, but rarely do I have a pile of +25 pucks just sitting to my left.
Interesting that I focused on that during warm ups because we focused on stick handling this week. It's strange to think that a year ago, I had a hard time carrying the puck all the way around the rink. Last night, during the scrimmage, I felt like I had the puck on a string, and went through two or three defenders.
The teacher gave a great tip in that, no one is ever going to pass to your back. As a winger, you think I'd apply that when getting the puck out of our own zone, but I rarely do it. We focused on transitions a lot. Skating towards the defensemen, transition to going backwards, receive the pass, turn and go. So I have to remember to not have my back to the play. Just going blindly up the boards never works. You're going to drop the puck anyway.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the night was a result of lack of goalies. They brought out a shooter tutor, with some of the smallest targets I've seen. I picked up a puck, skated in to about twenty feet, and fired top right corner, off the post and into the net. A beautiful sound. Picked up another, and did the same thing, without hitting the post. Third time, I went top left, and it went in off the post. It felt nice to be accurate again. I think by shortening my stick, I kept bringing up my bottom hand up on the shaft. Lowering it has given me more control. The fourth, I went five hole, but missed by a few inches. I started to work on my slap shot a little. I'm starting to feel I could take one in a game and have it be beneficial.
In the 4 on 4 scrimmage, I played with three members of the Flames. The Flames are the team I'd be joining if I went to this league, more on that later. I definitely feel our team was stronger than the opponents' squad. I had made a few really solid passes, and at one point I went through three of the opponents. Eventually, I gave the puck up to the fourth opponent - but only because I thought he was on my team. Stupid jersey colors. I demonstrated a lot of speed and confidence in the scrimmage. I got to a lot of loose pucks, and made some outstanding passes.
A solid night of transitions, and skating backwards practice. I gained a lot of confidence tonight. I want to play. Need to build up endurance.
Interesting that I focused on that during warm ups because we focused on stick handling this week. It's strange to think that a year ago, I had a hard time carrying the puck all the way around the rink. Last night, during the scrimmage, I felt like I had the puck on a string, and went through two or three defenders.
The teacher gave a great tip in that, no one is ever going to pass to your back. As a winger, you think I'd apply that when getting the puck out of our own zone, but I rarely do it. We focused on transitions a lot. Skating towards the defensemen, transition to going backwards, receive the pass, turn and go. So I have to remember to not have my back to the play. Just going blindly up the boards never works. You're going to drop the puck anyway.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the night was a result of lack of goalies. They brought out a shooter tutor, with some of the smallest targets I've seen. I picked up a puck, skated in to about twenty feet, and fired top right corner, off the post and into the net. A beautiful sound. Picked up another, and did the same thing, without hitting the post. Third time, I went top left, and it went in off the post. It felt nice to be accurate again. I think by shortening my stick, I kept bringing up my bottom hand up on the shaft. Lowering it has given me more control. The fourth, I went five hole, but missed by a few inches. I started to work on my slap shot a little. I'm starting to feel I could take one in a game and have it be beneficial.
In the 4 on 4 scrimmage, I played with three members of the Flames. The Flames are the team I'd be joining if I went to this league, more on that later. I definitely feel our team was stronger than the opponents' squad. I had made a few really solid passes, and at one point I went through three of the opponents. Eventually, I gave the puck up to the fourth opponent - but only because I thought he was on my team. Stupid jersey colors. I demonstrated a lot of speed and confidence in the scrimmage. I got to a lot of loose pucks, and made some outstanding passes.
A solid night of transitions, and skating backwards practice. I gained a lot of confidence tonight. I want to play. Need to build up endurance.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Decisions, decisions. Where will I play?
I spent some significant time during the day yesterday trying to figure out where I would be playing in January (one night a week of Goaldiggers hockey isn't cutting it). As I stated before, there is a league that is part of the class I'm currently in. They play real close to home, and seem to be at the same level as me, and are genuinely nice guys.
I sort of talked to a few people around the league, and it seems to be full. That is crazy to me. They cannot add extra teams, and get more ice time? It sounds as if the league also is filled with ringers. I don't like that. If a team wins +80% of their games, move them up a level! I am a firm believer in that the players you add to a team should not be better than your best player, or worse than your worst player. It'd be difficult to do, but is a rule to stick to if possible.
HNA is not as ridiculous as I thought, because I've noticed that the closer you get to the city, the more expensive the league is. I've also been noticing at their games, the more ridiculous rules haven't been enforced. It ultimately is like every other league, except it is played at a few different rinks, and has the levels broken out fairly and evenly.
Now I could just go back to the Immortals which are an HNA team, but they're mid season, and can't add players. I'd have to wait until May or something. Instead, I'd go through the beginner program again. This time I'd at least know the goalie really well who would be on my team. It would result in one more training class, but until I learn to stop the way I want to, I can still attend those.
I talked to a player played with once or twice about his skating classes. Apparently, he's taken and loved the Laura Stamm power skating classes. From the look of it, I don't feel I'm a good enough skater to be in them. The other important part is that they're only a weekend deal, and don't happen until the summer time in the Chicago area, so taking skating classes looks grim.
What is important to me is to be on a team where I know at least a few people. I've noticed it makes a big difference in going to the rink when you're not super excited about it. When I was first on the Goaldiggers, I didn't know anyone, and rarely said a word, ever. As I got to know them better and be a bit more outgoing, it was more fun, even if there was a bad night.
Bottom line, I'm not sure where I'll be for a second team yet, but it doesn't feel like it will be the Immortals. I am in search of pure skating classes, and decisions need to start being made.
I sort of talked to a few people around the league, and it seems to be full. That is crazy to me. They cannot add extra teams, and get more ice time? It sounds as if the league also is filled with ringers. I don't like that. If a team wins +80% of their games, move them up a level! I am a firm believer in that the players you add to a team should not be better than your best player, or worse than your worst player. It'd be difficult to do, but is a rule to stick to if possible.
HNA is not as ridiculous as I thought, because I've noticed that the closer you get to the city, the more expensive the league is. I've also been noticing at their games, the more ridiculous rules haven't been enforced. It ultimately is like every other league, except it is played at a few different rinks, and has the levels broken out fairly and evenly.
Now I could just go back to the Immortals which are an HNA team, but they're mid season, and can't add players. I'd have to wait until May or something. Instead, I'd go through the beginner program again. This time I'd at least know the goalie really well who would be on my team. It would result in one more training class, but until I learn to stop the way I want to, I can still attend those.
I talked to a player played with once or twice about his skating classes. Apparently, he's taken and loved the Laura Stamm power skating classes. From the look of it, I don't feel I'm a good enough skater to be in them. The other important part is that they're only a weekend deal, and don't happen until the summer time in the Chicago area, so taking skating classes looks grim.
What is important to me is to be on a team where I know at least a few people. I've noticed it makes a big difference in going to the rink when you're not super excited about it. When I was first on the Goaldiggers, I didn't know anyone, and rarely said a word, ever. As I got to know them better and be a bit more outgoing, it was more fun, even if there was a bad night.
Bottom line, I'm not sure where I'll be for a second team yet, but it doesn't feel like it will be the Immortals. I am in search of pure skating classes, and decisions need to start being made.
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