Practice and Drills 2011-06-02

I hadn't played in over a week because of the holiday weekend and I was under the weather. It was really unfortunate as I was playing really well. Playing multiple times a week seems to be a good way for me to keep playing well. When I was invited to a beginner team practice, I took it.

These practices usually feature a lot of drills, and those help me out a lot. I look at them as a way to focus on the basics and improve on specific aspects of my game that may only get used once or twice per game, making it difficult to get better. The first drill was a crossover and stopping drill. I felt crossovers I was fairly strong at, but stopping needs work. These crossovers are the ones though with just your feet, and I'm not any good at those. I really struggled with getting my foot over the other foot. It is strange because I feel my crossovers are fairly strong when I skate. This drill tore up the ice, so by the end of it, it was really difficult. We focused on tight turns, and using the boards to make practices. I'm not sure if I was just tired or something else, but I feel I didn't perform up to par on this task either. The puck would get away from me when I'd turn, my passes along the boards were soft, and my breakaway attempts were average.

The scrimmage I played ok in. I didn't go full out always as some skaters were still struggling, and I want their practice to help them get better. There was one skater who was smaller than me on nearly every aspect who did bounce off me, but he was arguably one of their best players.

It was a good practice for me after a week long layoff. Served as a reminder to keep playing

Chicago Bruins - Adult Beginner Hockey Class - 2010-12-01

I missed the Monday practice because of a cold. I'm not ready to push myself into playing when sick, and the rest did me well. Wednesday I was ready hit the ice, or at least I thought I was.

I've had nothing but good experiences the past two weeks on ice. I had no reason to not expect it to continue. But I felt I just didn't do well at practice. My skating was a little bit off, and my stick handling was atrocious.

Part of it was I believe mental. A goalie made a comment, and I took it the wrong way. I make similar comments all the time, and I do it in jest. I don't know why it bothered me so much. It eventually ended up me being angry instead of challenged after that. I was more focused on impressing than improving. A bad approach in that situation.

The scrimmage went poorly as well. I felt completely out of shape. I know I hadn't skated in a week, and that is my own fault. Stupid Thanksgiving. I played on the blue line, and I just felt out of place. Any time a winger would come down the ice, I'd let him come down, instead of keeping him to the outside. I'm also not very comfortable going backwards.

After the first shift or two, I noticed I was having a bad night and was determined to work to turn it around. Bad move. I ended up tripping a guy (but he deserved it - let us take it out of our zone when you're playing scrimmages like we were). I also used my body in a good way along the boards to prevent the puck from coming any deeper into our own zone. It was too rough of a play though for the situation.

My skating has improved. I've been reading a little bit about power skating, and I can feel a difference. I won two key battles to loose pucks because I was the faster guy. But I couldn't control the puck at that speed to get it off the boards, or to stop and take control. Big issue.

I did make improvements on stopping though. In the skate around I focused on that for a little while, and I could feel myself do it right. Stumbled a lot, but it is part of practice.

Traininc Clinic - Balance, Stopping and Skating

Last night I went to a clinic. Work on your skating, shooting, passing, etc. It sounded good. It was nice and close to home. As a result, I've noticed a few things. My balance and stopping sucks. This causes my skating to be awful. I was always unsatisfactory on the drills. As a result, I'm going to use my balance board 10 minutes a day for a while to get my balance back. It helped a lot a few years ago, and I'm hoping it'll help now.

It wasn't a good night for me and I was getting frustrated. Then we started the scrimmage. Aside from one or two guys who had played for a long time, I was the strongest there. My passes were outstanding. I'd bring the puck up on the rush, go down into the corner, and by then, someone was open in front. Multiple times I hit my guy's stick through traffic. I never passed so well in my life. Two of them lead to easy goals. I had one goal where I had just stood in front, but used some reach to put it in.

Either way, it was a productive night. I'm sore though. I should be good for the Wednesday night Immortals game.