Puck Pros Session with Christian - 2013-10-15

It had been four months since I was at Puck Pros. When I saw that, I was disappointed in myself. I wanted to get there more. I wanted to be there regularly this summer, but the summer had me on the ice a lot more. Anyway, the past few visits, some of the messages were the same - get stronger legs. I decided to do just that. I started going to the gym and working on it. I have felt a difference.

Today I worked with Christan. It was a lot more different than my past sessions. Not surprisingly, we worked mostly on skating. But we worked on the core parts of skating that are used when you handle the puck, when you shoot, when you turn, and so on. To me these are the foundation of the game, and if you can't do it, you're not going to progress.

The weight transfer is something that I'm still not doing right, that I need to get down right. I need to take a wider stance, bend my knees and get low, and when I push off I need to straighten my leg that I push off with.

Perhaps the biggest thing Christan did for me was all mental. He called me a very "mono" player. I do one thing right at a time, and when I focus on something different, I lose the first thing. Bending my knees? Not going to do the toe snap. Doing a Full extension - not going to be in the forward push. I need to focus on pulling it all together.

The other thing that really helped me was seeing the state Christian was in. He wasn't his normal energetic self. He was in a calm mellow state, but when he'd talk about the game, when he'd see me improve, he'd show an incredible amount of passion. Later he explained he too just started going to the gym. And it made me glad, because I'm in a similar state as him. He's a little fatigued, but when that love for the game kicks in, he was ready. And the longer I've been going to the gym, the less tired I feel, but the passion only increases.

Three things to take away:

• Weight transfer - Straighten my leg when pushing off, get low, wide stance, bend my knees.
• When turning, with my inside skate, be on the outside edge - and align my feet versus putting them next to each other. 
• Keep my head level when transferring my weight. It should go side to side. Not up and down.

Piranhas (3-2) vs. Mastodons

I hit the ice, and I really liked how tight I could turn. I just got my skates sharpened and they felt really good. I went to do my full strides from red line to the goal line, and I felt slow as heck though. I guess it is a side effect of having skates that were so sharp.

The Mastodons are a team that come ready to play every game. It doesn't matter how much talent you have, if you don't play hard, you're not going to have a good game. What was strange though was that this was the worst I've seen them play. Nearly every chance they could, they dumped the puck. They had very little possession of the puck this game.

For me, this was one of those games where I felt that I did a lot right, and had my hand in lot of goals, despite not getting a point on the play. I would make a good play to pressure the puck carrier, keep a puck in our zone, or screen the goalie.

I did have one goal on the rebound of a rush. The center shot from the left side, and pulled the goalie way over to him. The rebound came to me, and I just had to tap it in. There was no pressure, and very little could go wrong. Very rarely do I miss an empty net from three feet out. I also had an assist at some point during the night for a two point night, but I don't remember how I got it.

In the offensive zone, I did a very good job in terms of cycling the puck, and keeping possession.  A lot of times, I didn't even look for a shot, or the other forward. I would just look to keep it deep in the zone, and go to the next position to make myself open for a pass. I also made adjustments in game, which takes me a while to do. The most obvious case was when I was entering the zone carrying the puck. I hear the center say he's got the drop pass for me, but I ignore it and shoot anyway. We gave away possession. The next period, the same play was happening. Only this time, I was able to drop the pass for him. I crashed the net, and the third forward was able to hammer home the rebound.

There was also one pass I made at the end of the third that was outstanding. I was trailing the puck carrier, just like he did to me in my previous example. I picked it up, and took my time. I could get a shot off that may get to the net, skate it in, or give it to the 3rd forward  who was breaking in with his stick on the ice. I hit the third forward with a great pass on his tape. He fired it and had a great scoring chance. He later said he didn't expect the pass.

The two things that didn't go well for me was my skating. Like I stated earlier, I was just slow. It felt like a month since my last game despite it being only five(ish) days. The other was my defense. Why would I chase a guy with my stick fully extended. I need to bring it back in, keep my balance, and keep moving my feet to keep up with him.

In the middle of the third, I also had one fore checking opportunity where I was all over the ice, raising hell for the opposition. I'd chase the puck,  and follow their pass, interrupt their defense man moving the puck, battle for it, and then just repeat multiple times. I got a little tired and sloppy after a few cycles of this though.

Overall I thought the game was above average for me, but not by much. Skating is a big part of my game, and it wasn't there.

The Piranhas would beat the Mastodons  7-3.

Chris Imes Practice - Skating Review - 2011-10-17

It is no secret that I've not been thrilled the past six weeks with my performance with the Goaldiggers. I suspect that it is because I haven't been on the ice more than once a week lately.

As a result, I decided to head to Center Ice, and attend a class with a few other Coyote players. The class was run by Chris Imes. I've heard about his classes, but don't know much about them or him.

I loved that he had a mic on, and I could actually hear him. Usually I can't hear anything but loud noises, making it hard to do the drill. His drills were great as well. They were unique, and enforced what he wanted us to work on.

The session I attended was working on skating, something I could always use help on. I was exhausted after a few minutes, but that's expected. I still have a long way to go to get used to stopping and turning.

Tight turns was something I'm not strong with, and one area we worked on. I sometimes just don't feel comfortable putting weight all on one skate, but this is practice.

At the end, they had us scrimmage. I played defense for most of it because I wanted to get used to the blue line. I made one pass where I got lucky. I threw it across the ice to the opposite board way up high. As I was releasing, I saw the forechecker jump up and try to intercept. It is one of those things where you know it is a disaster about to happen but can't do anything about it. Luckily he missed the interception.

I got hammered from behind, and I was not a happy camper about it. It was the definition of from behind. Luckily I was away from the boards, and I didn't get hurt.

The entire time, neither side scored. The buzzer rang, and he gave everyone one more shift. I didn't skate hard on the blue line so I decided to skate as a forward. We took the puck out, and I darted over to the left wing as the puck went behind me. The winger gained the zone, fired low and I was able to hammer the rebound home from the crease. It was just positioning on my part. The winger deserved the goal.

I felt I did well. I got some good experience on the blue line, got burned a couple of times, and know better now.

Goalie Training - 2011-07-31

A goalie friend of mine needed a couple of shooters for his training session he had planned. I've always been curious what his training session was like, so I accepted his invitation. While I didn't work very hard (the focus being on him), I did pick up a lot from the coach, and had a lot of good practice with my turns, and shots. I'm glad it was a light skate for me as I had a big game that night.

It was interesting to see how the training went. It was neat to see him improve dramatically over the 30 minutes that I worked with him. I would skate down, take a shot, and we'd stop for a minute while the coach told him what he did well, or didn't do so well.

My backhand is weak. any time I went to it, it was just a pathetic attempt at a shot. I used to work on it by playing with a left handed stick, but lately I haven't worked on it at all. I would miss shots, whiff, and it made me feel bad as they don't help the goalie practice.

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

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.