Adult Hockey Dreams

[jetsfan23]

I am hoping to hear if anyone else has any big hockey dreams as an adult.

I have always loved hockey.

When I play hockey I give it my all even if I am still painfully worse than all my teammates, but I live and breathe it everyday. I workout to get better, I read books on hockey. I have done time keeping for a local college team and been a team manager, I've even made a full ice ink outside. The only thing I haven't done is ref and coach.

I was a terrible skater growing up due to a disability that threw off my balance. I have gotten way better after have learnt how to skate as an adult. I started by taking an adult skating class at age 23. I slipped I fell I stopped using the boards. After two skating courses I started to get it and registered in a learn to play hockey class. I have now gotten to the point where can confidently say I am no longer the worst player in the class. Last year I played on my first team and said that if I did something right every game I was doing well. I got three assists over 23 games and the first one was the kind of pass you dream about.

So in a way I have already accomplished my first goal which was to play on a team.

My next big goal is to score a goal and get a penalty (hey gotta check all the boxes right) not on purpose of course.

My biggest hockey goal is to win a league champions.

Here though is my dream. I want to play on a team that practices together where the practices are more than just long scrimmages (which is what all ours were when I played) I want to do drills with the people I play with. I want to have a coach who runs our practices and helps all the players get better. I never got coaching growing up, but as a teacher I know how helpful it can be to have an expert guiding you to improve. I want to play on a team that plays in a league and maybe goes to a couple of tournaments a year, maybe an international one every few years.

So am I dedicated to getting better. Damn right, I always say i'll be ready for the NHL when I'm 55. I know this might be a pipe dream and that lots of people think that rec league is kinda whatever, but there has to be people out there like me who see every game with the attitude of "I'm here to win" even if I'm the worst player. Its how I approach my martial arts and how I approach everything. I always look at why I didn't win and how I can do better.

So whats your dream?

Click to read more...

 

[manictech]

I use to play travel hockey when I was 14 to 18. Have a couple of trophies and metals. It was a really good time. But I started college and got a full time job and couldn't really travel anymore. Now I'm 23 and play beer league. I'd really like to play one more travel tournament and get another trophy. That's my dream one more trophy.

 

[jetsfan23]

Awesome. Never lose the compete. I totally understand the inability to travel.

 

[Ozz]

I played when I was a kid throughout my teens. I was good but didn't have an incredible compete level. I played, excelled, and had a blast. Played travel briefly though we weren't a major player.

Stopped at age 18 to pursue bodybuilding, and with that developed an insane compete level and drive for success, bettering myself, attacking weaknesses, and so forth. Ten years later I moved to a hockey hotbed and began skating again, changed up my training routines so I could benefit for both sports instead of just one, and have never been better IMO. I'm in my 30s and play against (and better than most) guys who are barely out of high school, on college teams, and so on. I sure as hell didn't just pick up my skates after all that time and fall right into it either, I went out and earned my progress.

I just want to keep playing and having fun doing so. That's it!

 

[Killion]

...Here though is my dream. I want to play on a team that practices together where the practices are more than just long scrimmages (which is what all ours were when I played) I want to do drills with the people I play with. I want to have a coach who runs our practices and helps all the players get better. I never got coaching growing up, but as a teacher I know how helpful it can be to have an expert guiding you to improve. I want to play on a team that plays in a league and maybe goes to a couple of tournaments a year, maybe an international one every few years.

Welcome to hfBoards jetsfan and good for you! Its never to late to start. I dont know what part of the country you live in, however, hopefully after doing a bit of research you'll find an adult recreational league that does indeed provide the kind training & practice with games & possibly travel that you seek. If not, then perhaps a combination of clinics & camps combined with league play, whereby you find the balance that your seeking. Not everywhere offers adult leagues which includes practices that further features skating drills & hockey skills though you never know if you dont try & find it.... so best of luck & wishes in finding what you seek.

All men dream, but not equally; those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity;
but the dreamers of the day are happier men for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible.
TS Lawrence
The 7 Pillars of Wisdom

 

[shoeshine boy]

I thought this was going to be about having dreams about playing hockey. I've been doing that a lot lately.
I suspect it's from being on the IR the last 2 weeks. worst injury I've had in 12 years of playing (ankle sprain, thought it was broken at first) and I'm not used to missing games. I've missed 7 so far.

 

[CornKicker]

I thought this was going to be about having dreams about playing hockey. I've been doing that a lot lately.
I suspect it's from being on the IR the last 2 weeks. worst injury I've had in 12 years of playing (ankle sprain, thought it was broken at first) and I'm not used to missing games. I've missed 7 so far.

me too i always have dreams that i get to hockey and forget my skates and have to watch my team play without me.

 

[BlueJazz]

My Hockey Dream

I didn't even step on the ice till my 20's and didn't pick up a hockey stick till my 30's (last year).

I love playing defense, and my hockey dream would be to be the kind of solid D-man a team counts on to keep things locked down on the back end. Instead of right now, where I'm the kind of D-man that occasionally gets told to play forward because I'm too much of a liability back there.

 

[Jarick]

No matter what people say, stick to those dreams! We should all keep dreaming and striving towards things no matter how old we are.

Initially, my goals were to win a championship, score a hat trick, and some day compete at B-level rec hockey.

I never won a regular season championship, but I've won three summer league championships. One of them I scored the game winner in the shootout, which was cool. But we reached the championship game and lost both of our first two years, then reached the semis and lost, then missed the playoffs three years in a row, so that sucked.

I've had two hat tricks so far. The first was in summer league against a crappy team, so not sure if it counts or not, but I still scored three goals (while playing defense too). The second was a couple years ago when I had four goals in a game. That was a blast. Everything went in.

I know now I won't ever play B-level hockey. I was playing upper level D hockey at the time and close to the top in that division for scoring, so I thought maybe I could compete at low C, then eventually high C and maybe try B. But I stalled out at low C level because my skating was never that good.

I guess maybe it's time to re-evaluate my goals, so here goes:

1. I'd like to find a better rec team situation. My team needs to drop down a level but I should still be at this level.

2. I want to get certified and get into youth coaching. I'm volunteering as an on-ice assistant this winter for mini mites and it's a blast.

3. More hat tricks!

4. I'd like to try goalie. Just kidding, I have no urge to try goaltending.

 

[Beezeral]

I pretty much experienced everything there is to experience in hockey as a kid. From traveling out of state to play, to winning a national title. now that my truly competitive days are behind me, I just want to find a good group of people to be on a beer league team with and have some fun. maybe do the occasional tournament in a place like Vegas, but other than that, just have fun playing hockey

 

[TheRedShadow]

I'm 50 today. Started skating 15 months ago and started playing last summer in a LTP scheme. My goal is to just be as good as I can be with a 3 year plan to see where I get and to work on my skating in a consistent way.

 

[McDugan]

My modest hockey dreams:

1. To become a decent, well-rounded player at whatever (undoubtedly low) level I fit in best, and to continue improving my game steadily

2. To find a way to have a steady enough schedule to commit to league play.

3. To organize an all-ages (dads & kids) pick-up street/roller hockey group for summer saturdays in the town where my in-laws have a shore house (there is a half-decent public roller rink at a playground 3 blocks from their place)

4. To play real-life pond hockey

 

[Malarowski]

Score a goal. I am one of the engines of my team and contribute now in a great way, I just still didn't find the back of the net in 20 some games. Frustrating.

 

[MattGTI]

At 36, I am finally starting to achieve a few things I have always wanted to do.

This year I started playing in a league for the first time. I have never played competitive hockey in any way- just pond hockey, and occasionally playing with friends when they rented the rink out 15-20 years ago.

In a few short months, I have been voted one of the two alternate captains of my team. I am actually quite honored by this, we have a great group of guys on the team, its quite humbling that I was chosen.

I have scored one goal, and tallied a bunch of assists. Good enough for the sixth overall spot in scoring for the league.

We are in first place, and my main goal is to help the team win the first D-level championship in our league.

My long term goals are just to get better in every facet. My biggest regret is that I waited this long to start playing.

I want to learn what I am doing wrong, and what i can dramatically improve on, and focus on those areas. I would also like to keep the core of my current team together, as we are all around the same age, and its just a great group of guys to play with.

 

[mikitas donut]

I started learning as an adult and started playing on a team about a year ago. So many people joined our team that we recently just started a novice level team where they have me playing center now. I just want to be the best I can be, because I'm expected to be one of the leaders on this team now. It's been a challenge but it's fun.

One dream right now, I want to be able to score a goal on one of my breakaways finally. I have a goal, but it's from a deflection off my shin pad. Still a valid goal, but you know. I wanna snipe one.

 

[Killion]

To play real-life pond hockey

Easily accomplished if you live within driving distance of a rural area, and I mean a real pond or even a lake.... I grew up playing shinny outdoors on a schoolyard rink in a city, free, natural ice, boards. After school and all day Saturdays/Sundays from December-March. Only taking a break when playing league games indoors wherever from Tyke to Junior.... We also had a hobby farm in southwestern Ontario with a real pond that froze from December through March. About 2 acres in size, perfect but for the bullrushes, Muskrat & Duck crap that littered the surface. Good shoveling, no worries. We found about a dozen pairs of the old Cheese Cutter skate blades from the late 19th century in the rafters of the old barn, the type you clamp to the bottom of your boots or even shoes. Took all the rust off with steel brushes, applied plenty of 3 in 1 Oil, sharpened them on an old whet stone. Fashioned up sticks from oak tree branches, planed & carved them to work as hockey sticks of the type they'd have used in about the 1880's. Was tricky getting the clamp on skates just right, and you'd blow right out of them in if you attempted any short radius turns at any decent speed. Far different stride required, longer, bent forward a lot farther than today if trying to gain speed, straight lanes and wide arc turns. Sticks pretty much what you'd expect. Good luck trying to raise the puck. More a whack or semi wrist shot, you sort of pushed the puck as opposed to shooting it. Carefully or your shot would be wild, way off target.

Had ourselves a grand time.

 

[mbhhofr]

No matter what people say, stick to those dreams! We should all keep dreaming and striving towards things no matter how old we are.

I got to live my dream in a different way. I loved the game so much that I went from being a lousy hockey player to taking up refereeing at a young age, 14, and being successful at it. You get to be on the ice for the whole game and get paid for it. You're also in charge. Lots of fun.

 

[SacredPetra]

Right blow my two main goals are:
Be a good enough player that my team will let me play defense (which was where I've wanted to play since the first time I picked up a hockey stick).
Try playing goalie at least once. I don't want to give up paying out, but I think it'd be an interesting experience and a totally different view of the game

Long term, I'd really like to play at least B league, maybe even A league. I started later in life (24), so that may be unrealistic, but if I can find an over 35/40 league that plays at that level, I've got au least a decade to work on it.

 

[ciscomorales]

I started skating and ltp last year at 40. Finished my move and joined novice league this year at 41. Sometime in the next year I would really like to get down the backward crossover and get stronger on the right side hockey stops(which apparently is strange since I am a righty?) I feel that those two things will help to complete my game.

 

[jetsfan23]

I'm absolutely loving reading what everyone is writing. Killion I live in Winnipeg (I live in the middle of the bush right now in Northern Manitoba) usually so I will be taking my hockey classes twice a week plus league. We also have some cool programs like adult hockey specific dryland in the city. Combine that with a camp a year and maybe the Manitoba Rec Cup and I think we'll have a good season going. I learnt last year I can't play 12 months a year because it messes up my summer sports. I use a periodization schedule to fit in training for both golf and hockey.

Petra I totally get you. I wanted to play D when I started. I studied the position, but just can;t back skate fast enough, not to mention the day I screened my own goalie, and the other day I tipped the puck beautifully into my own net. Hopefully I'll get there eventually. Playing in low divisions I find people play way too deep in the zone 9/10 times.

Interestingly it sounds like most of us have great personal goals. Hopefully we can all find the team where we are the best fit.

 

[Mikeaveli]

I'm not an adult (first year midget), but I'll put my goals out there anyways.

1. Improve my general fitness. This isn't specific to hockey, but I know that being able to go hard longer while on the ice will lead to more fun (along with more points ).

2. Improve my shot. I feel like sometimes I work hard to get the puck in a high scoring position, but then I end up tossing a muffin towards the net or missing completely. This is something I want to improve a lot over the summer.

3. Improve my skating technique. After three years of not playing and playing one year in a rec league, my stride's gotten a bit weak and lazy. I'd love to get my skating to an above average level.

4. Improve my hands. I've been working on this one already throughout the season, and I've been feeling the effects. Being able to control the puck well has helped me a whole lot this season, and if I continue to work at it it'll only help me more.

5. Do well in tryouts next season. All of the above will help me work towards this final goal. I feel that by addressing most of my technical issues I'll have the tools and work ethic on-ice to impress the coaches this September.

 

[Fanned On It]

Man I thought this thread was going to be about having hockey dreams while sleeping lol... in which case I've had countless dreams that I was about to play my first game for the Rangers except I wasn't like a skilled player or anything... I was just me. A 24 yo guy who just started playing hockey 3 years ago lol. Every dream is the same. I end up actually taking a few shifts and I'm terrified that I'm going to get crushed and the game is way too fast for me and Torts is the coach and he yells at me.

 

[Jarick]

I'm the same way! Especially early on when I first started playing as an adult, I had countless dreams about playing in the NHL. Still have an NHL dream every now and again.

Also, unrelated side effect of playing hockey...my peripheral vision got way better. I got super sensitive to people driving too close to my car whenever they even slightly drifted in their lane towards me, I had to fight the urge to swerve away. Or people walking in the hallway close by. It's like you're using that part of your brain and subconsciously you are processing what is going on around you. I know it's not just me, my friend who started playing the same time I did had the same thing happen.

 

[TLow97]

My immediate dream is to win out the rest of this season and win the tier championship.

Secondary dream would be to captain a winter league team.