Hey everyone, first post! I am 36, male, 6 feet, around 210 lbs., and just played full pad ice hockey for the first time ever Monday night at a weekly session that is advertised as being for those new to hockey but was anything but that, as there were clearly some advanced players there who were not new to the sport. I have gone to several public skates but was new to hockey skating. I am a long distance runner, so my muscles are built for endurance, not so much speed, and I knew I was in over my head right when the drills started! This is a program that runs all year, so there is no real starting point or end point, and I really need a starting point with a slower instructional progression. I was not sure what to expect. I contemplated leaving the ice and going home when I saw how much better everyone else was.
Thankfully, one of the leaders of the session was willing to take me aside and work one-on-one with me for a bit on basic strides, and a couple other players took me under their wing and got me into a couple drills. I managed to complete one-man and two-man breakaway drills and even got two shots past the goalie (though I think he went easy on me on at least one of them). I managed a forward crossover at one point, which the leader saw and praised me on. I had tried those in a public skate.
I played in the scrimmage, and while I was usually trailing the play due to being so slow, I touched the puck a few times, managing a pass and blocking a shot with my skate, and I thought it was fun. Great workout, for sure! Nobody chirped me or anything, thankfully.
The only fall I took was when I was working with the leader on my stride, hit a bunch of bad ice along the boards, and fell flat on my chest before I could brace my fall. Knocked the wind out of me a bit. Stupid bad ice! I have intercostal muscle pain on my right side now, maybe from the fall, so I am taking it easy for a couple days. Just took over a month recovering from the same thing on my left side after slipping in my bathroom and cracking my rubs on the bathtub. Figures. I am not usually clutzy and have good balance overall. This should heal faster, though.
I am now looking into signing up for an 8-week Adult Hockey 101 class that seems to be more instructional and has a starting and ending point, and starts next week at the rink closest to me. It costs a bit more, but I need more instruction and a slower pace to get the basics down first, even though playing with good players was not a bad thing. I may return to the Monday program at the other rink, because it is cheaper and there is more ice time, and I thought the leaders were very encouraging and helpful, but I was very intimidated by the skills of the other players and felt like I was just getting in the way at times. There were a lot of guys who appeared to be buddies who also play in leagues there, I guess using this as an extra night to play. I definitely appreciate how much I have to learn and the shape I need to get into to build speed
I decided to learn to play because my son will be starting hockey soon, and I thought it would be fun to learn a new sport since I've been an athlete all my life.
The good news: I was a +2 during the scrimmage!
. I like chirping at my far older teammates.
One was being in the right place at the right time, flicking it into a wide open net on the power play. My second was skating as hard as I can to get the puck behind the net, like I was preventing an icing, and I whipped it as hard as I could at the goalie's feet, and it his ditziness gave me a goal. It felt awesome. 
