The Hockey Noob Chronicles

[Wilch]

Sometime I wish I played goalie.

Free drop-ins, cheap/free league games, free beer, people love you in stick/puck time, and every game out there is looking for goalies.

 

[qmechanic]

So am I allowed to post here, if I've been playing for ten years? I'm only an intermediate player, since I've never really had good coaches and never spent enough time practicing. I'm still working on aspects of my skating, stickhandling, and shooting.

 

[ganave]

Sometime I wish I played goalie.

Free drop-ins, cheap/free league games, free beer, people love you in stick/puck time, and every game out there is looking for goalies.

Ha, well I wonder how many beers and free games it would take to offset the cost of goalie gear. I'm buying protective gear that I didn't know existed

$ .77 - can of beer
$ 15 - cost of scrimmage game

It would take about ~100 scrimmage games before the gear paid for itself or 1,948 cans of beer. Although I'd rather have something better than canned beer

Stick and puck time should be interesting after I finish the instructional league (1 hour of practice and a 40 minute scrimmage afterwards). In the fall I'll look at joining a beer league if I'm ready.

 

[hockeymass]

Ha, well I wonder how many beers and free games it would take to offset the cost of goalie gear. I'm buying protective gear that I didn't know existed

$ .77 - can of beer
$ 15 - cost of scrimmage game

It would take about ~100 scrimmage games before the gear paid for itself or 1,948 cans of beer. Although I'd rather have something better than canned beer

Stick and puck time should be interesting after I finish the instructional league (1 hour of practice and a 40 minute scrimmage afterwards). In the fall I'll look at joining a beer league if I'm ready.

New goalie gear is amazingly expensive. Is stick and puck free for goalies where you are? It is in my area (not that 6 bucks for two hours is bankbreaking).

 

[thedonger]

Sometime I wish I played goalie.

Free drop-ins, cheap/free league games, free beer, people love you in stick/puck time, and every game out there is looking for goalies.

in all honesty, I've grown to really hate having goalies at stick & puck. it was a nice novelty for a bit, but I'm mainly there to work on my mechanics in a repetitive manner. It really slows things down greatly with a goalie having a single line form of people just doing breakaways.

 

[Wilch]

Ha, well I wonder how many beers and free games it would take to offset the cost of goalie gear. I'm buying protective gear that I didn't know existed

$ .77 - can of beer
$ 15 - cost of scrimmage game

It would take about ~100 scrimmage games before the gear paid for itself or 1,948 cans of beer. Although I'd rather have something better than canned beer

Stick and puck time should be interesting after I finish the instructional league (1 hour of practice and a 40 minute scrimmage afterwards). In the fall I'll look at joining a beer league if I'm ready.

Lets say a new set of goalie gear costs $2,500, and a new set of skater gear is $1,000.

Assuming you play about 6 drop-ins per month ($15) and signed up for a league (~$800 for winter season over 6 months), skaters pay $2,340 in their first season.

Goalies, assuming they play free at drop-ins and only pay half the league fee ($400), they pay $2,900.

The second season the skater's cost goes up to about $3,680, goalies are up to $3,400.

Takes about a year and a half before the skaters cost begin to overtake the goalies (not including cost of beer).

New goalie gear is amazingly expensive. Is stick and puck free for goalies where you are? It is in my area (not that 6 bucks for two hours is bankbreaking).

I'm not sure about stick and puck, but it's $4-$5 in most Vancouver rinks.

 

[Wilch]

in all honesty, I've grown to really hate having goalies at stick & puck. it was a nice novelty for a bit, but I'm mainly there to work on my mechanics in a repetitive manner. It really slows things down greatly with a goalie having a single line form of people just doing breakaways.

But you love doing those breakaways Can't be helped, it's too much fun haha.

 

[thedonger]

But you love doing those breakaways Can't be helped, it's too much fun haha.

maybe for the first rush or 2, but it gets old after about 5 minutes.

 

[nightfighter]

2 part question after a game of pickup tonight:

A) How do I work on my high speed skating? Once I get past a certain velocity it's like my body just forgets what to do. It's like Taylor Hall syndrome...I'm skating so fast that I easily lose an edge or I trip over myself or I'm easily knocked down. Any ways to get around this? Maybe I just need to skate laps really really fast to get comfortable with the speed?

B) How many of you guys have had to deal with real dick heads in your beginner leagues? There's a couple guys who come every week to my pickup league who clearly do not belong there. Their skating is clear and away better than everyone else. But they play in the beginner session because they have these two brothers that aren't very good. Fine, that's fair. But the problem is that these two talented dicks take everything wayyyy too seriously. Every little time they get touched, they have to retaliate. Today it almost came to a boiling point where one guy, while falling, lost control of his stick and struck one of the dicks in the midsection. The dick proceeded to spin around and two handed axe chop the guy while he was still on the ground. The one on the ground got up, shouting obscenities and then the second dick head skates up to him and cross checks him onto his ass and then has the audacity to tell the other guy to relax! It all simmered down after cooler heads prevailed, but this is not the first incident and many complaints have been logged to the convenor but nothing has been done and probably won't be done. Is there any way to get these guys to settle down or am I just going to have to look for a different pickup league to play in? It really makes things not fun when there's all this tension in the air.

 

[beth]

Wanted to share this cool article that someone wrote about our Hockey Club!

http://rdwomen.blogspot.com/2012/03/ice-queen-cometh-hockey-player-for-day.html

 

[JoeCool16]

Lets say a new set of goalie gear costs $2,500, and a new set of skater gear is $1,000.

I'm not sure about stick and puck, but it's $4-$5 in most Vancouver rinks.

A) That's some very nice skater gear you're getting for $1000, I think you'd be paying closer to $400-500 for entry-level stuff and B) where do you do stick n puck in Vancouver? The cheapest I've found is Richmond Ice Centre where it's a bit over $6 I think. On the plus side, they let you stay from 9am-3pm.

 

[Wilch]

A) That's some very nice skater gear you're getting for $1000, I think you'd be paying closer to $400-500 for entry-level stuff and B) where do you do stick n puck in Vancouver? The cheapest I've found is Richmond Ice Centre where it's a bit over $6 I think. On the plus side, they let you stay from 9am-3pm.

Yeah, entry would be much cheaper. $1,000 would be for mid level stuff. $300 for skates, $200 for shoulder, shin, elbow, $100 for helmet, $100 for a mid level composite stick, $50 for gloves, $100 for pants and the rest being misc. cost.

RIC is the best if you go early. I don't remember exactly, but I think Cyclone Taylor in Kerrisdale and a few rinks up in Coquitlam offer lower entry prices, but none of them are as long as RIC's stick times. Highly recommend getting the punch card if you go often, you get a slight discount and each time should work out to about $5.

Oval also offers free stick time if you're a member.

 

[do0glas]

Somehow we had enough peopl to play 4 on 4 with a goalie. My first full size game. Even if it was just half court. It was awesome, we played for almost 3 hours. My new skates helped a lot, mostly cuz they fit right, after a cpl of ppl complained about the lack of space, but the challenge made it much sweeter to score for me.

 

[ganave]

Another fun weekend of skating.

The instructors in the learning to skate program are like, "Well, you can just do your own thing if you want. You've got the basics down."

I have a question with C-cuts and stopping when going backwards. With C-cuts I can't seem to generate a lot of power when I keep both skates on the ice. I watched some videos on youtube and I'm having trouble creating that explosive first movement. I find my gliding skate tends to rest on its inside edge and not gliding on both edges.

I practiced goalie moves for an hour today. Shuffles (which I shall call crab-walking from now on), T pushes (Looks *so* much easier on youtube than real life), and c-cuts, swizzles, crossovers and hockey stops (almost got it down with both edges on both skates).

When going backwards as a goalie, what is the best way to stop? Dig an edge in? Set an edge flat? I found myself drifting more often than I would like in the crease.

Favorite noob moment so far. I was swizzling forwards up the length of the ice and working on getting my legs really out there to stretch as much as possible. A few times the plastic around my goalie skates would be scraping the ice too. I'm thinking, great, I'm getting really low to the ice, keep up the good work... Next pass the plastic scrapes the ice and I lose both edges. I'm really glad my pants, tendons and/or muscles didn't rip on my unintended split

 

[qmechanic]

2 part question after a game of pickup tonight:

A) How do I work on my high speed skating? Once I get past a certain velocity it's like my body just forgets what to do. It's like Taylor Hall syndrome...I'm skating so fast that I easily lose an edge or I trip over myself or I'm easily knocked down. Any ways to get around this? Maybe I just need to skate laps really really fast to get comfortable with the speed?

B) How many of you guys have had to deal with real dick heads in your beginner leagues? There's a couple guys who come every week to my pickup league who clearly do not belong there. Their skating is clear and away better than everyone else. But they play in the beginner session because they have these two brothers that aren't very good. Fine, that's fair. But the problem is that these two talented dicks take everything wayyyy too seriously. Every little time they get touched, they have to retaliate. Today it almost came to a boiling point where one guy, while falling, lost control of his stick and struck one of the dicks in the midsection. The dick proceeded to spin around and two handed axe chop the guy while he was still on the ground. The one on the ground got up, shouting obscenities and then the second dick head skates up to him and cross checks him onto his ass and then has the audacity to tell the other guy to relax! It all simmered down after cooler heads prevailed, but this is not the first incident and many complaints have been logged to the convenor but nothing has been done and probably won't be done. Is there any way to get these guys to settle down or am I just going to have to look for a different pickup league to play in? It really makes things not fun when there's all this tension in the air.

A) My guess is that you're not low enough? Make sure you really bend your knees. Get better at balancing and knowing where to keep your body weight. Have you done those one-leg power skating exercises? Doing those will help you improve your balance.

B) I don't know. Complain to those lower skilled brothers??

 

[qmechanic]

I have a question with C-cuts and stopping when going backwards. With C-cuts I can't seem to generate a lot of power when I keep both skates on the ice. I watched some videos on youtube and I'm having trouble creating that explosive first movement. I find my gliding skate tends to rest on its inside edge and not gliding on both edges.

I'm no expert but I was working on backwards skating recently, so I have a few thoughts. When you do the c-cut, you shouldn't have any weight on the gliding skate at all. You want to have as close to 100% body weight on the pushing skate. The gliding skate is on the ice, but there's no weight on it. As you complete the c-cut, you transfer the body weight back to your gliding skate and the pushing skate returns back to the starting position.

Also, a friend of mine told me that you should avoid "making pretty c-cuts" and think of it more as a push. You're thrusting your leg out explosively to full extension (knee locked). Most of the power comes from the first 1/3 of the push.

As for the gliding skate tending to be on the inside edge, I'm not sure. How wide are your legs when you skate? If they're too wide, you might be on your inside edge.

 

[TickleMeYandle]

I'm still struggling with going backwards. I'm ok when alternating legs, but when just doing the one-legged c-cuts, it's a disaster. My left ankle completely collapses inwards, I have to really focus on keeping the foot upright. The only way to do that is to really put the hip a little bit out on the left side. But how can I do that and NOT have my weight on that skate?

Anyway, I've started a blog a bout my experiences as a late beginner:
Your mama plays hockey. Take a look if you're interested!

 

[hockeymass]

I think the biggest problem with beginners and c-cuts is leaning too far forward. You really want your center of mass to be over your skates to get leverage.

 

[qmechanic]

I think the biggest problem with beginners and c-cuts is leaning too far forward. You really want your center of mass to be over your skates to get leverage.

Yes, I also had that problem, despite being a decent forward skater. I found that one way to get better at sitting back is to practice the powerskating drill where you do backwards one-legged c-cuts like in this video (go to 1:49)



It's very difficult to do backwards one-legged c-cuts if you are leaning forward because you'll fall. This happens too if you are skating backwards on two legs, but the margin of error here is much smaller. Skating on-legged helps you break the bad habit of learning forward.

frackiewicz, not sure what you mean by one-legged c-cuts. Are you talking about the drill in the video? Or just skating backwards one leg at a time?

 

[ganave]

I'll start working on skating on one foot once I add a chest/arm protector to my gear and a pair of suspenders so I can wear my pants as well.

Already have a nice collection of bruises from wiping out practicing hockey stops and t pushes.

 

[newfr4u]

Yeah, entry would be much cheaper. $1,000 would be for mid level stuff. $300 for skates, $200 for shoulder, shin, elbow, $100 for helmet, $100 for a mid level composite stick, $50 for gloves, $100 for pants and the rest being misc. cost.

this seems high for beginner entry point. if you put in enough research into skates and fit, it's worth spending $300, but most don't. $100 for helmet is pretty standard and should last for years. $50 for gloves is not the absolute cheapest, but still well under mid-level stuff.

however, everything else is pretty damn high. $300 for shoulders/shins/elbows+pants is too much imo. you really don't need any mid-level pads until you start playing with body contact. i am all for scavenging the clearance sticks as well. $50-70 should be more than enough.

 

[TickleMeYandle]

frackiewicz, not sure what you mean by one-legged c-cuts. Are you talking about the drill in the video? Or just skating backwards one leg at a time?

Yes, the one in the video - I just can't get any speed going when I move backwards, and especially my left foot, I have a very hard time making it at all smooth or doing it consistently.

I notice that on my right foot, it's much easier and more natural. On my left, it feels like I'm really digging into the ice and it's very "crunchy" - I can hear the crunch as I push, while I can't hear it at all on the right foot.

 

[Copeland]

Hey,

I haven't dropped by in like a year, but I've got a big question.

Do you think losing weight would significantly improve my skating? It's been nearly two years that I've been trying to learn to skate and I really haven't made much headway. Everyone else seems to have no problem picking it up, and I'm getting really hopeless. This seems to be the only thing that I can put some hope on, so what do you guys think? Google only seems to give me an answer for the other way around, not what I'm asking...

 

[CPAir]

Hey,

I haven't dropped by in like a year, but I've got a big question.

Do you think losing weight would significantly improve my skating? It's been nearly two years that I've been trying to learn to skate and I really haven't made much headway. Everyone else seems to have no problem picking it up, and I'm getting really hopeless. This seems to be the only thing that I can put some hope on, so what do you guys think? Google only seems to give me an answer for the other way around, not what I'm asking...

I would say it depends on if your weight is effecting how much time you are putting into practicing skating. If you can't go very long, say under an hour, or you aren't pushing yourself very hard then maybe your overall fitness is something you need to look at.

 

[Copeland]

Yeah, absolutely, I can only be out there for about 7-10mins at a time before my feet are numb and my legs get weak. The feet thing in particular has me seeing no light at the end of the tunnel... You think there would be significant improvement in this regard in particular? Because if not, I really don't know what to do. :/