Beginners: The Hockey Noob Chronicles II (Beginners' Thread)

[newfr4u]

Have you ever been to Stick n Puck in Lynnwood? That's the closest rink to me so I will be checking it out soon. Unfortunately, they don't have them on the weekend, but their weekday ones are afternoon, which is nice.

i go to lynnwood in the morning. i like it, but it can get busy.

 

[beth]

Have you ever been to Stick n Puck in Lynnwood? That's the closest rink to me so I will be checking it out soon. Unfortunately, they don't have them on the weekend, but their weekday ones are afternoon, which is nice.

I havent been because the hours dont work for me, but i have friends that frequent the friday morning one.

 

[beth]

Do any of you guys take skating-speciifc lessons by any chance? I have never had one, but seems like a good idea to get a second set of eyes to look at my technique and tell me stuff to work on.

I've been taking lessons since october and its helped me a TON. I've got a couple of instructors that I like and they are both big on edgework. I give them explicit instructions to kick my ass and they do! Its definitely made me a better skater.

I highly recommend lessons, you'll progress so much faster. Its a little spendy, but some coaches will let you share a lesson with a buddy and you can split the cost that way.

 

[SCritical]

last week at open hockey I cornered an experienced defensemen and had him help me with my slapshot. After we worked on it a bit, it noticably improved, and I was so excited!

And then I go back this morning to practice it again, and I can't do it at all now. waaaaah! Ain't that always the way.

 

[CunniJA]

I know what you mean. Like anything physical, I think it's all about 1000s of repititions more than it is anything else.

 

[phillyt45]

i go to lynnwood in the morning. i like it, but it can get busy.

I havent been because the hours dont work for me, but i have friends that frequent the friday morning one.

Yeah, I figured that it probably gets pretty busy but that is my only option on week days. On weekends I can drive a little further so I will have to try out Kingsgate as well. But for the next couple of weeks I am just hitting up the public skate sessions. (I still need to get a stick!)

 

[Trl3789]

So other than the fact my face is still swollen, and i have a sweet black eye, i took the advice and tried to slowly snowplow into a weak-side (right side forward) hockey stop. It has helped me feel not nearly as awkward. It will be at least a week before i do anything super active, just so i don't accidentally fall on my face again. Thanks for the help guys.

 

[qmechanic]

I've been taking lessons since october and its helped me a TON. I've got a couple of instructors that I like and they are both big on edgework. I give them explicit instructions to kick my ass and they do! Its definitely made me a better skater.

I highly recommend lessons, you'll progress so much faster. Its a little spendy, but some coaches will let you share a lesson with a buddy and you can split the cost that way.

That's awesome. My forward skating could definitely be better. How often are you lessons? What are the qualification of your instructors? (so I have some idea how to find a good one in my area)

 

[ganave]

I'm looking for suggestions for goalie bags?

I'll probably be occasionally taking the subway on off-peak hours sometimes. Between myself and my g/f we just have one car.

I imagine one bag is going to be ginormous, so I was looking at a bag for legpads and another one for everything else.

Thoughts?

 

[clayman]

I played hockey back in the 70's in Southern California and when I moved to Arizona the closest rink was two hours away- too long of a commute to play so went back to racing motorcycles. I have always missed it and when i moved to the Pacific Northwest about 4 years ago I discovered recently there is a rink buried about ten minutes from me in a commercial complex..Nice!

In the last few weeks I've bought all new skates and equipment and can't wait to play again! I can't believe how much everything has changed, especially the skates and sticks! Amazing stuff! I've only skated twice since coming back and after 30 years and the new type of skates it's like learning all over again, my mind remembers, the body thinks I've gone crazy! lol...

There's alot of great information here on this site and it's very cool to see I'm not the only one who trying to make a comeback..Very cool!

 

[Copeland]

I'm looking for suggestions for goalie bags?

I'll probably be occasionally taking the subway on off-peak hours sometimes. Between myself and my g/f we just have one car.

I imagine one bag is going to be ginormous, so I was looking at a bag for legpads and another one for everything else.

Thoughts?

Well, playing ball hockey I used one 'ginormous' bag, and I don't drive so it was all buses and trains and walking, and I did OK. Most people are cool with the giant bag thing lol. Anyway, IMO, a bag for legpads and another for the other stuff might be a little unmanageable when you consider there's the matter of carrying the stick too. Even with just one bag that was awkward as heck.

Although if you get one of those hockey backpacks for the gear (would a C/A fit in there? goal pants are huge also...) and then carry around the legpads and the stick that might be manageable. That could work. Can you go into a store to 'test out' the configuration? Lol

 

[steev182]

ganave - so jealous!! Haha but seriously that all looks great, and it's pretty obvious you can't wait to get out there and use it!! May the velcro be with you :p

So I've hit a giant snag in the road. I'm being transferred to South America where the only ice available to me is in a shopping mall and is too small for people to play hockey on... Sigh No goalie adventures til I get back for real in a year or two. Well at least I can still skate every now and then but those babies are gonna take a lot of space in my luggage. I hear this place is a university town, so they might be up for some street hockey... One can only hope.

Edit: A little thought popped up in my head. How hard is it to play goalie in soccer? Harder to pick up than hockey? And would it help my hockey skills enough to be worth the bother? Because if I'm going to the land of 'futbol'....

Goalie isn't so hard in football. I doubt it would help that much after some general positioning ideas though.

-Keep it simple - try to get your body between the ball and the goal, if you don't catch the ball, it'll hit your body instead of going through your arms or legs and into the goal.
-You know how much hockey goalie equipment is? When I was playing goalie at school (just PE lessons), I had some Adidas Fingersaves, which let your fingers go forward but stopped them being forcibly pushed backwards. Great for stopping them getting hurt, they were £60 or so, which was a lot when all I had was £20 a month pocket money and a £15/week paper round.
-Get used to diving to your left and right, you probably won't be able to make amazingly athletic diving saves to stop those screamers join gin the opposite top corner, but it's useful for those low drives (you don't have massive pads so can't really play Butterfly)!
-You'll be using both hands to catch the ball, try and tip the ball over the bar/into touch if you can't catch the ball. You don't want there to be any rebounds really.
*I wasn't a great goalie, but these were tips I remember from our PE teacher (who incidentally played Basketball for Great Britain in the 60s)

 

[Copeland]

Steeve, thanks for the tips!!! So It's probably a good idea to buy the gloves here and take them with me you think? And if it'll help my positioning that's a good thing... At least in ball hockey that part of my game was sorely lacking. I could never truly get square to the ball and my angles would always give the shooter a nice slice of the net... Lol

Are you expected to come out or stay in close to the net? I have to admit as a hockey fan I don't watch much football... Only have enough time to follow my Canucks and I just read Whitecaps headlines every now and then!

 

[steev182]

Well, as the goal is much bigger, you don't want to be on the goal line during open play to try and narrow angles, you don't want to be too far out though. The best thing to do is to watch Goalies in football. You don't want to run out of your position during corners, find you can't catch the ball and end up punching it out, David James could get away with it - just, but he was a frustrating goalie to watch.

Yeah, look at some gloves here. The main similarity in goalies in hockey and football is that they seem to be more 'eccentric' than the others... If you're slightly crazy it helps.

 

[Knight]

Here's the footage from my latest game. I did not contribute at all sadly, but I have some nice clips of my teammates.

Ok, so, we're tied 7-7, with 5 seconds left, and the faceoff comes to me. I panic and try and wrap it around the boards. Instead, I shoot it right on net, and almost blow it. I just wanted to curl up in the fetal position and hide, Haha but my teammates laughed it off afterwards.

http://vimeo.com/42299625

 

[beth]

That's awesome. My forward skating could definitely be better. How often are you lessons? What are the qualification of your instructors? (so I have some idea how to find a good one in my area)

I try to have a lesson each week, but sometimes ice is hard to get, or there's other schedule conflicts, so it probably averages about 2-3 times a month.

My instructors that I like are Shaun Miller and Erik Hanson. When I wasn't working, I was at the rink all the time and got to see a lot of instructors giving lessons during stick-n-puck. You can tell that some are better than others, and I picked Shaun by how technical he was. He'll watch me and figure out what each part of my body is doing wrong and think of the best way to correct it. If Shaun's not available then I'll text Erik instead. Erik is HUGE on skating and probably 80-90% of my lesson with him is without a puck. Both coaches are amazing skaters and I'm a visual learner so it helps so much to see someone do things perfectly.

So my advice for finding a coach is just to watch lessons if you see them happening at the rink, and then if you like what you see, just ask them for their info.

 

[rayuelo]

I am very much a noob when it comes to hockey. I started 8 weeks ago at 47 years of age. I've always wanted to get started, and honestly, this is the most fund I've had in a long time with sports.

What I'm working on now ... my skating is ok, but the weakest areas are backwards crossovers, and the forward to backward mohawk transitions. My balance seems to be ok in other common moves, but not when it comes to these. Not frustrated as I know it's a matter of lots of ice time and focused practice.

I love this game!!!

 

[clayman]

I havent been because the hours dont work for me, but i have friends that frequent the friday morning one.

I read that you go to the Renton Rink during the day quite a bit, what are the sessions like? Are they crowded? I'm in the area all the time so I might have to check it out...

Thanks for any input, it's appreciated!

 

[beth]

I read that you go to the Renton Rink during the day quite a bit, what are the sessions like? Are they crowded? I'm in the area all the time so I might have to check it out...

Thanks for any input, it's appreciated!

I used to go during the day all the time, but then I got a job. Now I'm limited to whatever stick-n-puck I can find on the weekends for practice. There two rinks at Castle Ice, 1 big, 1 small. If you check the daily calendar for the small ice, if it says "stick-n-puck" or "open ice for sale" then you can do stick-n-puck for that whole time if you want to. Some days it's like 6am-6pm! And there are not a lot of people during the day. I used to have the small rink to myself for hours until the word got out.

 

[steev182]

I had my first clinic tonight. Oh man, I don't think I've ever sweated so much in such a short time! It was so much fun though, I got there a little late, but I was able to do a couple of passing and shooting drills. Oh man, I need to learn how to puckhandle! Everyone there was a beginner, but better than I am right now, the good thing was they all were nice about it. 'hey we all start somewhere, buddy' and of course my accent was a talking point (silly Brit).

We had a little game for 20 minutes, which was fun. I fell a few times, which was interesting, didn't feel a thing, just light embarrassment. But it was very fun. Looking forward to the next lesson

 

[clayman]

I used to go during the day all the time, but then I got a job. Now I'm limited to whatever stick-n-puck I can find on the weekends for practice. There two rinks at Castle Ice, 1 big, 1 small. If you check the daily calendar for the small ice, if it says "stick-n-puck" or "open ice for sale" then you can do stick-n-puck for that whole time if you want to. Some days it's like 6am-6pm! And there are not a lot of people during the day. I used to have the small rink to myself for hours until the word got out.

Thanks for the info! I think I'll bring my stuff with me when I'm up there next and check it out! Thanks again!

 

[Copeland]

Everyone's making so much progress!!! It's exciting to read about your stories, especially first lesson stories haha. Those are always the best!!

I think I'll get one more chance to skate before I go, maybe two This thread is going to be a double-edged sword while I'm away, reading your stories will make me miss it all even more, but I still want to read them! Lol

(Steev, thanks for the tips again! And yeah, I've got the 'weird' down...)

Edit: It seems like there are so many of us in the Pac Northwest area. You should do a meetup shinny! Washington-BC joint game. Have it when I get back :p (jk... but it would be a nice gesture hahaha)

 

[clayman]

Everyone's making so much progress!!! It's exciting to read about your stories, especially first lesson stories haha. Those are always the best!!

I think I'll get one more chance to skate before I go, maybe two This thread is going to be a double-edged sword while I'm away, reading your stories will make me miss it all even more, but I still want to read them! Lol

(Steev, thanks for the tips again! And yeah, I've got the 'weird' down...)

Edit: It seems like there are so many of us in the Pac Northwest area. You should do a meetup shinny! Washington-BC joint game. Have it when I get back :p (jk... but it would be a nice gesture hahaha)

Actually that would be fun! A "Rink Forum Rink Day"! Oregon, Washington or BC works- I've been in all three this week already! lol..

 

[Trl3789]

Everyone's making so much progress!!! It's exciting to read about your stories, especially first lesson stories haha. Those are always the best!!

I think I'll get one more chance to skate before I go, maybe two This thread is going to be a double-edged sword while I'm away, reading your stories will make me miss it all even more, but I still want to read them! Lol

(Steev, thanks for the tips again! And yeah, I've got the 'weird' down...)

Edit: It seems like there are so many of us in the Pac Northwest area. You should do a meetup shinny! Washington-BC joint game. Have it when I get back :p (jk... but it would be a nice gesture hahaha)

Yeah and I just moved back to the Bay Area after graduating from college in Portland. Oh how I wish there was an NHL team there and not just the Winterhawks

 

[Copeland]

Trl, I think most people up here in Vancouver agree.

ohhhh sweet rivalry... can you imagine the home and aways?

But anyway, yeah, Rink Forum shinny would be fun!! Someone plan it at some point