Breakfast Club: Week 10

Has His Kirkness become like Johnny Carson in the waning days, so busy with other engagements that he has a rotating cast of "guest hosts"? Hmmm... Let's see: last week's guest blogger was the infamous Scott, and this week you are graced by the equally infamous Laura. As we roll into next season, time will tell if you see Leno or Letterman more often than Johnny.

Now, a point of clarification: there were actually two Lauras in the breakfast club this session. Of the three registered chicks, who'da thunk that 66.67 percent would have the same name? The Laura that was clocked by Scott in week five was "the other Laura". Not that I haven't both given and received my fair share of clockings, of course, but it just wasn't me that time.

Today's final class was primarily focused on one-on-one and two-on-one drills. I could give a laundry list of what it was that we were supposed to do, versus what we actually did. But instead I'll digress a bit and recount something said post-practice by the third chick, that being Emily. You boys probably wonder what us girls talk about in the locker room, eh? Well now you know. Yes, we (sometimes) talk about you! And what Emily said was how much fun she has had, and how incredible it has been to see the amount of progress achieved especially by the more beginning players (admittedly speaking for herself as well as her cohorts). And I couldn't agree more.

I was wondering the other day, how many of you lettered in some kind of sport in high school? And how many of you are still regularly playing that same sport? Probably not too many. With football, for example, you're pretty much done after high school. Yes, you can play a little touch football at a picnic, few and far between. But with hockey, all you need is your stuff and a list of drop-ins (such as, ahem, can be found at www.hockeymoms.org) and you're all set. So, thank you, coaches, not only for helping me to improve my skills, but more importantly for sharing your "love of the game". No, I'll probably never skate like Scott and Lyle and Dave and the other guys who start their 'friendly little pick-up game' after us Breakfast Clubbers get off the ice (in my next life, I'm gonna skate like that). But speaking for someone who never even put on hockey skates until she hit 40, I think I' m doing pretty doggoned good, thank you very much. And I know I'm pretty doggoned that much better because of the likes of these coaches. And because of the encouragement and cameraderie of "all you boys" who were my Breakfast Club buddies.

So, yes, SEE YOU NEXT SESSION, boys, and keep your head up. (pseudo)Kirk-Out.

Breakfast Club: Week 9

Hello everyone, I’m Scott, guest Blogger this week as Kirk was strangely absent today. I think he and half the players met for breakfast this morning instead of skating. If you frequent this blog then you know who I am. As for some unknown reason my name is mentioned every week, even the two weeks I was absent. Since next week is the last class for this session, I think I’ll give Kirk a full taste of my “Kirk touted” reputation. He’ll have a month to heal.

Where was everyone today? About half the crew showed up this morning. Of course the class was still successful and challenging. Today was Video Analysis Day, quite humbling.

Drills today: With so many guys and all of the girls missing today, we used only half the ice a time. Aren’t we entitled to a small refund for this? Kirk- see to it. The first drill after warm-ups had two guys looping through center ice with a puck and picking up speed, move those feet, and each going in for a shot on Ronnie. That whole “get the puck into a position to do something with it as you cross the blue line.” Lyle had a string on my puck and pulled it as I fanned on three shot attempts during this drill. Some guys had nice hard shots, but the funny thing was, the harder the shot – the farther off the net the shot was. Well something to work on.

The drill in-between drills. You have got to love em’! Lyle yelled, “Find some space and a puck. Skate a small circle to your left, take two strides and circle to your right in a figure eight pattern.” That’s Lyle’s long speak for, “Skate in circles until your dizzy and fall down!”

Video Taping Time: I knew it was Video Analysis Day when I saw Dave come onto the ice with the camera. Glad he finally figured the camera out. All through warm-ups and the first drill he was against the boards peering into the viewer and pushing all the buttons. He solved it in time. Dave stood with the camera near center ice. One at a time in groups of three, we were to sprint down the length of the ice along the boards / stop / skate towards Dave at center ice / stop / make Dave a snowman / skate to the far corner /stop. Second guy GO, Third guy GO. Do it all again. Dead after that. While three guys were doing that, the rest were in a one-on-one drill for a shot on goal.

Now to the valuable videotape: Lyle called us off the ice in our groups of three to review the pretty pictures. Randy, you know better than to say anything off subject in front of Lyle. Randy said, “I thought TV made me look thinner.” Lyle replied, “It does!” In my group the consistent tip was, as always, more knee bend and also lengthen your stride. At the same time keep those arms pumping forward and back, not side to side.

During the viewing everyone else did an offensive zone three-on-one drill. The object being for the offense to stay spread out and move around to create opportunities and make it difficult for the defenseman. Scott ran this and did a great job at stopping the drill many times to tell us how we were doing it wrong. The instant feedback was valuable. He would stop you where you were and immediately tell you where you should be when the puck is here or over there. It was a fun drill too.

The long stride issue must have been on the video for many of us. The last drill of the day consisted of skating the full length of the ice. Concentrating on long strides and good knee bend. Then the other way with a right leg stride only. Kirk would have certainly screwed this up, as I secretly removed his L and R stickers from his skates. Then back again with a left leg stride. Very difficult, but pure technique. Another reason Kirk would have screwed this up. Last, put the left and right together and GO.

One big lesson for the day, take advantage of the half and three quarter speed laps in warm-ups to work on this long stride technique, so that it becomes more natural and can be used in game situations to generate more power and speed, and at our age, more efficiency.

I must note the value and how great of an opportunity this program is for those of us who never learned the game as a kid or in a structured environment. I can attest to how improving your skills and learning game concepts can and does add to the enjoyment and satisfaction of game play. Thank you to Suburban Hockey.

Later—Scott O.

P.S. Next week on the ice, keep your ears peeled for when I yell, “KIRK’s OUT!”

Breakfast Club: Week 8

Excellent drills today. Passing drills, I need more of it. Put some "stuff" on that pass, puck on the heel, hands in front you. Doesn't it feel good when you nail a hard tape-to-tape pass? I absolutely love the sound of the puck hitting the blade. Somebody should market a CD, "The sounds of hockey", this is a moneymaker folks, my idea.

Other drills, mostly two or three players moving into the zone, passing, getting into shooting position, get the shot off, another shot passed Ronnie, oh yeah! For me, sometimes I feel I need a road map on where to go and what to do during plays like this. But in hockey of course there is no such thing because the landscape is changing every couple seconds. Lyle said today hockey isn't like football, one play at a time. I got to thinking, which is dangerous, "Igor, you block the guy in front of you until you hear the whistle, got it? Yes master." How hard can that be? Lyle is right, begrudgingly, we need to understand the concepts and develop the play in our head on the fly, a lot harder isn't it? Where is the puck carrier going? Who is going to the net? Who is high slot? Where is the open ice? Where is the D? Does Ronnie have his good eye open or shut? Sorry, no more Ronnie jokes. Actually, all of us have to be like a football quarterback on the ice. Hockey players are on the top of the sport intelligence food chain, no doubt about it. I think a skill progress check is when you feel your thinking is more and more fluid instead of mechanical. Keep the road map in the car glove compartment; men don't use stinking maps anyway.

Scottie O was notably absent today. The commitment meter reads negative 3. Okay, the big game at the Joe was yesterday; I understand it was a great time and a great game. Kind of cool to play on that ice isn't it? Can you imagine if the seats were filled and fans were yelling and watching you play? Maybe in a couple more years. I couldn't make it yesterday, I deserved the abuse on that. I'm still training my employer on the importance of me playing hockey in the morning and I’ll get to work when I get there. We've been working on this for seven years and a little more time is needed. I'm out of town midweek so I'll miss week 9. See ya at the last session, Kirk out.