Breakfast Club: Thanksgiving Eve with Laura

Well, first we skated, and then we ate-ed. Yes, yes, it’s been a busy Thanksgiving week.

Turnout was a little light on Wednesday morning, but not too bad. We still had a good-enough mix of reds and blues to end it all with a little red-versus-blue cross-ice chase the puck. Although, despite the food-based theme to this week, sorry, Scott, there wasn’t any jello…

Lyle kept telling Sarah to keep her feet moving, and then he remembered that her feet will be moving all the way to Washington, D.C. in two weeks and he almost started to feel wistful. Sarah! Sarah! Don’t make me represent our whole species by myself, girlfriend! But hey, I see that the Fort Dupont Ice Arena has drop-in every Sunday from 9-10:20pm, so it doesn’t seem too desolate there. Next time I have to haul my lawyer butt to D.C. for a hearing, I will pack my stuff and look you up. I am quite the sight tromping through the airport in my high heels, with a laptop on one shoulder and my hockey bag on the other shoulder.

So let’s see… it’s been a few days and a few thousand calories since we skated on Wednesday morning. The details are somewhat sketchy. I seem to recall us breaking into length-wise halves this week instead of end zone halves, meaning we were skating our pre-eating keesters from end-to-end all morning long. Maybe it was part of Lyle and Scott’s diabolical plan to make us feel less guilty about over-eating on the following day? Who knows what evil lurks in their minds. Scott was secretly hoping for a face-plant or two, though, I’m convinced. Otherwise, why would he have had us doing those stride balancing drills with our sticks over our shoulders like oh-so-many woe begotten oxen? Stride using your right, then touch your right knee to the ice. Rub your tummy. Pat your head. Walk. Chew gum. Geesh, slave driver…

Lyle had us doing some one-on-ones. Always a good time, beating up on each other. Grinning from ear to ear, of course, but definitely some good rivalry going on. I was asked at one point if I was prepared to be dominated. I’ll let you answer that question yourself…

I’m sure we did more. It’s not that it wasn’t memorable, of course. It’s just that I’ve lost too many brain cells in the past couple of days that have passed between attending the class and writing this post. Like this: my mind has completely forgotten that there was some kind of large cat carnivore purportedly playing a game called “foot” “ball” that didn’t really involve much feet at all. Nor any feat, come to think of it. Ooooh, but I can’t think of it. My mind is blocking that. I’m thinking about rainbows, and unicorns, and making a crisp tape-to-tape pass….

Breakfast Club with Kirk

I haven’t done that many hockey stops in the past 3 months during league play than we did today at BC. I’m exhausted. Wow, during league play the goal is to keep your momentum going, the only time you stop is when you run into the bench to rest. Just another dimension of the game, you’ll definitely get the jump on guys during directional changes when you can pop from a stop to powering into stride. You’ll be a stride or two ahead of your opponents for sure. It’s all about edge work isn’t it, mostly getting command of the outside edges.

The drills today focused us on one outside edge at a time so we can focus getting on that darn edge and work it. Lyle keep pushing us on this stuff, I saw many teammates gasping for a little air after some of those drills. Another good part of the day was working a 2-on-1 and positioning for a quality shot on goal. Key word position. I have a tendency to go straight line to the goal which makes it easy for a defender to cover me. Joe was working on different scenarios to open the play up and have better chances for a quality shot. OK Laura what up, a big no show, did you get the word on a hard workout? See ya folks next week, Kirk out.

Breakfast Club with Laura

I talked to Todd this morning about him blogging. He said he'd think about it. He said he couldn't blog about the whole session, though, because he needs to leave early every week.

So here's your chance, Todd. I'll leave the whole first part of the blog blank, and you can just fill it in however you wish...

[blank]

[blank]

[blankitty blank blank]


wow, Todd really has a way with words, doesn't he?



Hey, at least he said he'd try. Kirk didn't even bother to show up this morning.



I hear from Sarah that there were five chicks at the Tuesday skate. Her, Fiona, Martha, Courtney and someone else who's name escapes me at the moment (sorry, sister, not dissing you...). That's pretty good considering there were 13 guys. So the dude-to-chick ratio was 2.5-to-1. Kinda like ladies night at the bar, eh?



For this morning's skate, I was the sole chick on the ice. "But wait," you say, "Sarah was there." Yeah, she was there, but she wasn't skating; she was goal-tending this morning. And so she wasn't "on" the ice like I was. No one was "on" the ice like I was. I was all over that ice. Upside down. Backwards. Sarah just got to stand around, blocking shots. Me? I was this morning's entertainment. It was a hard burden to bear, but I did so with honor and grace.

With three goalies, we took advantage of our shooting opportunities. After warming everyone up, we broke into length-wise half-ice groups, so we were skating end-to-end all morning long. And doggone, that can wear you out when you're as, ahem, well-seasoned as some of us not-so-spring chickens are. Joe's one-on-ones were particular humbling. Or amusing, depending on whether you were me or whether you were merely watching me. After three tries, I at least managed to not trip over my own skates on that backwards crossover start. Hurrah for life's little victories...

Meanwhile, on the other length-wise half, Lyle had us refining our strides. Maximize the power and minimize the wasted body movement.

Then back into the committee of the whole, still running lengthwise, but this time passing out to the coaches and getting that pass back. Receive it one-handed and skate one-handed, pushing that puck so that you don't waste speed trying to puck handle.

And we ended it all with a little of my favorite, that being beating the snot out of each other trying to get to the puck first. Two on two. Except we were too tired to really have as much fun beating each other up as we should have. It was kinda like, yeah, whatever, you really want to get to that puck before me? Sure, go ahead, knock yourself out. I'm just gonna hang out here and try to find some oxygen if you don't mind...

I guess, in retrospect, the reason we got so tired this morning was because the drills didn't get goofed up as much as they usually do. So either we're getting better, or Joe and Lyle were easier on us, or else Scott and Kirk are a disrupting force that we were spared from being subjected to. I'd like to think it's the former. I'd hate to have to permanently deprive myself of Scott and Kirk. What else would I talk about then??

So, until next week, or until Todd writes his part of the blog, whichever comes first, keep your head up and your eyes on the goal.

BC: Election Hangover

Hey! I didn't realize it until last night. We're wearing RED and BLUE jerseys this session. Did you do that on purpose, Lyle? Far be it from me to question that man's motivations. And while I believe I have a unique foreign relations perspective, considering that I see Canada from my beer fridge every night at home, I will not sink to a campaign of fear by pointing out that there was not any good ol' American music piping into the locker rooms this morning. No, I will not do that, unlike my opponents who will hook and trip and pull every dirty play in the book. In a show of bipartisan unity, I won't bring any of this up again. Well, except I will point out that Courtney was the lone representative of the Green Party at this morning's skate. But Lyle made her pretend to be red. Not like I can talk; I swapped my blue for a red toward the end. Ah, but I digress...



We did some passing in passing. Actually, we did more than just a passing amount of passing, we did a lot. Give 'n go's, one touches, bing bing bing. We went straight from the stretching into two groups, one group warming up the goalie with some two-lane shots while the other group worked on passing. Passing with your top hand only, then keeping that same distance from your rib cage when you add that lower hand. It ain't as easy as it should be. I guess that's why we call this practice, eh? Meanwhile, the two-lane shooters were warming up the goalie while also purportedly working on our stick-handling and deaking.



The second set of drills was likewise divided into ends, with the one end doing some passing to and within the center circle while the passer and his/her partner skated up the boards, stop + crossover start back, take the pass, and two-on-oh! at the goalie. The other end was working on quick release shots with a partner. Which, hey, by the way, Lyle, when I signed that injury waiver form, I never dreamed I would have to stand at the boards while Randy let lose his wrist shots at me. I felt like one of those wild west gunslingers where someone is shooting at my feet and telling me to 'dance!'.



We closed with a little zone game. The blues versus the reds (this is where Courtney's green became an honorary red, and where I doffed my blue and donned a red). Two roamers each, and three stationary players each. Change of possession required a pass out to one of the stationary players, strategically located at the point, down low and at the opposing hash marks. More or less keep-away plus setting up the shots.



A good sweat was had by all. Except Kirk, of course, who tried to sneak out early without being noticed. But we have proof that he was there, seeing as Courtney was clicking away with the ol' Nikon. I sure hope she got a good shot of me with my head up and my eyes on the goal...