So I can sort of hockey stop to my right side! It's mostly just with one foot though, as when I put my left foot down I tend to lose my footing for some reason. Need to work on that a bit. I've also learned to snow plow with my left foot, which before last skate session, I wasn't able to do anything but move with. I've taken my first few tentative steps to learning to hockey stop to my left side now too. Not made much progress, but I've started to feel it out.
I'd really like to get away from the public skates and start doing the Open Hockey ice/stick time at Rockville Ice Arena, but I need to pick up a helmet and a set of gloves. Another stick would be good too as the one I have is a tad short for skates. The ability to run skate drills without worrying about running into a little kid would be a nice perk. Plus it would seem the open hockey is actually pretty popular. There was a rather large group there the other day for a weekday. Passing and scrimmages would be a constant possibility should I make it out there for them. More gear would ensure less injuries though!
My cardio is up since I started running and skating. Where before I would run at 5.0 on the tread and be hurting, but able to finish the run, I now can run 6.5 without much effort. I'm also down about a pound, but will likely start replacing that fat with heavier muscle as I get more and more into the weight training side. For now though, it's lots of cardio, a bit of weights, and a good amount of core workout.
With my next ice time, I plan to work on more stops, backward skating, and the transitions between all of them. I tried a skating drill I watched Matt Bradley work on one day when he was on the injured list and it's going to be a while before I can pull that off with an serious maneuverablity. Some more padding would make me a lot more inclined to try these transitions a bit more ernestly though!
The road ahead is going to be tiring, especially with school started now. I do however get a lot of energy just from thinking about the sport and can't wait to get on the ice again.
Hello, and welcome to the game. You will find that stick 'n shoot session attendance vaires greatly from session to session, and it's mostly a crapshoot as to how many will be there. I like to hit the one's at Cabin John in the summer, they have more of them then. Good luck and enjoy!
ReplyDeleteI've seen as much from the many times I've had to make due with Public Skates around Rockville and Kettler. I'll have to head to Cabin John sometime and check it out, you're not the first to recommend it to me, so there must be something to that place!
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