Saturday Skate

Well, it seems I'm getting sick, but hopefully Zicam will nip it in the bud. It's making me a bit tired and grumpy though, so I've done NOTHING on this fine Sunday, other than eat ice cream. Moo Tracks. Evil stuff.

Anyway, on to yesterday. Coach Stalin isn't officially broken, according to the doc, but still wounded enough that I'm holding her skates hostage so she can't play hockey with her league tonight and delay her recovery further. So, I've been skating alone lately, but I think it's been good to just work on stuff on my own.

Worked on the usual stuff yesterday. My crossovers (left turn) are getting decent, though I figured out I have to pretend I'm actually chasing down a puck or a player to do it right. Need something to focus on. But I'm very pleased with my progress there, even though I'm pretty sure goalies can't do crossovers in pads. :)

Did a little bit of backwards. Man that's hard, but I'm getting better in TINY increments. Should probably work more on it, but I feel better doing it with Coach there to "clear a path" as I'm nowhere near able to look over my shoulder while I do it and I get spooked easily.

It started off not so good because I was really hungry and low blood sugary, but they cut the ice about 5 minutes after I got there, so I had a chance to grab a snack and shake the shakes. By the end, I was feeling pretty good and cutting all around working on my crossovers. Also did shuffles with my dumb leg all the way down the ice (and actually made it goal line to goal line this week).

Stopping is getting a little better. It's slow going.

What was coolest of all was that there was a kid goalie getting a coaching session. I've seen quite a few people getting power skating lessons, but never goalies in pads and stuff getting a lesson. It was fun to watch him. He was working hard but had a big grin on his face that's totally burned into my brain. That face is why I'm doing this. It's hard work but it's so much fucking fun. I was way inspired. Plus it was cool to see some of the drills he was doing. There were some skating drills I've never seen skaters do before. More of a short, quick kind of c-cut thing. He was booking it doing that move.

Also, the guy working with him wasn't Jiri, so there are obviously at least two coaches who work with goalies. That was good to know, as Jiri's is the only name I've heard at the Aerodrome. Not sure yet if either of them will work with adults, but options are always good.

Beyond that, I didn't do anything this week. My excuse is that I traveled and was out of town Monday-Wednesday, and was lazy on Thursday and Friday. Gonna try and do my Stretch-a-Flex DVD tonight after the game. I'll see how I'm feeling. Pretty ucky right now, so we'll see. It's not like it's that hard... I should do it.