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Seccond in with Super Tacks, got 272 Lightspeed Edge holders put on and all is right in the world. Also added SuoerFeet Carbon insoles, didn't notice them which I guess is a good thing but also didn't notice any profound improvement, still a step up from the stock memory foam insole. The most noticeable thing was post skate, very warm rink and we skated for a good 1.5 hours and the liner on the skates weren't even the slightest bit wet or damp. Very impressed considering how hot the rink was and the amount of sweat.

Okay I got in today for an assessment. It was actually a pretty reasonable price ($110 for 1.5 hour assessment). Mixed feelings. The therapist was great. Did some manipulation of the joints in the foot, used a metal thing to break up some scar tissue etc. On the other hand, the kid doing my exercises with me seemed to not really care a whole lot and seemed like he'd rather be elsewhere. Im thinking I'll go back to her next week, but likely a lot less after that. Especially since my personal trainer is in his final semester to become a physical therapist himself so while he can't (yet) do any of the adjustment of my joints he can definitely do the exercises with me. Walked without pain again today (before the PT at least). So apparently I failed to correlate the ibuprofen I took on Saturday for a headache with my sudden painless walking. Easy for me to do since I literally never take any kind of painkiller unless I have a headache that doesn't go away on its own after a few hours. So I took more ibuprofen this morning, and by 11am I was walking around the house almost like it was nothing. Cleaning, organising my hockey gear, etc. Then after PT today I got some REALLY good news. Apparently the hematologist told my doctor that I'm okay to get off the blood thinners after 3 months (which means I only have a month left). That's AWESOME!!!!! I'm so pumped right now.

No issues getting the Tuuks on, obviously new holes needed but no problems. I specifically waited for SummerJam to try these out before I bought, very happy with the decision.

Thanks! They're a little for protection. The foam is for impact absorption. I do have the hard plastic telescoping guards, which cover pretty much everything. So it's not like I don't wear anything at all. The sleeves would be a secondary layer just in case a puck were to find a way through. Part of the issue might be the way the KTPs fit into my landing gear. The Maltese uses a 2" round piece of their gel on each side of the knee. So you are essentially landing on a very small section. That is concentrating my weight rather than dispersing it and spreading it across the whole landing gear. This is more of a problem because my landing gear has a horseshoe shaped knee stack in it. So I think the disk in the Maltese is not fitting into the horseshoe channel like my knee would. That's causing it to become off center and sit wrong. I'm going to try to try them with a flat knee stack to see if they will sit properly and if that makes the difference in performance. Passaus may be my last ditch effort. I think they will be too big for me though. I just don't like knee guards.

So, I think you should stay away from the VH during plays like @ 50 seconds. I think a butterfly or a reverseVH would be better here. Since you said you are relatively new to goal tending I'd focus strictly on being square in plays like that. Personally I'd say just be in a square butterfly and that should do the trick, it'll keep you more mobile and make it easier to control the rebound. I can tell you when I play against starting goalies and they go into the VH I get happy as they always give me some net to shoot at. I can't tell if this is the case here because of the camera angle, but I'd suggest against using the VH for most starting goalies. At 55 seconds make sure you are square to the shooter, I think you should be challenging more here as well but I can't be sure again because of the camera angle. I understand you are worried about the person back door, but you have to ensure you are square to the shooter and not cheating, you are pretty good at sliding so your abilities will be able to cover the backdoor fairly easily. Also, when playing a lower level of skill I feel you can give up those passes a bit, since the chances of the players making a good pass and then getting a good shot off are pretty small. Since defensive coverage in rec is spotty to begin with, it gets worse in lower levels (understandably), if I find myself in 3-on-1/0 or 2-on-1/0 situations I'll just play the shot, since the pass requires 2 players to make decent plays just to get a shot off. You also favour your left leg a lot, what I mean by that is when in the butterfly your left leg sticks out while your right is directly behind you (see 1:12). Now I understand why you did it, since you pushed from the left to right and it naturally happens, but it does leave gaps and I think the players ended up shooting towards your right leg where those gaps occur. I have had issues with this the last few years and basically cheat to one side, and it is something I have been trying to fix. Ideally you'd just be square in the butterfly and have fast enough legs to cover the far corners, it is just something to look out for as it can get you into trouble (it certainly has for me).

My girls really stepped up their hog showmanship yesterday at our county fair. Oldest daughter has shown 4-H pigs for 5 years, but this year she decided to enter some jackpot shows. She was consistently beaten by a couple of kids from other counties (one was her hog breeder) and had a challenging week at the State Fair two weeks ago. She stepped into the ring yesterday and showed her A game and took Reserve Grand Champion Senior Showmanship in her first year in the senior class. She then took 5th place market hog out of 200 entries--she picked out the weanling pig back in March and bought it herself at auction. She worked her ass off all summer to train her pig and her efforts really paid off. Little sis was in her 3rd year, and watched big sis intently while she showed. She stepped into the ring and upped her game about 1,000% but hadn't worked her hog as hard this summer. While she was ready to show at the top level, her piggy was not! She got called back for the final junior showmanship class, but her pig didn't want to have anything to do with it and between laying down, rolling over, biting her, and trying to get into 3 fights (which the kid stopped without outside help) finally stepped on her foot and rolled onto her leg, pinning her on the ground. She bravely kept showing and took 3rd place in Junior...and the tears flowed freely once she got back to her stall. She's going to be very prepared next season. I love the life lessons they're learning--radically different from hockey--but a fresh challenge in the off-season.

I thought the whole concept was that with standard radius you: - sacrifice glide if you go to a deeper cut, or; - sacrifice bite if you go to a shallower cut But, with FBV you can get as much or as little bite as you want without changing how much glide you get because of the flat bottom. At least that's the idea if I understood correctly from the massive FBV thread on here. Even as a poor skater I felt like it made a significant enough difference to keep doing it. Though that could very well be all in the head. Either way, while it wouldn't have kept me from buying Sparx, I'm sure it's very true that without it there may have been some customers who would have passed. Im just dying to get back on skates after this damn broken ankle so I can use my Sparx again!