MThockeydad

Going up the ice, you were just holding your left (stick) arm rigid and swinging your right. You relaxed on your way back down and you had both arms moving--nice and straight. Good job. GO PLAY HOCKEY!!! You started this wanting to play hockey, and you can skate and stop well enough to play hockey. Chasing that black 6oz piece of vulcanized rubber with 9 other people is going to show you what else you can work on. Skating is fun, but hockey is an absolute blast. Yes, skating (being able to control yourself safely) was a higher priority, but now you have a lot of other fun things to learn about. Go play hockey. Come back to a new focus on skating in 3-4 months, maybe even take a powerskating class. For me, I have found that I need to take breaks from learning about skating. You always skate, but after learning something new, you just need to go out there and play and work those new details into your weekly game. Come back and focus on it after your good new techniques have become habits and look for new things to refine. I'm still jealous you have so much open ice to yourself!

You posted on Sept. 7 that it was your 2nd time skating. You have come THAT far in only ~7 weeks. Improvement? Yeah, meteoric!!! You look fantastic. I know people who have been skating a couple years who don't have as good of mechanics as you. Small tip since you seem to be looking for feedback (I'm not nit-picking): When you skate, do try to keep your arms push-pulling straight ahead of you. Think about pulling a rope hand over hand. Your hands shouldn't swing out to the sides, nor should they cross the centerline of your body. Your stops are looking CLEAN. I hope you're getting into some dropin/pickup games. Your skating skills are more than ready.

As well you should be!!! We had a talk with YoungerDaughter about what it would take to get selected as C for her Peewee team. (Be a role model, support the coach, encourage teammates, work hard) She's in a good position to at least get an A. My sweet spot for the day: I just got a FB reminder that I started playing adult hockey two years ago yesterday: Safe to say, I was hooked. Fully no ragrats. ;)

You look a million times smoother. Your knee bend is good. Are you feeling more confident out there? You should be. Just keep skating, it will get easier and easier.

Chadd, you have my deepest condolences. You are in my thoughts and prayers that you may find peace and strength

Drafted my C league team for this season, and I'm very stoked. 4 REALLY good skaters I never expected to be able to pull all 4, one of them helped me coach our rookie group last season. 3 insane ladies who can outdrink all of us and are an absolute hoot both on and off the ice. 3 of our rookies from last season, and I'm stoked that my friend and I both get to be on the ice with them this fall. 2 of our other rookies are playing C league and they're on the same team with a friend of mine as Captain. Took a chance on 2 new guys, hopefully they like us! First game Tuesday night. I love hockey, and I really love our local beer league!!

I'm only liking the fortifying yourself and going anyway. My kid had a nasty bout with pneumonia. I'm glad for every minute she's on the ice. She uses an inhaler for gym but not yet for hockey.

I just found out that one of my old kayaking friends from the northeast lost his son to drugs/suicide. My friend is about 10 years older than me, and had 3 sons who are in their early 20's--the son he lost left a young wife and two toddlers behind. :( My buddy is a super cool guy, devoted dad, strong role model, etc. It's just crushing to think that even when you think you've done everything right as a parent that something like this could still happen. As with dkmiller3356's note that his friend's passing reminds him of his own mortality, this event reminds me of my own daughters' mortality--and it TERRIFIES me. It makes my head and my heart hurt. Hug your kids, hug your wife/GF/SO, and call your parents and tell them that you love them. Life is short. Live it.

I'd go for a thin/runny epoxy and mix in carbon fiber. http://www.amazon.com/PC-Products-PC-Clear-Adhesive-Syringe/dp/B008H4QSX4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1442414588&sr=8-3&keywords=epoxy Cut discs of this stuff to cover the holes. (cheapest CF I could find on eBay...you don't need tape:) http://www.ebay.com/itm/Toray-T700-Real-Carbon-Fiber-12k-Unidirectional-Cloth-Fabric-Tap-4-wide-200gsm-/151815792317?hash=item2358ed26bd Use the scrap and chop into 1/8" - 1/4" pieces and mix it into the epoxy. Smoosh it into the holes and cover with the CF tape, wet the tape out and cover with masking tape or saran wrap to keep it flat. Let the boot sit upright until it cures so the epoxy doesn't run into the boot.

Skull caps

We won!!

Get some rest, the red team lost this evening and we're in the chipper against the orange team!

Yes! You're starting to feel it, aren't you?! I agree with jazz4all, knees bent, try knee pads. Your balace needs to be somewhat of a "squat" position. Drive a downward force from your butt down through the balls of your feet. Try a quieter upper body. When you throw your shoulder around, you are turning. If you're turning, your weight is probably on the center of your outside blade. Push with the ball of your foot and you should turn less. Try skating a shorter distance between stops: Goal line to blue line, stop. Blue line to blue line, stop. Blue line to goal line, stop. Use more repetitions.

My friend Caihlen. The guy worked his ass off learning how to skate and how to play hockey. Played mixed-division spring league with some really good A skaters. Paid a lot of attention. Played lacrosse all summer and stayed in shape while I got lazy and soft. Played dropin across from him last night. You are a legitimate pain in the ass. Where you're supposed to be, quick stick, good hands, getting wheels under you. I hate you. I'm super proud of you, brother, and looking forward to our rec tourney this weekend and leagues with you this winter

Huge improvement in just a week. Keep it up!! Your knees are bent a lot more, and you are finding that the sideways push gives you a lot more forward momentum than "running" on the ice. (You still need to learn how to stop. haha) Do you ski? Try doing the snowplow stop with two feet. Then try doing the same snowplow stop with only one foot (while you glide forward with the other foot) Then try doing that same stop with that forward foot and throw the back foot sideways as well.Jeremy's video above has excellent advice about how your edges work and how to angle them when you stop. (It takes guts to post videos of your new skating abilities. Good for you. If you want to keep posting videos, I --and I'm sure others-- will be happy to offer observations)

Compressor died. Rebuilding ice. Still waitin' :stamps foot:

x2 to the howtohockey videos. Watch Jeremy's video on how to stop for beginners: Bend your knees a lot more. Knees over toes, shoulders over knees. If you think you're bending your knees a lot, bend them even more. If your back gets sore, you're bending your back too much...bend your knees more-and keep your head up. If your hips/butt are sore, you're doing it right engaging those new muscles. Glad you're working on ice time at public skate. It's the #1 hockey skill. Welcome to the addiction!

I know EXACTLY what you're talking about. As girls coaches, we're pretty flexible, trying to grow girls hockey. If I could get the 5 squirts and 2 peewees (one is my kid) to every girls game, they would be unstoppable. ...those girls who do play with girls and with boys are learning two games, and really developing a wide array of hockey skills. Boys team coaches are borderline inflexible to rigid. I get it--they have to be that way because boys and their parents need pretty firm guidelines. You. Here. Now. They are also spoiled in that they typically get single-sport kids. Johnny plays hockey for 5 months out of the year, coach tells him to be somewhere, he shows up. Not only do we compete with that, but all the myriad other activities girls are simultaneously into. Last year, we had to compete with and schedule around squirts schedule, peewees schedule, bantam schedule, U19 schedule, swimming, ballet, tap, freestyle skiing, violin, church, indoor soccer, ski racing, basketball, volleyball, and driver's training. You can't tell them to do anything, it's a delicate negotiation. We're raising well-rounded and independent-minded young ladies (sweet spot), but FOOK, it's like herding cats in the here and now (vent). In the big picture, we're doing it right.

Drop-in tomorrow night. Hitting the ice with my younger daughter for the first time in 4 months. Woot!! Adult drop-in starts next Tues, and the girls hit the ice on Weds. tl;dr: Good hockey things happening, happy times to report on hockey website.

Non VH skate, but similar question: my tongue shifts to the outside because my medial malleolus ("ankle bone") sits farther forward than my lateral malleolus and my tongue torques to sit between them. I had some irritation between the edge of my tongue and my medial malleolus last season that only went away with not skating all summer. Should I force my tongue to the centerline of the boot so the edge of the tongue completely laps my "ankle bone"? What is a Maltese tongue?

This is a petty whine and means NOTHING in the grand scheme of things, but FUCK, CAN THE NEXT TWO WEEKS GO ANY SLOWER? I WANT TO GET ON THE FUCKING ICE!!! COME ON September 8!!!!

I feel like I'm herding cats. Now on the local youth association board and took on the Programs committee. Trying to coordinate managers, coaches, and teams. 3 of the teams were short players and merged with the other local association's teams who were also short players, so we combined. So far, so good. One more of our teams has 13 players but needs a head coach. Other Association has 4-5 players and an awesome head coach. Our manager wants their coach but not really their players. No. You are not putting me in this position, dude.

I'm a civilian and was the first car upon the scene of a tractor-trailer turnover three years ago. I pulled the driver out, and his wife was impaled by the guardrail below him. Messed me up. I'm on the board of the local fire district, and the fire station chaplain was a HUGE help to me. They can relate in a way that a civilian counselor probably can't. Do talk to the counselor for the company. What were the patient's chances before you arrived? Near zero. What were the patient's chances when you got there? You pushed it to near 50-50. You did your best and there was nothing more you could do. Thank you for your service to your community. While you are not on the ice and there are no pluses and minuses in your work, I do hope you get a save soon. (But do process it before boxing it up and sending it away!!) Emotions make us human, so they have to be dealt with...so deal with them, and get straight and square for that next human who desperately needs your skills and intellect. Gallows humor seems brash to civilians, but it is what keeps many emergency responders and soldiers sane. If it helps you, use it; especially if it helps you to voice your emotions, get them out, process them, and move forward.

That's apparently common for Americans...who play baseball before much else. You see a lot of American-born NHL players who are right-handed and shoot right, LH/shoot left. More Canadian and European players are right-handed/shoot left or left-handed/shoot right, since they don't grow up with the baseball paradigm. I tried starting right, and am VERY right-handed, but never played much baseball, so I was always finding myself putting my right hand on top of the stick when goofing off on the pond. I went lefty when started playing and haven't looked back.

Thats the general idea--put the top of the stick in your dominant hand. Lots of exceptions, though!