marka

Howdy, Hmmm. Interesting. No I never really considered skipping eyelets at the top. What's the benefit of doing that? I seem to like the ankle area as tight as I can get it, but I'm also super new. I did notice that the instructor at the adult skills class seemed to be able to flop her skate over way more than what it feels like I can. In terms of foot pain now, I'd say I'm at the "truce" stage perhaps.... As long as I don't get the laces too tight over the arch area, its more of a dull aching that I can mostly ignore. Still not anything like "good" but I can live with it. I actually think in some cases its self induced as I have more pain when I'm doing stuff I'm not comfortable with... I think I'm clenching up all my foot muscles maybe? My latest equipment related discovery is that the bag I have for my gear is now too small since I got shoulder pads. It was already pretty tight with just the pants. So I'll be keeping my eye out for a bigger bag. My current bag is 36x14x15 IIRC. In the meantime, the helmet is just going to have to ride outside the bag. :-) But all that stuff is pretty secondary to getting better at handling the puck and skating. Mark

Howdy, Let's see if I can do this right... Theoretically this is a photo of me and my son from last night. Mark

Howdy, So, that all wrapped up at the end of last year. Now I've decided that I want to keep doing this for me, not just as something to do with my son. So... for xmas I buy myself more gear. Hockey pants, yet another pair of skates (CCM Ribcor 46k 8D, feet still hurt some), shoulders, a cage for my helmet, a couple sticks, tape, wax, laces, and whatever else. Its a bit of a pain in the ass, as there's literally no hockey stores near us in Youngstown. But we're also lucky at the same time because Pittsburgh is about 45 minutes away and hockey fever is going strong there. And now when we go anywhere, I always look to see if there's a hockey store or a play it again in town. :-) At this point I can do forward crossovers in either direction and 'sorta hockey stop' with either foot forward ('sorta' because I'm still working on getting my rearmost foot in on the stopping action, particularly with my left foot forward). I can skate backwards some, and I've just started working on backwards crossovers which are firmly at the level of "hey watch that guy, he's likely to fall over / run into you". My puck handling skills are non-existent... I can mostly go down the ice, but crossovers with the puck result in leaving the puck behind about 95% of the time. I'm doing the new session of the local rink's learn to play program again with my son... First one of those was last night. I've also started doing an adult hockey skills class in Pittsburgh at the RMU Island Sports Complex. I'm also dragging along a new buddy... Guy I met through our church and knew casually for a few years and who's daughter is a year younger than my son. She had some switch turned inside and she _wants to play hockey_. In the past year has gone from "can't stand up" to "is one of the better players on her Mite team". Anyway, I browbeat her dad into doing both the local learn to play and the adult skills class with me and with one class in for both... Huge fun. So.... That's it for now. There's a local group of older guys (it blows me away that "senior" in hockey means like 18+... :-) that plays every week... I'm going to try and get in with them when they start their spring session. And I'm going to try to put together an adult hockey skills class locally. My goal is that this spring I want to be playing real hockey with a team once a week. We'll see how that goes. In addition to not being able to skate or handle the puck well, I have only a very tenuous understanding of the rules. :-) Still, I can learn. As a mid-life crisis, so far this has been pretty fun. Mark

Howdy, First post here, but I've been browsing and reading etc. for a bit now. I'm 46 years old, with a just about to be 9 year old son. A year or two back, a buddy of his invited him up to watch him do a Learn to Play practice near our house at The Ice Zone in Boardman, OH (just south of Youngstown, OH, home of the USHL Phantoms). My son thought that looked fun, asked me if he could do it, and I said "sure, why not?" I'm not entirely sure I'd have given the same answer had I spent a little time researching costs. :-) But anyway we go hit up a few Play it Again stores, get him some gear, and he does a Learn to Play. He likes it well enough (not consumed by it, but goes and tries to do well, etc.). I get a pair of skates and a stick too. First time I'd been on ice skates since I was around his age back where I grew up in Maine, playing 'hockey' with my friends on ponds with whatever equipment we could scrounge up. Turns out... I like it. I'm awful, mind you... I start off being able to move around the ice and mostly not fall, can sorta do crossovers turning left, can do a hockey stop turning left, but that's pretty much the extent of any skill I have. Muscle memory from when I was 35 years younger only goes so far and its not like I could skate then either. I keep gathering some equipment and keep going skating. Skates in particular were / are an issue as I really don't want to pay $300 for a pair of skates, plus even though the skates feel decent in the store, when I skate with them my feet hurt like hell (arches / underside of the middle of my foot). With my first pair it was bad enough that after about ten minutes the only thing I can think about is how much longer I have to keep doing this so that I can stop the pain. Those skates were Easton Stealth 7.5, D width. Still I soldier on with it for a while. I decide that I like doing this enough and that its good for me (the whole "being 46, need to have something active to do" thing), and that I'll get some skates that don't hurt my feet. That pair is a set of CCM Tack 2052's Size 8, D width. They feel great in the store. I get home, go skate in them, and in 15 minutes... Tons of pain. Life is not great, I've just spent another $130 and my feet are still killing me. Read a lot, play with lacing, play with insoles, play with a heat gun, etc. etc. I keep skating, and it gets better, but never what I would call "good". I'm still getting more and more equipment as well. My son meanwhile is also getting a little more comfortable. He's no phenom... Hell, he's not really even any good. But he goes from that initial Learn to Play program where he can't stand up on the ice in the first class through a couple rink-run learn to skate programs, a couple private skating lessons, then back into the rink's version of the learn to play program. Meanwhile I'm sorta jealous... I want to do that learn to play program too! :-) At one of the learn to play programs last year, turns out there's another dad and he's actually out there with his son. I was already considering going out there too and that's enough of a push. I sign up. My 100% overriding concern for my first class was whether or not I'd fall over, crush a 6 year old, and have every parent there kick my ass. That doesn't happen. :-) Its fun. The other dad signed up for the new session too, and we make jokes about being ancient and all, but its good times. Kids don't seem bothered by having big people out there, my son is doing it with me and its a chance for him and I to be "teammates" rather than "father and son", etc. Meanwhile I'm skating when I can as well. to be continued... Mark