BenBreeg

I think it depends on the drill and how much coaching you need to do for a given drill. Drills where it is done as a solo activity (not player vs. player) can certainly be mixed. But if you anticipate having to do a lot of teaching and interrupting the drill then that diminishes the effectiveness for the better players who are proficient and would benefit from more reps. Player vs. player needs to be split up to a certain extent, especially at young ages. As much as the "sink or swim" approach sounds good, it gets to the point where the less developed player just can't keep up, despite all the willpower and drive in the world, thus essentially not really even participating in the drill.

Do you coach? That may be a way to stay involved but step away from actively playing. Or it may be enough to rejuvenate you and not have to stop. Coaching ADM is a hoot and it really puts me in a good mood no matter what.

There was a time when Pure/Total hardly had anything in Cranberry, I remember my brother complaining about it, but it could have been during that transition period. They have good stock now. Several of the employees seem knowledgable but they definitely have a few kids working there that i wouldn’t trust helping me with skates, but that is usually true everywhere.

Equally likely to be a mental institution! 😄 Last week I had 4 out of 7 have to go to the bathroom during our game, mouthguard issues, the water bottle squirted so hard one kid was knocked off his feet when I gave him a drink, etc. Total fun!

Coached my first ADM practice last night after having spent years in high school and college club. I had occasionally been hit with a puck or took a spill before but nothing serious. I was manning the passing station and i was bent down trying to show this tiny kid something and he out of the blue lost his balance. Before i could react his stick comes up and hits me right above the eye. Hard. Didnt bleed at first so I try to play it off and go back to coaching him. The kid cant even focus on the puck now, all i see are these wide eyes through his cage staring at me. Now i am bleeding and trying to wipe it off and eventually we switched groups. Got the bleeding to stop and finished. But literally anouther 1/8” or 1/4” and it would have been my eye. Just a reminder to be careful!

I don't know that at the squirt level I would put meeting other parents and kids (not even sure how that would work) as a benefit to travelling. We meet lots of people through school and local baseball, hockey, scouting, etc. Different levels of the game? It is squirts, it isn't like when you compare western conf and eastern conf NHL styles or different types of hockey in different high-level leagues. I don't feel it is monotonous to play baseball which is basically in-house, seeing the same people occasionally. In youth sports people feel pressured into travel, tournament teams, year round participation, and as I said, it should be up to those people to show why it is beneficial, especially at younger ages. I know of no research that advocates for accelerating this and lots against it. I saw an 8 year old at the rink in the fitness place getting 1-1 private coaching, basically bodyweight plyos and stuff. Can't imagine what it costs and how it was any better than him running around playing. The oddity of seeing young kids at the rink showing up with ties on is another head-scratcher. To me it all goes into the same lack of perspective bucket.

I would probably flip it around and ask what benefit travelling has for the squirt level. Given the same ratio of practice to games, i can only see in-house as helping. Just my opinion though. We try not to go crazy with sports but when a winter sport like hockey starts the same week as fall soccer, it is hard to not have some months where you cant avoid a lot of chaos. Being anchored at a single rink would help and be attractive over travel, even if the travel is only within the area.

That sucks, due for a rewatch!

How can you know that?

Figured it out if you didn't get the code. There is a form when you first go on the web site which is what I filled out. That apparently isn't it. Then when you go to the equipment page another form pops up. That is the one you need to fill out to get the code, you are actually registering on the site. A little confusing because filling out the first form resulted in nothing, not even a confirmation e-mail that I had joined a mailing list or anything.

I didn't get a code and it isn't in my spam or trash.

Nice, I need new elbow pads and would like to get new shins as well and am looking for something lower profile. Looks like this is a really attractive option.

Thread is a bit old but I just got Quad 0 on new steel in order to prolong my Supreme 7000's life until I get new skates. I expected one of two things 1) I would fall and have trouble adjusting 2) I wouldn't notice much. Neither. As soon as I stepped on the ice I was solid. I love the longer radius on the back of the blades! And as soon as you take off you are on the shorter radius and good to go. I think my old ones were radiused too short, but I can't remember what they were. When I started to tire out the front of my shins would get fatigued. Also, it always took 20 mins or so before the bottom of my feet would stop hurting, this has gone on for years. I always thought this was boot related but it didn't happen the other day for the first time in 20 years. Maybe my feet were fighting against the contour/pitch of my last profile. Anyway, I wasn't expecting it to be this different and it was, in nothing by a positive way.

Weird game last night I thought. Somewhat sloppy/chaotic at times but pretty fun to watch from a pure entertainment standpoint. Of course Wilson has an incident, not sure what Perron was doing jumping on the ice when Ovi was coming by, and Reeves got lucky with the no crosscheck but the goal was pretty timely and getting that kind of production from the 4th line is icing on the icing.

I have pants and a girdle. When i bought thrm they were all i could find that offered tall sizes. That was about 12 years ago maybe. Their pants were definitely common and seen as good stuff when i was in high school...Which was significantly more than 12 years ago :)

I dont know, if that is the case i agree, he should do it. I still think it is goofy. But I am glad the Pens don’t put their heels together, pin their arms to their sides, and waddle down the ice when they score though ;)

Yep

Dunno, just irritates me. Probably the stupid arm flapping thing. Not hatred like I feel toward Wilson, just a healthy dislike :)

I expected Washington to win the game, but not like that. Also think it would be a great story if Flower beats the Caps. I actually like Ovi but can't stand Wilson and Kuznetsov.