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BenBreeg

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Posts posted by BenBreeg

  3. Posted · Report reply

    I know it has been said before but maybe you need to get out of beer league.  I play pickup a few times a week and they are good skates where people work hard and hustle but nobody is trying to win the Cup.  Me and a buddy signed up for an adult skills class.  I have neen playing since I was a kid but took some time off and while most of the guys there are beginners, it is still fun because when do you get to go and do 1 1/2 hours of drills with other players?  And to top it off, I didnt know it when I signed up, it is run by probably the best skating coach in the area.

    What about splurging for some private lessons with a local goalie coach or organizing a weekly invite-only pick-up game?

    For me at this point I realize that at 45 I cant go like the 20 year olds but I am still I good physical shape and can move ok.  I want to take advantage of that so that I don't think at 55 or 60, “I wish I hadn’t wasted the past 15 years sitting on the couch.”

    Just another thought for you. Having blowups on the ice isnt healthy but it is probably more the circumstances than the sport.

  6. Posted · Report reply

    One thing is confidence.  The chatter is likely from not really putting weight on that edge.  At 200 lbs (or pretty much any weight), the blade won’t chatter if you actually have weight on it.  Another is make sure that leg isn’t out too far in front of you, it leads to the same problem as my first point.  A lot of times I see younger kids really just doing an inside edge stop and the other leg, while in the right position, is kind of just along for the ride and chatters along the ice.  Lastly, driving through the ball of your foot more may help.

    • Thanks 1

  7. Posted · Report reply

    It is not always as clear cut as some accountant standing over your shoulder counting pennies and preventing you from innovating.  Product development lives in a world of constraints, that is what the challenge of innovation is.  The business case justifies COGS, selling price, anticipated sales volume, time to break even, and profit margins.  It is different for different industries and different companies.  It would be pretty easy if for any product you could just do whatever you want but there are usually diminishing returns as you push the envelope.  If I could sell a car that got 35 MPG for a certain price but I was positive that with another year of engineering effort I could get that to 38 MPG but it would drive the cost up 5%, would that be worth it?  Dunno, it is not black and white.

    So you always have to try to understand best what the market is like, are there holes, what people are willing to pay for performance (or whatever else they value), what are your selling channels, and how to communicate that value to make sure they feel that the selling price is worth it to them.

    Didn't want to get off on too much of a tangent but thought it was relevant.  Just for me, I have enough options out there that would serve my needs that I am not looking for niche sticks, and I imagine most are in the same boat (this board aside, since most hear are more plugged in gear-wise).

  8. Posted · Report reply

    I do product development for a living, work with local incubators, and am president of the local product management chapter that puts on discussion forums around innovation.  It is what I do as a career.  One thing it always comes down to- what problem are you solving that isnt being addressed in the market already?  Leading with claims about technology doesn’t do that.  I can alrady buy pro stock sticks that outshoot me for less than $150 and if we’re honest with ourselves the vast majority of players would probably see no change in their game using sticks several steps down from the top price point.  In the long run, you may attract initial attention with marketing talk, but to sustain business you need to deliver something thto market needs.  Good marketing is necessary to support a good product, but it can’t sustainably sell something that doesn’t deliver.

    So what’s the value proposition over other options?

    • Like 1

  9. Posted · Report reply

    I just bought STX elbows and i love them, i had to order a couple sizes and send the ones that didn’t fit back.  Things fit differently and different designs may feel different.  It really helps to try them on whichever route you go.  Some places online charge restocking fees so ordering a bunch of stuff with the intent of returning can cost extra (just happened to me almost).

  11. Posted · Report reply

    So we have been skating a bit and went to a “pre-tryout” clinic, two days of one hour practices basically at the rink close to us.  The guy who runs it is so good with little kids and really focuses on skating.  My son is now constantly playing in the driveway. Baseball starts thjs week so we will be transitioning to that a bit more.

    But the main point of this post was we ran into a kid fron his ADM team at this clinic.  This kid is 6 and is very good.  But whenever we go somewhere, he is there.  Sticktime, he is there.  Clinic, etc.  He plays in two different ADM orgs, goes to these special skill sessions, works private lessons with Tyler Kennedy, and I am sure other things.  At the beginning of our season he was all smiles, by the end, not so much.

    But what killed me was the conversation between his dad and another parent about how many things they sign their kids up for.  One asked, “what do you do when “Bobby” doesn’t want to go to hockey?”  “Well, the one night he was crying because he was so tired and had two practices so I told him to just go to practice and kind of take it easy...”

    This guy is nice but holy *$&#!  He is pushing him and I have even mentioned in general a bunch of times to him about not overdoing it.  I was just talking in generalities and not about his kid but he just smiles and doesnt get it.

    50/50 chance the kid quits by the time he is 10?  If he is allowed to quit...

    • Like 1

  12. Posted · Report reply

    1 hour ago, Steve_v3 said:

    I just found out that there’s a chance I might have a recurrence of my liver disease PSC 

    Well I’m going to have to go in for a procedure. A PTC (Percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography) which basically means I’m going to have a tube(s) to drain my liver for 2-6 months. Last time I had to go through this was before my second transplant. 

    It’s not a guarantee that it’s a recurrence of the PSC but because of my history the doctors think it’s more likely that not it’s back.

    I’ve felt extremely fortunate to have received two transplants & to get a second and third chance at life. But right now the thought of going through all this again seems so difficult. Especially the drains put in my liver. The last time it was extremely painful. I ended up being put on fentanyl patches. That was a nightmare in it’s own right. 

    Hoping that I don’t have to have another transplant, but if I do I’ll be one of the only hockey players that have had 3 transplants. 

     

    Wish me luck

     

    I can’t imagine what it is like to go through something like this but I’m pulling for you as I’m sure everyone around here is.

    John

    • Like 1

  13. Posted · Report reply

    It is certainly feasible that a helmet could change the dynamics of how an external force is transferred to the head and thus how the skull interacts with the brain, it seems those differences might be more a mathematical exercise and have little overall effect. 

    I have worked in medical device product development for almost 20 years.  Even there clinical trial results can be so borderline that many intelligent people can draw different conclusions.  And by intelligent people I don’t mean the media.

  14. Posted · Report reply

    3 hours ago, privateer454 said:

    Thank you. Yes, I was worried about the fit, but was going to take a chance if the details made it too good to pass up. Well, I guess they were for someone, as they sold this morning. 

    On a related note, any ideas as to why a large number of the pro stock Bauer 1S and 2S skates seem to do away with the retail adjustable tendon guard?

    Doesn’t using traditional eyelets change the tendon guard as well?  Not sure if pro skates are held to that but without looking I think that is the case on the order form.

  15. Posted · Report reply

    Two more weeks at this point.  It would probably be much better if you could do this multiple times a week but it is what it is.  It generally takes about 20 minutes to get used to it each time I go out there.  While the right (problem side) still kind of collapses onto the outside edge as opposed to a smooth transition I can feel on the left, there are other things you figure out as you do this.  It helps you become aware of what everything but your feet/ankles are doing as you skate.  Where is your head vertically relative to your feet as you put weight on each skate?  For my, pretty sure I was more over my left skate than my right, just from years of favoring the left side as well as more counter clock-wise skating.  I think my weight is different forward to back when turning left than right.  I imagine my hips are different, etc.  So one thing is you become aware of these things, but it is something I think is going to take a long time to address.

    It is harder to get a deep knee bend on my right foot, the weight still wants to move toward the front of my skate.

    Another is that while I don’t have the soreness I had the first skate, there are definitely different stresses being put on the body (lower leg/ankles of course, but also the knees and hips).  So it would be something to monitor less you end up causing more problems by overdoing it (probably especially true for those of us over 40).  I tempered this by doing drill-type skating interspersed with just easy laps where I tried to just spend more time with the weight on my right skate or do one-foot glides.

    Lastly, it still feels like there is benefit even at this early stage when you lace up regularly, so that is a good spot check.

  16. Posted · Report reply

    I read through it as well, most of those guys seem to know the models so they aren’t called out explicitly.  Struggling to find gloves to replace my Eagle X70s.  I like the Alphas but not the retail cuff, too restrictive.  The ones you custom order seem to have a different cuff so that may be an option or the CCM HG97 ssem to be a traditional glove with a flexible cuff.  Or the HG96, but hard to tell if the difference between the two is justa slightly different cuff.

  17. Posted · Report reply

    6 minutes ago, IPv6Freely said:

    What I personally wouldn’t do is try to do the math to figure out the break-even. Maybe if money was the #1 reason why I wanted a Sparx, but honestly that was so far down the list of reasons that it was kind of irrelevant. 

    I also feel like my time is worth something, not to mention the time wasted skating on a bad sharpening. 

    The convenience is worth far more than any kind of perceived or real monetary savings, to me at least. 

    This is my motivation.  Between getting stuck the last two weeks not being able to get to the shop to get my skates done and getting there and finding out it is closed at 6 on a Saturday, I'm sold on the convenience aspect.

  18. Posted · Report reply

    It depends on the type of activity.  In a lot of cases the better players are going to dominate and the "C" players really won't be participating.  This can be frustrating for them and really doesn't help them develop.  You want to create scenarios where kids can have success.

    • Like 1

  21. Posted · Report reply

    I have been set on buying Alphas since I really love how flexible they are in the hand and the roomier 4 roll fit.  But I tried them on again yesterday and noticed the cuff was more restricting than I thought.  My Eagle X70 gloves are open on the ulnar side and I can bend my wrist pretty much in full range of motion the Alphas as are stitched together there.  Coverts solve this with the floating type cuff but not sure I want the tight fit plus I don't love non-4 roll look that much.

    Can I snip some of the stitching to open this up without it starting to fray?

  24. Posted · Report reply

    Others may chime in about specifics but higher end gloves definitely will have better protection.  Once you get into the middle tier gloves seems like there are more color combos to choose from (those Warrior Alpha Pros at Pure have like 15 cool colors).  Lots of pro stocks available in the $110 range so you have even more color combos if that matters to you.

    • Like 1
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