badger_14

I bet they would. A lot of outfits around here that run camps also have private lessons with their instructors. Even if not under the name of the company, I think plenty of coaches would like the extra income! Many of the group clinics I've been to were very mixed level - but there might only be 4 of us, and we'd rotate through each drill, and the coach would just modify it as needed for our ability level. Goalie A might use the drill as an opportunity to work more on basic crease awareness, while goalie B might be working on advanced movements. If the coaches have decided to cap a group at, say, 5 goalies, a beginner isn't taking away an advanced player's time, because each goalie's time is built into the camp, n'est-ca pas? And if there are fewer than the cap (only 3 of us poor padded bastards sign up), woohoo, extra ice and attention for everyone! Depending on how popular hockey is in your area, I think it'd be worth it to take a chance on asking if any of the lower-level or children's camps might be willing to accept an adult, if there was space (obviously, you are willing to pay). (some powerskating camps and clinics will take older skaters into a younger age group if that's where they're at). If they say 'no', they can probably direct you toward another avenue - "oh, we also do private/semi-private lessons" or "oh, coach [x] runs a beginner clinic across town". It's worth a shot. Honestly, $99 is about what a single, hour-long private lesson would go for where I live (outside Boston), so you might as well find a semi-private or private lesson at that price. Dunno what the going rate is for an hour of goalie torment where you're at.

Three cheers for gainful employment!

Excuse you I am an excellent driver. I am alert, observant, and cautious. I am so cautious that I actually drive the speed limit. In Boston. (seriously, in all my time driving I have never so much as even aggressively caressed a traffic cone.)

First fender-(non)-bender of my life yesterday, and it just had to be in the ambulance, too. Clipped mirrors with a guy (traveling parallel - he wasn't properly in his lane) - no damage, no one was injured, but there was the whole information exchange and then I had to go back to the main garage and fill out an accident report and got a written warning for first offence and I feel terrible about it. My supervisor insists that it's not that bad and nothing really happened. Not that I like driving anyway, but I'm pretty glad I have week until the next time in the truck. Ugh. I also learned some new ways in which my mother is basically a crazy person who hates me, and yesterday also included a somewhat non-cooperative psych transfer and a stair chair call. So this is not my week thus far.

That's not fair. I mean, being bitched out. Like knock it off, guys, quit acting like your gear doesn't stink. :( (imho, it's also just plain not safe to have A and D/novice players mixed together. What was their logic? Not enough people for separate ice?)

Good god that was the warmest arena I've ever played in. Gross. I soaked through my headband AND my sweatband. The ice was fine, but somehow the air was just hideously warm for playing hockey. Folks on the benches were taking their undershirts off. My friend (who has never seen a live hockey game) came to watch us play, and commented that "You were moving kind of stiffly, I thought you were hurt." Well thanks buddy. On the other hand, he enjoyed the game immensely and said it must be hard work to track the puck constantly. Counterpoint to that, one of our best players complimented me later for reading the play "perfectly" when he and one of our other best players had a two on 0 (oops, defence) and absolutely stoned them. So good for me.

There's a boatload of leagues around Boston. The league I play in has many, many long-running teams (the league's been around since 1978), but there's also a free-agent day before the season starts where coaches can pick up new players, and anybody not picked is assigned to a team based on his or her rated skill level. And, of course, the GLBT community is fairly small so word travels quickly about the league and who's looking for new players.

It's rare. It happened that I had thought we were on at 8pm, and the kids' practice before us ended at 7:50 and they made the ice, and since I was dressed by then I figured I might as well hop on. A few of the other guys were early as well. Since we typically skate in the morning, sometimes if we get there early we also get extra ice. Typically I am dependent on my teammate for a ride, though, and I can't make him wake up any earlier.

Softball season has arrived! Time for socializing, playing in the dirt, and hopefully winning a game or two.

Thursday was a good time. I got there early and spent the extra free ice practicing moving, squaring up, angling, butterfly slides where I get my vertical leg against the post (this did not end well but it was a good try). I thought I played pretty well - 7 or 8 goals over two hours. Very mobile, feeling quick, although my ability to stretch had to save me a few times. Not a whole lot of defence, but they did their best. Other side was somehow stacked with all the offense... better talk to the guy in charge of our pickup about that ;) (that would also be the guy who gives me a ride). After the game, for whatever reason, our teammate Saint Nik (vs another teammate, Naughty Nick) trotted out onto the ice in his underwear, like a sort of poor man's proto-sauna. This is why the latest missive has a photo of Saint Nik rubbing snow on himself and the notation: "Some people were driven to sadness after the game. But don't be sad! We will play again next week." I have great teammates. No hockey today, but we found another rink to skate at the next couple of Saturdays while we scout around for somewhere mid-week for the summer.

Oh, there are open rinks within decent driving distance (25-30 minutes), for sure, but we're trying to keep it fairly close to the city because so many of the guys live in Camberville (Cambridge/Somerville) or in Boston or Brookline (all neighboring towns) and it's not fair to make a bunch of mostly-grad students drive all over hell and gone and on top of that, pay significantly more per game. Some of the rinks are as much as $300+ per 50 minute hour. (vs. the $160/hour + extra time because the rink manager likes us) Couple of guys are trying to use their connections (such as they are) to get time at the Harvard rink, at least temporarily. Hoping everything will work out - I would miss my teammates as much as the ice time. I mean, I can play anywhere, I suppose, but they're my favorites, so. Bunnyman - almost every company I've ever worked for has felt entitled to my "leisure time", or rather, assumed that any time that I am not currently working for them means I am available for work. (oddly, the ambulance company I work for has been the most flexible about scheduling.) It's obnoxious. psulion - I hope this works out for you, that captain sounds like a piece of work. Hopefully he doesn't ruin an otherwise good time.

So the usual rink is closing entirely for - a month or two? And so my Saturday guys are hunting around for a place to play (somewhat limited - most of the rinks closer to the city close for May/June/often July, except for the one or two private rinks that will charge your first born) and a day midweek (since most people apparently don't want to spend summer weekends in an ice rink - who knew?). Thursday was suggested, and I said if they did Thursday I wouldn't be able to skate for them, but I said they could probably find another goalie. He says: "We would rather have you." Which is so nice. It makes me feel like it's worth it to play for three hours while sick and subsequently land myself in the urgent care for a nebulizer treatment. My teammate says "reliable and enthusiastic goalie", perhaps more accurately "stubborn and not good at objective decision-making". (in all seriousness though it's really nice to know that, of their selection of possible, and more experienced, replacement goalies, they would prefer to have me.) I think this past Saturday went fairly well, and since the rink is closed as of Friday, we're playing Thursday night. (ordinarily, I work, but I swapped out with a co-worker who needed a shift covered next week). Hopefully the guys find a night that works out, otherwise I will be a sad goalie for three months.

No offense taken at all. I appreciate the concern, and it has been a frustrating Fall/Winter. I was having trouble with my asthma as far back as last August, and I've had a cold on roughly a monthly basis since October, so it's starting to worry me. My bloodwork has all been good though. Does make it harder to play hockey, for sure.

I'm not sick all the time. But it's my first winter working on an ambulance and I think I've just been picking up a lot of crap in spite of my best efforts.

On the one hand, I think I let in like 20 goals. On the other, we played for three hours and I have a bad virus and kept hazing out when I stood up. So it evens out.

Sadly, I am not in charge of naming our facilities. That's probably a good thing, because they'd end up with signage like "Relaxing Toasty Room: Not Your Personal Underwear Warmer" and "Why Are You In Here? It's The Steam of Old Unwashed Men" and "Fire Exit: Do Not Use Unless You Are On Fire".

I have an assortment of Finnish relatives, I am familiar with how a typical sauna works. ;) To clarify however, our sauna is specifically a dry sauna. (We also have a steam room). It is not meant to have water poured on it, and does short out.

I can't wait for this week to end. I have a cold, got peed on by my patient, spent a 20 minute ride being petted by another (alzheimer's) patient, some creepy guy mistook me for a high schooler and tried to lure me into his car, and yesterday someone poured water on the sauna heating element AGAIN. The weekend and hockey cannot come soon enough.

Yes and no - often, the younger age cohort (18 - 25, those home from college and/or newly spat from U-19 or high school teams) tends to get fed up and decide the best defense is a good offense. When I play with guys older than me (we're talking 60s ok) like the Raytheon guys, they mistake me for being a teenager and take pity on me. So, score one for looking a dozen years younger than my actual age? Most times it's a mix. My Russians play so much defense I hardly know what to do with myself sometimes. They kept apologizing today for not stopping this one guy who is really, really good (and clearly dialing it back a few notches - his dad skates with us, so he's not trying to sandbag or anything). One of them asked me, "Has anyone other than that guy scored on you today?" Well, yes, but it does seem that way sometimes... (I did stone him a few times, but the kid can basically pick a spot and go for it and I'm only so fast.)

Last night at gym-work, some fool poured water on the (electric) heating element in the men's sauna. So we were out both men's steam room (planned closure for re-tiling) and sauna. At least we got it fixed by this afternoon.

I've had the opposite experience at several pickups - if the skaters/defense don't think I'm working hard enough, they'll give up trying to defend me like I'm not worth the effort if they think I'll just end up letting the goal in anyway. It depends on the make-up of the group, though.

You guys in California are so fancy with your adult leagues. Some days, we're lucky if there are even working water fountains! But seriously BD, that's wicked nifty. Congratulations.

A few surprises: one, we got to play on the big rink today (the two rinks are side by side, and the smaller has been converted now to turf for the summer) - and got extra time as well, so couple of hours instead of just one. Didn't feel too badly by the end, surprisingly. Was getting a bit slower in reaction time. Adjusted well to the angles and tracking the puck. I had bought a second pair of "backup" glasses (now primary) and paid extra for super-thin fancy polycarbonate lenses and feel much less "lopsided" off the ice, and it's been easier to adjust to being without them now that the prescription is accurate and I don't have a coke bottle on one eye. Anyway - there was the big rink, and I tried out my new jersey and was not struck down by the hockey gods for hubris. I also found after last Saturday night a nick on the landing gear (inside fabric, not the outer leather) of my right pad, which is perplexing, because I wouldn't have stepped on my own pads, and the angle is wrong for anyone stepping on them on ice, but it looks as if they were sliced by a skate. Maybe someone stepped on them while I was dressing? It doesn't affect the play at all, and the rigid internal material is fine, but I should probably sew it back up. I had to get my skates sharpened on Tuesday, after going to stick-and-puck and realizing oh man, these are absolutely shot after Saturday night. Could not for the life of me recall what hollow it was - the sharpener looked at it and said usually goalies get 5/8", but said that these looked like they'd been done at 3/4". I went with 3/4" and it worked just fine today. I think I'm just still heavy enough that a shallower hollow isn't a problem. All in all a pretty solid game - I had a shutout going for like 45 minutes, while my poor colleague across the ice got smoked, but it evened out after the first hour. I felt comfortable and moved well. Butterfly slides are slowly improving and becoming a reasonable part of the repertoire.

No one made it clear that the tryout was a joint tryout for both the A/B and C/D tournament teams - where the coaches observe and then assign people based on skill level. This meant the goalies (all five of us) were pelted by mostly B-level players for an hour at high-speed drills. Even the more experienced (B-level) goalies were like: "F this." I think I held myself reasonably well, all things considered. The ice was absolute crap (the skating lesson people had left the rink windows open for the two hours preceeding the tryout, and it was roughly 60 yesterday), I stepped on (and slid on) pucks twice, caught a rut and fell in the middle of trying to stop a puck (still stopped the puck), someone fired a shot that seriously bruised my thumb... After about 15 minutes of being shelled the goalies collectively decided it was more a war between us and the players than any of us competing against each other. The skaters' drills were actually much harder than the scrimmage itself, because you got no chance to get set, it was just boom-boom-boom right after the other. There was a breakaway drill where we had to swap out every three shots without pause. Scrimmage was much better - my Saturday group is mixed level and this was a higher pace for the most part, but I've also played against B/C players and mainly they are not clever just fancy with the dangles.

Didn't feel too great this morning and the both of us (goalies) got shelled again. Also, the Screaming Man managed to sign himself up again! He was on his best behavior, and skating out, but I was not (and several of my teammates were not) happy with this. I don't care if he's on my side for the day or not. Made some good saves, though. One I caught between my knees and sort of sat back and went into tetris mode to protect it, and the other guy kept jabbing at me, and I jabbed back at him, and Misha had to pry him off me. And they were playing on the same side! Things got wicked intense the last 10 minutes or so - the pace quickened considerably. I did make the last stop of the game right at the horn, though. In a half-hour, I return to the rink for tournament team tryouts. For two hours. Because, of course, the best plan of action for a Saturday is to play and practice hockey for three hours. (Next week is Spring Break for the school down the street, and the rink is having extra stick time hours, and I can make 3 of 5 if I so choose.)