How much is too much hockey?

[jimmy 194]

Once yo get a real job, it's hard to get much ice and still do all of the other things that you have to do. I ref and get a lot of extra ice time that way and it helps pay for my addiction.

I work 80 hrs a week but play 4 times. I play twice a week at 6:15-7:15 AM. Most folks with jobs could do a morning skate. Very invigorating as well. Get out of bed and get to the rink you lazy bastards. :D

[sherwood21 0]

Wow. Some of you must be public skate guards to get that sort of ice access time?

I'm an attorney and I just don't have the time to get to the rink more than once a week.

5-6 times a week, with an  extra 3 hours of skating before games? Damn. The question is: what *else* do you do besides being on the ice?

I'm still a kid so all I need to do is go to school, do my work, and play sports, + my extra-curricular's. As I said before my team has practice's every day and then we have game day skates, generally 2-3-4 hours before a game. Luckily we have our own rink so it's really our prerogative as to when we go on.

[Nelly 0]

My question is: How do you guys find the time or money to play that much???

I work full time, and have a wife that needs some of my time (LOL) and its hard to get out on the ice every day or every other day for that matter. I try to get on my ice skates 2-3 times a week, and my inlines 3-4 times a week.

First off, ice time is not cheap here. 7 bucks for stick and puck, and open hockey in the middle of a week day, and league play can cost upwards of 250.00 for 10 or so games.  That all adds up if you go as much as I would like too. Lucky for me, I have at least a park with a nice cement rink, if I cant make it to the ice. 

The money thing is really not a big deal (but I wish it was cheaper), but I wonder how some of the younger players that may not be working full time afford it?

My facility is at least a good 30 minutes away as well.  Not fun to drive after a 10 hr day of work.

Maybe Im at that age (32) that it is hard to get the time to go out and skate. Im sure some of you guys that get to skate on the ice every day are still in school, young,  etc.

I dont want to hear "if you want to skate you will find the time". I work a good 45-50 hrs a week, not including my other business time used to buy and sell property, work on the house, keeping up with house chores (cleaning, painting or whatever), and spend time with my wife.

Maybe I should buy a house next door to the rink...LOL

Exactly what I was thinking.. And to go along with this, how do you guys find all this available ice to play more than once a day per week?!

Most of us that are on the ice upwards of 5/6 times a week are kids/students of some sort. We usually have A LOT of extra time available in the day and can get on the ice when the ice is unoccupied during the late morning, early afternoon hours.

Speaking for myself, I took a HUGE pay cut to take a different job that gives me the flexability that I need to get on the ice as much as possible and when needed. That is do-able when you only have a car payment to make and pay for hockey.

Also, it didn't take more than a couple weeks of paying for ice time everyday to realize that I could save a lot of money by getting on the payrole of the local arena. Now I don't really work there in the sense that I am not on the schedule, but thats fine for me (free ice, sharpen my own skates, and get a discount on gear...HECK YEAH!!!)

It just depends on your priorities. Right now, mine is to play hockey and reach the highest level that I possibly can wherever I can, NOT start my career.

Just a side note...MOST of the kids that are on the ice alot, probably have mommy and daddy pay for it; the rest of us are forced to get jobs to finance our situation and come up with other ways to get what we want. :P