My opinion of roller hockey...

[JR Boucicaut 3789]

Answer me this: Is playing on a frozen lake "real" hockey?

[roller to ice 0]

i dont think roller is not real hockey just a substitute both are incredibly challenging and belong in the category of hockey (which we can all agree is gods greatest game) but ice is the original and by far the best roller isnt boring or worse just different and a great tool for serious ice players and just like nightcast this is coming from the angle that i just joined my first ice league at 18 and i have played in a roller or floor hockey league since i was 7 ice i most deffinetley better and thousands of time more fun but i will continue to play roller to help my ice game until i die simply b/c of cost and convenince (spelling)

[sdcopp 1]

I've played roller hockey, never in a league, but I used to play in a park like twice a week with a bunch of guys. I would play roller as a kid all the time.

The reason roller hockey is not real hockey because:

1) People grow up watching the NHL and strive to be an NHL player. An Ice hockey player.

2) Ice Hockey came first out of canada. Roller hockey was created as a substitute for ice in warm weather climates. I grew up in NYC and even though it can get cold in the winter, and I have managed to make ice a few times in my parents backyard it's not as consistant as it is further up north. If I had a frozen lake every winter, I would never play roller hockey.

Roller can be good to promote hockey in Florida and down south, like the NHL did in the mid 90's and in my opinion should continue to promote roller now. Playing any type of hockey makes you a fan BUT... It's not real hockey.

That's a pretty narrow minded reasoning. You've "played roller hockey" but only in a park with some buddies. Sounds like concrete pond hockey. Ice is older and more established, and has the money. That's why these guys strive for the NHL, it's a larger stage and more money whereas roller has a ceiling to the level of play becasue of lack of these two things. Several NHL players started with inline, and later moved over because of the established base ice has:

Brad Boyes

Noah Clarke

Robbie Earl

Ryan Hollweg

Chad Larose

Paul Statsny

Mike Van Ryn

Justin Williams

http://www.maddogshockey.com/ice_hockey_talks.html

but I will concede that other than the very top echelon of roller, there's generally a lack of high caliber players as compared to ice, due to smaller player base and the constant infighting amongst the governing bodies.

By your definition though field hockey is the only "real" hockey since it came first and predates Canadian ice hockey by about 4000 years with roots in Rome and Egypt.

I'm starting to play ice again after only doing roller since high school. They're different, but each helps the other. I would never knock one or the other, at the end of the day it's putting a puck in a net with skates on your feet.

[JR Boucicaut 3789]

Thanks sdcopp - same point I was going to make but I wanted to see how he was going to answer that.

[mrusse01 0]

I don't really know how great of a training aid roller hockey would be for ice....to me at least, it's so different with the different puck and feel that it kind of messes up my ice game a little bit. And it is a much slower surface than ice.

I guess it's better than sitting on your ass, and the skating motion uses the same muscles more or less, but if I were serious about ice hockey I'd probably opt for more traditional dry land training and that sort of thing to prep myself for the ice season.

[JR Boucicaut 3789]

Works for Hejduk and Hemsky.

[eric42434224 1]

Listen....Green Granny Smith Apples arent REAL apples. They came AFTER the Red Delicious Apples. Hell...they arent even RED!!!!! Everyone knows that REAL apples are RED. And green apples arent even sweet! Seriously....an apple that is sour? Cmon. Green apples are just a poor substitute for the people who cant have red apples. Maybe some day Green apple eaters can become good Red Apple eaters, but it still doesnt make green apples REAL apples.

Doesnt that sound stupid?

Red Apples and Green Apples are both apples and a fruit. They both taste good, but different.

Ice and inline are both Hockey and a sport. They are both fun and exciting, but different.

Personal preference and very subjective. One is not inherently better than the other.

I personally prefer Ice.

Case closed.

[Makoto 3]

To each their own. I hear similar arguments between skiiers and snowboarders. As I am not going to be a professional athlete, I do activities and sports for fitness, competition, friendship and most of all to have fun. Therefore, I snowboard and ski. I play roller and ice. I hike and mountain bike. I play golf and disc golf. The list goes on and on.

I do agree that if you are young and aspire to be a professional hockey player, ice is the canvas that you should focus your energy on. However, growing up in So Cal, I resorted to roller and it hooked me on the game of hockey that otherwise was out of economic reach for me. So to bash roller, when it can introduce non-native hockey markets to the sport is close minded. But if that's your gig, more power to you. I personally want to see the market for hockey grow, so I'll play it any way I can get it.

[-venom- 0]

Real hockey=Ice hockey

roller hockey is to ice hockey what slamball is to the NBA.

The difference between Ice and roller hockey is like the difference between football and arena football. One is real and the other is boring.

Some things will never change. Notice, Roller Hockey guys almost *never* talk down on Ice Hockey, they respect it as it is, and most of the guys who play accordingly.

I'd love to get some of you narrow-minded imbeciles on the rink....

[JJ Thompson94 0]

Field hockey is practicly a different sport- it's a combo of soccer and hockey. I know almost nothing about field hockey but the differences are HUGE.

1) Grass field vs. Sheet of Ice

2) Skates vs. shoes or cleats

3)Penelty vs. Cards (like soccer)

4) 5 players vs. 11 players

Thats all I can think of at this moment, but no on ever says i'm going to play some field hockey to practice for my ice hockey game. Really the stick and the ball are the only thing that make field hockey not soccer.

You should really look into a sport called Bandy. That is really the missing link between field hockey and ice hockey.

Evoulution wise, soccer - field hockey - bandy - ice hockey - roller hockey. The seperation between field hockey and ice hockey is so profound that it can't even be compared. They are practicaly different sports. A great field hockey player would not be be able to trasition to ice hockey. Apperently you can come from roller to ice.

Roller hockey is a direct result of ice hockey. I'm sure some of the rules are different, no doubt, but not as a different than the rules between field hockey, bandy or ice hockey. It's obvious roller hockey was created as a way of playing modern ice hockey when there is a lack of ice.

So in this case yes JR playing on a frozen pond is real hockey. Theres real football and then there is arena football. It's a way of playing football when there isn't a 100 yard field. Lets not even start on two hand touch.

I don't look down on roller hockey, I played it, but ice is the original way to play it. Maybe because Ice skates came before roller skates, but thats just the way it is. Like I said, Roller hockey brings people into hockey, which is fine by me, but no one that starts with ice uses roller as anything other than a way to play hockey in the summer.

[eric42434224 1]

Really missing the point there JJ.

Ice Hockey is hockey.

Roller Hockey is hockey

Neither is "REAL" hockey.

They are both different versions of the same game.

And your analogy with football illustrates what I am talking about.

Funny how you forget to mention where "real" football comes from. Using your logic, the football in the NFL isnt "real" football. It is itself an evolution from a different, previous, and more original version of football.

Roller Hockey IS hockey.....what it isnt is ICE hockey (obviously).

We could go on and on about this type of mentality using countless examples. Remember when slaves from Africa werent "real" people? I know it is an extreme example, but saying Roller Hockey isnt Hockey is simply a form of prejudice.

And to say pond hockey is real hockey, then by your logic, indoor ice hockey is not "real" hockey. And whats with all the pads and protective equipment....thats not "real" hockey. And on fake ice? LOL.....must be fake hockey. Differing versions and evolutions does not preclude it from being classified as the same sport.

I myself only play ice, but I think of roller as the sport of hockey. It doesnt have the history, nor my nostalgic memories, but the lack of neither of those diminish it.

[JJ Thompson94 0]

your classiflying roller hockey as another option of hockey, or as another option as a sport. Like when I have kids... Do I enroll them in baseball, field hockey, karate, basketball or "hockey". In this case I can say field hockey because it's so distant from ice or roller.

But, I still say hockey instead of specifying on which surface, because the game is so insanly similar that it's the same sport on different surfaces. When my kid plays hockey I don't care on which surface as he will probably do both. But it's still the same sport. However, because Ice came first and can be considered 1A it can also be classifyed as "real".

Just like football, my kid would play football, not long or short field football. It's the same game with a different surface.

"real" has many definitions and in this case I mean that it is "no less than what is stated, worthy of the name" such as "meat and potatos is a real meal"

Field hockey is to ice hockey as futbol (soccer) is to football

Football is to Arena football as ice hockey is to roller hockey

Arena football would never survive without NFL football and roller hockey would never survive without Ice hockey.

[eric42434224 1]

Completely irrelevant and meaningless (outside of your own mind) semantics.

But you are entitled to your own opinion.

[JR Boucicaut 3789]

Um, competitive roller hockey is played on a 185x85 rink. Using that same argument, 3x3 mite hockey and ANY games EVER played at Boston Garden, Buffalo Memorial Auditorium or Chicago Stadium isn't real hockey.

[fatwabbit 93]

Riddle me this Batman. Indoor soccer is not real 'soccer'... or is it football, fuzbal, futsal??? What about american football... or aussie rules football... or footie, footy?

C'mon JJ, just chill and play the game we all love... whether its ice or inline, its still hockey! What makes it real is that WE are playing it. otherwise its just fantasy hockey!

[LkptTiger 1]

Several NHL players started with inline, and later moved over because of the established base ice has:

Brad Boyes

Noah Clarke

Robbie Earl

Ryan Hollweg

Chad Larose

Paul Statsny

Mike Van Ryn

Justin Williams

I'm not getting into the debate (I'm sure I've probably voiced my opinion in other threads of a similar topic)...I just want to say that I refuse to acknowledge Ryan Hollweg as a legitimate NHL hockey player.

[shooter27 116]

Several NHL players started with inline, and later moved over because of the established base ice has:

Brad Boyes

Noah Clarke

Robbie Earl

Ryan Hollweg

Chad Larose

Paul Statsny

Mike Van Ryn

Justin Williams

I'm not getting into the debate (I'm sure I've probably voiced my opinion in other threads of a similar topic)...I just want to say that I refuse to acknowledge Ryan Hollweg as a legitimate NHL hockey player.

Here! Here!

Also, I'm pretty sure at least Stasny and Williams on that list did not start their careers playing inline, particularly Stasny because of his father, they may have spent significant time playing inline but didn't get started that way.

[mrusse01 0]

Several NHL players started with inline, and later moved over because of the established base ice has:

Brad Boyes

Noah Clarke

Robbie Earl

Ryan Hollweg

Chad Larose

Paul Statsny

Mike Van Ryn

Justin Williams

I'm not getting into the debate (I'm sure I've probably voiced my opinion in other threads of a similar topic)...I just want to say that I refuse to acknowledge Ryan Hollweg as a legitimate NHL hockey player.

haha...I was going to say something about that as well. How the hell could his hands be that bad if he played any inline?

[sdcopp 1]

in all fairness, he made it to the show and gets paid to play unlike most of us.

Stastny probably did grow up playing both, but more guys his age and younger are playing both through college and then coming on the pro scene and making a mark.

The big eye opener for me was watching how fast Bill and Lee Sweatt are up close. They played in the local house league this summer with a couple other CC teammates before NARCH and Team USA events started up. Inline doesn't have to be a slower game, in fact it should be faster because it's all about puck possession and not zone control but the training almost always consists of just playing to train instead of training to play.

[Sniper15 0]

The difference between Ice and roller hockey is like the difference between football and arena football. One is real and the other is boring.

This guy knows what is up.

[eric42434224 1]

In my opinion, the difference between Ice and roller hockey is like the difference between football and arena football. One is real and the other is boring.

This guy knows what his opinion is.

Fixed it for you. :)

[#44wannabe 4]

I think a lot of guys posting about how it is not 'real' hockey have either never played or tried late and sucked ass (much like myself) but rather than seeing it as a challenge as something new to learn they just dismiss it as a 'lesser' sport.

[Okeetee 0]

I've been a roller-only player since I was a little kid. But for the first time a few weeks ago, I decided to try my hand at ice. I must say, I don't know if I can ever go back to roller! Haha just kidding.

The movement of the puck (or the way it slides/glides) is so much different on ice than roller. Skating, obviously, is the hardest transition because a lot of the skating techniques I acquired on roller dont'/can't apply on ice. Little things like muscle memory that my body has gotten used to while playing roller are hindering my game on the ice. But seriously, playing ice is AMAZING!

The only negative I have is that it takes me about half of the first period of my roller hockey game to re-learn how to skate! I usually do ice in the morning and roller at night and my feet (come game-time for roller) are still used to skating on ice.

Two similar games, but different at the same time.

[phunky_monkey 6]

You'll get used to the transition. I used to play Ice and Roller on the same day and could switch back and forth without an issue. I don't even think about it. So hang in there and it will all feel natural in no time.

[Okeetee 0]

You'll get used to the transition. I used to play Ice and Roller on the same day and could switch back and forth without an issue. I don't even think about it. So hang in there and it will all feel natural in no time.

Thanks phunky.

I always wanted to be fluent in both ice and roller. Twice the fun! Haha.