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I’ve written at least a starter FAQ for “what to expect when you start hockey” and equipment, eventually I will compile some “how to” stuff and some fitness/workout stuff as well. Full disclaimer: there are a lot of opinions below, so proceed with caution. I also have very limited knowledge of roller hockey, so I haven't included anything on that thus far. Anyway, here we go. What to expect when you’re starting hockey! I’ve been ice skating like 4 times in my life, just what am I getting myself involved in here? From a technical/physical perspective, hockey is probably the hardest sport in the world. It takes all of the athletic skills required in basketball or soccer and then makes you do them on a few millimeters of steel perched on top of a big sheet of slippery ice. It is an incredibly difficult sport, and it stays that way as long as you play it. I’ve been playing for 25 years now and I still think it is hard as hell. Difficult as it is, it is also incredibly fun. Even at the lowest levels the sport is fast and challenging, hockey players usually tend to be fun and friendly group of people. It is an unbelievably good workout, it stays challenging forever, and you’ll never have more fun playing a team sport. It is also a pretty amazing community; I’ve moved more or less constantly throughout my adult life, and everywhere I’ve been I’ve played adult hockey. It is like an “instant friend” group: they’re guys you almost always have something in common with and who are cool to hang out with, which is a really nice thing to have when you move to a new place. Will I look like an idiot starting hockey as an adult? Yes. Hockey is hard. You’re going to fall down a lot, you’re going to be schooled by obnoxious 12 year old kids, you’re going to look hilariously awkward doing it, and you’re going to have a blast the whole time. Every rink everywhere has adult beginners, and I swear to god I rarely see adults enjoy anything as much as those guys. Just be prepared to be humbled by the sport, and don’t get all self conscious. Remember also if/when you start playing in a league that you’re probably not going to be trotting out there with a bunch of ex-NHLers, most big cities have many different tiers of adult hockey, so you’re going to be playing with other beginners. Hockey looks expensive, is it? Yes. The expense comes from two major areas: ice time and equipment. Unfortunately you can’t play without either. I live in Oklahoma City, and ice time is pretty cheap here. I skate in a beer league and in two weekly pickup games, and for this season (Sept- March) I spent around $800 total for my ice time. I think ice is fairly cheap here; in big cities without many ice surfaces it can get a lot more expensive, and unfortunately you can’t do much about it. Remember though how much FUN you’re getting for your money! Equipment expense you do have some control over, but if you’re like the rest of the world, hockey gear (especially sticks) will quickly become a money black hole. Don’t say you weren’t warned. When I watch hockey on TV it is super violent and they’re all huge, will I get crushed into the glass by a giant man and then have to drop the gloves and wind up in the hospital with no teeth? Beer leagues are generally not like this. Almost all adult hockey is no-check, and USA Hockey has a very strict no fighting policy, so the physical violence aspect of hockey really isn’t a big concern (plus most of the people are super cool and are all friends so that helps too). Unfortunately sometimes you do get a hardcore douche who wants to relive his years on the high school JV team and does so by hacking or bumping or something, but those guys are few and far between and usually don’t last long in beer leagues anyway. Adult hockey is really very safe, probably safer than golf or tennis and certainly safer than soccer in terms of injury rate. I’ve seen maybe two or three semi-serious injuries in a decade of playing in beer leagues (none due to some sort of violent act), and the sport is really not super-hard on your body either, especially at lower levels. Refereeing on the other hand tends to be really horrible in beer leagues, so just be ready for that. Those guys get like $8/hour to ref your stupid game and they really act like it. Great, I’m in. How do I start? First, use my excellent advice to find yourself a nice pair of skates (and maybe elbow pads, gloves, and a helmet if you’re afraid of bruising). Then, start skating! Practice, practice, practice…practice. Skating is hard, and it is so very important to enjoying hockey. Remember, hockey is hard. Public skating sessions are the best place to start; if you can get to them during the work week all the better. Strap on your elbow pads or gloves and maybe a helmet (don’t worry about the people watching you!) and work on your skating. Try it all: turns, stops, even that backwards skating thing. If you don’t try it, you’ll never learn it! You’re going to fall down, but that’s ok…I fall down all the time too. Try and get out at least once a week if not more. Remember, you’re getting exercise at the same time you’re having all this fun! At the same time you’re embarking on your skating practice, start looking around for beginner hockey clinics. Most often, these will be on a Saturday morning (or sometimes super-early on a weekday) for maybe 8-10 weeks, and they will be taught by some experienced players of some sort. Going to these is very important, having someone show you stuff firsthand is worth a zillion youtube videos (plus, you’re on the ice, which means skating practice!). For these clinics typically you’ll just need gloves and helmet, maybe shinguards and elbow pads. I’ve taught at clinics like this forever and they are incredibly helpful to new players, I cannot recommend them highly enough. Remember, hockey is hard. Third, try and make it out for “stick and puck” sessions if they’re offered. These are just the rink turning hockey players loose on the ice to do what they want, which for you, means practice! Find a spot on the ice and work on all those skills that you were taught. Try not to get run over. If you’ve never played before, plan on doing these things (public skating, stick and puck, and clinics) for at least a good 6 months before joining a competitive team. It is actually pretty difficult to really practice basic skills during a game (especially as a beginner), so having a good body of non-game practice underneath you before you start playing in games is pretty important to developing your skills. Equipment What equipment do you need for a beer league? Bare Necessities:
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# ¿ Mar 8, 2011 22:24 |
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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 11:51 |
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I’ve been talking about skates a lot so far, now let’s get into the weeds. First, a quick overview of the hockey skate. I did this in MSPaint can you tell Skate construction nowadays is amazingly complex. 50 years ago you just a leather boot with a steel tube riveted to it, but nowadays…yeesh. Nearly every skate made today is made of essentially the same components: bewbies fucked around with this message at 03:46 on Mar 9, 2011 |
# ¿ Mar 8, 2011 22:30 |
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Sticks are the other important thing. Hockey sticks rule and I love them all. I know nothing of hockey sticks, can we start from the beginning? Absolutely! This is an MSPaint diagram I did of a one piece composite hockey stick: This should be fairly self explanatory. Technically, there isn’t a hosel with a one piece (the hosel is the part of a blade that glues into the shaft), but we still use the term referring to the very bottom of the shaft for some reason. The other slightly confusing thing might be the taper; this is a relatively new thing where shafts taper a bit as they get closer to the blade. This affects their flex pattern and weight. Today, there are three main kinds of stick available: One piece composite As the name implies, this is a stick which is a single piece (shaft and blade are one) and made of composite materials, usually some combination of fiberglass and carbon fiber (and sometimes wood). These are the most expensive and popular sticks; their prices range from $50 to $220+. Two piece composite This means that the shaft and blade are two separate components, attached by hot glue. Note that there are two distinct flavors of two piece today: standard and “low kickpoint”/tapered. The two are NOT COMPATIBLE. Standard shafts use standard blades, tapered shafts use specific tapered blades. The difference is in how long the hosel is; tapered blades have a much lower hosel, which allows the shaft to do more tapering. They tend to be slightly cheaper than one piece sticks, though not by much. Wood These are sticks made of wood and wrapped in fiberglass. The most expensive wooden stick is cheaper than the cheapest composite, or at least close to it. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each type? One piece sticks usually have the best performance, but you have to pay for it. You’re stuck with a particular blade pattern (as the blade is attached, duh), and it really, really sucks when they break. On the plus side they are extremely durable; they lose very little of their flex properties over time and are very difficult for casual players to break. Two piece sticks allow you a bit of flexibility with your blade choice: you can swap out blades if you don’t like the pattern, or if the blade breaks or wears out. The tradeoff is that you have a slightly imprecise joint between stick and blade, and that diminishes the feel ever so slightly in most sticks, as well as changing the weight distribution a bit. That said, I think that there is next to no difference in a high quality two piece tapered stick and their one piece brothers. Wood sticks are cheap, and they work very, very well (in particular they feel fantastic). However, their flex patterns can be inconsistent which affects shooting, and they wear out fairly quickly as the wood warps and deforms. They also break more often. Holy poo poo there are a lot of numbers on these sticks, what do they mean? Age: bewbies fucked around with this message at 22:41 on Mar 8, 2011 |
# ¿ Mar 8, 2011 22:30 |
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Shooting Tutorial
I want to score goals. How does one do this? By shooting! I think shooting is the most technically demanding part of the game, and it is also one of the more useful skills to have at all levels of play. Being able to take a quick, heavy shot will go a long way to making you a dangerous motherfucker on the ice. Once you develop a heavy shot, you're going to see a lot of pucks going in. This is doubly true at lower levels, where goalies' positioning and reflexes aren't as good: often you really don't have to be terribly accurate (just hit the frame) to have a puck sneak in. Hard shots also create rebounds, which gives you assists, which makes people think you're a team player even if all you're doing is shooting all day long. That said, hockey is hard, and so is shooting. As such, I recommend you practice a lot. Luckily, shooting practice is fun! I'll give you some drills to try out later. Ok I am convinced, I want to be able to shoot well. Now what? There is one basic fact to understand about shooting: shot speed is determined by how fast your stick blade is moving as it releases the puck. In this way it is the same as golf; the only important determining factor is stick velocity. That said, there are a number of useful techniques to generate this velocity. All of them use the stick to store potential energy in the shaft, which is then released as quickly as possible into the puck to propel it forward. We talked about stick flex above, but I'm going to mention it again: the flex of the stick has a significant effect on how much (and how efficiently) potential energy can be stored in the stick. A stick with the appropriate amount of flex will ensure the highest possible energy loading: too stiff and you will not have the strength/technique to preload it enough, too whippy and you'll load it to its maximum level before reaching the limit of your strength/technique. What shots are available to me? First, this depends on who you ask. Everyone throughout the hockey world has different techniques and definitions for shots, so there are all sorts of answers you find out there. Here you will find mine! Anyway, the shot types I teach are: bewbies fucked around with this message at 23:09 on Mar 16, 2011 |
# ¿ Mar 8, 2011 22:35 |
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sellouts posted:Bewbies do you know of a good place to repalm gloves? LHS can usually do it, it used to cost about $50 for a good quality palm but I haven't done it in a long time. A buddy of mine used this place and thought it was ok, they took like 3 weeks to get back to him though which he didn't like (I don't know if that was normal or not). ManicJason posted:Isn't this backwards? It is, oops.
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# ¿ Mar 9, 2011 03:39 |
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Swiss Army Knife posted:What? I always thought composites were the twigs that snapped all the time, and wood sticks never really broke they just turned to mush eventually as you kept playing with them. This was true a few years ago, especially for the higher end composites. Back then the only way they could get them super light was to make them kind of flimsy, and for a while they would break if you looked at them the wrong way (the early Easton Stealths were the absolute worst about this, which sucked because otherwise they were the best sticks on the market). There are also some exceptions of ultra-durable wood sticks that were tougher than anything else ever made, I remember a long time ago Montreal came out with a wood stick that was nearly unbreakable and my AAA team all had to switch to it if we wanted the team to buy our sticks. The stick sucked though and we hated it, I switched back to my Christian Ultra Lite and paid for them myself. The last few years though the industry listened pretty well to everybody who was getting pissed about composite stick durability and now they're pretty awesome at all price points. I play with a lot of big dudes and big shooters, and this year I saw a total of four composite sticks break: 2 got caught in the exact same hole in the boards and broke their blades (this pisses people off), one almost killed a guy when he got it caught in the net and it went straight into his lower abdomen (it broke into 3 pieces, never seen anything like it. He got away with only a nasty bruise); only one broke "normally", in a shot. I should probably add that top shelf and pro stock sticks do tend to be less durable, particularly the pro sticks: they're custom made, and if the guy wants an ultra light stick the manufacturer might not put on a layer of kevlar or carbon wrap that they normally would, which makes it less durable obviously. NHL players don't care, but we do.
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# ¿ Mar 9, 2011 15:01 |
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poser posted:This is probably a stupid question but how much does flex differ between brands and models? I really want to try a lower flex stick but don't want to drop $100+ on something that I might not like. I was thinking about getting something for $50-$60 and if I don't like it I can just use it coaching. Flex in terms of force should be identical between brands; that number is just how much force in pounds it takes to deflect the stick an inch. The difference you might notice is the "kickpoint", as manufacturers have started making sticks that flex more on certain parts of the shaft, usually further down. The idea is that if the stick flex is concentrated lower on the shaft, less of the stick will be required to flex, and thus the release is quickened. I don't think this does much, I notice no difference between standard and low kickpoint shafts. In any case, getting a cheap stick to test the flex point isn't a good way to get a feeling for it, a cheap stick just isn't going to feel like a good quality one even if they have the same flex. Can you borrow a teammate's or something for a bit to get an idea? I'm a fan of that method.
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# ¿ Mar 12, 2011 22:52 |
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My girlfriend is a budding sports photographer apparently and she shot some pics at a pickup game we played last night. Some are actually pretty cool This. This is how you play goalie Two guys on the other team running into each other: One of them grabs his throat like he's been shot in the throat (we wound up with a 3 on 0 as a result of this and they managed to miss it, and badly) This is me ringing one off the pipe. One of our Canadian guys ripping a slap shot right into the defenseman's pads
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# ¿ Mar 15, 2011 01:07 |
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Heads up to anyone on the market for skates: Bauer is preparing to release a new line of Vapor skates, and as a result just about everywhere has cut the price of the current Vapor line by between $100-200 depending on the pair. Great time to pick them up. Also I'm writing a new giant essay on shooting, I should be done with it later today.
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# ¿ Mar 16, 2011 14:22 |
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Henrik Zetterberg posted:I'm 5'9" and I use a 49" stick. If my measurements are right that comes up to my mid-chest (I'm 6'). I think if I tried to use a stick like that I'd fall over on my face the first time I tried to shoot. xzzy posted:The reason I ask is because my teacher thinks the source of the problems I'm having with my calves/shins (short version: they burn like they're on fire) is I'm relying too much on those muscles to hold my balance. I tense up, and the muscles are fighting each other to keep me upright. It's been getting better as I get more comfortable on the ice and my leg strength improves, but there's still a lot of aches and pains. This sounds about right to me. Specifically, I bet what you are doing is pressing down with your toes as a means of maintaining your balance, this as a result of not getting your knees bent and your back down low enough. Work on getting your posture lower (and bend those knees!), in the meantime try and take some breaks where you wiggle your toes around a bit, this should help the short term soreness. bewbies fucked around with this message at 21:42 on Mar 16, 2011 |
# ¿ Mar 16, 2011 21:36 |
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shooting, people seem to have a lot of questions in general about shooting. I wish I could do my own videos, instead I had to scour youtube. I want to score goals. How does one do this? By shooting! I think shooting is the most technically demanding part of the game, and it is also one of the more useful skills to have at all levels of play. Being able to take a quick, heavy shot will go a long way to making you a dangerous motherfucker on the ice. Once you develop a heavy shot, you're going to see a lot of pucks going in. This is doubly true at lower levels, where goalies' positioning and reflexes aren't as good: often you really don't have to be terribly accurate (just hit the frame) to have a puck sneak in. Hard shots also create rebounds, which gives you assists, which makes people think you're a team player even if all you're doing is shooting all day long. That said, hockey is hard, and so is shooting. As such, I recommend you practice a lot. Luckily, shooting practice is fun! I'll give you some drills to try out later. Ok I am convinced, I want to be able to shoot well. Now what? There is one basic fact to understand about shooting: shot speed is determined by how fast your stick blade is moving as it releases the puck. In this way it is the same as golf; the only important determining factor is stick velocity. That said, there are a number of useful techniques to generate this velocity. All of them use the stick to store potential energy in the shaft, which is then released as quickly as possible into the puck to propel it forward. We talked about stick flex above, but I'm going to mention it again: the flex of the stick has a significant effect on how much (and how efficiently) potential energy can be stored in the stick. A stick with the appropriate amount of flex will ensure the highest possible energy loading: too stiff and you will not have the strength/technique to preload it enough, too whippy and you'll load it to its maximum level before reaching the limit of your strength/technique. What shots are available to me? First, this depends on who you ask. Everyone throughout the hockey world has different techniques and definitions for shots, so there are all sorts of answers you find out there. Here you will find mine! Anyway, the shot types I teach are:
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# ¿ Mar 16, 2011 23:09 |
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Henrik Zetterberg posted:Am I going to notice a difference between the Vapor X50 and X60 skates to warrant the extra $80-100, or should I save the cash? Probably not. I think the 50s are actually lighter than the 60s, this based on my careful examination of them conducted by picking them up. The main differences are just in the materials, which goes probably to durability than anything else. If you're skating once or twice a week you won't notice a shred of difference. In related news these firesales on the Vapors are some of the best skate deals I've seen in a while, if you're even considering getting new skates now is the time.
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# ¿ Mar 21, 2011 22:33 |
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I was puttering around the internet today and found this: http://www.mlxskates.com/ I found it after reading an article from some pissed off dude about how Malkin had switched from X60s to a "no name skate", then a bunch of people wrongly guessed it was a pair of Eastons. Apparently several NHL players are using these now, which is pretty cool for a startup company (it helps that Lemieux is around it). It also looks like they've come down in price a lot since they first hit the market. I think the best thing about them is they strongly resembles the Micron Mega skates Mario wore back in the late 80s. Anyway, this might be the only way out there right now for choads like us to actually buy handmade pro level skates, and for less than a pair of the new Vapors off the shelf! I have to admit I'm kind of interested.
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# ¿ Mar 22, 2011 22:28 |
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I think this is the thread in question? I just glanced through it, it was pretty interesting. There were a bunch of posters who were WTF IS THIS when they first saw it at $800, then a bunch of people ordered it when a 50% code came up. Seems like just about everyone who got a pair really liked it except for a couple of guys who couldn't get the fit right as they had strange feet. Apparently they look really, really handmade, carbon and stitching is rough and whatnot which is both cool and a little odd given their price point. Then it looks like some guys from an e-marketing firm started posting in the thread. It seemed pretty innocuous to me (and misplaced, people on the board seemed to love the skates) but they got all pissed and closed it down.
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# ¿ Mar 23, 2011 00:07 |
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I don't think the X20s have thermoformable material, that alone would be a significant upgrade if you've never had it.
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# ¿ Mar 23, 2011 19:58 |
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WouldDesk posted:And bewbies should I just ask all the possible questions about OKC hockey individually or would you mind giving me the run down? Sure, ask away. I think the spring season is starting tomorrow, beer league games are on Sunday afternoon/evening. You can come watch whenever you'd like, it isn't like they charge admission or something. The spring season is starting this weekend.
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# ¿ Mar 26, 2011 16:07 |
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My "I'm a lovely person" story of the week: In our pickup game last Thursday a new guy I've never met showed up. He skates on a league team in a lower level and is a super nice guy; someone invited him to our skate (which is at a pretty high skill level) because we were a little short last week. He was struggling pretty bad through most of the game, but in a way I wasn't familiar with: he was a very good skater, occasionally he'd do something awesome like shoot it really well, and his equipment made you think he'd played the game at a high level (he had an old beat up pair of custom skates, team color pants, etc). Most of the time though he couldn't do much of anything; couldn't catch passes, couldn't stickhandle, etc etc. I was getting kind of frustrated with him as he insisted on skating at center and every time he'd get the puck, the breakout would just...stop. Essentially, when he was on the ice it was a power play for the other team, which got old pretty quickly. I chalked it up to him not being used to the higher speed/etc of our game, whatever, he probably wouldn't get invited back so that's cool. Another new thing that night: there was a middle aged guy sitting in the stands watching our game. We'd never had a spectator before. Anyway, later in the game he gets the puck in the neutral zone, I've gotten behind the far side defenseman and have a wide open sheet of ice in front of me. He's (very slowly) carrying the puck forward. I start calling for it, he chugs along forward like he can't see me, tries to take the near side defenseman one on one, loses the puck at the blue line and gives up an odd man the other direction. I stopped at their blue line and acted like I'd just suffered a horrible wrongdoing, then went to the bench. I was going to say something to him like DID YOU REALLY NOT SEE ME OR WHAT, but I lost interest in the event almost immediately and didn't end up mentioning it. On Saturday night, I went out with some hockey buddies, and we (like hockey players always seem to do) wind up talking about Thursday's game. My buddy says something like "boy that blind guy did better than I thought he would". The gears start spinning, and I realize I'm a dick: the new guy was a former (very good) player who had lost most of his eyesight in a car accident, since he was legally blind his dad had to take him hockey. He skated at center because he was less likely to crash into the boards that way. I revealed that I'd almost asked him "DID YOU REALLY NOT SEE ME???" and then felt terrible some more. I still have no idea how he managed to not die while playing.
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# ¿ Mar 28, 2011 20:52 |
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WouldDesk posted:Did nobody feel the need to say "hey, my buddy I invited: blind." He probably had a blast if that helps Do you expect him back or was it a one time thing? I hope he comes back, it was pretty impressive ex post facto. Your story reminded me of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debora_Green I'd played on travel teams for years with Tim, then his mom murdered him. We put his number on the backs of our helmet that year, and I used that helmet all the way up until this season with his number still on it.
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# ¿ Mar 28, 2011 21:20 |
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ElwoodCuse posted:Is $100 too much for a helmet for recreational no checking? The websites have Reebok 8k, Bauer 9100, and CCM Vapor 10 models for about that. Am I just paying for "10% lighter" and some kind of fancy lining at that point? Yeah. You can get a nice used one off ebay for $20-30, or a new Bauer 4500/CCM V05 for $40-50. As long as it is certified it will be fine.
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# ¿ Mar 29, 2011 16:31 |
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If you are really, really concerned about concussions,
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# ¿ Mar 29, 2011 17:07 |
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Dangerllama posted:Not to be all cap'n cautious over here but...don't buy used helmets (for any sport). Most helmets are made for one big whack and then they need to be replaced. If you buy one used, you don't know what kind of beating it's taken or if it's been mistreated. Microfractures in the foam are impossible to spot. Which would be fine if we weren't talking about the possibility of talking like Jeremy Roenick for the rest of your life. This "one and done" thing is really only true for helmets that use EPS (expanded polystyrene); these tend to be helmets designed for activities with much larger and infrequent impacts: biking, skiing, climbing, and motorcycle helmets. As far as I know there are no hockey helmets that use EPS. Expanded polypropylene and vinyl nitrate are the materials used in every helmet I'm aware of, and neither degrades due to external impacts. I mean...it would be pretty silly to have a hockey helmet you have to trash every single time you get hit. They aren't designed like that for obvious reasons. You should of course check the padding to ensure that it is in good repair and all that (and if a helmet is more than 5-6 years old you should probably trash it), but you don't need to worry that there are invisible defects in the foam, especially in a relatively new used helmet. bewbies fucked around with this message at 05:11 on Mar 30, 2011 |
# ¿ Mar 30, 2011 04:42 |
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I broke out my old inlines and I am going to try roller hockey this afternoon on a sport court kind of surface for the first time. I haven't played roller hockey on a "rink" in 15 years or so and that "rink" was a piece of parking lot with pads arranged in a rough oval. Also I played a bit at the lovely roller skating rink I worked at in grad school, that was just as fun. I am also going to be putting these aesthetically pleasing contraptions on my feet for the first time in a couple of years Roller hockey is a strange and scary world to me
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# ¿ Mar 30, 2011 22:12 |
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WouldDesk posted:Whoa whoa whoa, roller in OK? I thought it no longer existed? I love roller, although it is quite taxing on the body. There's a rink on Fort Sill. It was the first time I've ever skated on sport court before, I was kind of surprised how grippy it is (although I wiped out the first time I tried to skate backwards as you can't dig your toe into sport court). Shooting was totally different though, stick didn't act like I'm used to it acting. Apparently they play a pickup game there on Tues/Thu at 6pm, I guess I'm going to give semi-competitive roller hockey a try now.
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# ¿ Mar 31, 2011 00:44 |
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WouldDesk posted:bewbies, in you league(s) is there a group of guys or a team from Tinker AFB? I ask because they had a roller team years ago and I ended up on it somehow at the age of 14. They were awesome guys to play with, even if they always used up my inhaler betwen shifts to counteract their smoking in between periods. Apparently it is common in the AF during PT (INSERT AF PT JOKE HERE). I assume you are in the military also, Army? I think there are a couple of Tinker teams, one is the Canadian Air Force (the Nordiques, we play them in D1 but they aren't playing this summer), one is the Tinker Hawks or something and they play in a lower division. The CAF guys are awesome, a bunch of them played major juniors and/or college in Canada and wound up joining the military after their hockey dreams fizzled. Thankfully they don't pass much and like to try and go end to end singlehandedly otherwise we'd have gotten killed by them. I am not in the military, though I used to be. Also I think Gaborik was the first guy to play in the NHL who was younger than me (he's a month younger) and I remember thinking at that point that my pro hockey dreams were probably over (if they weren't DOA of course). It was sad. bewbies fucked around with this message at 20:37 on Apr 8, 2011 |
# ¿ Apr 8, 2011 20:35 |
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Nick Cage posted:What will help you a LOT is doing small semicircles on your outside edges. Don't hold them for ages and ages, just do nice little semicircles alternating legs, you should end up skating up the ice in a Do this. I still spend time doing this whenever I get some practice time, and guys do it all the way up to the NHL level. There isn't a better way to learn how to bend your knees and get deep on your edges. This is probably the best overview I've seen and Laura Stamm rules anyway, take a clinic from them if you can find it in your area. One thing to remember as you get better at crossovers: the toe of the outside foot generates a lot of the power (not just your inside edge of the outside leg): when you get used being on that outside edge, try to focus on really getting that toe dug into the ice so you can get a strong push.
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# ¿ Apr 13, 2011 14:49 |
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This is another good one, it gives me nightmares. We used to have to do this until we couldn't feel our legs anymore
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# ¿ Apr 14, 2011 20:20 |
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I got a great shooting drill from a guy I play with who has an absolutely killer snap shot, it is a great way to learn the mechanics of flexing the stick and moving the blade. Get some pucks and set up at about the top of the circles. Angle both of your feet parallel to the goal line (if you're a right handed shot, they'll be facing directly at the right side boards). You then shoot; you start with the puck literally behind your butt (just behind the front foot heel) and try to let it go as hard as you can by flexing the stick off the toe and launching it. You'll find out very quickly if you're shoveling it (it won't go anywhere), flipping it (it will flutter and probably go over the net), or maximizing your energy transfer. Since you can't move your feet you're not getting any weight transfer, so you're entirely dependent on your wrists and stick to shoot the puck. If you practice this until you can reliably hit corners while doing this, you're going to have a very useful snapper. He worked with a couple of guys with mediocre shots for about 10 minutes, and their improvement was noticeable during this really brief lesson. I did it for about half an hour after our game and I felt like I was shooting it better also.
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# ¿ Apr 15, 2011 05:40 |
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gigabitnokie posted:"Behind your butt" like the puck is really behind you? Yeah. Here I made an MSPaint diagram You're facing the direction of the red arrow, the black things are your skates. I think this makes sense, let me know if it is confusing.
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# ¿ Apr 15, 2011 15:32 |
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Yeah, you turn your torso so your chest is facing the target, feet remain facing parallel to the goal line. It is useful because it really forces you to use the flex of the stick to shoot as you can't use your legs/weight shift to get any velocity. After working like this for a while and then going back to a normal shooting technique you'll be shocked how much easier it is.
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# ¿ Apr 15, 2011 17:39 |
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Thufir posted:Just pulled the trigger on some X:40 skates to replace my X:20s that I've realized are 1/2 size too big. Anyone ever bake your own skates at home? Ice Warehouse has a video guide that makes it not look too hard http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBqRt701oZQ Just be very careful with the temps, better to pull it out too soon and have to put it back in than to have it get too hot. Also make sure you pull OUT on the laces and not UP, pulling up will sometimes rip out the eyelets.
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# ¿ Apr 16, 2011 19:07 |
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Lawnie posted:My basic understanding is that you actually do have a rather statistically significant sample. This is because you are using point estimates of a very large population. the population is almost certainly normally distributed, therefore using those point estimators you should be alright. The problem here is the nature of your population though. The color of the blade of a defenseman's stick as he takes a shot through a screen is irrelevant because the goalie cannot see it, the color of an open winger trying to hit a nearside corner from 15 fett might be. The shooting percentage of the latter is going to be far higher than the former.
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# ¿ Apr 26, 2011 22:08 |
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Re. skate width: At "D" width both Bauer and CCM run about the same, right down the middle. They'd be really uncomfortable for someone with wide feet. That said, they both make a lot of E (and wider) skates that are pretty easy to find, so don't think that there is just the one option and if that doesn't fit you're SOL.
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# ¿ Apr 28, 2011 15:12 |
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xzzy posted:The problem I've been running into is that even though these companies make wide skates, stores don't stock them because relatively few people actually buy them. Which is why I'm hopeful for this coming week.. maybe I can snag the one pair they ordered that actually fits. Pretty much all the sales reps at local stores are telling me "well, just order some online!" which is loving ridiculous because I am not buying a pair of skates without having some solid information to base the purchase on. Are any of these near you?
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# ¿ Apr 28, 2011 16:03 |
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Dangerllama posted:Went down to stick and puck today to grab some video of myself. It's worse than I though. I don't know what it is but I can't develop my snap shot to save my life. Right now you're not really taking a snap shot, it is more of a shovel-wrister kind of deal. Bring the puck in a bit closer to your body, get more of your weight over your stick, try and flex the stick a bit more. Instead of this, you're starting with your hands too far away from your body, which means that when you try and follow through you really can't, as your arms are only so long. I made this video forever ago, its quality is almost too crappy to even bother with but it is from kind of the same spot as your shots so it might be useful for a comparison (I have no idea what is with the sound, sorry about that). On the first shot in particular you can see me load the shaft pretty heavily before I let it go; at that point a good portion of my body weight is on the shaft. Also is that the rink in the old hangar at Lowry AFB?
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# ¿ Apr 30, 2011 03:50 |
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We had our worst game as a team since I started skating down here last night. We lost to a team we've beaten many times 8-1 due mainly to their paying at least 3 really good players to join their team including one of our best players. I was trying to be a good captain but I really had nothing to say during the game, it sucked.
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# ¿ May 2, 2011 17:38 |
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Does anyone have any experience with Combat hockey sticks? They look really interesting and are priced attractively but I don't want to blow $150 just to try one out.
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# ¿ May 2, 2011 21:04 |
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Dangerllama posted:Do any of us here really want to be that guy? In some no-name league with nothing on the line except whether or not the guys in the locker room think you're a prick? This. They're usually not very good players to boot which makes it that much more obnoxious. If I'm playing a pickup game or something against less skilled players I usually try and make some sort of game like "how many assists can I get on goals scored by guys who are terrible". Everyone wins that way.
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# ¿ May 4, 2011 18:38 |
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robcat posted:what's the general preferred method to hold up socks if you aren't using the compression shorts w/ velcro? Do most people use a garter, or is it faster/easier to just tape them up? I recommend sweatpants, better than socks in every way.
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# ¿ May 5, 2011 19:54 |
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coldwind posted:To be serious, though, I don't think there's any way I could do sweatpants. With compression, a jock, sweatpants and hockey pants, that's just too many layers. Too many layers. Man, doesn't it get hot? There's no way sweatpants breathe as well as knit socks. I don't notice any difference at all between socks and sweatpants. It isn't like you're not sweating a ton anyway. In any case sweatpants are still decisively superior. I can get to the rink 5 minutes before ice time starts and be ready with time to spare.
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# ¿ May 5, 2011 20:10 |
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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 11:51 |
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poser posted:Anyone run/participate in a weekly organized pickup game? I'm thinking about trying to start one up and would love some tips or advice. I do two of these a week, I helped to organize one. One is pretty much just a pure pickup game, the other has a ref, etc. Both average between 15 and 20 guys per session, which is the ideal number in my opinion. Some things to keep in mind: 1) Goalies are critical. If you don't have goalies, people simply will not come back as it makes a huge difference in how much fun it is. At both of the pickups I play we have goalies who are as reliable as anyone could ever be, and it helps a lot with the week to week consistency. They also have several backup guys who are on call and who fill in if they can't make it. We've never had a skate where we didn't have two goalies. 2) Get the skill level right. Decide what level you're shooting for, and try and "recruit" guys only around said level. This is for pretty obvious reasons. 3) Try and make it by invite only, and don't be afraid to disinvite douchebags. This allows you to have pretty active control over douches, who can instantly make things like this very unfun for everyone. 4) Try and make the time and location as consistent as possible; Thursday nights are probably the best night for this sort of thing in my opinion. Stay away from weekends if at all possible. 5) Try and get a core group of guys to provide up-front funding. We had about 10 or so guy who each fronted $400, and then we charge non-core guys $10-15 a session. Any additional money had at the end of the session could either be put to the next session or refunded. We got about $200 back a piece which we then folded into our current session; it saved us a lot of money and meant that we didn't have to worry about having enough cash week to week. It also meant that we all had an interest in recruiting new guys, which helped to make the numbers grow. 6) Get a good communication system set up. If you're wanting to run the thing, make sure you have a good email and phone for everyone who plays regularly, communicate stuff through email and text message. For the first several months, send out a reminder of the skate before each one; after that make sure you keep everyone abreast of any schedule changes. 7) Try and get the last slot of the day if it isn't too late. Both of our skates start at 9, which means that we're the last group to have the ice each day. This means first that you're not going to be crunched for time by another group after you; it also means that the guy running the rink will probably be a teenager left there by the owner to lock up and he'll never tell you to leave, so you can stay as late as you want. Other things are kind of obvious: keep the teams as even as possible, explain the rules up front to everyone, keep careful track of the money, etc etc.
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# ¿ May 9, 2011 14:18 |