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After years and years of watching hockey and living in a great hockey city, I've finally decided to take the plunge into learning how to play. There's a rink near me that's run by the city, which offers a ton of classes and ice time for relatively cheap. The extent of my skating ability is "I can skate in a big loop during public skate hours and successfully avoid the deluge of falling children without falling down myself." I enrolled in an adults-only beginner's course, which has 8 weekly lessons, starting at the end of January. All I have right now are skates (Bauer Vapor X400) and I imagine I'll need a helmet and gloves for the lessons, but the entire course description is "This beginner activity is designed to teach the fundamentals of skating for hockey." so it's not very clear what all I'll need.
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Jan 5, 2017 22:39
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| # ¿ May 2, 2024 07:13 |
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I called the rink up, but no one was at the hockey desk, so I left a message. Lessons don't start for 3 weeks, so I have time to figure it out. I got my skates at Dick's, which offers free sharpening when you buy skates, and told them to sharpen it to 1/2", but in only my second time on the ice with them, it already feels like I'm losing grip with my left skate. Is there any way for me to tell if they didn't sharpen it properly or if the problem is I'm just inexperienced at skating? If a hockey pro shop or the rink sharpened it, I wouldn't question it, but the fact that I got them sharpened at a giant sports superstore makes me think that maybe they don't know what they're doing.
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Jan 5, 2017 23:03
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xzzy posted:Are you in the Chicago region? If so your best bet for a good cut is going to either be Gunzo's or Jerry's Warehouse. The freestanding stores, not the pro shops attached to the rinks. Once you start socializing at your local rink you should get a feel for whether the attached pro shop does a decent job with sharpenings. The one sentence I posted earlier is literally the entire course description, so it seems like it will be skating focused, without any actual games. I've tried calling and emailing and haven't gotten a direct response yet from the rink, but when I do I'll probably head to Gunzo's to get whatever gear I need and have them give my skates a proper sharpening.
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Jan 5, 2017 23:45
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Verman posted:First of all, congrats. I've seen more people get into hockey as adults and is fun to see people enjoy learning and improving. Chicago has a lot of hockey and places to skate especially if you have a car. Thanks to everyone for the advice. It's really helping me a lot. I'm taking the course at McFetridge Sports Center. It's like 3 miles from where I live and has a big parking lot. It's also run by the Chicago Park District, which I imagine is why prices are so low. The program only cost me $95 for eight 45-minute sessions and their adults-only public skate that they have every weekday is only $3 for 90 minutes of ice time. Even though I'm sure I could get gear for cheaper online, I'll probably head over to the Gunzo's right by the United Center and get a helmet, gloves, shinguards, elbow pads, and pants all fitted properly. I'll make sure to go for cheap stuff on the upper body and splurge on the pants and shinguards. I'm trying to get an idea of how much this will cost me, but good lord Gunzo's website is a disaster. I'm guessing it'll be somewhere between $200-300? Is there any reason to get a bag specifically for hockey gear or can I just use any big ol' tote bag? xzzy posted:Jerry's is better than Gunzo's. Every Jerry's location is out in the burbs and I don't want to travel that far. 
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Jan 6, 2017 05:43
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Henrik Zetterberg posted:What the poo poo. Our public skate is $12 The all-ages and 13+ public skate is $5, but for some reason the 18+ one is only $3, not that I'm complaining. xzzy posted:You can live without an actual hockey bag but I don't know why you'd try to save money there. You've already decided to play the most expensive sport out there, so suck it up and go all in. It can't be more expensive than rich-people sports like golf, sailing, equestrian, auto-racing, etc. But I mean I could get this bag for under $30 and I don't know how it could be worse at carrying gear than a $100 Bauer bag.
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Jan 6, 2017 06:09
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Verman posted:They have some stuff but that's not THE gunzos that everyone is talking about. The main ones are in the north and west burbs. Look at Jerry's as well. That store by the United center is pretty much just to make money selling blackhawks swag and last minute gear for people playing at Johnnie's. They don't have a ton of stuff especially for adults. They know how to sharpen skates though. I miss that. Based on recommendations here and other places online, I'll probably make the trek out to Schaumburg and hit up Jerry's for gear. The Rolling Meadows Jerry's is a little bit closer, but the Schaumburg one seems like the biggest with the most knowledgeable staff. The main Gunzo's in River Forest isn't too far away either, but the consensus online appears to be go to Gunzo's for the sharpenings and Jerry's for gear/service. Thanks again everyone for the help!
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Jan 6, 2017 19:21
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Just dropped $500 on gear at Jerry's. I'm officially pot-committed. The sales guy was great helping me go through my options and making sure I tried everything on. It's mostly bottom of the barrel stuff except for the pants, which I splurged for much better padding. I figure my rear end will thank me for forking over a few extra bucks.
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Jan 9, 2017 19:06
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Whoops, the first thing I did was remove all those annoying stickers on my helmet and stick.  Hope that doesn't come back to bite me.
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Jan 10, 2017 00:55
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Skated for the first time ever in full gear (minus shoulderpads) today. Here's a list of random thoughts I had:
I'm excited to actually start learning things 
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Jan 10, 2017 20:57
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xryokus posted:Unfortunately I do not qualify for LASIK due to the corneal issue I suffer from. Do you qualify for PRK? The laser in PRK is the exact same one they use for LASIK, but the only difference is how they get through the cornea, so people with corneal issues are often qualified to get PRK. PRK is cheaper too, but it has a slightly longer recovery time. I got LASIK back in 2003 and my eyes are still perfect 14 years later. It's amazing.  In today's adults-only public skate, I had the entire rink to myself for the first 10 minutes. It maxed out at 7 people on the ice.
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Jan 12, 2017 21:41
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xryokus posted:I have keratoconus, so my cornea is irregular whereby some of it is thin and some of it is thick. My understanding of any laser surgery is they take a layer of the cornea off to make it uniform. Because I have thin sections they won't do it. I can get collagen cross linking done but still need to wear rigid lenses anyway... I'd ask your eye doctor if PRK is a viable option for you the next time you go. I know someone who wasn't able to get LASIK because of wonky corneal thickness, but he was able to get PRK and it worked perfectly.
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Jan 13, 2017 19:51
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My first official hockey lesson is on Thursday and I'm super excited. I've been going to 2-3 public skates a week this month to get used to the ice, so I think I'll be ahead of most of my classmates in that I know how to skate forwards and turn.
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Jan 23, 2017 18:46
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prom candy posted:Have you ever played any hockey on ice? If not prepare to have the greatest time of your life. I was hooked after one lesson, now I suck dick behind arenas for ice time. Nope. I occasionally played street hockey and broomball as a teenager, but never hockey on ice skates. Ice time on my own is cheap and easy, but as far as playing organized games, I'll probably do Rat Hockey as soon as my 8-week instructional course is done.
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Jan 23, 2017 19:13
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I was kinda hoping the Brits would have a different word for hockey, like Slippyfoot or something.
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Jan 25, 2017 18:41
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Just got back from my first lesson. So I showed up, asked a couple people on the bench if this was the "Learn to Play Hockey" class and they said I was in the right place. The coach gets onto the ice, introduces himself, dumps out a bucket of pucks, and says "everyone get in line, let's see how you all are at crossovers with the puck." That's when I found out that the Wednesday class was for beginner-beginners and the Thursday class was for people who had completed the Wednesday class. There is ZERO indication that there's a difference between the two time slots on their website. So I'm standing there with my brand new, untaped stick, not even sure if I'm holding it the right way, and I'm expected to immediately jump into crossovers with puck handling. So I was completely out of my league, but the coach was very accommodating. Even though I was clearly the worst one there, it wasn't by THAT much. I ate it like 5 times, usually when trying to turn too sharply with the puck or trying to stop suddenly (I only know how to do the plow stop so far). Also by some miracle, I actually was middle-of-the-pack in terms of my shot, even though I've literally never shot a puck on the ice before. Since the cost is the same for both classes, the coach told me I could switch over to Wednesdays if I wanted, but he told me I was clearly a better skater already than just about everyone in his Wednesday class. I may be decent at skating forwards, but the problem is I don't know how to do any of the other hockey basics like crossovers, hockey stops, or skating backwards, so I'll definitely be going to Wednesday's class next week. He kinda hinted that he'd be fine if I went to both classes despite paying for only one of them, but I feel like all the extra time I need with the Thursday classmates would slow them down. I'll check with him on Wednesday to see if that offer is still on the table. Free Skate was immediately after my lesson, so I spent an hour in the center just working on crossovers. I can do them halfway-decently now when turning left, but when trying to do crossovers to my right, my left foot refuses to cooperate. A couple things I learned today: Having a stick really helps with balance, although I'm sure I'm not supposed to lean on it for support much. Also having a helmet really upped my confidence level into trying more difficult techniques. I never actually hit my head any of the times I fell, it was always my knees or my side, but the helmet does something to me psychologically that washes away any of my fears of falling.
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Jan 26, 2017 21:13
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xzzy posted:Nah, don't worry about other skaters. They can move around you if you're in the way. I'm more concerned about taking the coach's time away from the other players who need one-on-one help with more advanced techniques, while I'm taking his time to ask him stuff like "HOW I HOLD STICK?" 
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Jan 26, 2017 21:22
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Vargatron posted:You paid for this class right? Your time is just as valuable as the next guy's don't worry about it. I paid for the wrong class, apparently, but since it costs the same as the other one, I'm going to flip to the other one. The coach hinted that he'd be fine with me going to BOTH, despite only paying for one, and that's what I'm apprehensive about.
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Jan 26, 2017 21:25
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On Wednesday I'm going to confirm he's okay with me going to both classes despite only paying for one, and then I'm going to go to both for the next two months. After that session, I'll probably just retake the advanced class again before starting up Rat Hockey. My head and my left arm are the only things that aren't sore today. Falling down a lot didn't hurt when it happened, but I'm feeling it today.
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Jan 27, 2017 19:17
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mr. unhsib posted:If you're like, over 30 and want to play hockey a bunch a foam roller is a loving godsend. Especially if you work in front of a computer for a living and have garbage hip flexors. This checks all of my boxes so I should probably get one.
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Jan 30, 2017 21:40
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The more advanced stuff I'm getting into, the more my lower back is getting sore/stiff after I practice. I'm not sure if it's because I rarely ever work my lower back muscles and I'm just getting used to skating or if I'm doing something wrong.
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Jan 31, 2017 23:00
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prom candy posted:Are you skating with a stick or without a stick? You might just be bending over too much vs. bending your knees if you're doing puckhandling drills. Even when I was loving around with collarbone-height sticks a couple weeks ago it made my lower back a bit sore. Today was without a stick. I think one of my issues is I'm too upright when I'm skating slowly. When I'm going fast, I naturally bend my knees to get more power in each stride. But today I was pretty much exclusively working on crossovers, which required me to slow down a lot. My back isn't twingy or anything, it just feels sore/stiff like any muscle would after I work out. Stretches and heating pads help make it feel a little better.
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Jan 31, 2017 23:17
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Went to the beginner hockey class today, which turns out is just me and one other dude with the coach, so I got a lot of 1 on 1 time. We mostly worked on stopping. As usual, my right foot cooperates a lot more than my left, so stopping to my right side is a lot easier than to my left. Trying to shorten my stopping distance led me to falling a couple times. Figuring out exactly how much weight to put on each foot to minimize stopping distance is going to take some time. Since I went to the advanced class by mistake last week, my first attempt at crossovers was to just dive right in with figure 8s. That didn't work so well. In today's class, we practiced standing still on the ice and just sidestepping left over right, right over left. I don't know how I never thought about doing that on my own, but it ended up really helping me when we moved into doing actual crossovers at the end of the lesson. I also got the go-ahead from the coach that I can still continue to attend the advanced class on Thursday in addition to the beginner's class on Wednesday. I've already improved a ton this week and I never see any of my classmates from the advanced class during free skate sessions, so I'll probably be able to catch up to them fairly quickly.
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Feb 1, 2017 20:00
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z0331 posted:Seems like you hit the jackpot for lessons. Being self-employed and having extremely flexible work hours helps a ton. So I show up on weekday mornings or afternoons to adults-only programs to assure that I won't be sharing the ice with many other people. The rink is run by the Chicago Park District, so it's all super cheap to boot. It was $95 for what will end up being 16 lessons, 8 of which have 5 classmates and the other 8 lessons only have one other classmate. Adults-only free skate for hockey players is two days a week, 90 minutes per session, and only costs $3 per session. So I end up getting 4.5 hours of ice time per week for less than $12 a week. Pretty sweet.
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Feb 1, 2017 20:52
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xzzy posted:I pay $20-$25 every time my feet touch the ice these days.
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Feb 1, 2017 22:15
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Doctor Butts posted:There's an outdoor rink here with open skates during the day an it's only a quarter if you have your own skates. There's a free outdoor rink in Wicker Park that's a couple blocks from where I live, but it's been oddly above freezing for like the past month. My foam roller arrived today and holy gently caress this is the most painful thing ever on my sore hip and butt muscles. 
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Feb 2, 2017 03:13
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An old-timer came up to me as I was practicing crossovers during free skate and gave me 5 words of advice that really helped with my balance: "Stick your rear end out more."
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Feb 2, 2017 20:57
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I felt like poo poo on the ice today. It took me like 15 minutes to feel comfortable out there, I was just sluggish overall and got tired faster than usual. I'm getting a lot better at stopping quickly, but crossovers are still giving me a ton of trouble. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.
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Feb 7, 2017 21:06
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prom candy posted:Eat a cheeseburger 6-8 hours before your game. Works every time. That would involve waking up between 4 and 6 AM to eat a cheeseburger.
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Feb 7, 2017 21:21
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During today's lesson, the one line from the coach that really stuck with me was "don't be afraid to lean." I'm starting to get a feel for where my edges are and how much pressure I can safely put on them. Leaning into my turns is helping me take them sharper and faster, and it also makes crossovers a bit easier to do. Today was the first time I tried skating backwards and I am very, very bad at it so far.
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Feb 8, 2017 20:48
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mr. unhsib posted:Play hockey outdoors, kids. I would, but it's been in the 40's and 50's Fahrenheit in Chicago for the past 2 months 
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Feb 9, 2017 04:37
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I had a pretty big breakthrough today with crossovers to my right, which were extremely weak. I wasn't putting enough weight on my inside foot while crossing over, and once I started leaning in and applying more weight to my right foot, I instantly got better at them. During class today, we mostly worked on shooting. My wrist shot is getting noticeably better, but my slapshot is awful and I feel like it takes me 10 seconds just to get the puck in the right spot to attempt a slapshot. The sheer number of skills involved in playing hockey is overwhelming, especially when I'm bad at all of them and I really want to get better faster.  Regarding sharpening, I've only had my skates sharpened at 1/2" so far, but I kind of want to try 3/8" the next time just to see how much more bite they give me.
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Feb 9, 2017 21:56
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sellouts posted:do not sharpen your skates to 3/8" imo Zip! posted:P.S to the guy thinking of getting 3/8 for players skate - I really can't stress how bad of an idea that is. Okay I will keep them at 1/2" then!
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Feb 10, 2017 19:05
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Tank44 posted:Last night we had a 110ppm game. We were losing 6-1, then scored with 5 min left to make it 6-2. The other team then called a time out. gently caress that poo poo. It's 1215am and we all just want to get out of there. On the face off I complain to their ringer lined up next to me. He says to gently caress off and play the game. I reply that he's just mad that he got cut from Jr B 10 years ago and take it out on bad beer leaguers. I knock him down and play things out. Once I'm off the ice, he checks someone into the boards and then starts throwing punches. He has the most pims in our div and seems like most are late in the 3rd. Kalenn Istarion posted:My first year as a ref (I was 15) I had a coach stand on the boards Don Cherry style and call me a "retarded human being" because I didn't impose a strict line change procedure on the other team. This was in a novice house league (u9) game. I'm not even good enough to play Rat Hockey yet, but I'm really not looking forward to dealing with macho bullshit antics like this once I get into higher leagues. If I join a novice league, I'm leaning towards the Chicago Gay Hockey Association. I'm guessing they're a bit less likely to call me a "retarded human being".
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Feb 15, 2017 02:17
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I'm halfway done with my lessons now, and even though improvements aren't going as quickly as they were initially, I'm definitely still making good progress. I'm probably going to immediately sign up for the advanced class again as soon as this batch of classes ends in mid-March. My crossovers are improving a ton, but I feel like crossovers are the only time I'm ever comfortable using my outside edges. I can do figure 8's on my inside edges fairly well, but I can't turn for poo poo on my outside edges. I've been working a lot on skating backwards, and it's incredibly frustrating that I can do C-Cuts fairly well with my right foot, but my left foot just refuses to cooperate and I don't know what to do. Even when I slow down to a snail's pace, my left foot won't work properly when skating backwards. I'm sure I just need more practice, but arrrgh it's so frustrating when my brain knows what to do and my body won't listen.
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Feb 22, 2017 21:52
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z0331 posted:Can almost guarantee you're not bending your knees/getting low enough. "ABC, always be crouching" was good advice from a Canadian friend of mine. I always try really hard to stay crouched. It's at the forefront of my mind pretty much at all times on the ice, especially when I'm skating backwards because if I'm not sticking my rear end way out, I'll fall forward. I also notice I'm not crouching enough if my lower back starts to hurt instead of my legs. This usually happens near the end of practice when I'm tired. doctor 7 posted:As far as backward skating with one foot being better than the other I'll just say what a retired gentlemen watching me learn to skate said about 3 years ago when I was just starting out: I can cruise pretty well backwards just using my right foot to push, while my left is just along for the ride and occasionally steers, but I know that's not how I should be doing it, so I'm trying really hard and failing (so far) to get my left foot involved as much as my right.
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Feb 22, 2017 23:39
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Yeah I know what I'm SUPPOSED to be doing with regard to my form and C-Cuts. My right foot is fairly decent at them, but my left foot is dumb and stupid and I'm mad at it. That video is also unavailable in my country. 
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Feb 23, 2017 02:03
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Kalenn Istarion posted:I'm sorry you aren't Canadian enough But I love poutine and I think Justin Trudeau is super dreamy!  That probably just makes me human, though.
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Feb 23, 2017 04:24
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I don't know what happened, but something clicked with my shot today and I was able to get like 10 really good wristers off in a row. It was a huge confidence boost seeing such a large improvement. Now I'm worried that I'll forget what I did right the next time I'm on the ice and all will be lost. 
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Feb 23, 2017 20:30
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I kinda want to get this tape for my stick, but I'm pretty sure it's a lot more difficult to get it lined up perfectly like in all the pictures.
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Feb 25, 2017 05:05
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| # ¿ May 2, 2024 07:13 |
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We have to bring our own pucks to Stick n Puck sessions at my rink. What's the best way for me to label them so I know they're mine but so that it won't interfere with the way the puck moves or interacts with my stick?
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Feb 27, 2017 23:18
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