The Diary Of A Wanna Be Ice Hockey Player

30/03/2017 - Day 1

You know, skating backwards while trying to control a puck is quite difficult.

Especially when the stick is too short, the chest armour is too small and the shinpads are going out of place. And let's not forget the fact that I can hardly skate backwards.

Earlier today was the first time I had ever put on Ice Hockey gear.

Was the first time I held a stick with those bulky gloves.

The first time I ever hit a puck.

And let's just say that it was pretty damn interesting.

So, let's start at the very beginning - The first time I walked through the front doors of the rink. This was the first time I'd ever done anything like this - Last time I did any ice sports was over six years ago, and that was figure skating. I stuck with that for two and a half years, until I had a major ankle op that made me lose my spark for that sport. 

I'd been going to the public sessions once a week for over a year now, so I was OK at skating. 

Or so I thought.

So, let's get back to when I walked through those doors.

I walked through the doors and talked to the guy behind the desk, who had no idea about the 'learn to play ice hockey.' It took about ten minutes and six people later to figure out that I hadn't got the dates wrong.

I met the 'Head coach' called Chubb. I was introduced to more people and then came the dreadful task of finding armour that fit me.

We have a World's comp coming up next week, so the store room which holds all the gear was filled to the roof, so I just had to deal with what I got.

So, I got this gear that was poorly fitted, the only thing that I personally owned being my skates. Let's just say that It was world war three trying to get into the gear.

Eventually I made it onto the ice, where I did some basic moves, such as going forwards, crossovers, going backwards, and doing backwards crossovers. 

Soon enough I was separated into a group with some people my age and we did warm ups. Now, let's just start off with the fact that I was the only girl in that particular group.

During warm ups I tripped over my stick twice, landing my my bruised bottom (Last Friday, Saturday, and Sunday was spent breaking in my new skates - 10 hours in total), and tripped over my skates at least half a dozen times. 

I am good at doing crossovers to the left.

To the right? not so much.

I can do backwards crossovers to the left too, all though a bit off balance. 

Especially with that bloody stick getting in the way.

And to the right...?

Lets not go there.

I found that I was better than most of the guys at going backwards, forwards, and doing large pushes. With the crossovers, not so much.

We moved onto stick handling, which was when I was sent over to the other side of the rink (Which was separated into three groups), where there was a small course set up. AKA there were tires and foam squads set up everywhere.

What's the first thing that I do? Fall over. 

What's the second thing I do? hit someone with my stick

The third? Trip over someone else's stick.

It was wonderful, honestly.

When I finally came to doing the course, I lost control of the puck multiple times, and fell over twice.

All the while going at a snail's pace.

The second time round, I managed to fall over once, but kept the puck in a bit more control.

The third time was a bit better - I didn't fall over. YAY!! But I did lose control of the puck.

So, I walk back in line and a little chinese kid tripped me up. 

Haha.

Not.

After that we were to go into partners. A tiny asain dude - not the same as before - went with me.

The drill was that one person stood still with their stick in front of them, while the other weaved the puck between their legs and under their stick.

After a little while this kid gave up and started hitting me with his stick instead.

Yay.

When we switched over, he didn't stand still. Oh no, that was far too hard for this kid. So, I had to weave the puck around this little squirming mouse. It was quite fun really, until he nailed me in the face with his stick.

I was starting to really dislike sticks, you know?

Eventually, for the last half-hour of the training session, we got to play a mini game of ice hockey...

AKA my favourite part of the session.

I went back to the other side of the ice, where we were separated into jumper colours (Blue Vs. Black). I was on blue team. 

I won't get into too much detail about the game, but I was grinning like a maniac the whole time. Sweat dripped down my face, my back was soaked, and my skates were a bit loose (Or maybe my feet were numb) but still, I loved every second of it. A moment that stuck out for me was when I completely rammed a dude onto his ass just to get the puck. 

I never felt so good in my life.

Another time would be when I fell and looked to my teammate, who had a black team member on top of him. He grinned, and I grinned back before scrambled to my feet again, chasing after the puck. 

Soon after the game finished, and that was kind of that.

I took off the armour - with some help - and chatted to one of the goalies, who I warmed up with. He was pretty cool and was impressed at how well I did, especially since that was my first time ever doing ice hockey.

I soon went home, the only injury being sore feet and a pulled muscle right at the top of my leg (Where the leg joins the torso)

I think I've fallen in love with ice hockey.

- J

Word count: 1015