Cool! and you’re not the oldest player I know. A friend of mine and his rec league team are mostly 40+, and beat the local college team a few weeks ago.
Ever since reading this post I’ve been thinking about learning to skate so I can play some hockey. How much money does it take to get started? Only thing is I can’t even skate.
No kidding. It was, la la la, skating along BANG lying on the ice staring up at the sky.
Gordie Howe was 52 when he retired from the NHL!
For just skating lessons you won’t require much. And before hockey getting the fundamentals of skating is important.
Well this is in CND funds so you may need to adjust.
A decent pair of new skates…will run from $69 to $199 depending on what you are looking for, whether new or used… If you are just learning I’d suggest a used pair.
A Helmet starts around $49. DO NOT BUY USED!!! BUY NEW AND MAKE SURE IT IS FITTED PROPERLY FOR YOU! This equipment is highly recommended! Sure it may make you feel you look silly but ice is hard and when learning you are going to fall. Don’t worry even great skaters fall now and then. But protecting your noggin is important. Some come with face cages some not. The cage is for protecting against sticks and what not but falling forward (Which is better than falling backward). It could protect a little.
Then there is the cost of the lessons. Some city rinks offer learn to skate programs some private rinks offer it. The costs depends on who offers and how well funded they are.
If you are older IE not a kid or teen I’d suggest a private one on one lesson . The reason is, the older you are the more afraid of falling and slipping you become. You will gain more confidence with the one person working with you. Plus they can give you immediate tips which helps.
Remember this is a new skill and teaching muscles things they haven’t done before. Don’t get frustrated if it takes a few times before you can actually start a glide. You may just be doing baby steps on the ice. Don’t give up. Just keep trying.
When falling… don’t lean back wards always lean forward. You will find when losing your balance you may naturally start pinwheeling your arms and leaning back wards try to lean forwards.
Finally HAVE FUN.
Once you have the fundementals (Including a few I am missing) Hockey becomes a whole new set of rules and becomes more expensive.
More of a sigh that I waited all this time. Watching the younger guys flying down the ice makes me wish I did this at least 10 years and 40 pounds earlier.
I’m having this mental picture of King looking like one of the “Hanson brothers” skating around saying “Gordie Howe, Eddie Shore? Old time hockey?”
I lived in Minnesota for most of my childhood, yet didn’t learn to skate until I was 36 (!). And I only started learning how to skate (at Chelsea Piers in New York) when a co-worker playing hockey at the adult rec league their told me they had a beginner’s league. I figured what the heck, so I first signed up for weekly skating lessons (figure skating!). That was a great help, because I first learned how to balance on my blades, how to use my edges, and how to do cross-over turns.
I then went to the rink every weekend and did nothing but learn how to hockey-stop for like a month, both sides. Once I was confident I could stop on a dime from either direction, I was fearless.
So about two months into my skating lesson, I called up the coordinator of the beginner’s league, wondering when the next season started. He said, 'go out and buy some gear, there’s a game on saturday and you’re playing! :eek: I tried to tell him that I couldn’t skate backwards yet or anything, but he said ‘if you can stand up on your skates, you’ll be fine’. Well, what followed was a three-act greek tragi-comedy as I tried to buy my gear and actually put it on the first time.
I ended up playing for about three years, and only stopped because of a trans-ocean move. I was captain of the team within three months, was the second-leading scorer my second year…and our leading scorer was not only a very famous artist, he was over 60 years old and could still skate around me like I was a tripod :eek: If I recall correctly I ended up with 50 points in 70 total games. Our greatest win was only having 7 people show up for a game, and we beat our arch rivals (who had a full bench) 3-2. I literally was on the ice the entire third period. Talk about almost passing out…
Anyway, my advice: Get new skates. Spend a bit more than you’d like and get nice ones - ones that you can have the rink heat up, so you can put them on your feet while they cool, so they ‘mold’ to the shape of your feet. Talk to people before deciding on where to buy your skates - try to go to a hockey store, not a general sports store; too big of a risk of the clerk not knowing enough about hockey skates to be useful. When buying your skate make sure you tell the attendantt if you have wide feet or not; getting narrow skates will be pure torture.
Learn how to hockey-stop both directions. You will almost always have a strong side and a weak side when it comes to stopping, cross-overs, reversing to go backwards etc, take every chance you get to practice your weak side.
Learn to keep your HEAD UP; people get hurt when they skate with their head down. Keep your kneeds bent and slightly in front of you - yes it will make your thighs burn and the middle of your back sore at first - welcome to hockey! If you don’t do any now, I’d definitely recommend some light weight-lifting to strengthen your lower back muscles.
Finally - what I did the last year or so that -really- helped me, both in terms of skating and in terms of learning more about hockey, I got into hockey officiating. Leagues are always looking for more refs, and even as a beginner skater you can still officiate kid’s leagues. I started out doing 7-9yr old league games on the weekends. It partially sucked because they start so early (6am starts…groan…) but man, it was fantastic, basically getting paid to get ice time. And after a few months I had worked up to handling some high school league matches, which as you can imagine in NY City was very very high level stuff. Seriously kept me on my toes; those kids were definitely far, far better skaters than I will ever be. (As an aside, a lot of the coaches and parents were complete assholes. But 99.99% of the kids on the ice were the very picture of polite and respectful to the officials and the coaches. It restored my faith in our future, I tell ya’).
I don’t know where you are, but here’s NY’s officiating program- might find more info there. And of course teams are almost always looking for people to help out coaching - I can’t wait for my little one (due date early January!) to get hold enough to start skating!
Wow DragonAsh that’s all great advice! I can use some of that too. Especially working on my stops.
WEEK 2: Better him than me… no not really.
Well Despite my initial claims of getting on a treadmill and whatnot I found no time (read that as I made no time) to get on the blasted thing. I did discover my skates were a size too big and got a better pair (used) and went out for a skate a few prior to my Monday lesson. I completely stank up the ice and my feet hurt. Also, as I was outside, I was cold, and lonely… and there were wolves after me.
Onto the Monday Lesson. Well first as I was rushed to my gear together due to a pair of dead racoons needing to be removed from a hidden window well under my deck… (longer smellier story to go with that) I left behind two vital piece of equipment, My water bottle and my Jock pants. Luckily as no pucks would be flying I was able to do without… but I wouldn’t do that again.
We re did balance excersises. I didn’t fall but boy did I wobble.
We worked a good 15 to 20 minutes on stopping. Yeesh… I’m still a failure at that. Not sure where I’m going wrong but I’m doing something really wrong as my back leg and foot started hurting in a way I’m sure they shouldn’t have. I did one halfway decent stop.
Then we were working on speed and stopping. By the end I was wiped. Looked up… 30 minutes to go. OH DEAR LORD IN HEAVEN. NOOOOOOOOO! I was tired but I was ready to keep going.
That is when I noticed my friend wasn’t looking too well. They made him sit on the bench which was for the best. We had a two minute water break. Hooray we didn’t have that last week. Oh wait! I don’t have a bottle… WELL HELL!
Back to drills. A minute and a half of back and forth down teh ice as fast as we could stopping when teh whistle blew. Of course with my newly acquired stopping skills I breezed through… oh wait that was a halucination. No instead I’d coast and veer and then try to get back to where I need to go. By the end I was almost out of breath.
We got to rest for a second. Then he dropped our sticks in lovely rows of four. Oh know I know what this is from my son’s early hockey lessons.
My friend returned to the ice. He looked a little grey but said he was ready to go.
Then it was time to really punish us. The fast start essentially we had to do three big quick steps over teh sticks and skate off quickly and… oh great stop quickly.
Wow that was hard, especially when you have pontoons for feet. I finally got a chance to fall as my skate hit someones stick and slipped behind me. My knees hit the ice and normally, with my weight, that would have meant I’d have two crushed puddles between my Femur and Tibula. Thank you shin guards. It was like landing on two fluffy pillows.
Only my pride was hurt.
Well By the time we made it to the end I had nothing in the tank. But I was proud to make it through and I felt better than I did last week.
Not so much for my friend. I won’t say what happened next but I’m glad I didn’t feel that bad. He did recover but it did take a lot out of him. I was worried about him but Trooper that he is he’s still game for next week! He’ll do better I’m sure of it.
Anyway… plan for this week. Treadmill (DEFINITELY THIS TIME) Hit the ice and practice practice practice stopping!!
Can’t wait till next week. Two more weeks till we get the pucks)
Good stuff. You will be working on your deke move next week. From a 50 year old player who learnt to skate in my mid 30’s, one thing you’ll find when you start playing, you will likely be the only 40 something improving game over game - thats a great feeling.
But one word - get on the treadmill. Get fit to play hockey, don’t play hockey to get fit. I have seen heart attacks in the league I play in, and beer league hockey players dieing from cardiac arrests is way too common.
We’ll be working on tight turns and stops next week. I think the deking comes once we bring the puck into things. The program is not easy but they also realize it is an adult beginner program so no one is being forced to go all out until they drop. They are trying to build balance speed and endurance over the weeks.
I agree whole heartedly. I intend to get myself in better shape as this goes on by using the treadmill. In fact, I will be doing 20 minutes of cardio tonight. In the meantime now I also pace myself during practices. I’m not going to be a superstar or enter the NHL so I’m not going to push myself far beyond what I can do. I hope to improve my fitness level over the time not just by playing but I’m not going to push myself into a heart attack.
WEEK 3: Oh God I’m gonna Die
Well despite my poor skills in stopping the Coach is not putting the breaks on. In fact he just came back from Knee surgery (Friday!?!?!) I could have misheard that it was to be next Friday.
So again Drills Drills Drills. Back and forth at full speed 6 times I missed the last two as I found much to my chagrin my skates weren’t tight enough causing my ankles to scream bloody murder to me.
One of the instructors thought it was something else as I slumped on the boards… “If your gonna puke do it off the ice” To which a panted “No its my ankle!” I went to the bench, reited and found I had better control and far less pain. Dolt that I am. Apparently they mistook me for my freind (Who is foot shorter and 2 feet thinner than I… yeah last week whe I said he felt bad I left out teh fact that he did puke… but not on the ice)
Then once we were all recovering from dying, the coach had a nifty new drill…. A nasty horrible little surprise. Lying flat on the ice we had to get ourselves up and skate hard. But once the instructor blew the whistle, we had to stop drop and do it again. DEAR LORD IN HEAVEN I’M READY TO DIE!!!
The first two times weren’t bad, but I found it harder and more painful to lift my heavy frame off the ice. And Stopping?!?! Well I’m better now it only takes half the ice length to stop. No I was sliding on my gut and scrambling to get up. Woof.
Thank God for water breaks… I needed that because by that point my arms and legs were rubber.
The last drills Tight turns. Not too bad except I found I was stopping…
Wait a minute. So when I try to stop I turn and when I try to turn I stop. Yegads! I think I have made an important discovery… I’m and idiot. (Ok the discovery of my idiocy may not be important to you or news to my wife)
Well it was tough and a few times I thought I’d not make it. But Man it was worth it. 3 down… 7 to go with a break for Christmas… Then our first game!
Until then practice… and treadmill… I swear this week… ok next week.
Great update, I’m enjoying living vicariously through you. I played inline hockey for years and a couple sessions of ice hockey (inline - intermediate league, ice - beginners) many years ago. You did inspire me to look-up similar hockey classes at my local ice rink but :eek: is it incredibly expensive. Over $100.00 per hour class!!
MeanJoe
The key to stops and turning - learn to trust the edges of your skate! Practice trying to balance on one leg at a time, your body/center of gravity right over the skate, first on the outside edge of your skate then your inside edge. That is where you do your turning and stopping.
Keep it up! I can’t wait to hear about your first game!!! Man I wish I was back playing…but not much of an adult rec hockey league going on here in Ol’ Blighty, near as I can tell…
**WEEK 4: ** That’s not just my Pride I hurt
Well after a weeks hiatus it’s back to work. I feared the overindulging over the holiday’s would mean that I would be in real trouble out there. Luckily not so… well I was huffing and puffing during stretching but that isn’t exactly new. As soon as I can shed that force Field (which I refer to as my fat gut) that impedes my mobility the better.
We went through some of the old drills and a few new ones. I made it through 2 minutes of skating back and forth and though tired and sweating, I was surprised to see that I made it through with greater ease than last time. Then came the final balance drill. Lifting your stick to chest level and kicking it and crossing over as our leg comes down.
Made it there and on the way back I did the one thing I know I wasn’t supposed to. I leaned back as I lost balance. WHAM! Right on my back… or rather backside. As I landed it felt as if the rest of my girth had decided to continue on through the ice. Of course, seeing as ice doesn’t allow that to happen I merely got a nasty feeling of being compressed. OIGGGGAAAHHH!
I immediatly… OK slowly got up and continued to the end. Woof that hurt. luckily we had a Water break. After which it was time to learn to pass. (A nice long break as we watched and learned) Easy peasy! This was going to be a piece of cake with a side o’ pie.
We paired up and began short quick passes. Huh, nothing to it. Wait a minute, what is that horrible stabbing sensation? Is that my lower back? What the hell is that hurting. Sweet Jesus I can’t hold my stick!!! My leg is numb. What did I do?!?!
Apparently you can’t just bend over and pass, your back should be straight. So my poor posture combined with the earlier fall made it agony to finish the exercise. Another lesson about moving the puck down the ice gave me the chance to shift my weight and stretch it out.
I was able to complete the last few drills and was able to build up speed. It didn’t hurt that much except my right arm seemed to hurt more.
Today, I’m sore all over like a bruised bag of flabby meat. Still can’t wait to get out there again and hopefully improve. That is if I can ever walk again.
Until next week… ow.
Week 5: If you can’t pass you can’t play… or Better late than never
Sorry for the late post, for anyone still reading these.
So this week it was shooting and passing time. After a few balance exercises which I had little problem with we were off to making noise with the pucks against the boards. Well that was the plan.
Once again my posture was terrible so the crawling backache came up. The coach also thinks my stick’s too big. Hmmm that could be used as a good euphemism well I would have thought that if I wasn’t thinking owmybackowmybackowmybackow… Must work on posture!
Also I seem to have trouble doing the shift from one foot to the other when doing a wrist shot so I am using only my upper body. Something I can work on.
The next exercises were give and go sessions where you skate and pass and take a pass and… Woo hoo shoot at the net. As the idiot who decided to be first I make a pass along the boards. Nice and hard… along the boards (another double entendre! Enjoy the Veal folks I’m here every Monday night) what a great shot. Well except the coach was closer to the face off space over the blue line. We both stared blankly at the puck as it whizzed by and then with a shout of SKATE I meekly raced after the puck to wait for the other 30 people to get their turn before I could try again.
By that time my friend showed up with 15 minutes left to the session. He was stuck on the train agonizing about the delays! Now there is dedication. Despite only geeting 10 or 15 minutes on the ice he dressed and got out there! Good for him!
Next we tried to pass anticipating another skater’s position while they are in motion. I did much better. Well, except when I was to take the pass I over skated and tumbled as I tried to turn around. THUMP!!! At least I landed on my front, unlike a team mate how rang his bell on the ice and had to be taken off for 5 minutes to make sure he was ok. (He was)
By the end my only real problem is my stopping (still weak and when I move faster really weak! Keeping my head up (very important to avoid dangerous contact), my puck control my passing, my speed and my posture. (Other than that what have the Romans really done for us?)
I did get on the treadmill and have occasionally used the stairs to my office (4 floors whoo ow)
So there is a start. Hopefully I can get some extra ice time to work on my stops.
Until next time I’ll try to avoid icing the puck when passing six feet to the side of me.
Week 6: Tight, loose, tight or He shoots. HE SCORES!!!
Well what an exciting session this week!
I took a hacksaw to my stick to shorten it enough to fix my back problem. (sorta worked)
So it was back to warm up drills and, of course, my first problem of the night (as if I couldn’t go a week without some screw up). My left skate was too loose. After a few wobbles I hit the bench and reefed ‘em tight.
Once on the ice it was nice and stable. Now that felt good.
Felt being the key word as gradually I began to lose sensation in my toes. Not my arches though. Nope those burned with the fires of Hades during a nippy day outside, when natural gas prices are particularly low.
I waited till water break time to loosen them again. The came one last Drill. Pass skate pass skate then shoot on the net. My first shot on a goalie. I was able to pass nicely. I skated… passably and then I shot….
I SCORED!!!
On my own goalie. Well, I was supposed to. My back was creaking a little. My arches ached from my lame attempt at Hockey/foot bondage, but I got through it. Then they called us to the bench. Surprise! We were to have a twenty minute shinny!!
I skated to centre ice as no one else would. I took the face off and won! Of course it didn’t get to the defense man, instead it went to my winger. Down the ice I lumbered trying to pick up speed, turning and stopping. I passed once, and then chased the puck around until my shift was over. My God what fun!
The next makeshift line was scored on, twice. Then the other team iced the puck and out I came, to Centre again. Another face off another win. Another puck to the wrong player. Round and round we went and then I got a break away. Down the boards I went. The other guys were smaller and faster One caught me and I tried to bounce the puck of the board to escape. Of course I wasn’t looking at much but the puck. Maybe there was someone else there, maybe not. I tried to muscle past the other player getting close to the net but I lost the puck as I rounded behind the net. My skate hit plastic on the edge and I nearly lost it.
They cleared the puck and I got out of the zone. Then it went back and I tried to stop and turn. Down I went. Up I got again. Chased the puck and….
They score.
3-0 and we were done.
The entire game I felt no pains no fear, just the joy of chasing that frozen piece of black rubber down the ice.
We lost, but no one cared because it was such a joy!
I can’t wait till next week
Until next week, I’m still an old fart but when I get on the Ice I’m a kid again.
Week 7: Getting nowhere fast backwards
Not sure if anyone is bothering to read this anymore but what the hey I enjoy updating this.
This week I went to a Shinny game Friday (so I guess technically that was last week but as it is in this week’s update your are stuck with the anomaly. So there!) What an eye opener that was. A full hour and 15 minutes of play was exhausting. The fact that I was not on the ice the entire time didn’t make things better.
However, I didn’t feel bad except when my leg seized up on my final breakaway. It was fun but an eye opener too. We didn’t pass, poorly shot, and stayed on the ice too long. The other team was better prepared and faster. They also have two big goobers I don’t want to run into, even accidentally.
We also didn’t have a full team our side was a hodgepodge of players so it is hard to determine how our team will fair.
Sunday I went to a public skate to work on just moving forward, and stopping. I must have done something wrong as I had a twinge in my back. (MAN do I come off as a crotchety old coot and a wreck… MY BACK HURTS! MY FEET HURT! IT’S TOO COLD ON THE ICE! … MUSIC ISN’T AS GOOD AS WHEN I WAS A KID HEY YOU KIDS GET OFF MY LAWN)
Monday! Hooray another practice hopefully a shinny too. First the stretches this time without any lead… do it yourself. I remembered all I could and watched others for one’s I forgot… though, I’m not sure it was wise to imitate that one guy wearing his helmet backwards and thumping his face on the ice.
The next drill 2 on none… That is two players rushing to the goalie passing and shooting with no other defenders. We were all chastised for looking like old men and going so slowly.
Next 2 on one: same as before except there is one defender. I got a compliment on my hard pass which avoided the Defender even though I was a little off missing the passie… Passedtoo? passedat? The other dude going up ice with me.
The last half was not a shinny. It was a twenty minutes I hated and made me skate around with my head down like a pouty little kid. Backwards skating. I moved in all of the back and forth moves a total of 2 inches. I strained and seated and tried and could not move a bit!
I hated it! I was the only person out of the two teams on the ice who couldn’t do it. Some moves slowly and with unsureness but they moved. I sat there alone on the opposite side of the rink just struggling. Eventually I was told to practice my forward skating… sigh.
How foolish I looked. The only thing I could say was there was no way I’d be on the Defense.
2 weeks left till our first real game. We’re going to do some extra practice to get our position and tactics up to snuff to beat the other team’s speed. Me I have to try to get myself moving backwards
Until next week… grumble sulk grumble.
I hadn’t noticed you updating these, but I’m glad I saw it today and got all caught up! It sounds like you’re having a blast out there, despite the pain!
I’m kind of jealous…I’m really turning into a hockey nut, even though I can’t skate and have never played! My husband bought me a pair of skates this weekend (a figure skating blade, not hockey blades), so I’ll hopefully have a chance soon to start skating. I figure if I can more or less get the hang of that, then I might ask for a stick and hockey skates eventually! In the meantime, these skates are rather pretty and will be great for casual skating in the park.
