First time on the ice.
 

So I got on the ice for the first time, and wow, it was awesome,

I sucked compared to all my team mates but I will get better, gotta be crap before you can be good.

Mind you for a first time skater I can keep my balance standing up, however doing some of the drills last night I failed , I can turn I can skate forward but the more advanced stuff we will be doing like crossovers I know I am not gonna be able to do em.

I also fell last night spun around landed right on my left side of my back, winded knocked out of me and searing pain in the lower back, happened in the first 10 minutes on the ice, I toughed it out and stayed on my feet even though my feet hurt like hell, and my back was killing me.

things I learned last night, my team mates are not true beginners like me they can all skate cept for a few handfuls, everyone is very supportive, I am at the right place. I also recognized my strengths.

Strengths:
- I can stay on my feet majority of the time balance is not the best but I can stay up.
- I noticed the good skaters are really crappy at stick handling / passing the puck, I think that means they have never handled a stick and a puck before. I can pass and shoot decent.
- when we did the "horse shoe drill" I was able to lead my passes from tape to tape. Coach was impressed by this considering this is my first time passing a puck to someone.

Weaknesses:

-Skating. to sum it up, my skating is brutal, however I notice at times my feet would "kick" out at times. I attribute that to my skates needing to be sharpened.
-Endurance. When I played shinny with my friend tom for the first time in febuary I played 2 shifts and was gassed. I spent a 1 hour 15 minutes on the ice, and was never winded, I attribute this to the excellent training I have had from my personal trainer at the gym :) ( I even texted her to let her know )

I am hooked, its so much fun I am meeting some nice people who enjoy the game and play at my level.

I can only get better from here. :yo:

I would attribute the "kicking" out at times to because it was your first time on skates. :laugh:

Keep at it, it takes a lot of practice but like anything, with practice you will get better.

Oilers/Oil Kings fan.... Last night... Hour 15 ... You wouldn't happen to be taking the NCHL beginner program (Fall I) in Edmonton would you? If so I'm in your class! I was the fat guy in orange, and will be blue team #42 when our jerseys show up.


Weather or not we are in the same class I totally agree with your sentiment, hockey is awesome even if you suck at it (which I do, thus taking the beginner class for a second time). :D

hockey is fun. hope you have a close outdoor rink to play at during the winter, free hockey is very fun.

LOL no way, yeah I was wearing the powder blue jersey.

It's pretty legit, right??

I am getting back into it after not having skated since I was 16, and I'm 29 now. Had my evaluations last week and at first I thought, "Man, I'm not used to doing this in my adult body!" Got used to the edges and did okay, ended up being placed at C3. But my goodness was it exhilirating!

Glad you enjoyed yourself!

Ah yes, I thought so. I recall thinking: 'that dude's pretty wobbly but at least he's got a good shot' :)

I'm glad you enjoyed it despite the discomfort, you looked pretty miserable at a couple points, and I remember from my first time around in the program that a couple of the more beginner guys ended up getting discouraged and dropping out after a couple classes. I was by far the most 'unseasoned' guy on the ice that go-round but I'm glad I stuck it out and finished the program it was totally worth the pain.

The skating coach this time around is 100% better too, even in just the one class so far I noticed an improvement in my stride thanks to his tips.

A couple things I found helped that you might find useful: Between sessions try and get a couple bike rides in, it makes your legs stronger and I found it helps with the back pain. Second, maybe lose the shoulder pads for the skating sessions. I had some major back pain in my session and found that losing the added weight of the shoulder pads helped that somewhat. Put them back on for the hockey-centric sessions though, I learned that lesson the hard way when I put my unprotected shoulder into the edge of the boards, the bruise was epic.

See you next Wednesday :D

this is awesome, i have played my whole life but i have been thinking about setting up a beginners program in Calgary and help people enjoy the game. alot of people get discouraged and dont even bother trying. but even in its lowest quality hockey is so much fun. i'll keep checking in this thread because i love reading the storys of first time players.

pleeeease please do it. not because i live in calgary or will ever get to take advantage of this if you do, but because i'm also a beginner and i am L O V I N G it. feels like an itch that has needed to be scratched for twenty years. it's true it's really hard to get into if you're a true beginner (like me) but i have found the rec league hockey community SO welcoming and am so grateful and excited to do this for the rest of my life...

what he said. I'm in the US, so I won't benefit from this, but I feel the same way. It's tough to get started in a lot of places. Stuff that's listed as beginner hockey ends up having B and C league guys showing up for ice time. Usually very nice, but some of them don't understand that they need to give beginners some breathing room

Welcome to the New Skater Club. It gets even more fun when your coach singles you out for a drill because you've improved so much.