The RinkFor the not so ready for prime-time players, coaches, referees, and the people that have to live with them. Discuss experiences in local leagues, coaching tips, equipment, and training.
To people who started playing ice-hockey later down the road
I started to play when i was 11. My trademarks was just my skating along with toughness, not that fast but werry werry smooth skater. It came naturally for me.
My son is 3 yeras old now and in 10 days him and i are going on ice. He learned to skate in November 2004 just 2 years and 4 months old. we skated orund 70 times this past winter and he just loves it. It seems like he was born to play. He even got in to a pratice with 5 and 6 yearolds ( in sweden their leauge is called Björnligan). Their coach dropped his jaw when he sa Eric skate. He was skating better then all on that team.
To night it was raining cats and dogs here but we played street hockey for 2 hours befoure i litterally carried him in the house, he was soaking wet but didnt want to stop playing.
What steps did you take before joining a rec league or whatever?
I couldnt even rollerblade at the end of the last NHL season (I was 25-26). So I spent alot of that summer rollerblading on trails and playing in a few roller hockey games. once winter came I picked up a sweet package of hockey gear on ebay for $200 and started ice skating. I was surprised by ho w much I had improved from all the roller blading (strengthened ankles/legs). I play open hockey weekly now and can skate fairly well and can skate backwards fairy well (not great). So basicly it took me about 1 year of skating/rollerbading to become a respectable skater. I can skate fast, but dont stop so well. The slower I skate the worse my balance so I usually skate as fast as I can! (Plus people get out of my way!) A couple of years ago i would never have imagined being able to pick up all those skills, so its definity not impossible if you havnt been playing since you were 2.
Should say that i played my last year with Clemensnäs HC in div 1 when i totally f.....up my knee. Every thing that could break did so including my patella
Dont know in english but we have SEL, Allsvenskan, div 1, div 2, div 3 and div 4 in senior hockey
Well, around Christmas I picked up a pair of Vapor's and I have gone skating about 10-15 times. I can hockey stop fine and my speed is good, I just have a few things I need to work on (skating backwards is a big one).
My son is 3 yeras old now and in 10 days him and i are going on ice. He learned to skate in November 2004 just 2 years and 4 months old. we skated orund 70 times this past winter and he just loves it. It seems like he was born to play. He even got in to a pratice with 5 and 6 yearolds ( in sweden their leauge is called Björnligan). Their coach dropped his jaw when he sa Eric skate. He was skating better then all on that team...
So, he'll be eligible for the draft around 2020?
}:-)>
I started to learn how to skate last September...I wish I'd done it much earlier in my life (I am now 37). But I am improving... I started on figure skates to learn balance, and I recently graduated to hockey skates. It's going good...it's stopping where I have trouble. By the time I'm 38, I should be good enough to be a consistent healthy scratch in a beer league.
I have been playing for about 16 months. My skating has progressed in a very linear fashion. I am now competant when playing in low level rec leagues but against faster players in higher leagues, I have trouble with my overall skating. It takes a long time to be strong on your skates unless you are a natural.
What steps did you take before joining a rec league or whatever?
I taught myself how to skate beginning age 15, then tried to play outdoor pond hockey. The first year I was hideously bad and could
hardly move.One problem was I had bought a pair garage sale skates 2 sizes too large. The next year, I went out and got a pair of second hand, fitted skates.Best descision-ever. I then could play outdoor shinny, although my skills were considerably lacking. The local university offered a 'beginner shinny' program which I joined and played in every year.Even at that level, I was one of the worst players every year(bad reflexes), even took up goaltending for a few years(they let goalies play free, and I got to handle the puck more). I'm at a skill level which probably matches that of your average 10 year old. My skating is tolerable, but not overly fast.
My puck handling is tolerable, my puck retriving and past recieving are atrocious.I can't usually get a very good shot off. On the other hand, I do nice, hard, tape to tape passes from anywhere in the rink. Then again, I haven't played in a few years now, but am still fairly young so can always go back...
I couldnt even rollerblade at the end of the last NHL season (I was 25-26). So I spent alot of that summer
I've been rollerblading off and on for around 15 years (Since my early teens). I still can't do it well,sidewalk wise, have to have a flat,clean surface and I'm fine. Will not use them as a mode of transportation, because I'd get injured. I have a slightly uneven gait, which probably makes it worse.
What steps did you take before joining a rec league or whatever?
I started playing when I was 31. I took some skating lessons and played my first drop-in about a month later. I was all over the ice an horrible. I joined a novice league about a week later. Then joined my first B/C rec league about 1 yr after starting. I can now do just about anything on skates: hockey stops, tight turns, cross-overs (forward and backwards), T-stops, jumps, pivots (though I still drag a little going from forward to backwards), explosive starts (ie penguin running).
I highly recommend Laura Stamm's book/DVD if you want to improve.
Grew up skating a few times a year, but could never do anything besides going straight ahead, so I always had the basic stride but nothing else. Started rollerblading in my mid-twenties, and gradually began blading backwards, pivoting etc and decided that if I could pick it up on blades, why not skates? Had a schoolmate that played pickup twice a week and there was general skating an hour before that, so I spent four months just skating a few times a week and then started playing pickup. That was four or five years ago now.
Stopping just clicked for me. I was two months trying to do it and never got it once. This one day, though, I'm heading for the end boards and just turn my heels and bam! Perfect stop. I'm pretty consistent with it now, although to this day I only stop with my toes pointing to the right, never to the left.
What steps did you take before joining a rec league or whatever?
Well I never played hockey before I was 10, but I have been skating since I was like 4 or something. But then I got a sports injury and got fat, since then I've dropped the weight and practiced my skating, and its back. I do lots of weight, ploymetric and resistance exercise and of course just free skate. Rec leagues can be fun, but if your a good skater its a little annoying if you play against guys who can't. If they are my friends I could care less if they are on shoes though.
the hockey bug really bit me around 14-15...I spent countless hours skating at the local rink ( I grew up with it in my backyard) and have basically taught myself how to do almost everything...skating, stopping, shooting, passing...I could use some improvement laterally, but I am in a beer league with some guys from work, the top division...when I play well I fit in, and when I don't...well...thats a different story.
the tough thing about starting late isn't so much the fundamentals, but the knowledge of where to be on the ice in correlation to the puck...that's the thing I have the most trouble with.
Taught myself to roller blade at age 21. Them my last semester at University I needed 1 credit hour to be considered a full-time student, so I bought a pair of hockey skates and took a skating course (PE credit).
It was great because I learned how to hockey stop, skate backwards, and some power skating.
Later that same semester I joined an intramural hockey team and have been playing on ice and roller hockey teams ever since for the last 12 years.
Have fun with it, and do it whenever you can. I learned in 2-4 weeks for rollerblading, but was thrown in an inline game not knowing how to skate, and I'm a goalie, but that was the best learning experience for me because now i'm a pretty good skater. On ice, the rollerblading kind of carried over, a goalie in there also, I learned everything rather quick, skating was already there, but I did get faster in my pads, and the stopping came within a week or so, but all in all, just have fun with it, and the time will fly right by.
i'm playing in my first season of ice hockey (summer league) at the age of 30 and i'm loving it. prior to this summer, i played one fall season of roller hockey and played pickup roller for about 1/2 year prior to that.
skating wasn't that difficult for me to pick up since i had been on skis since the age of 3 (helps with edge-work) and have been ice skating and rollerblading on and off through the years. don't get me wrong, i am by no means a great skater and i try to learn and improve with every practice. i can crossover both way going forward (left stronger than right), same going backwards and can stop in both directions.
i find that the best way to improve is to concentrate and work hard in practice. playing in league games is also a great way to improve because under game conditions, your adrenaline is pumping and you think less about skating on a conscious level and just do it.
the most important thing is to get out there and have fun and not feel self-conscious about it
Started Inline when I was 16 on a whim, put in a half hour everyday at the park learning how to not fall. Spent 2 years on and off with this until I got pretty confident on my skates then switched to ice skating this past december. Learned the differences through A LOT of open skate sessions (4 hours a few times) and now I can do a lot of basic and intermediate hockey moves easily.
I started skating when i was 13, and boy was I terrible. My skates were 2 sizes too big so I skated like a bumbling fool. The next year I joined the nearest bantam age team (It was in a small town so the fact that i sucked didn't matter) I played half of that season and was still not a good skater.
Fast forward about 9-10 years I picked up skating again about 3 years ago I got a new set of rollerblades and started skating around. Last winter I got new skates at a real hockey store ( Suter's gold medal sports) and was fitted with a pair of skates that fit me well. I have since played alot of shinny and some open hockey. My skating has improved by leaps and bounds. That being said I am no Kovalchuk. I plan on joining a level b rec leauge this fall, and am pretty excited about it.
What steps did you take before joining a rec league or whatever?
marios comeback inspired me to learn...i was about 22. i started by wearing a pair of cheap roller blades around my apartment after work everyday just to get the feeling of skating down. once i felt comfortable keeping my balance and making turns etc., i bought gloves and a stick and started playing pickup in-line hockey. i pretty much learned the game and the skills and skating with inline and that lasted a whole summer ~3-4 months. before i even stepped on the ice, i learned how to do backwards crossovers and skate backwards at good rates of speed all using in-line skates.
then i bought hockey equipment and joined an adult "D" league and learned the game on ice. ice skating vs. roller blading there are some subtle differences, but personally, i think ice skating is much easier. stopping is easier and you can take turns harder. after about 2 years of playing ice on a fairly regular basis (3 times per month), i got to the point where i was a D league all-star and moved up to C and held my own...
i would guess if you have any athleticism at all and you play regularly, you should be able to be a solid player in 2 or 3 years... ONE WORD OF ADVICE: when you buy hockey equipment and learn to ice skate, PUSH YOURSELF. don't ease into it and go slow, but rather go faster than you may be comfortable with and don't be afraid of falling. with equipment on, falling won't hurt, and you will find by learning this way your learning curve will be much steeper and you'll learn faster.
I started playing when I was 31. I took some skating lessons and played my first drop-in about a month later. I was all over the ice an horrible. I joined a novice league about a week later. Then joined my first B/C rec league about 1 yr after starting. I can now do just about anything on skates: hockey stops, tight turns, cross-overs (forward and backwards), T-stops, jumps, pivots (though I still drag a little going from forward to backwards), explosive starts (ie penguin running).
I highly recommend Laura Stamm's book/DVD if you want to improve.
you sound exacly like me, i too started at 31, hadn't been in skates since 12( and I was horrible!) couldn't do anything but stuck with it. Went to public skate as much as possible, then to hockey specfic classes and eventually joined a team. now 6 years later I'm still on the team which has moved up two divisions and still takes advanced classes.
Everyone here has good advice, spend the $$ on equipment, you have the motivation to stick with it. I guess the one thing that helped be was staying in shape off the ice. Early skaters get tired a lot quicker as you are working harder with less smooth strides. Once your energy leaves your balences goes to heck. Our first season our team stocked with newbies got hammered in the 3rd period because we were winded. A solid training effort, with weights especially Squats and Deads helped me out a whole lot. I like interval training as well, I think it mimicks the demands of Ice hockey better than continous cardio.I have seen both male and female horrid skaters get better with time, and everyone enjoys this sport more than any they have tried. Don't get to be in your 50's and think geeze I should have tried that it might have been fun, do it now while you can.
I started when i was around 27...began with hockey inline skates and skating on basketball courts...forced me to learn how to turn really well. Gradually got all the equip needed for ice and started playing pickups. Playing a ton really helped me. Two pickups a week as well as played in to adult hockey leauges. Plus I started playing with guys who played some college and that forced me to get my skating. After a couple of years I started playing in a much higher league...i could keep up as a defensive center because of my speed but I couldn't be as offensive against guys playing D who played college, heh. Only thing I still haven't been able to master his hockeystopping to my right...guess I'm sugarfooted, heh. Have the same problem skiing though.
