I had my second Learn To Play Hockey session last night- or my first full one, I guess. It was a little discouraging. A bunch of the lower level skaters seem to have dropped out, leaving a core group of guys who all play together, and seem to be doing this as a refresher or practice session. I think I can safely say that I'm one of the worst skaters on the ice now. Since I'm less than outgoing, I'm also the quiet guy who doesn't know what I'm doing. I was able to do the skating drill we started with pretty well, and even managed to muddle my way through the stop and shoot drill. The passing drill... not so much, especially on the backhand. It was a little frustrating- both for me and, I'm sure, the more advanced players I was paired with. We ended the night with a scrimmage. Yeah- that went well. I had no idea what I was doing, and spent at least some of the time on my arse. At least I got out there and did it. Not to make excuses, but early in the skating drills I hit the board head on and jammed my skates up on my toes, so I was unsteady on my skates for a good part of the night. I kept trying to get it sorted, but it finally took fully unlacing and re-lacing my skates to get it back to normal. In the dressing room, the 'in group', including the goalies, were incredibly dismissive of the newer skaters skill.
Discouraging, but I'm not giving up! I've decided that, besides having to skate more, I need to be a little more aggressive, and not worry about screwing up so much. It's unlike me, but I just need to not care what the others think of my abilities. Besides, I don't plan on playing within the DU rec league system, so once this program is over, I'll be moving on.
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