Power skating camps abound for kids, but camps intended for adult beginners are hard to find. I'm lucky that Pete Belliveau (former coach of the Dalhousie Tigers men's team) regularly offers power skating and puck skills camps in the Halifax area. I've done three of his camps before - I had to take some time off when I was pregnant - so I was looking forward to starting his new camp this weekend.
The cool thing about Pete's camps is that they're open to men and women, and I'm always impressed with the men who have the nerve to show up. It's not unusual for a woman my age to be learning hockey as an adult, and the classes are indeed about 80% female. But it takes a lot of nerve to admit, as a Canadian man, that you can't skate, that you never learned how to play "Canada's game" when you were a kid. The reality is, there are lots of boys out there whose parents didn't put them in hockey for one reason or another, or who immigrated to Canada at a later age, or who were put off by the macho attitude toward hockey that you sometimes find. It's great to see grown men - and women - trying something new, pushing their limits. So kudos to anyone who has the courage to learn to skate as an adult!
Anyway, back to my original point - why do a power skating class? The way I see it, there are several problems with being a self-taught skater.
First: technique. It is unlikely that any beginner or intermediate skater has the most efficient skating technique. And I know it's hard to believe, but you can't actually learn everything on the internet! The internet can't give you feedback on what you are specifically doing wrong. A few pointers, sometimes very simple corrections, can make you much more efficient, and therefore much faster.
Second: your weak side. Everyone has it, it's the side they don't naturally stop or turn on. I find that unless someone is standing there with a whistle forcing me to do hard things like stop on my weak side, pivot on my weak side, power turn on my weak side, I will naturally be lazy and only use my strong side in games. Maybe it's my inherent cautious approach to skating, that I find it hard to instinctively use the correct move to keep the puck in sight, I am much more likely to turn or stop on my easy side and momentarily turn my back to the puck. I can't count the number of times I've lost track of the play by doing that, but it's a hard habit to overcome. So I find the skating camps help by forcing me to just concentrate on skating and mastering my weak side.
Third: practice, practice, practice. You get ice time unlike any you might get during a public skate at your local arena. You have permission to skate backwards, to fall down, to carry your stick and practice carrying the puck. You have the full length of the ice at your disposal.
Fourth: contacts. By doing a class and being even minimally sociable, you get important contacts in the (usually very small) adult hockey community in your area. I've met people that have connected me to a new team and new shinny timeslots. Everything in Nova Scotia functions almost entirely on word-of-mouth, but you need to meet people to hear about opportunities. The power skating classes bring together a wide variety of people and there is generally a very positive attitude, since everyone there loves the game and is willing to learn something new.
Why are you waiting to improve your technique and efficiency, master moves on your weak side, get lots of ice time to practice, and make new hockey friends? Take some lessons!
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