Spring break

I had ambitions to be writing more blog posts lately, but life got in the way. Lots of hockey, too - a weekend fun shinny tournament with four games in two days - plus Sunday night shinny organized by my team. As a result, not much time for blogging. Lots of ideas, though.

Now we're heading away on holiday to visit our families out West, and returning in a couple of weeks. It's going to be a crazy amount of work but good for the kids to meet or reunite with grandparents, cousins, aunties, and uncles. I hope to have a look around my old neighbourhood and reminisce. I'll swing by the outdoor rink where I used to play shinny with my little brother a million years ago, and maybe take some pics for a future post.

Spring is only really beginning now in Nova Scotia, calendars not withstanding, so I'm thinking of this as my own spring break.

Keep your pants on!

I am an oddity among female hockey players in that I wear suspenders on my pants. My hips are just not that big -  with the front laced completely closed, the pants still slide down. It doesn't help that all the under-layers are quite slippery.

Better plus/minus stats

Thanks goodness we don't officially keep track of plus/minus stats in our league. I feel like I'm often on the ice nearing the end of my shift when a goal is scored (but that could just be my confirmation bias coupled with a general insecurity about my playing abilities). The plus/minus stat would be an interesting thing to measure, actually, rather than just guessing. (I'm a scientist. I will always prefer measurement over estimation!)

Nursing in the changeroom

The playoffs wrapped up this weekend. We won our game Saturday afternoon, which had us returning to the rink for another game at 9:00 Saturday night. We lost the second game in a shootout, which was fairly exciting in itself. It gave a true playoff flavour to the weekend. I'm pretty pleased with how I played overall; actually, the last part of this season was really good and I think in part it was due to my new positive thinking exercises. My defensive partner and I really gelled; we were solid at the blue line and kept the opponents to the outside in our end. Awesome!

Wriggly little kettlebells

Every once in a while I surprise the person I'm defending against by not letting them put their stick down on the ice. Everyone expects opposing defencemen to lift their stick up off the ice. What they never expect is that they won't be able to get it down again just by pushing hard downward. Not with me. They won't get it back down. You should see the surprised looks I get from the men when it happens. I'm stronger than I look, especially for maintaining a steady resistance against them. Why?

Small victories

Well, we lost last night, 2-1, though I feel like we dominated the opponents. [Aside: do you suppose they're telling themselves that, too? From our point of view we just got unlucky on their two goals, but otherwise we really played well offensively. Their goalie was good. I wonder what their version of the story is.]

It's got to be there

It's been a two-week break for me with no hockey at all. No wonder I'm feeling out-of-sorts. I also have this vague feeling that I've forgotten how to play.

Tonight is our first playoff game and I am trying to work up some enthusiasm.

Paleo hockey

The Paleo diet has been in the news again, this time because of a book called PaleoFantasy which purportedly debunks the reasoning behind the whole diet. I haven't read it myself yet, so this is only hearsay, but apparently the author completely misses the point of the Paleo diet. Most Paleo bloggers out there agree with a lot of the author's points, but not her overall conclusion. Some summaries and critiques I've read include one on Mark's Daily Apple and Nerd Fitness. I strongly believe in reading a wide variety of opinions, including dissenting ones, so I'll read it eventually. But, since I am cheap, I will get the library to buy it (if they haven't already) and read it that way.

In our household we more or less follow the Paleo Diet (with dairy, therefore not strict Paleo).

More Mom than hockey

It's been a wearing past couple of days. The baby has been very hungry and nursing seemingly non-stop. He also had some "bonus awakenings" last night - oh yay! 

Then, today he had his 6-month vaccinations, and was super-grumpy, and had napping issues. I am worn right out, mostly from being the sole source of nutrition for another human being, small though he still is. Plus, with no hockey this week, I am a bit low on inspiration, though I have a half dozen post ideas that I haven't fleshed out.

All that to say - good thing I don't have much of a readership, because the last few days have been more Mom than hockey.

It will do for now

Wednesday shinny is over now. The league regular season is over, too; all that is left is playoffs. (Are playoffs? Is playoffs plural?) We are playing in a tournament at the end of April, and I think my team is organizing some spring shinny, and I might do another puck skills camp in June. But right now I am looking at a few weeks with no hockey. Oh, no!

Wood, for now

All of a sudden I was down to the wire about getting a new stick, since my old one was really wrecked, and playoffs start next Wednesday. Actually, part of the rush to get it today was that I thought there was going to be shinny tomorrow, for me to get the feel of my new stick, but it's over for the year now. Bummer.

Physics in the slot

I covered the physics of hockey players in a general way a couple of weeks ago. I talked about position, velocity, and acceleration, and how, as you move from the perceiving the simplest concept (position) to the most difficult (acceleration) your understanding of the game increases. Deciding what to do with yourself in the slot (or in general as an attacking forward) so that you are in a good scoring position follows a similar evolution through position, velocity, and acceleration.