EXTRA, EXTRA!
News flash! The Calgary Flames did not offer you a contract this year eh? Well my friend, you came to the right place. It appears that you do not play hockey. Yet. What a shame! Lets fix that shall we? Oh, but you say I am uncoordinated, I don’t know how to skate, I don’t have equipment, I am afraid I will hurt myself, I am too old to learn to play. Blah, Blah, Blah. Excuses.
The bottom line is, and you have to answer these questions truthfully to yourself. Do you have the will to learn? Do you have the burning desire to play the greatest game on earth? Are you finally ready to go after your dreams of playing hockey? 50% of being able to do anything is the mindset. If you say you can’t, or you say you can, either way, you are right. If your answer is no to any of these questions, stop reading right now. I beg you. There is no use. We have failed already before we even got out of the gate.
LETS BEGIN
Still with me? Good, then lets begin. Let me tell you about this amazing, incredible, life changing opportunity to learn how to play ice hockey. At the moment you can’t begin to realize how your life will change after you learn to play hockey. Hockey is a community, it is a lifestyle and lifelong friendships. Nothing beats hanging out in the dressing room on a weekly basis whether you win, or lose. I must warn you, it may become addictive and you just may end up playing on a gazillion teams, doing hockey tournaments and meeting lots of interesting hockey characters. It will open your eyes to how much hockey means to everyone who is touched by it. Side benefit. You will equally appreciate the game more at the NHL level, or if you have kids at the minor hockey levels.
Ok now that we are all psyched up and excited, let me tell you how you will do it. With our help. Discover Hockey started about 10 years ago in Calgary. Today, thousands of people in Calgary, Edmonton and Richmond BC shed their fears and excuses. They take a leap of faith to realize their dream of playing hockey. The program runs 12 weeks and offers 14 sessions.
AND THERE WAS HOCKEY GEAR!
The very first session is orientation in a local Calgary skate shop. There you can get advice on what hockey equipment to buy, where you should spend money and where you should save. Hint. Hockey helmet, ice skates and jock/jill is where you spend money. The rest of the hockey gear you can probably get on the cheaper side in the clearance isle. The store typically offers up to 25% discount on hockey gear at this session so it is probably wise to wait to purchase gear until then. All hockey equipment related questions will be answered here by the skate shop’s qualified staff.
Alright, alright, now onto the exciting stuff. So you have all your hockey gear, you are outfitted from head to toe. Don’t forget to sharpen your new ice skates though! This happened before. If you buy a new pair of ice skates in the skate shop, they will sharpen them for you. But if you got a used pair from your uncle Stan who hasn’t skated on them in 50 years … you might find it challenging during the first session on the ice if you fail to sharpen them beforehand.
THE FIRST GROVE IS THE DEEPEST
Speaking of the first on ice session. This is where the proverbial rubber hits the road, or the steel on your feet grinds the first grove. The very first on ice hockey session will focus on learning how to skate. Scratch that. The first thing you need to know as a hockey player is how to fall properly. You will be doing lots of that sort of thing on the ice in the beginning and we do not want you to hurt yourself! Good thing you have full equipment and a nice helmet you bought at the orientation.
Rule of thumb. Falling backwards is bad, you always want to end up on your knees instead of on your ass. Good news, your knees are encased in the very nice shin pads you bought earlier at the orientation session, and you have a beauty set of elbow pads to match. Falling on your knees will not hurt, and will give you confidence. Step two. Learning how to get up. For that you need to work on balance, which is also covered in the first on ice hockey session.
HANDSOME DIVIDENDS
Skip to session #2. We are still learning how to skate. One session of ice skating instruction clearly is not enough, in fact you can never get too good at skating. It is the one skill that will pay handsome dividends if you continue working at it.First is the T-push. Ice skating is nothing like walking. When you walk you push off the toe, you do that on skates and unless you have a toe pick you’ll do a face plant. Instead you must turn your foot at a 45 degree angle and push with the side of the blade against the ice to get going! The skating bit is starting to advance a little in session two, more complicated elements are introduced. At this point you probably learned how to get going but have no idea as to how to stop. Unless of course you have ice skated before, in that case this will be a great refresher for you. By session two you will get enough material so that you can learn how to stop on skates.
The next 6 sessions go more in depth on other important topics you must learn if you want to be able to play ice hockey. Stick handing, shooting, passing and a bit about various positions (wing, center, D and goalie – yes there is a dedicated goalie coach at all sessions). We will cover game sense, where you should be on the ice and when. What is a good penalty and what is a bad penalty, or why it is a penalty. What is an offside, icing and all other important rules of the game. By the end of the 8th on ice hockey session you will have a great overview and introduction to hockey. But by no means you will be ready to be picked up by the Calgary Flames yet. This is where we hit a pause.
THE HOCKEY PROFESSORS
Second off ice session happens in the classroom. A qualified instructor will give a chalk talk about the multitude of strategies to play the game. D-zone coverage, 1-2-2 forecheck, triangle offense, power play, penalty kill and the list goes on. You can ask all kinds of questions too. Why do we do this after the 8th session? Because, you are done with the intro and it is time to get your hand dirty – play a real hockey game. Yep, session #9 is a hockey game against the other team that was formed in the program by now. And, to make it a little easier your coaches will be there on the bench doing bench management and keeping those shifts short! You will get a real taste for the game here.
Session #9. We kick it up a notch and take it to the next level. You have now gone through the trials and tribulations of becoming a hockey player and are ready to show the world what you’ve learned. At some point during the first 8 weeks you and your fellow future hockey addicts have already been divided into teams by the color of their jerseys. Arrive in the dressing room at least 45 minutes early so you have enough time to dress and hear the coach give the speech. Feels like the real thing now. Nerves? You bet. But as soon as you step on the ice, it all melts away. The only feeling you are left with, is joy. You have made it! Not the NHL yet, or the Calgary Flames but you proved to yourself that you were right. You did it. The game is on!
CONGRATULATIONS, YOU ARE A HOCKEY PLAYER!
By now there are only 3 more session left. One more supervised game to get you in the grove of things and two more games your team will play on their own. The program is coming to a close. So what’s next? Well you have taken the life by the horns and became a hockey player. By the way only 4 or 5 people out of 100 in Canada play ice hockey. Hard to believe it, right? So pat yourself on the back you are in a select, special group of renegades! The fact you made it through and can now play hockey, in one word, amazing!
Oh yah, next you have your whole hockey career waiting for you. It does not matter that you started at 25, or 45, or 65 there is plenty of hockey left to play at your own level. Your team has graduated. You are all hockey players and you can join the rest of the hockey family playing in the lowest division of the NCHL. That is where all the other teams are playing after the Discover Hockey program is finished.
The sky is the limit now. We got you off the ground and gave you the gift of hockey. You are welcome. It is now up to you to inspire others to learn to play and work on your skills. You can just play for fun on the beginner team that came out of the program. Or you can plunge yourself into the game and acquire new skills so you can get better and play better hockey. By the way that is the next program you can take, Better Hockey. More on that later. Anyway, it is all up to you. There are plenty of opportunities to play hockey, but you have to start first. And today is the day you start, Calgary Flames or not.