Sunday Practice

I'm really going to like Sunday practices! The format is much more organized than last year and the coaches are doing a great job of telling us when to use what we are practicing. It is especially nice since I have Monday off now so I won't be as worried about getting sleep.

We worked our wrists last night with a TON of puck handling. Coach Cal is right, you just have to feel the puck. I was thinking about feeling the puck on my run today. I even pretended I was practicing to give my wrists some action. I'm sure it looked awesome!

Then, we broke into groups of three to practice some passing. One person was "it" and the other two took turns passing to her and then she passed back real quick-like, but accuracy was important. I remember doing this drill last year and sucking at it. I wasn't so bad this year. "It" only had to run after a couple of my passes. Much improvement from last year.

There was also a speed drill - yeah, I lost to Bird every time. She is fearless, I choke. I'm not sure how to explain this one. We did a large circle as fast as we could, whoever finished first grabbed the puck, skated it down to the goal and took a shot. The thing about doing a circle really fast is that they are really close to the boards. I know from experience that the boards hurt when you crash into them. I pushed myself a little more each time, but she was still 'da bomb! The idea is to get more comfortable going fast and going in circles, we practiced several times on each side. It's different taking a circle on your left than taking one on the right, trust me!

And then we did a little "break out" session. This was good stuff! Lots of practice doing what it is we would do during a game. We got in five lines, each line was a position (wing, defense, center). Coach would hit a puck to the net and we had to go get it, each doing what the position would do in a game. Then we got in a different line and did it again. Good stuff. Good to watch, good to practice. Good to know what to do when it happens in a game.

Games. So ... Our first home tournament is in November. My birthday weekend! Yay me, I get to turn 41 playing hockey. How stinkin cool :) Seems like I might have turned 40 on a practice day last year ... Yeah, pretty sure, practices on Friday mornings, birthday on a Friday. Sounds like a new tradition! We have another home tournament in February. I sent in my check for both of them today. Yay me!