Focus

Fairly certain this is a heron

Another image from the walk I took today out at the confluence wildlife preserve area.

I thought I would take another stab at documenting hockey practices last week. I was pretty discouraged when I deleted everything earlier. Mighta said a few cuss words.

Friday morning we had about a dozen women. One of the things we worked on was a zig-zag drill. We skated zig-zagging up the ice. Without a puck and then with one. We did some tight turn drills (round the cones as close as you can, practicing our cross overs -- oh, they need so much work, both cross overs and my calves) and then we did a one-on-one drill. The idea is to get a feel for someone skating you down, following close or side-by-side or cutting you off or, when all else fails, running you into the boards. The thing I hated about this drill is that the opposition gets in your physical space. I have about a four-foot personal space bubble. Unless I know you well - stay the hell out of it. And even if I know you well ... sometimes 18 inches is too close. So here we are skating with someone within 18 inches or closer, remember we're on the ice too. And it hurts when we fall.

Anyway, we set up the drill, one of us was running the puck up the ice, the other person was trying to get in our space, not to get the puck, but so we get a feel for being chased and for chasing. They feel so different. I don't mind getting into someones space, but I don't like them getting into mine. Neither did my first partner. She skated up to me and says "I hate this!" Me too!! It's a really good drill, turns out we could use that zig-zag skill too. If we had thought of it :) I know the coach has a plan, we just don't follow too good! Sorry Coach!

Sunday night we were all pretty trashed. Some of us had worked all day (me) some of us had drank to excess the night before (the rest of them!) so it was pretty low energy. We did a passing drill that was pretty fun, we got into a circle of four and passed as we skated around clock wise and then counter clock wise. It will be  a much better drill when everyone is at 80% instead of 40%. We played a short scrimmage at the end which makes me excited for our tournament next month! On my birthday weekend! :)

Finally, I wanted to say about that heron. There were two of them on this little pond. They were having their breakfast. I stood and watched them and photographed them for awhile. I was struck by their focus. I keep coming back to that word recently. Their only goal was to eat, and that is what they were working on. They took a few steps, stopped, grabbed their munchie ate it up and then moved on. I don't find I focus on one thing ever. Even now I have dinner cooking (burning, maybe?) as I keep an eye on the kids in the front yard swinging hard plastic guns around as I type. I might have been focused only on the birds for a short while today, I might have been focused solely on shopping later,  but I'm sure I had other things running through my brain. I don't know, it just struck me as I watched the birds that they were focused.