Ice hockey class was AWESOME! I sucked, but it was so much fun! There were a lot of us in the class - like 16 or so. I was the only female, and I was the one with the least skating experience, but it was still fun.
The instructor had us doing drills for the first 1/2 of class - practicing stopping (which I am really bad at), practicing forward stroking (which I was pretty good at), and practicing skating backwards (which I'm ok at, sort of). And, we did drills with the hockey puck, pushing it back and forth while skating forward.
Then, the 2nd 1/2 of class, we did lots of hockey specific drills. I was actually pretty decent with moving the hockey puck, weaving it in and out of a bunch of other hockey pucks lined up and a row. So, there were like 10 pucks with maybe 2 feet in between each one, and we had to push the puck we were working with, weaving in and out of the pucks in the line. We did that several times. Then, we did partner work, passing the hockey puck back and forth.
At the very end we practiced skating as fast as we could to the blue line and then stopping, then going to the next line and stopping, and then to the end of the rink and then stopping. I don't stop very well, so I couldn't go too fast. Then, we had to do the same thing back to the other side. Then, we did it backwards! On the way back going backwards, I actually beat one person there. So, I wasn't the slowest that time.
For most of the drills, I took longer than everyone, and I was definitely behind the curve with stopping. It was very different skating and stopping while skating with the hockey stick. One time, I didn't slow down enough, and I stopped into the railing (which comes about 1/2 way up), but I didn't fully stop, so I wound up flying 1/2 way over the railing (my feet actually both came off the ground). It was a little embarrassing. But, the instructor was encouraging, and the guys who had recruited me seemed happy that I was there. So, I stopped feeling bad that I was the worst one and just had fun.
It was the most vigorous skating class - definitely much more than the regular one. Perhaps it's because I had to carry the stick the whole time. And, it was 45 minutes rather than 30 minutes. And, we did a LOT of skating. I should get really good quickly since I'm skating so much. I'm going to have to practice stopping on Saturdays in the free skate. And, because of the helmet, my hair was drenched with sweat by the end of the class.
Oh! And, I almost forgot. I got my first skating injury today. (This is really sad.) I cut my finger trying to take my helmet off!!! Oops. Genius. I finally get an ice skating injury and it was while I was trying to de-helmet myself. But, it's good it was minor. It's really sad, though. I had to have help putting my helmet on and taking it off. The snaps are hard to do. Plus, you can't really see to do it. I'll have to practice to get better at that.
All in all, it was an awesome experience. And, afterwards some of us went out to a bar and socialized (although I just had a little of a diet soda). It was fun. They were talking about renting the ice for an hour after class to play ice hockey for real (well, kind of for real). It's $110/hour if the instructor is in on it (since he gets a discount), so split up between a bunch of us it would be cheap. So, we might do that sometime. I might actually get to sort of play hockey! I might need to get some more pads. Most of the guys tonight had all kinds of padding - way more than I did.
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