Take The Number 69: Skate or bust.

Welcome to Take the Number 69, a blog by Eric Brook charting his ice hockey journey from being introduced to the sport, volunteering with the Australian men and women’s ice hockey leagues, learning to skate and now playing in the “beer leagues”. Last week we got to know Eric a little better as his journey began. This week, Eric shares his experiences of learning to skate on the ice as an adult.

 

My first self-report on social media about me ice skating was my first time ice skating as an adult. The report was brief.

Skating update:

I’m not dead.
I’ve done a lap holding the wall.
I’ve done a lap no wall.
I haven’t fallen yet.

Sydney Bears had just been heavily beaten by the CBR Brave in their final game of the 2014 AIHL season at Sydney Ice Arena.

During my rookie season as a spectator, I’d marvelled at the skating abilities of the players but had never thought of doing anything about it myself.

I’d continually shared my first ever skating experience as a child and was not really keen on repeating that night.

This night in August 2014, I actually had some friends for company as I headed onto the ice.

Back when I first stepped onto the ice in primary school, Jaromír Jágr was five years from making his NHL debut with the Pittsburgh Penguins. I made my childhood skating – if you want to call it that – debut at the now closed Blacktown Ice Rink.

That cold night in Blacktown, there were no penguins, no seals, no walking frames or no other aid to assist me skating. There was the hard wall and the cold ice. A girl in my class felt sorry for me and led me around the ice by the hand. I was doubly terrified as I’d never ice skated before nor, as a schoolboy, had I held a girl’s hand.

There was no terror when I skated in August 2014 and no major falls but no real desire to skate again despite a good time with some of my hockey friends who could actually skate. It was a step up from walking on the ice in Portland prior to a Winterhawks game at the start of the year but not by much. I’d be happy watching hockey, I thought. Somehow, I did find myself skating – or something resembling skating – at the AIHL Finals in Melbourne a couple of weeks later.

Fast forward to after the 2015 AIHL season. The Sydney Sirens women’s team was having a pre-season member skate at Canterbury. As I was a member, I wanted to get good use out of my membership and decided to go for a skate. Encouraged by team members and friends, I enjoyed the session and decided at that point that I’d like to take skating a little more seriously. I was able to use this member skate and the one the following season as a guide to how far I had come.

Even people who knew me at that point would not think that taking skating a little more seriously would involve heading off to Skaters Network and getting some serious hockey gear. I built up gradually until I had the whole kit over a period of a few months but I was determined to be safe. If a child falls over and breaks a bone, they might see it as a bonus few weeks off from school. As an adult, it could be a lot more costly and a lot more hurty.

I’m not sure what my first skating coach thought of this hockey kitted up man joining a bunch of toddlers and small children for my first skating lesson at Penrith Ice Palace in October 2015. Whatever the feeling, I progressed from needing to be very close to the wall to soon skating across the ice. From day one, I would wear my hockey gear as I knew even back then that I wanted to play games – even if they were social games with my friends.

With one coaching session a week, I would try to spend at least two extra sessions practicing skating at public sessions across Sydney.

Apart from one incident at Sydney Ice Arena, I’d always been allowed to wear and skate in my hockey gear at various arenas around Sydney. As my first skating coach told me when I shared the story of being told I wasn’t allowed: “Don’t worry, we’ve all been kicked out of that place at one time or another”.

With a number of rinks around Sydney, I had to look at several websites and social media pages to keep up to date with the varying session times. Briefly fast forwarding to two days before Christmas 2016, I decided that I needed to create a website with a master list of session times. That personal session master list became the website now known as Harbour City Hockey.

Progress on the ice was often slow. Jaromír Jágr started skating at the age of 3. Here I am – a couple of years younger than him – learning to skate for the first time as he is playing NHL for the Florida Panthers. I would get frustrated as adult Eric’s body wouldn’t do the same thing as the figure skaters that he was trying to avoid could do with ease. I would have to keep reminding myself that if I keep putting the work in, results would come.

2016 saw a lot of sessions but also a lot of improvement. With the help of various coaches and online learning and a lot of training at a lot of different venues, I could see my aim of actually playing improving. Fitting in coached sessions, general sessions, pilates, gym work and being around the game had to balance with life away from hockey, especially with being a shift worker as an added complication. There were some advantages, though.

Think of yourself being in your normal office on a normal day. Because of my shift work, I could be sharing the ice with a couple of figure skaters while you are working. However, I’d also be thinking of you being able to commit to regular coaching sessions and scrimmages and games while I was keeping you moving around Sydney at all sorts of weird and wonderful hours.

Moving more into hockey skating and coaching, I was able to finally get a stick in my hand and get a puck onto the ice. While I’ve seen figure skaters being connected to a harness attached to the roof so they can practice their jumps, the act of taking a hockey stick onto the ice is a big no-no during a general session. I’ve also seen figure skaters who look like they are large pieces of bait on a fishing line held by their coach. I was finding that while there are things in skate school that would be handy, other things would never be done during a hockey game. I was also finding that looking out for and avoiding figure skaters, school students and rookie skaters was helping my skills and vision.

My first few scrimmages were interesting even if I was a virtual spectator on the ice. My first ever scrimmage started well into the first half of the game as it was my aim merely to watch. Maybe I should have sat out and prepared for the game with everyone else. It also taught me that skating is such an important skill to have and to do well at before picking up a stick. I would often mention to people that ice skating was like learning how to walk all over again.

Being on leave from my place of employment in November-December 2016 gave me a taste of what life could be like if I could commit to a regular schedule. I was in two different hockey schools, a general session and a weekly pilates class. Progress was rapid even though scrimmage on Wednesday nights involving ECSL and AIHL players was too much for me. But what to do about it? How would I play with people at a similar standard to me? How could I find the time to do it and fit it in with my non hockey life?

I had thought of signing up to the original season of Friday Night Hockey at the Ice Zoo in Sydney. I was glad that I didn’t because I soon found that players from NSW clubs, ECSL and AIHL were playing to gain more ice time. They didn’t need Eric The Pylon taking up a roster spot and ice time. I felt like that by the time I worked out that I had to do something and how to do it, there had been five line changes during that time. I was being out skated and out played by small children.

 

Stay tuned. Next week, Eric The Pylon finds a league built for people like him. Bring on the rookie season!