Return of the dreaded broccoli...

Famous last words: "Sure, I'll be the sacrificial lamb and go first".   But we'll come back to that...

So, tonight we practiced at the Toyota Center (where the team bouts) so that was pretty awesome.  It's the home to our local minor league ice hockey team and they had removed the ice for the time being so we were skating on concrete.  No biggie there.  Actually it was intriguing to me to feel the difference in grip between it and the concrete we normally skate on outdoors...much better feel at the TC, maybe because it was so dirty.

So the first thing they were doing was to do some small jumps while skating laps.  There were both pool noodles and some square cushions at various intervals around the taped off track. 

Come again..?  You what me to what..?! 

I did a very good job at avoiding both, lol.  So not feeling the whole jumping while in motion thing.  But since it is a minimum skill requirement, and a handy thing to know when girls are falling left in right in front of you during a bout, I tied a couple noodle jumps.  Yeah.  I suck.  While I did manage not to fall doing them I by no means did them well or right.  I basically did a little skip hop over them and even then was not at all stable in my landings.  Que sera sera.  I'll conquer them...eventually.

Next up was doing some crossover technique work.  The bane of my existence.

As a pack we all skated in a line doing crossovers.  As usual I was pulling up the rear and struggling on my technique.  Several of the girls as well as the coaching and ref staff were giving me tips and pointers and trying to help me along.  Still no go so Frank pulled me off to the side to help and get me going better.  After he went off to coach the pack as a whole one of the refs (I wanna say his name is Jacob but I can't remember for sure) also worked with me.  Still not getting it.  I kept telling them...the information is there but I can't for the life of me translate it into my body doing as it should.  Finally Mouth comes over to work more on crossovers with me and a couple other freshies.  And in doing so he has us go about it a little differently by gliding on our left then sort of hopping onto our right in a crossover motion.

Hallelujah, we figured it out!  Or, more precisely, Mouth did.

I finally managed to find the words to describe the sensation I was feeling when trying to crossover.  It's like as my right leg comes over and I a edging on my left and getting ready to lift it I feel a catch, like maybe I have some bad bearing in one of the wheels kind of grinding me to a halt.  This causes me to do the little 'donkey kick' Mouth has been trying to get me to correct.  This happens every time I try to crossover as well as periodically while I am simply skating along.  Me left foot seems to catch on some invisible thing and halt my momentum dead in it's tracks.

It's not me.  It's my skates.

It's my crappy, cheapo skates.  Nothing more, nothing less.

I knew it!

Apparently the trucks on my skates have zilcho clearance.  My wheels, as I am edging (or leaning hard to one side, in layman's terms) are literally grinding into the sole of my skate boot.  So much so, that when I do a cross over it causes my left front wheel to stop turning at a certain point because my foot is actually pressing down onto it as if I were standing on it (which I basically am).  Good catch by Mouth!

So I tightened my left front truck as much as I could, while still retaining circulation in those toes, and tried again. (side note for my non-skaters: the truck holds your wheels on...a loose truck allows your foot to lean over the wheels more giving you more maneuverability.  To drastically tighten them makes it so your foot can't really lean in the skate and decreases your manueverability.).  Nicey nice.  Suddenly I could do crossovers!

Now my left foot felt more stable and without my wheels being stepped on I was doing it and doing it pretty well!  What a relief.  Man, I am going to be able to keep up so much better now.  Not fully, since my endurance still sucks...but better.  I'll take it.   =-)

We did some down and ups for strength training and some hitting drills.  WeEvil and I were having fun trying to knock each other around a bit tonight...I even sent her sprawling once(!).  I also picked up some more tasty nuggets on how to step into a hit and keep low enough.  I did some decent positional jockeying against WeEvil as well, I think.  I like working with her at practices because even though she doesn't bout for ACRG just yet she has done bouting in the past so she's a wealth of information and very encouraging when drilling.

And finally we return to my famous last words.  At the end of practice Mouth grabbed a big blocker pad to knock us over with.  The idea was for him to come up from behind and hit us with it hard enough to knock us over so we can get used to taking a hit and falling small and safe.  So I decided to be the first in line...and it would have gone swimmingly had I noticed the shift in my knee pads.  But, alas, I did not remember to properly adjust them before starting (they've stretched some and no longer fit over my kneecaps as snuggly as they should so they slide about some).  And so when I landed, on my knees as I should, my right knee hit more concrete than it did pad. 

Ouch.

Seriously...ouch.

But, I got back up.  Then I decided I was done for the day.  Leg straight = good.  Leg bent = much discomfort.  I couldn't even move my leg enough to get my skate off at first.  But I managed and got out of my gear and up on my feet.  I even made it home...although I did all the braking with my left leg, lol.

I came straight home and got started with the Rest Ice Cold Elevation technique and we'll see how it feels in the morning.  As of now, it doesn't hurt when I am still or standing on it.  It only hurts (and feels weird) when I bend it.  But no visible marks, swelling, or bruising.  So...here's hoping!

And yes, Mouth, it did give me something to write about (you smartass).