During the hockey off-season, June/July/August, I and other players maintained and vastly improved our skating abilities and strength through Figure Skating.
Stop starts and power turning into reverse mode with loosely tied skates made monsters of us and when season fired back up it's like we never left the ice, we were fresh on our feet and legs with oversized football thighs.
I hated the twirls because of my weight and size and wasn't all that classy at it but when it came time to hurling myself at the "Herculite" glass in the end zone, for whatever the situation demanded, I always landed in the position that I had to skate in, and sometimes often a 2minute charging penalty.
Figure skating is actually something I enjoy watching and I did like it for the shape it kept me in.
And our instructor was no faggot, he was a vicious skater with style and strength in his movements.
In hockey, a guy barreling after a puck at 25MPH into the end zone has one objective, get the puck and fuck the boards, without physical confidence in the ability to crank hard to left or right behind the net with the puck or to push the puck into the direction of a teammate and then hitting the boards, without that confidence one cannot be good at the game of hockey.
Hockey players were no slouches...anyone who knew Bob Probert knew that he was tough as rail spikes and feared nothing, he was a great guy with good character but played a hard game, on or off the ice. Probert backed down from nobody, except for the true friends that stood between him and the "situation at hand". A teammate of mine was like a brother to him and I shook my head at so many of the episodes...a very serious episode that I may one day post about.
ICEMONKEY...that was right out of my reality, our twirls were a mimic of getting spun around by a body check, if I spun twice I'd drop from a loss of equilibrium....to your comment, HA HA X 13
Too cool! Rugby players have been known to try out ballet, out of season, to improve foot work, core strength and endurance. Funny looking seeing them burly guys doing ballet but it sure helps them a ton to minimize injury and improve performance.
Figure skating? Out West us boys had Power Skating lessons.
No twirls, coasting on one skate in some faggy pose, or any of that.
Stops and starts. Turns. Transitioning between skating forwards and backwards. Speed, agility, balance, endurance. Show that you could consistently do the required moves, and you'd go up a level. It was on ice training without a hockey stick or pucks.
Girls took figure skating lessons. The boys did power skating.
Our power skating sessions were 6 weeks in summer 5 days a week right after lunch for 2hrs, 3hrs prior to figure skating. We spent 4hrs a day on the ice all summer, don't think that anyone from Alberta is going to compete with Ontario Hockey players.
Us small town kids would destroy any city slicker teams. I always figured it was because us farm kids had a more active lifestyle. Stronger, more endurance, more core strength. But another factor was that every small town had a rink. And that rink, other than the senior team playing one home game and one practice per week, the rink was for the kids. Our small town "D" teams would sometimes enter AAA and AA tournaments, compete well, and occasionally win those tournaments. Even when we'd be without our town's top player or two that went off to junior teams. Let me clarify - We were "D" teams because the population was so low, not because we sucked. The letter system was based on how big of a population you got your players from. D being the lowest population.
More NHL players have come from Sask per capita, than anywhere else in the world. And doing a quick search online, it's 2.5x more than Ontario. (I always thought it was far more than that, but that's what the internet says.) Alberta's about equal to Ontario, per capita. I'm surprised with how low Quebec is per capita.
I had to look it up. The youngest team plaque I have, way back in my day - Novice - Ages 9-10 - 58 games and 15 practices in one season. 51 Wins, 7 Losses. But we weren't like you city slickers. We only had the ice in for 4 or 4.5 months.
I knew two brothers that trained in martial arts and took dance classes as part of their training regimen. They said it was good for balance and endurance, plus built up the micro muscles in their legs. They were fucking beastly boys that could do ballet
[ + ] TheOriginal1Icemonkey
[ - ] TheOriginal1Icemonkey 6 points 6 monthsNov 10, 2024 20:40:45 ago (+6/-0)
That'd be awesome!
[ + ] Zyklonbeekeeper
[ - ] Zyklonbeekeeper [op] 1 point 6 monthsNov 11, 2024 01:01:41 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] Nasturtium
[ - ] Nasturtium 1 point 6 monthsNov 10, 2024 21:22:54 ago (+1/-0)*
[ + ] Cantaloupe
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[ + ] JudyStroyer
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[ + ] Zyklonbeekeeper
[ - ] Zyklonbeekeeper [op] 1 point 6 monthsNov 11, 2024 01:14:11 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] dirtywhiteboy
[ - ] dirtywhiteboy 1 point 6 monthsNov 10, 2024 23:13:18 ago (+1/-0)
fag
[ + ] ButtToucha9000
[ - ] ButtToucha9000 0 points 6 monthsNov 10, 2024 23:52:02 ago (+0/-0)
[ + ] Not_C
[ - ] Not_C 0 points 6 monthsNov 11, 2024 00:14:38 ago (+0/-0)
Out West us boys had Power Skating lessons.
No twirls, coasting on one skate in some faggy pose, or any of that.
Stops and starts. Turns. Transitioning between skating forwards and backwards. Speed, agility, balance, endurance.
Show that you could consistently do the required moves, and you'd go up a level.
It was on ice training without a hockey stick or pucks.
Girls took figure skating lessons. The boys did power skating.
[ + ] Zyklonbeekeeper
[ - ] Zyklonbeekeeper [op] 0 points 6 monthsNov 11, 2024 01:11:47 ago (+0/-0)
[ + ] Not_C
[ - ] Not_C 0 points 6 monthsNov 11, 2024 03:50:23 ago (+0/-0)
I always figured it was because us farm kids had a more active lifestyle. Stronger, more endurance, more core strength.
But another factor was that every small town had a rink. And that rink, other than the senior team playing one home game and one practice per week, the rink was for the kids.
Our small town "D" teams would sometimes enter AAA and AA tournaments, compete well, and occasionally win those tournaments. Even when we'd be without our town's top player or two that went off to junior teams.
Let me clarify - We were "D" teams because the population was so low, not because we sucked. The letter system was based on how big of a population you got your players from. D being the lowest population.
More NHL players have come from Sask per capita, than anywhere else in the world. And doing a quick search online, it's 2.5x more than Ontario. (I always thought it was far more than that, but that's what the internet says.)
Alberta's about equal to Ontario, per capita.
I'm surprised with how low Quebec is per capita.
I had to look it up. The youngest team plaque I have, way back in my day -
Novice - Ages 9-10 - 58 games and 15 practices in one season. 51 Wins, 7 Losses.
But we weren't like you city slickers. We only had the ice in for 4 or 4.5 months.
[ + ] Prairie
[ - ] Prairie 1 point 6 monthsNov 11, 2024 00:33:57 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] ItsOk2bArian
[ - ] ItsOk2bArian 1 point 6 monthsNov 11, 2024 00:49:35 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] Zyklonbeekeeper
[ - ] Zyklonbeekeeper [op] 1 point 6 monthsNov 11, 2024 01:03:16 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] UncleDoug
[ - ] UncleDoug 0 points 6 monthsNov 11, 2024 00:55:54 ago (+0/-0)
Doubt