I've been skating for a little more than six months now and I just finished my first adult hockey clinic -- which I re-enrolled in for the fall session at the Pasadena rink. I'm still dreadful, having never before played hockey plus the fact I could barely skate (here's a post explaining how I got bit by the hockey bug). But I'm slooooowly improving.
Here's my question for any experienced players out there: When am I ready for league play? I was kind of hoping to play this coming winter and some fall-winter leagues around town are already starting up this month.
My feeling is I'm not quite ready yet. It's not that I can't go out there and survive and hustle and such. I'm just not sure that I can make much of a contribution to a team and that bothers me. People pay a lot of money to play in adult leagues around town (typically $500 to $600 per season) and I don't want to stick those folks with me if I'm going to be a liability.
And what do I mean by liability? Well, I can't really hockey stop to my right, my snapshot is limper than a wet noodle and my offensive puckhandling skills leave a long list of things to be desired. On the plus side, I get up really quick after falling down!
And, right now, the pylon drills are indicating I'm a liability.
If you have any thoughts on what I should do or want to recommend a league or team, please leave a comment or email me at steve.hymon1@gmail.com. I live in the Pasadena area and would generally prefer to play out this way, but I don't mind traveling a bit as I work at home a lot as a freelancer.
--Steve Hymon
The only reason to learn how to play hockey is so that you can play hockey. Practices, stick time, clinics are all great, but playing in a game is the actual sport. So my advice is to not worry about how good you are or what you look like when you play and simply join a league and start having fun. There must be begginer leagues in your area.
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