Hockey Evaluation

I've said it before and every time a new coach starts with me it's re-enforced. I skate and shoot all wrong. It's a wonder I can skate at all or get a shot off the way I do it. Pat, one of our new coaches, was going over how to correctly do a wrist shot. I can do it my way, but when he showed me the correct way how to do it, it felt so weird and I couldn't get any power on it. When I used his wood stick, I might as well have been cracking myself over the head with it. The same goes with the slap shot. I can crank one out my way, but try and do it the correct way and it goes to shit. He said the only reason I could shoot at all is because I'm an athlete.

I'm a screwed up one. My right leg is a half inch shorter than my left. It messes up my balance and ability to turn on my skates. I have nerve damage in my back from where some stupid bitch kicked me in a summer tourney years ago. My knees grind like a son-of-a-bitch going up the stairs. My right knee is numb all the time from tearing something in it over five years ago rollerblading. I have broken I don't know how many knuckles and joints in my fingers, and bones in my feet. The only thing that saves me is I have an extremely high pain tolerance that lets me play.

So I play hockey and love doing it, I just don't do any of it the right way. I always wonder what would have happened if I would have been able to do clinics like they have now when I first started. They didn't have any of that when I began playing. You had two senior B teams in the area. The Delaware Bobcats and the Philadelphia Roadrunners (now Freeze). I sat the bench for seven seasons. That didn't exactly help. Also learning to skate with skates that were a size nine when my actual size is a six and a half or seven didn't help either.

I keep trying though. Every season I hope I can correct at least one thing that I can't do the right way. I think I'll concentrate on my edges more. That's my weak spot. I've never been the fastest skater in the world and that's a real minus in hockey. I know I won't get faster, but having a little more in the balance department can't hurt. Someone suggested I get a lift or insert for my right skate, so I might try that too.