Session 1 was a good time. We used most of the facility in the two hours today. We started off with warm up that had us jogging, running, and going in and out of a ladder that was laying on the ground. I feel so uncoordinated with that, so hopefully by the time we hit session 18 I will be able to get through the warm up without feeling like I’m going to fall over.
After warm-up we went right into the hockey treadmill and I got several turns on that. The focus was on proper form today, with staying low and striding so the leg was coming out at an angle and then coming back to center under the body while at the same time swinging our arms to get more forward momentum. As we did this the treadmill went up on a grade, we mostly stayed between 5 and 7% but the trainer did kick it up to 15% for a turn just so we could feel what it was like.
Next we were off to the synthetic ice to practice shooting and passing. The synthetic ice was trippy to skate on at first. It takes a much more deliberate stride to skate on it with any speed at all. I was glad to be getting into the skills stuff so early in the training because my shots suck. I could already see a tiny bit of improvement (and I do mean tiny) tonight. They recommend a longer stick, so I’m going to bring my old wooden one next time out and then as I start to replace sticks, go for ones that are a bit longer. We did a good stick handling exercise too with a small wooden ball–what they called a Swedish ball. Just back and forth, keeping it on the stick blade while looking straight ahead. I did better at this than I thought I would, which means I need to have more confidence to move the puck with my head up.
We finished up the night with some weight training. Some of this was hard, like doing dumbbell curls while standing on one leg. Some of the final cool-down stuff was hard too, such as doing dips on one leg, while holding the other one at 90 degrees while standing on a piece of foam. And there was also a core exercise that we did on a ball with our bodies on a diagonal… very difficult and I couldn’t complete the last set.
So far, three hours after training ended, my legs are a little sore but I’m in pretty good shape so far. After last Wednesday’s eval, I was at my sorest on Friday, so I should be in plenty of pain on Wednesday when it’s time to go back for session 2.
