A few months ago, an idea was born to provide a skating class that focused on some of the fundamentals of hockey skating.
Columbus is proud to be home of the second largest rec hockey league, but that doesn’t make it any less intimidating to decide to play for the first time – pads, sticks, skating all make for things that can be hard to take on all at once!
So at Union Blue, we decided to start at the very beginning – skating!
This past Sunday, 25 intrepid skaters joined us for a hockey skating class focused on learning the basics while having some fun. Our participants were led by Chiller Instructors, James Nash, Justin Shum and USA Hockey Instructor Derek Marr. The coaches put us through our paces in an hour and a half of focused instruction. Working through three stations, we got to really take time to understand the right way to perform a hockey stride; complete a hockey stop; use our edges; take sharp turns; attempt crossovers; skate backwards; attempt some passing and shooting; and even have our own little shootout to compete for two autographed pucks (by James Wisniewski and Jack Johnson!) courtesy of the Columbus Blue Jackets!
All in all, it turned out to be a great event. Participants joined us from all over central Ohio and even came from Cincinnati and Cleveland to take advantage of time to really learn the ins and outs of true hockey skating. As attendee Brett Michel said, “as someone
who is a mostly self taught skater and fairly proficient at it, it was nice to have the basics of specifically hockey skating broken down, because it’s different than just skating. From the stance, to the edges, to scraping the ice and shifting your weight. It was a lot to think about but great to learn some new drills to hone our basic skills.” During the shooting drills, some onlookers who had joined in the event also took note of Brett’s strong shot. It seems she had fun with that too: “I’ve never held a stick and handled a puck on skates before, so that was particularly fun to try with a bunch of people in the same place as me.”
From that perspective alone, the event was a success. We wanted everyone to start to feel more comfortable with the beginnings of playing hockey and turn apprehension into excitement for the game. As Coach Marr noted, ” (my) favorite part was seeing the enthusiasm for learning.” Marr went on to ease many of our concerns on how we did by noting “(I) really liked seeing the progress people made within the program. Many had never had instruction before and just teaching the details on how to do things allowed them to make visible progress during the session.” You can see some more participant thoughts and reactions by following the event’s twitter hashtag: #CBJHockeySkate
After the formal instruction was over, everyone had some time to skate around on open ice, chat with the coaches and put into practice more of what we had all just learned. Once again, post-skate, the Blue Jackets came to the rescue with some Papa John’s pizza and sodas that was very appreciated and quickly devoured as everyone hung out, chatting about our on-ice experience. It was great to see so many smiles and hear laughter as folks recounted their best shot, awesome fall or something they figured out how to do for the first time.
As someone who has just recently taken on attempting to play hockey, it was so exciting to see folks embrace the game that has come to be such a love of my life. Learning how to skate and how to play has been one of the most difficult, and rewarding, hobbies I’ve ever taken on. And it has only deepened my appreciation for all that goes into playing this game at any level. Once again, Coach Marr summed up my thoughts as he reflected on the day: “it was amazing to see this many people interested, not just in learning to skate, but to pick up the game of hockey as adults. Building lifelong hockey players is fantastic for the Blue Jackets, hockey in Ohio, and the sport itself.”
We could simply NOT have made this event happen without the support and help of many great people and organizations:
Thank you Columbus Blue Jackets for still finding a way to bring hockey to your fans and providing us with the ice time to learn a little bit more.
Thank you to our awesome coaches: James Nash, Justin Shum, and Derek Marr. Your instruction and patience really made this class fun and helpful at the same time.
And finally, thank you to every person who came out. The love of hockey is alive and well in Columbus!
As a quick follow up to the class, if you are interested in another class similar to this, or in joining in a weekly class that parallels skating class sessions offered by the awesome Chillers, please comment on this post, comment in our forums, or email me directly. We are currently working to try and get a class together and demonstrating how many people are interested will certainly help!
Also – stay tuned, we’ll be posting a complete gallery of photos from the event later this week!
Skate on, my friends!
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