Wednesday found me running back and forth to Play it Again
Sports 3 times as I bought and tried on equipment for my first EVER ringuette
practice / experience. I had to trade in my skates because they were too big
(who knew?), got as much of my equipment second hand as possible (there are a
LOT of pieces!), and got my stick cut and taped it myself – thanks youTube! I
traded my plastic face guard on the helmet for a cage style one so I would not
be bothered by fogging of my face guard (not that I had ever experienced this-
but since I am such a beginner, I thought I would take all the help I could
get). By Wednesday night I had packed my bag – borrowed from Jac along with a
few pieces of equipment ;) and was ready.
Thursday came along- and I got into the car, heading off to
Beaconsfield Arena – I had never been there before- and my nerves started
mounting. The What-Ifs started to get to me: what if I am the ONLY beginner? What
if I can’t even skate? What if I am so bad no one wants me on their side? What
if? WHAT IF??? So it was with a certain amount of terror and trepidation that I
rolled into the change rooms at the arena at 630 Thursday evening.
I was careful to remember the order of putting on the
equipment, tied my skates nice and tight clicked on my helmet, grabbed my new stick
and wobbled out to the ice with all the other ladies. The ladies has all seemed
to have done this before as they started skating around the perimeter of the
ice to warm up, so I followed suit (slowly and very wobbly of course- I was
clearly the least experienced skater), then the rings came out and one by one
the ladies grabbed one smoothly and started warming up with them by continuing
the perimeter skating while passing the ring out to the side boards and
catching or “spearing” it as it came back to them. So, after studying it a few
times I wobbled over to get a ring and give it a shot. It took a few tries (ok,
ok, more than a few) but I started to get the hang of it. At this point I
actually got a little thrill and a smile. I started to feel less “ohmygod!” and
more “awesome!”
Then the instructors came out and divided us into 3 groups-
beginner (I wasn’t alone!), intermediate and advanced and split the ice into 3
stations. Luckily, even though I was the least experienced, the other beginners
wanted to start right at the beginning- with a few basic skating skills. I got
the hang of doing “bubbles”, “C Cuts” and “backward Bubbles”. But I never
really got the hang of “stopping”…. I guess it will come.
About halfway through the 50 minute session, I realized
something was trickling down my face! Sweat was actually rolling down my face,
you know, like in the cartoons! Whoa.. then once we got into our scrimmage
(this was tiny, it was 4 on 4, across the centre of the ice and only between
the blue lines). I actually had sweat drips on the end of my nose! What a work
out, who knew? I was completely drenched. I tell you, I have even more respect for
our little girls who sometimes play 3 or 4 games in a weekend..
Scrimmage time: the drill was to pass at least 3 times
before shooting for our make-shift nets. It took our little beginner group a
bit of time before we got the hang of it, but then we did! And I found myself
being more aggressive in going for the ring.. and I even got 2 goals! 2 GOALS!!
Imagine that? We all laughed and cheered for each other (even the other “team”)
and had a lot of fun. I still can’t stop properly, but I have discovered a “go-get-‘em”
side of me I never noticed before, and I felt amazing for hours afterwards. The
only downside was that I was famished at 10pm after I had brushed my teeth and
got into bed J
So, we will see what next Thursday evening brings, but I
know that I look forward to lacing up again with the ladies and seeing if I can
keep on improving at this game called ringuette. Never know, maybe Jac, James,
David and I can get on the ice in the park this winter for a bit of a family
game.
Good job Meghan!
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