Bought my first hockey helmet and gloves yesterday

[Bass56]

Not to hijack the thread but as I was searching for images of the stickhandling ball, I fell upon this epicness:



If I ever have money to burn, I'm buying this goalie set for my beer league!! Voltron!!

[yougo]

Nice job Stuntman.
I've played hockey all my life at a relatively high level, stopped right before I could make it into eliteprospects.com database for family reason. I was teammate with Jonathan Bernier for several years. Anywho, I'd suggest you buy a visor or even a full cage.

I for one, play with a full cage for several reason. I don't trust other players, as a defenseman, I caught my fair share of high sticks in the face and I'm done showing up to work with a bloody face because of beer hockey.

If you're looking to develop your skills as a hockey player, I think you need to go this way.

Step 1: Skating/Balance/Agility
It's the basics. You won't be able to shoot properly or handle the puck with ease if you are not a good skater. Start practicing breaking, pivoting. When you're at ease, work on your edges. I'll post some video later if you want. I used to coach PeeWee kids, and had a nice library of teaching videos if I can find them.

Step2: Puck handling
Once you got the hang of skating, you'll be able to work on your puck skills. First step should be to stay stationnary and handle the puck with your head up while trying to look at the puck the less possible. Then you can practice doing the same thing while skating. It's just so important to be able to handle the puck while skating and looking up.
Step3: Shooting/Passing
This is when you're really comfortable with skating with the puck. Shooting takes a lot of muscle memory IMO but once you get the hang of it, it's actually quite easy . Especially with the new sticks these days.

Next time you want to invest in hockey equipment, I'd prioritize a good hockey sticks as it will really help you improve you shooting and passing ability(especially receving passes).

A good quality/price stick is the Sherwood T90, really durable and lightweight.

- - - Updated - - -

Nice job Stuntman.
I've played hockey all my life at a relatively high level, stopped right before I could make it into eliteprospects.com database for family reason. I was teammate with Jonathan Bernier for several years. Anywho, I'd suggest you buy a visor or even a full cage.

I for one, play with a full cage for several reason. I don't trust other players, as a defenseman, I caught my fair share of high sticks in the face and I'm done showing up to work with a bloody face because of beer hockey.

If you're looking to develop your skills as a hockey player, I think you need to go this way.

Step 1: Skating/Balance/Agility
It's the basics. You won't be able to shoot properly or handle the puck with ease if you are not a good skater. Start practicing breaking, pivoting. When you're at ease, work on your edges. I'll post some video later if you want. I used to coach PeeWee kids, and had a nice library of teaching videos if I can find them.

Step2: Puck handling
Once you got the hang of skating, you'll be able to work on your puck skills. First step should be to stay stationnary and handle the puck with your head up while trying to look at the puck the less possible. Then you can practice doing the same thing while skating. It's just so important to be able to handle the puck while skating and looking up.
Step3: Shooting/Passing
This is when you're really comfortable with skating with the puck. Shooting takes a lot of muscle memory IMO but once you get the hang of it, it's actually quite easy . Especially with the new sticks these days.

Next time you want to invest in hockey equipment, I'd prioritize a good hockey sticks as it will really help you improve you shooting and passing ability(especially receving passes).

A good quality/price stick is the Sherwood T90, really durable and lightweight.

[Tobias Funke]

I like full cage for a beginner too. You don't see "lines" or whatever people say they say when wearing a cage. It's different when you just put it on to when you're focused on the game.

[hockeymanG23]

Right on Stunt Man.

I like the advice of many others here. Never even crossed my mind to take the ear guards out. I wear a visor as well but plenty of guys wear cages too, at least you know they'll never scratch or fog up Anyone that might razz you about it is just having fun teasing and no big deal or they're just a dick so again, no big deal.

I like yougo's advise here too. If there are some rinks around that are very accessible then it will help the most to work on your skating, balance, and edges. Its the foundation of everything you do.

Keep working on your fitness dude and have fun with it, this is a great way to burn some pounds and develop new skills at the same time. You'll have a blast.

[Moses]

Stuntman! Good on you.

Win another few bucks at poker and get yourself a cage. It has nothing to do with you, it has everything to do with the others who are playing around you. I started playing in a men's league at 28 years old. I can recount moments over the last 10 years that I count my blessing that I was wearing a cage. Let me share one.

The one that sticks out in my mind is a time that during a game I ended up laying on the ice just in front of the crease during a scrum. I had been knocked down/fell down and another player was off balance and was on one skate. He regained his balance by trying to put the leg that he had up in the air back on the ground. He stomped on my face cage with full force (100% accidentally) as I was looking up in the air trying to get back to my feet. I still vividly remember watching a skate blade coming right down on my face only to stop on the metal bars 2" in front of my eyes. The results of that exchange if I had not been wearing a cage would have been catastrophic.

[StuntMan12]

thank you all for your kind words and advice. this has been very helpful

[CleghornBros]

awesome. Never to late