Another season in Streatham

LONDON, UK – Streatham Redskins returned to training last week, as their preparations for the 2012/13 season got underway. Pro Hockey News columnist David Carr reveals that the first session back after the summer is always the hardest.

 
As you get older in life you constantly pick up new vocabulary along the way. On very rare occasions you come across a word that relates closely to you and your actions.
 
To my delight I encountered the word ‘procrastinating’ this summer. As someone who has taught English in Buenos Aires, studied English in Durham and read numerous hard hitting English language books over my lifetime (Viz annual, Roy Keane’s Autobiography and The Da Vinci Code amongst others), it is somewhat surprising that this highly relevant word has only just entered my general vocabulary.
 
So as I sat last week on my sofa wearing my New York Islanders pyjamas, a team I don’t even like but whose logo I will happily wear thanks to their place in a ten dollar bargain sale, I sat staring at the clock in the bottom right hand corner of my laptop. I sat browsing the World Wide Web looking at hotel reviews on Trip Advisor then checking the weather for the week ahead.
 
I leafed through a travel guide to Bhutan and then made some toast even though I wasn’t hungry. I then browsed a few online football forums and checked out the price of Scalectrix on Amazon.
 
Time ticked by and I found myself running a bath (I normally shower), then soaking in bubbles whilst playing Angry Birds on my phone. I then looked at my clock again and the time was 19.45. I should have left fifteen minutes earlier so I could get to the rink and change the blade in my stick, sort out the smelly kit that had sat in my car for the last three weeks untouched, and fasten the screws on my helmet.
 
I knew I was running late, even as I poured the Mr Matey into the bath at 19.25 but the truth is I was putting off the inevitable. Delaying the moment I start up the car engine, turn the key and begin another eight or nine months of commitment to the wonderful world of ice hockey.
 
To sum up the situation in one word, I was procrastinating.
 
It is not that I was dreading a return to the ice, well maybe just a bit; I have skated quite a bit over the summer with various recreational teams in London and enjoyed every minute of it.
 
However, the return to pre-season training and all that signifies meant I was somehow lacking motivation to drive through the capital, decked as it is in the Olympic paraphernalia.
 
My route ironically takes me past the Olympic Park, glowing in neon and bright lights, a place where British sportsmen and women are currently achieving things none of us can ever dream of.
 
I figured heavy traffic would slow me down yet it was clear, I always get caught behind some cautious driver bricking it at 10mph all the way through the narrow Rotherhithe tunnel, yet nothing could slow me down.
 
Despite my sub conscious efforts to roll in as late as possible, I arrived right on time at Brixton ice rink, a facility I will probably spend at least four nights a week, every week for the near future along with another night in a different rink.
 
Entering the still gleaming surroundings of Planet Ice Brixton the dread dissolved away almost instantly, as the smiling faces I have spent much of the last four years with were stood or sat in their usual positions. The new guys sat in place of players sadly not signing up again this year, joined in with the locker room banter and it was as if the season had never ended.
 
As much as I love to meet new team mates, I also tend to lament the loss of others who I have skated with and spent hours on coach trips across the UK sat next to. This season our captain Ed Koral is taking some time out after his shoulder injury flared up, Shane Kemp has left and it looks likely that players like Gennadi Yufit, Chris Fox, Warren Rost and even Storming Norman Pinnington probably won’t be back.
 
There is no tooth-less Tomas Valko with his under breath swearing nor Peter Molnar riding his mountain bike to training.
 
The ever smiling Czech Lukas Zilak and his glamorous camera woman partner Iva are missing as are the likes of Pete Quiney, Rob England and various other guys who played their part last season.
 
No doubt some of the above mentioned will skate again this year and hockey tends to throw up surprises but it is the nature of competitive sport that rosters will change each year and we all have to live with that.
 
The session starts and I feel dreadful. Even the positive energy I picked up from the Tibetan monks in the Korean temple I stayed in last month is not helping.
 
It is no secret that the first sessions of any pre-season involve a lot of skating and in many ways it probably isn’t too bad. Twenty minutes into the practice and I fall over on a one on one drill and give myself a dead leg.
 
It is hurting like hell but I know if I get off it will look like I am skiving so I soldier on, looking more slow and ponderous than usual at this time of year.
 
The new boys look decent, with Tyrone Miller, Dom Hopkins, Jamie McIlroy, Joe Allen and Eddie Temple all blending in with the guys. Allen in particular skates like the wind and it is no surprise that I draw against him twice in a back checking drill, with the winner on both occasions being the former Romford man.
 
The last fifteen minutes are pure skating drills as we all wait for Steve the Zamboni driver to open the gates and put us all out of our misery. As usual he rolls up two or three minutes late, to ensure the coaching staff get their maximum ice allocation, and we get skated to the max.
 
We all chat in the locker room afterwards about ways to get Steve to turn up on time including a kitty that we can slip him on the down-low, but I suspect the pattern will continue as it has for years.
 
After showering and learning that Stewart Tait uses the German equivalent of Radox (I suspect it is a Poundland special but he is adamant), I say my goodbyes and put my kit in the storage cupboard at the rink before climbing into my car for the drive home. As I pass the Elephant and Castle shopping centre I start retching and for a minute I think that I may end up puking at the traffic lights, but I hold firm.
 
The Olympic stadium is still shining brightly as I drive back up the A12 and on returning to the flat I have that familiar problem that all hockey players have after training. The buzz that stops you sleeping and enforces you to watch late night NHL hockey or if out of season, Sky Sports News or Comedy Central into the early hours.
 
After a woeful night’s sleep I wake up with stiff legs and an aching back, and trudge to the train station. My Ipod springs into life and suddenly I get that fantastic feeling that exercise gives you the following morning, the direct contrast to a hangover… and I smile to myself knowing the hockey season is back.
 
It should be a good year at Streatham and I am pleased to be a part of it.
 
Contact the author david.carr@prohockeynews.com