Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Cherry Popped

My First Game
Well I played my first game with the Misfit Militia this month. I was only on one line and got bumped a number of times due to penalties or strategy plays (using the power jam line) but the moments I was on the track, it was a lot of fun. I got in a couple of decent hits but didn't really feel I had enough time to do too much.

I am very much looking forward to playing a game for real as I will be in two weeks with our house team the Bombshell Battalion. I am on three lines and pivoting as well as blocking. On this team I will not be the weakest link, which will be a really, really nice feeling.

I have to say I did get to feeling a bit down when playing with the Misfits. That is, not when actually playing (or sitting on the bench watching them play) but in the few practices before the game. It was an unfortunate thing that a number of the girls who were rostered were not coming to critical practices (though I was) and those of us who were new who were at practice sort of took the brunt of the anger towards those other players (as we were the players doing things wrong due to our newness/lack of knowledge/lack of skating skills). At least, that is how it felt to me.

Also, I have very good attention skills, and make good eye contact. I think this means sometimes I feel like everything the trainer is saying is being said to me (which may or may not be true). All the critical things anyway. Also, there was a bit of an imbalance of criticism to positive reinforcement and knowing when it is the best time to use either of these.

I am a coach at heart and would really like to see a lot more team think going on, and positive reinforcement. Cause, the thing is, when you suck, you kinda already know you suck. (At least I really do!) So, that doesn't mean that someone can't point out how to improve (showing you where you made your errors), that is important for learning not occur, but someone also needs to be pointing out when you have improved or note the effort that is being made. There is nothing more discouraging then really putting in a big effort and having no positive feedback or acknowledgement of it. It's one of those moments you throw your hands up in the air and think "Why am I even trying".

In any case, I am not usually so sensitive to such things but there has been a lot going on in my life and, you know, I actually do have feelings too. So, what I take away from this is that I am going to try harder now to take the bull by the horns and not feel stupid to speak up more to say things to other players, spread even more positivity than usual.

We have a lot of capable people in our league with some really excellent skill sets I have no doubt we will all continue to grow and learn how to be better in all of our different roles and get even better at being a cohesive team.


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