From the Ashes I Rise

It has been a long time since I wrote anything on the blog (in fact last time was in 2017) but over the past month or so, I’ve had the urge to start up again.

Before we dive into the stream of consciousness, I feel like I owe you an explanation as to why the blog fell silent. The blog was started way back when as a way for me to analyse my performances in hockey games and how I can best develop as a player. It was an outlet to vent frustrations I had of myself and so on. Since then it evolved to talk about all things hockey and started to include product reviews, which I loved doing.

However, I thought that I would try and monetize the blog and draw an income off of it. This was ultimately its downfall. In fact, it seems it is a downfall of everything I think of monetizing. It didn’t feel natural anymore and started to transform into a full-time job with no pay next to my ACTUAL full-time job. As my job already involves a lot of writing and content editing, the last thing I wanted to do was write some more when I got home. I still love playing and absolutely miss being on the ice and with my team, but the blog was just that stretch too far to think of click baity articles.

The biggest reason was that, I had two young children that I wanted to spend time with and I wasn’t actually “living and breathing” hockey as much as I was before. I still have the kids by the way. It’s not like I sold them on eBay. The kids are bit older now and with the pandemic, I have a bit more free time at my disposal.

So I’m bringing it back. But this time, I’m taking no pressures over it, much like with my social media platforms. I’m not obsessing over readership numbers, I’m not stressing over a content schedule, I’m not going to lose sleep about how many clicks an article might drive. I’ll just write this as a personal thing as and when I feel like I have something to say and feel like writing.

I would love to do some more gear reviews in time, but those might be difficult as I’ve not kept in touch with the manufacturers in nearly 3-4 years. We shall see where we’ll end up with that.

In the main, I want to keep this as a journal about my progress again. I have a particular goal in mind that I want to achieve, and want to use the blog and my Instagram account as ways of tracking my progress and my thoughts throughout the journey.

So if you’re tuning back, welcome and sorry the blog fizzled out. If you’ve decided to move on to different content streams, no hard feelings. If you’re a new reader. Welcome.

#offseasonproblems

****This was written originally in July, but given issues with laptop I’m only publishing this no

Every day is arm day

w. The one thing that may have changed is the body fat %, as I’ve been mostly sitting in my underwear eating Haribo. Oh and I’ve started skating.***

So as we are hurtling towards the start of the season, I thought it’d be a good chance to update on the struggles that hockey players go through every summer, otherwise known as off-season problems. Summer is obviously a chance to take some R&R time from the game and kick

 

 

back, but it is also the time when you build the foundations for the year ahead.

I thought that after the season was over I’d give myself a good chance to rest and

Progress in mid July

recover, both physically and mentally. I had planned on a two week break once the season had wrapped up, but that didn’t really go to plan. I got bored after a couple of days and started doing light workouts and then after a week, I was fully vested into my off season workout plan.

 

In terms of strength and conditioning, I am using a program that I’ve used for the past two summers, so this is the 3^rd summer I’m using this particular routine. Last summer I added 3kg of muscle, so I thought that it’s the right program. Plus given the fact that I’m at 100% health and not having to contend with any injuries, I felt I’d be able to push harder at the gym.

 

I’ve not just been a meat head for the summer. I have spent time with my family too

Additionally to the program I’ve added few layers to it, to improve my grip strength as it supposedly helps with shot velocity (and who doesn’t want bigger fore arms) and speed workout which I’ve been carrying on in parallel to the strength and conditioning workout. Last season I felt that the strength and conditioning side worked well, but I wanted to add another level to training. With the league getting harder, it’s important to respond to the increase in competition in the right way.

 

The speed workouts really work on the ‘engine’ of the hockey player, so it’s focussed on the glutes, hamstrings, quads and core. That is where your speed is generated and given my history with back injuries the last two seasons, I felt that I need to improve this area in my body. Besides, who knows, maybe it will help me look better naked.

 

What has been different about the off season so far is that I’ve not really thought about

I also drove a bunch of fast cars. Didn’t get killed or kill any cars. 

hockey while I’ve been working out. I’ve been doing it because it has been fun and it has been a journey of self-discovery again. I’ve found that I’m able to push myself more and more and I’m actually finding enjoyment out of seeing that puddle of sweat by my feet at the end of the workout. I think, in comparison to last summer, I didn’t go to those levels with training.

 

One philosophy that I’ve carried with me subconsciously, though, is that the off season is still competition. You are building for the season ahead, but you are also competing against your future team mates by wanting to be fitter than any of them and you want to make sure that you claim your spot on the roster. That is one of the reasons that hockey is such a fascinating sport. You compete all year round, in the summer, against your teammates and then you put all of that aside and you compete with those guys to help your team win. It is a never ending competition.

 

So what about the results from the training then?

 

Well, to the end of June, I had slashed my body fat % by 3% to get it sub 10% for the first time since before my back went. I’ve maintained the muscle mass that I had, but I feel quicker, if that makes sense? I’m yet to skate, but whenever I’m doing sprints, my legs feel lighter and I feel like I’m producing more power through my legs. One shall see when I hit the ice whether that feeling is all in my head, or whether it is all results.

 

The next steps are to start skating. Whenever regular training starts, I want to have the cobwebs worked out of the system. Simultaneously to this, I’m going to start working on some stickhandling stuff. I’ve got hands like cement blocks so if I can soften my touch a little bit that should all help. It will be interesting getting back on the ice. I’ve not skated since April, so I’m bound to be rusty as anything. It’s the first four sessions that are the worst and after that it starts getting easier.

 

Until it does, I’m dreading those four sessions.

 

First impressions: Warrior Alpha QX Stick

We had an opportunity to try the all new Warrior Alpha QX Stick recently. Similar to the QRL review last year, this is a quick overview of our thoughts on the new top of the line stick. The Alpha QX range replaces the outgoing Dynasty range of sticks. These first impressions are based on about 45 minutes of tinkering with it. The stick was tested in dry land conditions only and for shooting.

 

Upon picking up the stick it feels incredibly light. The stick weighs in at 410 grams, which isn’t the lightest stick on the market but on hands it definitely feels a lot lighter than it actually is. The stick is finely balanced and feels good on the hands. The one thing that we found a bit uncomfortable to begin with was the grip coating. It felt ‘stickier’ than other sticks that we’ve tested in the past, but this again is a matter of preference. Warrior says that this grip is to improve accuracy and control.

 

One of the other things we noticed when we first held the stick is that the contour of the shaft is also new and at first felt a little different to ‘conventional’ hockey sticks. The best way to describe the shaft and the contour is a mash between the old elliptical design on the Easton S19 and CCM’s Octo-Gun sticks. However, it isn’t as radical as those two.

Warrior says that this is to help with stick handling and shooting (we’ll get to that later). The Alpha QX is a low kick point stick and differs from the QRL in that the kick point is slightly higher. The aim has been to make shot release even quicker on the Alpha QX.

The stick that we tested was an 85 flex with W05 (Granlund) blade pattern, which has a 5 lie and a 9/16 heel curve. Normally we would prefer a 75 flex but the 85 flex stick gave us a good enough impression on what the stick is capable of.

 

We only tested the stick on dry land for shooting, but it did impress us quite a bit. One of the first things we look at in any stick is the feel for the puck how well the blade feeds back to the shaft/hands. On the Alpha QX the feel is what you would expect from a top of the range puck. You can stick handle comfortably knowing that the puck is on the blade and not having to spend too much time looking down to the puck.

 

Shooting is where the stick reveals its worth. You can comfortably release slap-shots and wristers and get the feeling that there is more ‘oomph’ behind the shot. We’ve experienced this with the likes of TRUE X-C 9 sticks. The stick is easy to load and especially using it for one timers (using a Hockey Shot Passing kit PRO) you can really unleash some heavy shots with the stick. Wrist shots feel like they come off the stick with ease and you can really tell the improvements made for quickening the release. In shooting, there wasn’t much of a wobble on the puck and it comes off clean from the blade.

 

There is a durable feel to the shaft. Thanks to an all new construction method, the stick is now stronger, which translates into your shooting confidence. You can easily lean into one-timers with the stick without the fear of the stick breaking. For example with the Sher-Wood Rekker EK-15, the stick feels just so light your natural instinct is to hold back a touch. Not so with the Warrior, you can lean into shots with your hearts content.

 

The big downside for the Alpha QX? The price. The stick is set to retail at $300/£200/€240, so it is not the cheapest top-of-the-range stick on the market. Then again, you do get a lot of performance for the money.

 

Conclusion:

Where our time with the stick wasn’t that long, it did provide us with a good idea of what the stick is capable of. The Warrior Alpha QX is a real shooter’s stick and we would love to do an indepth review of one on the ice to really put it through its paces, but just from dry-land shooting experience the stick is impressive piece of engineering.

 

The only things that we found bugged us slightly were the grip and the new shape of the stick, which with more time I’m sure would not be a massive problem. However, as said, at the moment, the only downside that we can see is the price tag of the stick. Yes you do get a high performance stick for that money, but it is a lot of money to invest in a product that is most at risk of breaking in the game of hockey.

 

What has hockey given me?

This is a question that I’ve pondered on and off for a long time. Maybe part of it is that during conversations with family and non-hockey playing friends I often get asked why do I still play, despite my rather lengthy list of injuries and the commitment hockey takes.

 

As a player, I’ve lived by the ethos that I will do anything that the team asks of me and commit myself 100% to the season. Before having kids it was easy to make that commitment and now, where I still make it, I always factor in the desires of the family. As long as they are happy for me to carry on playing and putting that level of commitment in, then I’ll always sign. Additionally I ask myself if I have the spark and the desire to put in that level of commitment. If I can’t give 100% of myself, physically and emotionally, then there’s no point me wasting my coaches time, my teammates time and my time. Yes, during the season there are times when you want to say “fuck it” and give up, but there’s always been a desire to give two fingers to those thoughts and battle on.

 

Hockey is a sport that takes a lot. An awful lot. Not only is there the games and trainings during the season, but there’s also the conditioning work that takes place during the summer, during the season and any functions that the team has for fans and so on (OK I don’t attend many nights out, because I’m old and ugly and need all the beauty sleep I can get). Hockey takes up your weekends from September to April. The season literally consumes you and your free time and mind.

 

But what has hockey actually given back to me?

 

I’ll try and look at this from beyond just winning and friendships, though the first thing hockey has given me are the friendships, but it has given deeper meaning to it as well.

 

There’s nothing quite like sharing the comradery of a team and the fan-base that the team has. During the years I’ve played, I’ve made friends with people I probably wouldn’t have hung-out with and have discovered great personalities through the game. This in turn has opened me to be more accepting of people and has allowed me to in greater or lesser extent let go of some prejudices that I may have subconsciously held.

 

Hockey has also given me a family. Literally. I met my wife on a team night out when I was playing for the Southampton University team. Since meeting her and ultimately marrying her, we have had two wonderful children and she and the kids have added more meaning to life. But in addition, hockey has given me another family in the community that has been built around the team I play for.

 

Hockey has given me work ethic. The game in itself is honest. If you don’t put the work in, you will find the result on the scoreboard and you’ll feel quite shitty about it and yourself. The same applies to work outside of the rink. The game has taught me a lot about how to approach challenges and how to tolerate stress and disappointment. It has taught me that you keep going until you reach the ultimate goal.

 

It has given me resilience and perseverance: I’ve had a fair few injuries and I’ve persevered through them, always wanting to come back better and stronger. At times it has been difficult, sure, but at the end of the day I’ve learnt to rise above the pain and fight my way back into game shape. Hockey has also given me a higher than average pain threshold. Being able to play a game with a severe disc prolapse, playing a whole season with a fully torn labrum and ruptured bicep tendon takes some guts but you push through it, because you want to help the team win.

 

Additionally the game has taught me about health: About 4 years ago I realised that if I didn’t change the way I trained, the way I ate – and more importantly what I ate – I would not last a year. Since then I have discovered a healthier lifestyle and have managed to cut out many habits I had in the past. Because of hockey, I am now more conscious about the dietary choices I make on a daily basis and the way I listen to my body and maintain it – even if at times it seems like I disregard the body’s warning. I’m not an elite athlete, but I would like to think that I approach training and diet from a more athletic point of view.

 

 

 

Yes, hockey does take and demand a lot of you, but if you look beyond, it does give back an awful lot as well. I consider myself fortunate to be able to play and keep learning more.

Living off of hockey pt1: Cross Check Clothing

Cross Check Clothing has been producing Hockey inspired lifestyle apparel since 2012. Here’s a pic of me at the gym in one of their sleeveless tops

In a new series of posts, we will explore how people make a living out of hockey, not as players, but through various different ways. The saying goes that “hockey gives you a lot”, but how does that extend to those that are not players or work for a team. The aim of the series is to explore the impact hockey has had on people on a personal level and how it has helped them shape a business and a career on the edges of the game.

 

The first look at how Hockey has enabled a business is to look at Cross Check Clothing, a UK based hockey inspired lifestyle apparel brand, set up in 2012. Since inception, Cross Check has garnered a steady following and a loyal fan base from the UK hockey scene as well as abroad.

 

But how did the brand’s owner and creator Pete Weeks get into hockey and what made him start his own apparel company? A company that “does it for the kicks”, as Pete himself puts it, but at the same time churns out quality apparel and contributes to the visibility of hockey on the streets.

 

“I had an early introduction to hockey through family and I picked it up again when my step-son was five years old. He had developed an obsession with the NHL video games and we decided to take him to a game to see what he made of the sport in real life.”

 

Those who have followed Cross Check Clothing from its early days, will know that from those early days of taking his step son to games, it has become a regular occurrence to Pete and his family.

Please visit our sponsors for awesome hockey related swag.

So if hockey served as a way to spend time with family, where did the inspiration for hockey apparel come from? As Pete explains, he saw a niche in the market “I was shopping for hockey wear for my step-son and found that other than a few uninspiring North American brands, or NHL team wear, there was little in terms of what acknowledged hockey in the UK. After the initial idea I sat on it for a few months and decided to take the plunge.”

 

It might be safe to say that setting up a company to serve a niche in a niche sport is a risk, but was it a daunting experience? “I knew a fair bit about setting up businesses and how to go about getting stock and growing the name, it was a case of putting it all in place,” Pete explains. “I wasn’t nervous about the start-up, I was excited about the launch and cracking the whip on the design team and suppliers to get the stock in.”

 

“The first time I really started to panic was after a few weeks. We’d only had an order for about £3 and I started to wonder if we’d sell anything,” Pete explains. “Thankfully, we made some good friends early on who are still big parts of the brand and helped push us forward”.

 

 

But where does the inspiration come from. Pete says that Cross Check Clothing has similar aspirations as Vans and Quicksilver, brands that used to be rooted in skateboarding and surfing respectively, but have in the course of time appealed to a much, much wider audience. Is Cross Check looking to get to a similar level as these brands? “The merchandise we put out is lifestyle wear, so we aim for designs that we see anyone wearing,” Pete explains.

 

But what attracts people to the game? For Pete, the story is familiar to many who come to hockey games. “I think it’s the atmosphere at games, especially after a series of big hits, or a fight,” he explains. “I love the way momentum can shift in a game so quickly when players step up and it means you always have something to cheer for, even if the score of the game isn’t going your way.”

 

Additionally, the physicality and the demands of the game get a lot of respect from Pete. “When you see players throwing themselves in front of pucks and getting smashed into the boards night in, night out, it takes a lot and I have a huge amount of respect for that,”

 

A sampling of the Cross Check Clothing shirt collection

From working with Cross Check Clothing for the past two seasons, one of the things that appealed to the undersigned was the way the brand operates. It is very down to earth and personable. Everything the company does has a personal touch to it, whether it is the signed card with every delivery or their presence in social media. That is also true in the interactions. You know you are dealing with real people who really care deeply about what they do and the community within the game.

 

“Thankfully we’ve always been supported on everything we’ve done, which has allowed us to work on better products and much wider range. Every penny we make is re-invested back into the company to keep regular and better products coming out.” Pete explains the philosophy of the company.

 

But what of the future? Five years in to the journey of the brand, a fair share of ups and downs, but it is still going strong. What is the future for the company? “Be the headline sponsor of the NHL,” Pete says, laughingly. “To be honest we want to continue to grow with the friends we’ve made. Maybe in the future we will look to take the brand a bit further a field and meet some new exciting people in the process.”

 

 

So, that’s a story of a growing lifestyle brand that has its roots in the game of hockey in a nutshell. The journey Cross Check Clothing has been on has been quite extraordinary in the sense that they have continued to evolve and improve in what is a niche market, reaching people beyond hockey. The genuine attitude of the company towards their products is paramount to its success and the people in the UK hockey community certainly have embraced the brand. 

 

Their story is bound to continue for years to come.  

 Visit the Cross Check Clothing store at: https://shop.crosscheckclothing.co.uk/ 

Assembling a human: Putting together fragments from a brain injury

t has been almost seven years since I suffered my worst concussion to date. As many have read on the blog about the recovery and the initial trauma of the injury, I thought it would be interesting to do a piece on how life has moved on and find out, whether I was able to assemble a person from the fragments that were left as a result of the blow.

To recap briefly if you haven’t followed this blog long. I suffered a brain injury (which I refer to here as concussion) whilst playing hockey about seven years ago. I can’t remember much from the day it happened or the months following, but what the doctors told me is that I had a bleed in my brain and I was being monitored very closely by medical professionals. Being an idiot that I am, I ignored the doctors’ advice and caused myself more harm, returning to play after a week off (which was WAAAAY too soon). My symptoms were severe. I had to spend days in a darkened room due to intense photophobia, my head was pounding like I’d been on a week long bender, I was iritable, I could not remember what I’d done two minutes prior and I was laughing hysterically one minute, only to break down in tears the next. I felt I lost myself.

The recovery from the concussion took almost a year and a half, mainly because I refused to rest, so I suffered from headaches, dizziness and low mood/irritability for a long time. These symptoms are usually quite persistent in the early phase of concussions and should subside if you follow the appropriate recovery protocols.

In the early phases of the injury, my handwriting changed dramatically and my decision making was impaired. I also did things like try and dry myself after having a shower, whilst still standing underneath the shower. There were also difficulties associated with concentration and anything that required a prolonged period of attention, were difficult to deal with as I got a blistering headache from it.

However, now nearly seven years later, have I and my family managed to assemble a person of the mess that was left from the concussion? Neurologically, speaking I am fine. All my reactions and nervous system work as they should. Also, scans of my brain show no sign of permanent damage. That’s all well and good, however…

Despite getting a “clinical” all clear, I am still left dealing with concentration problems, usually in day to day life and at work. I am good at starting on a task, but then my mind wanders and I’m left thinking, what the hell it was that I was doing. Usually, I have to park the activity for a bit and come back to it once I catch the thread of my thought.

Additionally, some may have noticed in conversations with me that my eyes wander when I’m speaking to them. This again is associated with the concentration problem. Where I am listening to whoever I’m speaking to and paying attention, it is a monumental challenge to maintain eye contact. So, if you are speaking to me, and I’m not looking at you, please don’t be offended.

It is weird as when it comes to game day and the minutes leading up to when we take to the ice, that’s where I find I’m most focussed. Though having said that, it too has been an area where I’ve struggled. I’ve since been seeing a sports psychologist and have been using various techniques from hypnotherapy to NLP to help me achieve a better level of focus before games. I have to do the same in professional life when it is time to give a presentation, for example.

Prior to the concussion I had a pretty good memory. I would be able to recite circulation figures of publications, who the editor of a magazine was, which player played with what number and what sticks they used etc. Today… No chance. I struggle to remember names of people I’ve done business with for a long time and also I get easily confused on how many reps or sets I’ve done at the gym, despite having a workout log in front of me.

I am also maybe a touch more irritable than I was seven years ago. I seem to let little things get to me and eat away at me for days on end. However, I’m not a 100% convinced that my irritability is due to the brain injury, as my close friends and family have often described me as the most wound-up laidback person they know prior to the injury.  

The other aspect which has become more prominent in the wake of the concussion are my depressive cycles. I had been battling depression before the injury, but it seems like it has exasperated the problem, in that my depressive ‘episodes’ are more frequent and tend to be a quick decline, rather than something that happens gradually. Another issue which I remember vividly from the symptoms was that I looked myself in the mirror one day, must’ve been 2-3 months after the initial injury and I broke down in tears. I remember telling my wife that I don’t like the person that is staring back at me in the mirror and that I wanted to change. It was almost like the line in the Springsteen song Dancing in the dark: “I wanna change my clothes, my hair, my face”. Body image was never really a big deal to me, but that was a defining moment in my life and I still have the same feeling everytime I see myself in the mirror. And that is despite losing loads of weight and putting on more muscle. With depression, I’ve reached a good place and have become better at identifying when I’m starting to ‘lose it’ and can seek to rectify it. I am likely to eat pills for this for the rest of my life. With the body image thing… who knows.

Coordination is something that has been affected. It may be brash to say that it’s all coordination. I am completely fine and in control when I’m playing, working out, driving etc. I’m absolutely fine, but tell me to do start jumps, I’m boned. I get there eventually, but I have to run through everything in my mind as to how it all comes together.

Those are in the main the areas where I still struggle a bit or that I know that have changed. What of the answer to the question: Am I still the same person as I was before the concussion? The answer is no. And to be truthfully honest, no one would be after 7 years. I feel I’ve grown and evolved as a person since then so it is impossible to say whether or not I am the same as I was back then. To what extent the concussion affected that process, I don’t know. but it definitely had an impact.

However, what I do know is that I am incredibly lucky in that my injury was not as bad as some of the ones I’ve seen while I was recovering. In comparison, I felt like a fraud next to people who are having to re-learn to walk, eat, write etc. The drive these people have is astonishing and I have nothing but the highest levels of admiration and respect for people who are going through that level of arduous recovery. 

 

However, whether or not me and those around me have managed to assemble a person of the fragments that were left: I think we’ve done alright. It hasn’t been easy, particularly in the early weeks and months post injury, but I’m a relatively respectable citizen.

 

Review: TRUE A6.0 SBP Stick

When TRUE first let us test the original A6.0 and A5.2 sticks it was a revelation of what hockey sticks could and should be like. This was then followed by the X-Core 9, which we still view as one of – if not THE – best sticks on the market. TRUE has given us the A6.0 SBP to try and we’ve been finding out if it is the old A6.0 with a cherry on top or a complete overhaul.

The A6.0SBP does not come with TRUE’s X-Core technology but features other technologies in the blade that have been designed to make your shot harder. To benchmark this stick we’ve gone back to our original TRUE A6.0 review (a stick that was donated to a fan after winning the league) and Warrior Covert QRL. We benchmarked the QRL against the X-Core and found that the two sticks were pretty much on par with each other. Can TRUE pull one out of the bag and out-do the QRL?

In terms of TRUE’s tree-chart of sticks, the A series is aimed for providing Strength, Balance and Power (SBP) making it a shooter’s stick (think Bauer’s X1) and the X-Core series is aimed to provide accuracy, control and feel, with TRUE billing it as the playmaker’s stick.

Design:

In comparison to the Original A6.0 stick, the A6.0SBP is a flashier stick and has more design elements to it. It stays true to TRUE’s brand of using almost neon blue and grey design, which helps it stand out from the crowd. Like we mentioned in the Warrior QRL review, TRUE has always been more about performance than about the bling factor of a white stick with a fancy blade decal.

As with all design related things, the beauty really is in the eye of the beholder, but we really like the design of the A6.0SBP and would go as far as to say that it’s a handsome stick when you put it up against some of the others. You get a great combination of decals as well as the cool element of seeing the carbon fibre twill.

Feel:

When first holding the stick out of wrappers, it feels lightweight. The A6.0SBP is the same weight as its predecessor and ranks right up there with the Warrior, with both weighing in at around 400grams. Comparing the SBP to the original A6.0 it feels like the balance of the stick has been improved. The original A6.0 was a well balanced stick, but on the A6.0SBP the feeling of balance is better.

The lightweight construction of the stick makes it easy to use and stick handle, much like the Warrior QRL. However, in TRUE’s case we felt that we can get a bit more feedback from the blade and that the blade is more rigid than on the Warrior. This is thanks to the BRT blade on the stick (more on that later). Also the shaft of the stick feels that it gives you more.

This is in part thanks to TRUE’s SmartPly technology, the stick is well balanced and durable. The durability aspect is always key point to consider for any hockey player, but with the TRUE stick we’ve found that despite taking a few rather vicious hacks and slashes of the shaft it does last. However, as a disclaimer, it is always worth noting that virtually all sticks do break at some point. TRUE has done a great job in terms of producing a stick that goes that extra mile in terms of durability in a jungle of sticks waving at it.  

Shooting:

What we have found interesting in the TRUE A6.0SBP is TRUE’s Smartflex. The Smartflex technology allows for stiffness distribution from any shooting position. It feels almost like similar type of technology that CCM successfully used in its RBZ sticks and we really love it. The Smartflex is one of the real highlights of the A6.0SBP stick as it offers you almost a customised flex from the shaft.

In terms of shots, we were surprised at the ease of getting a decent shot off. Much like with the QRL that we tested, the TRUE A6.0SBP doesn’t need huge efforts to load for a quick wrister or snap shot. Thanks to the lightweight of the stick, you can get a better, quicker swing on your slapshots and much thanks to the flex of the shaft, they carry some immense power behind them.

In non-game situations and no goalie in net, it is easy to pick the top corners with this stick. In fact, what we found is that the shot almost automatically goes into that sweet-spot just where the cross bar starts to bend to the post. Sometimes even with hardly any load in behind the shot, it still amazes us just how much velocity you can get behind the shot with the A6.0 SBP.

Blade:

The blade on the original A6.0 was already amazing, but with the A6.0SBP, TRUE has made it 50% stronger than the A6.0. The blade features a Braided Rib Technology, which in essence means that the stick has seamless braided tubes running through the blade, making it stiffer. We have been using the stick now for good four to five months and the blade is still as stiff and responsive as it was the day we pulled it out of the wrappers.

In that respect TRUE has kept things the same and to this date, it is the only stick that feels newer for longer. For example, an X-Core 9 we used throughout last season still has the same performance as when first used, despite the several scuffs sustained in game play.

When we first reviewed the A6.0, we likened it to the Sher-Wood Rekker EK15, but in many respects TRUE has moved the game on from there. The A6.0SBP has maintained the great feel throughout our test period and is definitely one of the best sticks on the market in this regard. In game play and training the does provide you with the new stick feel – in terms of pop – for a long time. When you connect with a puck the shot has good velocity with it.

Conclusion:

The True A6.0SBP is not a mere minor improvement on an existing range of sticks. What TRUE has done is completely overhauled the popular stick and has made it even better and put more into it that delivers performance. When we originally reviewed the A6.0 we said that TRUE would be a name to watch and in the space of a few short years, we are more than confident in saying that TRUE has gone from a new comer to a company that produces perhaps the best sticks on the market.

So how does it compare against the Warrior QRL? Again this is a really close call, but we would say that the TRUE stick has the upper hand due to a few elements, mainly due to the BRT blade and the way the stick performs on the ice. The other elements that swing the vote TRUE’s way is the Smartflext technology and the price of the TRUE stick gives you slightly more that the QRL with not as much money.

In terms of overall performance, the A6.0 SBP is probably the best stick we’ve tested to-date. And that’s saying something as we absolutely love the X-Core, but the A6.0SBP has a slight edge over the X-Core. If other stick manufacturers weren’t worried about TRUE before, they better be now.

If anything negative has to be said about the stick (It’s grip coated by the way) it is the grip coating feels almost a bit too rubbery. It does give you good grip but to us, it’s almost too much grip.

While TRUE may not yet have as many NHL players using their sticks as CCM or Bauer, but the numbers are steadily growing (see Mitch Marner of the Maple Leafs recently picking up a TRUE twig). More and more players however, are discovering TRUE, which is good news for the company and the stick market, which risked being saturated by a few major players and faced lack of any real innovation. TRUE has been able to innovate with all of its stick launches and continues to produce the best sticks on the market.

Pros:
· Superb blade structure

· Great feel on the shaft and puck

· Shooting made easy

· Right price-quality point.

· Not a minor improvement over original A series, but a complete overhaul
Cons:
· Grip coating feels rubbery

 

Without competition, there is no progression

Without competition, there is no progression” – This was a line from August Burns Red song “The First Step” (from their rather awesome album Rescue & Restore). As that line blared through my headphones at the gym and I had to stop my workout for a bit and start taking stock of the line. Without competition, there is no progression. I put the societal, corporate and capitalist ramifications of the line aside and considered it purely from a sports point of view.

Nowadays at the gym, I prefer to workout alone. I used to enjoy working out with a good friend of mine, but since he’s moved to Canada, those workouts are quite difficult. For me working out on my own is a release and I can focus on my own goals and objectives and keep to my tight regimen as opposed to having to wait for a workout partner to finish their set before I get to have a go. After a hard day, all my stress and everything is taken away by the iron. But as my workouts are geared towards hockey, a competitive team sport, how do I progress as a lone wolf at the gym?

In the main, I compete with myself at the gym. I normally suck at math and avoid anything to do with numbers like the plague, but when it comes to working out, my competition is to better what I’ve done the week before, the month before or even the year before. What I also do – and this is going to make me sound like an utter dickwad – is to compete against other hockey players I know that use the gym.

I may not know the players personally, but I know them from having played against them or having watched them play. Now, I’m fully aware that different people work to different programs at different paces and I respect that. I have my areas of focus, where another player has their own. But, by and large, the exercises and lifts that we do are the same. The way I compete (and this is without even them knowing that I’m competing with them), is to check how much they are lifting and make sure that I lift more than they do. I want to make sure that the conditioning work that I’m doing is ahead of what they do, whether they play in the same league, a higher league or lower. For me this level of competition has allowed me to push myself further. If it is a player that I know plays in the same league as I do, it is about sending a message. A message that I will out work you in the gym and I will outwork you on the ice.

Also, there is some sort of glee and I guess a dick headed alpha-male attitude in knowing that you can do deadlifts for more reps with higher weight than a pro player.

But where I’ve perhaps had the competition/progress relationship wrong is in on ice training. Don’t get me wrong, whenever I am out there, I go hard till I have nothing left in the tank, but maybe I don’t pick similar competitions as I do in the gym when in training and perhaps that is what I should start seeking to do. Whether it is to outskate certain players in drills that focus on speed or start keeping score on who has scored more goals in training, me or another randomly selected player.

It’s all well and good to play to my strengths on the ice in trainings and keep bringing high energy and intensity, but what if I ‘competed’ with my team mates in the same sense that I do in the gym with other lifters. Perhaps, I should start looking to bring more of my gym mentality to the ice as well and see whether that works. The only thing that I worry about is whether or not my competitiveness and being a sore-loser will eat away at my overall progress. But I think it is worth a shot. To start pushing myself even more and to achieve some of the goals that I’ve set for myself.

It is also said that satisfaction is the death of progress and in many ways I live by this ethos. However, I think I need to add more to the mix to start making more on ice gains and to evolve myself as a player.

As the last line in ABR’s First step says:

Evolve, or die.

Summer is gone, hockey is here

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In case you missed the Twitter and Instagram announcement, I have re-signed for the Bristol Pitbulls for the 2016-17 campaign and will also continue as an ambassador for Cross Check Clothing. The decision to re-sign with the Pitbulls was an easy one and it is still part of my grand plan that I told my coach when I first signed after successful try-outs seven years ago. I have set myself a goal to be more of an impact player for this season and really make a difference every time I’m on the ice. 

And for the partnership with Cross Check Clothing? I consider myself fortunate to be working with them. The guys are really humble and down to earth and live and breathe the game. The clothing that they are producing is appealing not only to players, but to fans alike. For me, I want to help expose the brand to more people and show that the apparel line belongs both in the changing room and in the stands. Plus it’s hella comfortable to wear and you may have seen on Instagram that I love wearing Cross Check gear to the gym too. I’m a huge believer in people that execute their vision and I really, truly want to help that brand grow. I don’t want to be the guy that just begs for sponsorship and then vanishes into thin air. Whatever influence I have, I want it to help Cross Check Clothing grow.

To say it has been a busy off-season would be a gross understatement. It has been manic and completely non-stop. As I said on the blog post about the season review, I had a difficult last season and it ended in disappointment, with not qualifying for the play-offs and being eliminated in the semi-finals of the Cup competition. That combined with the fact that I battled a rather persistent back problem for the whole season, made me question whether hockey was still on the cards for me.

The back problem wasn’t the only one that made me question whether I could rise to the challenge of another season. 2013-14 season I played through with a torn labrum and ruptured bicep tendon, which I was repaired in the off-season of 2014, 2014-15 season was amazing with winning the conference championship and play-off championship, but I battled with mental health issues that year, which knocked my confidence and I started the season not being able to play too well due to not having any strength and a limited range of motion in my right arm. 2015-2016 season was what it was due to the back.  Last season I played 17 games, out of which I was 100% for five games. That’s three seasons that have been more or less ruined by injuries and my hope is that I will stay healthy for a full season.

Last time I didn’t have any injuries or issues to deal with was 2011-2012 season, when, in light of stats, I had one of my most productive seasons offensively.

For those five games where I was completely pain free, I felt that I was playing probably the best hockey of my career and would’ve probably been able to do some good things for the team. But when you’re playing with an injury where you can’t feel parts of your left leg properly and every stride feels like you have broken your ankle, it’s difficult to perform.

However, after thinking about it for about a week after the Cup semi-final loss, I still have what it takes and I’m happy to be back playing for the team I’ve represented for the past six years and will be returning for for my seventh season. I realised early on that despite all the trials and tribulations I have undergone, I had the passion for the game and I was still willing to put in the work off the ice in-order to play.

One thing I was constantly asked by family and friends was, why put yourself through that again. Aren’t you afraid that you’ll hurt yourself again. This is something that is really difficult to explain in words. The best I can do is to say that it is a fire inside me that tells me to keep pushing. I guess in every hockey players’ life there comes a time when the flame still burns but something tells you that it is time. For me the flame is there and at no point was the voice telling me that it’s time to call it quits strong enough. My life is incredibly busy, and I just could not imagine a life without hockey season in it.

I got back to work early on conditioning and have been working out to a program that has worked quite well the last two years. The only thing that I have changed in the regimen is the weight I’m lifting and I’ve added more explosive training to it. Without going into too many fitness nuances over it, I’ve also done a lot of HIIT workouts to really focus on anaerobic performance. Hockey is a game where you need to go flat out for 45 seconds max everytime you are out there. From all the conditioning work I’ve done, I’m more confident than ever. I’ve never felt this strong or good in myself (which also helps with the ongoing mental health issues), so the only thing left to do now is to get out on the ice.

One of the other areas of my game that I’ve worked on is shooting. Over the last few weeks I spent a lot of time at Hockey Base in Finland literally just working on my shots. As with fitness training, the more repetitions you do, the better you get, so I invested a grand total of €20 on a stick while I was out there and got shooting. The hardest shot with that cheap stick was clocked at 105km/h (65mph). I would go as far as to say that it would’ve been at the 80mph range if I had my TRUE stick. As a result of all the shooting work I did, I got blisters on both my hands which shows how much time I’ve dedicated to shooting. Ideally, I would like to dedicate more time to shooting and I have all the necessary equipment at home, but time is the issue.

As I posted on Instagram in June, my wife and I welcomed our daughter and with my 3-year old son wanting more time with daddy, my time to work on shooting is limited at home. I mean I guess I could do it once the kids have gone to bed, but I would hazard a guess, that I would be rather un-popular with our neighbours.

The other thing I’ve worked on at the summer has been stickhandling. This is an area that I will continue to work on throughout the season. I’ve got hands as soft as concrete, so I’m no Connor McDavid but as with everything, by practicing it will get better.

I am determined and confident going into the season. My main goal is to help the team succeed and win games. What I want is to win a championship again. While I have battled injuries and found the flame to carry on playing, I am no spring chicken anymore and would like to add another title onto the mantel piece.

The type of player I look up to

I’ve often been asked in interviews (the rare few I’ve done) of who are the players I look up-to. It is always a difficult one to answer, and usually my stock answer has been Jari Kurri, as he was the player I looked up to growing up.

Of late and the more my style of play has evolved and developed there are a number of players whose style I admire and try to model myself after. Yes, I still admire and take inspiration from the likes of Saku Koivu, Teemu Selanne, Martin St. Louis and so on. But if I was asked which player most personifies the type of player that I would like to see myself as, I can now give a more defined answer.

As my style of play is team centric and (of-late) on the energy side, I take my ques from players like Jarkko Ruutu, Leo Komarov, Ville Nieminen, Scott Hartnell, Dale Weise and so on. You could say that the players I try to model myself after are more on the ‘blue-collar’ side of things and where they might not be the real superstars of the game, they are the types that are often the unsung heroes and the underdogs on a team.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love scoring goals. Who doesn’t, but I have identified that I liken myself more to the likes of Ruutu and Komarov. Ruutu may have been considered a pest during his career, but I have nothing but respect for him and his work ethic. Here’s a guy that put everything on the line for his dream to play in the pros and did everything in his power every night to help his team win. He battled adversity and mentally tough battles of low ice time for years. Not only do I admire Jarkko Ruutu’s mental toughness, but he is a very, VERY smart guy and I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if he became involved in hockey in a coaching or front office capacity. He is a hockey-smart guy who was able to read the flow of the game maybe better than anyone else. Maybe it was because of his reputation in the rink that he had to be aware of who was out there with him and who was likely to take his head off.

I mostly watched Ruutu and Komarov in the Finnish national team and the games I’ve watched them play in the NHL were/are entertaining. Both players always put their bodies on the line and try to help their teams win. OK I’m not as physical as Ruutu and neither do I fight (my career stats are 0-3 for fights) but what I do look to bring to the game is my everything. Every game I suit up for and every shift I play, I give 100% and try and do the things that help out my team. I take great pride in creating offensive buzz but at the same time I’m equally pleased if my line doesn’t get scored on. If it means that I have to play a shadow to a player all night or that I hustle up and down the ice a few times, that is fine by me. As long as my presence and my actions on the ice help contribute to a greater cause.

Yes, I would love to put up points and to a greater extent I try to do that every time I’m out there, but sometimes you end up just creating the pressure and other lines capitalise on it, or you end up bagging yourself trying to get the puck out of your zone on a PK, but y’know what, there’s a certain romanticism in that. In both situations, I can look at it and say “we were able to do that because of what my line did” and give myself (and linemates) a pat on the back and then it’s focussing on the next shift.

You might say that guys like Ruutu, Komarov, Hartnell etc aren’t the most skilled players on the planet, but one thing you can’t put a measure on is heart. To me guys like that so important to a team because of the work ethic and work they do on the ice.

It’s easy to say that you look up to guys like Ovechkin, Crosby, McKinnon etc. They are superstars and super skilled. Yes they all do have heart, but for me, I find that there’s more intrigue and so many nuances to the likes of Hartnell and what they bring to the table with their skill set. It’s guys like that who enable the work that the superstars do.

So to answer the question of what player I look up to and if I could have the skill set of any player who would it be? A) I think Leo Komarov tops the list of active players and B) If I could have the combined skill set of the Habs’ line of Weise – Desharnais – Fleischman, I would be over the moon with that.

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