First

[KBeats]

You may have seen me on these boards, but not too much. First time playing w/ new people away from the place I usually play.

I had my first day of roller hockey at this new rink. Right when I walked in there were the people already dressed just staring at me like I was from Mars. This other goalie just kept looking over at me like I was a lesser being. As I was getting into my pads I tried to break the straight faces some of them had on me by saying like "Nice Mission pads" or "I like that Nike stick." It eventually worked, some said they liked my pads (Koho 570 Roller), lightened the mood, made me feel less nervous of a new crowd at a new arena. They kept asking if I was any good and I didn't know how to respond, so I left it up to them by saying "Depends on what you call good," and it made me feel better.

As we went out, me and the other goalies kept switching in and out for the drills. There were basic skate, pass, pass back, shoot drills which I did alright on, that was more of a warm up. By that time cause we did many laps around I was thinking that I should've brought water. Then they split us into 2 groups, all goalies in one group cause the 2 nets were placed on the goal line then a little more out so it was a mini rink near the boards. The other players were either doing passing drills or standing on the side as the boards, and they could pass it to anyone if the puck went to them. There were 2 teams doing this and I kept getting confused who was on my team cause I would be at 1 goal for a little, switch out, then go to the other goal. There would be 1 on 1, 2 on 2, 2 on 1, 3 on 2, and 3 on 3s out trying to score. The first 2 times I was in my side won. Then they figured out that if they did wrap arounds I was screwed. So 3 consecutive times they did it and scored on me. After saving the next wrap around they started doing more normal shots and I did better. A save that they particularly liked was someone took a low shot, I went into butterfly, and the puck hit my pads on the bottom, and it started to roll back, and I didn't know so I was just trying to make sure I got it so I put my back down and felt the puck jab into my back. I also had some good stick and toe saves.

A quick scrimmage to see who belonged on what team was then started and in the dressing room people were saying I was the best goalie.

I had fun, met some new people, and I look forward to seeing who is on my team next week. I'm going to be sore tomorrow, I need to get into shape.

[elite]

Cool.. nice story. It's always utterly awkward when you walk into a room for the first time and the other goalie stares you down. But hey, I've been that staring goalie, too, so I guess it's karma. Fortunately you did well and, if you keep on the same path, you'll get a good reputation and get asked to play more and more.

Oh, and come on the boards more often.. we need more of us inline goalies.

[KBeats]

I think I've only posted once in the Inline section, and a few times other places.

It was awkward cause it was like those western movies where everyones talking, then the guy walks in and everyone stops and stares. I walked in and everyone who was waiting till we were allowed to go in just stopped talking and stared at me.

[VAgoalie]

I think that happens everywhere. All of the goalies normally know each other pretty well and when a new guy walks in you just dont know what to expect. Once they start to recognize you, they will accept you as one of the group. Remember goalies all stick together, so you will be fine.

[IntoGear]

Yeah dude, been there myself. Its a weird feeling when you show up and there a bunch of guys playing that went to school together or work together. Its like your always the odd man out.
Biggest problem I always had was with my job I was out of town most of the time, so playing on a team was impossible. I would usually take my gear with me so I'll get in some time at a drop-in/pick-up game.
I've made some good friends all over the east coast and have found that it really has helped my game. You never know how good or bad the people your playing with will be, usually the guys would offer pointers on things I was doing wrong or give me advice on how to do something a better way.
Of course theres always the jerk or two but usually they don't give me too much trouble ... if you ever met me in person you would understand why.

I've found being in the south for some reason when people find out I'm a "yankee" they just assume I know all there is to know about hockey... oh boy were they surprised.

[DRE75HABS]

Yep, I had a roller tryout last night, and it was between me and another goalie who came out. Like mentioned, I didn't know anyone, and it was a little intimidating, but hey.. it was SHOWTIME!

The team rented out a gym and it was actually pretty nice court. Had a rough start, couple of nifty passes in front of me, got screened, went down and thought I had good coverage, but got beaten by a nice wrister top corner blocker side. I shook it off, and ended up playing wicked, stopping a good 30 shots, final score in the scrimmage was 5-2 for my team.

Then we switched teams and I did well again, stopping a good 20 something, final score 4-2 for our team. The best part of the night was I made a nice stop off a slapper from the point, rebound came out and a guy chopped at it, flashed the leg out for the stop, pushing it out again for a shot in the slot... I stretched out and got a piece of it with the sidewall of my blocker and into the corner. I heard a few of the guys chattering and buzzing, and I heard the 2 guys running the team say "Looks like we found our goalie" But I have another team interested in me and it's my buddies so I'm waiting for it all to pan out.

But it's a good feeling when you do well and people buzz about it!

[Golden Eagle #2]

Hey elite, any news on when the website should be up? I agree that we need more inline goalies, can't wait for the site if it's as good as it's been prophecised to be

I don't think I could have done that, fortunately the lads where I play now never looked down on me (I don't think ), on my first training I was just going to go and watch but the guy who met me there brought his sons spare kit, it was totally different from mine, and it was a like new and not broken in, I was falling all over the place and the players were calling me a 'natural' heh heh
I just watch the other goalies and try to learn off them because they've been playing lots longer and I can tap into their experience from time to time.

[punisher]

nice story reminds me of my rec team, i come from a decent hockey history and take pride in my gear and such. so the goalie of the team asked me to replace him and i said yeah sure, he forgot to mention it to his team that they had a new goalie.
so i walk in and some guys are getting dressed, they look up say hi and get on with their bussines, so i start getting my gear out and on, and i see them google my way once and awhile, then i hear one say to the other, "do we have a game? because he looks ****ing professional."
so i look up to them and they kind of shrink, on that point i wanted to say," hi i'm your new goalie, surprised??" but the goalie walked in and said. "aahh hey your here already, good, guys this is our new goalie." he so totaly ****ed up muy moment

pun.

[Eidolon]

Yeah, that sounds vaguely familiar to me too. First time I walked out to the net in my old inline league in Mississippi to try goal, I knew everybody and I just hoped I didn't make a fool out of myself. Playing in borrowed gear and trying to stop pucks with mylec crap. At one point, I did a nice butterfly and flashed the pad and the two or three Canadians in the league were like, "holy crap, was that a butterfly?!?", and I was a goalie from then on . . .

The league I play in now was kinda tight-lipped when I first came out for pickup. It had been over a year since I played and the rink manager had washed the floor the previous night and had turned off the AC, so the rink was really muggy. I had real problems with the humidity and didn't hydrate well. I played ok, made some good saves and I guess didn't embarass my self. The rest of the guys in the league had all played together at different times in the last few years, but they opened up once they saw that I was coming to pick-ups regularly. I figure that's kinda universal.

[KBeats]

Just got back from my first team practice/scrimmage. This is a small league so theres only about 10-12 people per team, and 4 teams. Today it was me and 5 other people who were there for my team. We had 20 min practice followed by 40 min scrimmage. We did breakaway practice, then power play/penalty kill, then we did 2 on 1's and 1 timers. Let a few in but as me and other people said... "Hey! It's just warmup..."

Then we had our scrimmage and they had the puck from the start and someone was on my left, went in close, went up towards the middle and scored as I was following him. So 10 seconds in it was 1-0. But we had 2 quick goals so it was 2-1 us. It must have been 10 minutes till someone scored and it was 2-2. We scored not too long after so it was 3-2. Then goals just stopped for about 10 more minutes. This involved 3 breakaway saves for me, 1 glove save, 2 kick saves, a chest save, and a stick save. It was 4-2 us after I cleared it out... sort of. Shortly after they had a sharpangle shot hit off my stick, pop up a little (I mean little), roll across the goalline and hit the post and lay there. Me, 2 of my defensemen, and 3 of their guys were goin at it and they eventually scored 4-3. 2 min later there was a shot that had me diving across the net and landing on my knees as the puck went in (bad by me, and I was facing the net when I landed) and someone on their team tripped on my fallen stick and landed on my legs. So there was a tie with about 15 min left.

This is where "Sir KBeats" (me) kicked in. A tie game meant that I didn't want to lose the tie like we did 10 seconds in the game. 2 on 1 for us and we got back in the lead 5-4. They had a 3 on 1 and I made a pad save, the rebound went out and they had a quick shot which I tried to catch w/ my glove but it hit the thumb part and bounced out. That got my team happy. 45 seconds later there was a 2 on 1 for them, pass went from my glove to stick side. I did a bfly slide and the guy took the shot and I wasn't over so I just out of desperation to keep the lead brought the thin shaft of my stick over and saved it on the bottom of the thin shaft and got some happiness cheers from my team and someone on their team going "god damn it!" There was a contriversial call where a shot hit the post, rolled across the line and got knocked out. My team said it wasnt in and they said it was in. Play continued after 2 seconds of "IT WAS IN" "NO KEEP PLAYING" so I was on my stomach, I turned to my side and took a shot to the chest. Dman got it away, but to someone else and their shot hit the bottom of my skate, and they got it back, passed it to the mid slot and the guy ripped a shot where I stuck my arm up and knocked it down. 2 min later I stepped on my stick and dropped it, went to bfly, a "popper shot" came up and my stickless blocker hand knocked it to the side w/ the thumb. 3 min later-ish we scored to make it 6-4 with a couple minutes left. We win the scrimmage and I get the whole "skate to the goalie, hit his clenched glove hand then grab the back of the helmet and say stuff like 'Great job goalie' and 'Nice job'" There was someone who said "holy **** I'm glad you're our goalie" and someone was like "You're going to lead us."

I like my team, they made some bad turnovers, but so did the other team. And hey, that doesn't matter, we did better on the scoreboard, where it matters.