Okay, let me tell you about the time I tried to work on some stuff inspired by watching Mick Frechette play hockey. Wasn’t anything fancy, just me trying to pick up a couple of things I noticed.
Getting Started
So, I saw some footage, probably online somewhere, you know how it is. And this Frechette guy, he had this way of protecting the puck down low, real tight turns. Looked simple enough on the screen, right? Famous last words. I figured, hey, I got my old gear, got a patch of somewhat smooth concrete out back when the weather’s okay, or sometimes I hit the early morning public skate. Why not give it a whirl?
First thing, dragged out my skates, stick, gloves, and a couple of pucks. Even on concrete, I like wearing the gloves, just feels right, helps with the grip and feel I’m used to. Skates obviously stayed off for the backyard sessions, just worked in my shoes focusing on the hands and upper body movement.
The Actual Trying Part
Alright, so I started just trying to mimic that low, tight puck control. Get the puck on the forehand, crouch a bit, and try to turn sharp while keeping the puck right there, shielded by my body and stick. Man, it was awkward at first. Puck kept rolling off my stick, or I’d get my feet tangled even just standing there. It looks so smooth when guys like that do it.
I spent maybe 20 minutes just on that. Trying to feel where the puck was without staring straight down at it. That’s the key I saw, his head was up, scanning. Easy to see, hard to do.
- First attempts: Puck lost constantly. Felt clumsy.
- Focused on: Keeping my top hand out, using my body as a shield.
- Tried slowing down: Made it a bit easier to keep control, but wasn’t the dynamic move I saw.
- Realized: It’s a lot about edge work on skates, which is tough to replicate perfectly off-ice, but the stick and body part can still be practiced.
Moving to the Rink
Next time I got ice time, early morning slot, nice and empty. Put on the skates and really tried it. Okay, definitely different on ice. The edges make the turns possible. But that muscle memory I tried building off-ice? It kinda helped. My hands knew a little bit what to do.
Still wasn’t pretty. Caught an edge once or twice, almost went down. But I could feel moments where it clicked, just for a second. That feeling of the puck being an extension of the stick, shielded, while turning… pretty cool. It’s not like I suddenly became some puck wizard, not even close. But I understood the mechanics a bit better.
It’s funny how you watch these players and think it looks easy. Then you try just one little part of their game, and it’s a whole different story. Good reminder that mastery takes tons of practice. So yeah, that was my little experiment trying to copy a bit of Mick Frechette’s style. Didn’t perfect it, but definitely learned something just by going through the motions myself.
