seagoal

These technically do not qualify for this thread but since it is a thread discussing Vaughn graphics... Wow. Talk about originality.

Thanks Coop. I'm really excited about tomorrow, now. I got an amazing massage this evening and an epsom salt bath and I feel great right now. Kinda rejuvenated, it's nice. Also nice to know that the difficult day is behind me and now it's going to be more pucks. Off to bed. Day 2 report tomorrow evening.

Well, I'm finally not too tired to post my experience on day 1 at the camp. I got some food and took a power nap and feeling much better. We started out the day today with an ice time right away at 9:30. The break down of the goalies in the camp was different than I thought it would be. I gathered we had a couple of no-shows for whatever reason so that left us with 17 total I think. We had only 3 adults and one was a buddy of mine so that was fun. The other guy I had never met but he was super nice and great to have in the locker room. He had solid black modern Warrior gear which looked awesome. There were 2 older teenagers and I gather one, at least, is in the WHL. He was clearly the stud of the whole group and was so technically efficient and sound all day. It was great watchin him work. The rest were all kids, I'd say roughly ages 8-14. So that was the crew. Lots of younger goalies, 2 junior teenagers, and 3 adult beer leaguers. Oh, and I was the oldest goalie in the camp...more on that later. First ice time was no pucks and just all skating. We were assigned on one of the 3 line in the middle and just did repetitive, back and forth skating drills: C cuts both symmetrically and on both sides individually down the line, upright shuffles down the line on both sides, symmetrical butterfly drops and up skating backwards, pendulum slides down, and assymetrical butterflies on both sides. These drills, for me, were particularly brutal and in retrospect if I could do today over I would not do the repetitive back and forths on the line. I would do each drill once and best I could and sit out. I think I overdid myself with the skating stuff the AM. They are all awesome drills and obviously super important...there is a reason goalies do them. Skating is the foundation of everything we do and without it, we are done. Well these drills obviously focused on proper, efficient, powerful technique and I definitely learned a lot and addressed some things I have been wanting to improve, so that was good. It was just the repetitive sets and the cardio that kinda wrecked me. I'm 38 and although I play 3 times a week most weeks, that stuff is a whole other level of physically demanding. I wish I had an opportunity to do it 15 years ago. Before lunch we did dry land stuff, mostly stretching and tension release stuff but we also did the tennis ball drop game: coach has 2 tennis balls, 1 in each hand and holding them in position to drop at shoulder level You are in goalie stance and making eye contact with him and using your periphery vision. Random drops from either hand with finger lift fake outs. Catch it, you get back in line. Drop it, you are done. It was awesome because the adult goalie who I had just met made it to the final two and lost to a kid. The kid won a jersey. Lunch break and then ice time again, this time with pucks. First we did some angle work and lane work with pucks as markers in an arc. This was all about footwork and shuffles with great instructions on angles, depth, and squareness. This was all about calm, efficient, intentional deflections. Points were made about how as goalies we spend way too much energy and use our bodies way too erractically and we need to focus on making saves with intention and smart deflections. No lunging, flailing, extending. Use your gear and body as a backboard, more or less. Low stick deflections on both sides were rounds 1 and 2 and high blocker and high glove rounds 3 and 4. I definitely caught myself making saves with my pads on the ice and acknowledged that I try that way too much instead of using my stick, especially on my blocker side which is my dominant leg. But I adjusted well and began to do the drill correctly after the first or second rep of that round. Blocker was next and I did really well for this round. I had a couple of shots sneak in from the target (we were instructed to shuffle in to position, extend our leg and blocker in anticipation to practice deflections) and had to readjust to make some ribcage, chicken wing saves which I did and got props for that. Same drill but glove side for round 4. I lined up for this drill but had to bail out. I got really overheated at this point and was getting really bad stomach cramps. I retreated to the bench and chugged some water and took my mask and gloves off to cool down. The coach came over and checked-in and I told him what was up and needed to make sure my blood sugar stayed stable. He reassured me and told me to take my time, pace myself, and just get from this what I can. I really appreciated that conversation. At this point one of the kids then skated over to the bench and he was sorta puking a bit and was crying. I checked on him and he was out of water so I got someone to fill his bottle. He was definitely not feeling good but after some water, he was back at it, like you'd expect a kid to be. It was great. More of the same for dry land stuff after this skate and that was a wrap. I undressed slowly and could not wait to get outside. I was pretty tired and getting sore and really overheated and dehydrated. Got some water refills and drove home. That was day 1. Awesome camp so far and the coach was really, really great. The camp is well structured and well sequenced. I'm looking forward to seeing what's in store for the next 2 days. We don't get a heads up on what stuff we willl do but it will fall into the exact same format for each day. My plan, if there is more AM skating, is to take it easy and not destroy myself so that I can better take advantage of the afternoon. At this point in my life it doesn't serve a purpose to wreck myself with cardio and deplete my energy so long as I gain the actual skill being taught. Now after dinner I feel like my legs have been run over by trucks over and over again but the rest of my body feels fine. I am getting some cramping in my right toes but that's getting better as I drink tons of water. I feel good about my decision to attend this camp, but at the same time, this is the most acutely aware of my age and my limitations as a type-1 diabetic that I have ever been in my life. It's sort of a bitter pill to swallow, but it is what it is. At least I'm trying, I guess. I'm wondering to myself if private coaching would have been a better choice for my time and money so that I can more customize a program for myself and my body and abilities? Who knows. Perhaps later on . For now, gotta keep going with this camp and just be better about pulling the plug when needed. Peer pressure was definitely coming into play here which would not be the case with private coaching. Oh....so me and the 1 adult guy with all black gear were the only 2 with solid bases not white. The coach asked me about my gear and my mask and he knows the guy who painted it. That was pretty neat. The all black Warrior guy actually has a game tonight which is just insane to me. You couldn't pay me enough to play a game tonight. Anyways. Cheers.

I'm dreading to see how he screws up Quick's mask. Metal armor....with sparkles and glitter and ghosted unicorns and ghosted LAK everywhere.

Goalie camp this morning!! You guys I'm so excited. It's also super weird waking up at 6am and packing water bottles and towels and hockey gear. I came into my neighborhood coffee shop without my dog...we come here every morning together. Everyone is asking me where he is and I'm saying "I'm going to hockey goalie summer camp!" like I'm 12 years old. This is probably what it feels like to be a real hockey player in the morning. I love it. It's gonna be a good day. I'll have updates this evening.

Nice, glad you got it figured out. Are you getting new pads, too?

I've always wrapped stick tape around my bottles which makes them easier to grab and hang on to. I also write GOALIE #20 on the tape so that guys dont drink from it. No problems with my blocker and bottles and I always drink blocker on. I drink after every goal I let in and for goals we score, I always skate to the glass to my right, tap the glass with my glove, skate back to goal and drink. Just a habit. I also drink a lot. I have 2 32oz bottles every time I play with one of them spiked with a carb free electrolyte powder. For my weekly 90 minute pick-up games I time it perfectly for 1 bottle per half with the spiked one first-I drink every drop of these for pick-up. I was struggling with crashing for energy recently in the last 20 minutes of pick-up and since I've been using this powder this problem has gone away. For real games, I use the spiked bottle in the 1st and drink about 75% of it. I'll switch to plain water in the 2nd and again drink about 75%. For the 3rd I'll go back to spiked and typically change to the plain water somewhere in the period if the spiked runs out, which doesn't always happen. I usually have some left of both in the locker room after real games and I'll just chug what's left of both. In addition, I have a smaller green Gatorade bottle of juice on my net at all times, which I need to regulate my blood sugar. I get a lot of refs cracking jokes about having 2 bottles on the net and implying that one, clearly, contains alcohol. So yeah, I leave locker room everytime I play with 3 bottles and an iPod (which is the display for my blood sugar meter) in my glove....and I definitely get chirped for it, haha.

Vaughn USA in Michigan (248) 969-8956 Vaughn Canada in Ontario (519) 453-4229

Nice. Wow, 12 Divisions.

Which Division of how many total?

Ha, I can't speak to that. You guys in the same league?

This goalie camp is this week. I'm pretty excited. Looks like there are 19 goalies signed up, roughly 10 of them are kids in local youth hockey programs. We'll be split into smaller groups and sectioned off on the ice, I'm assuming at 4 stations. I'll have some reports back once it starts, for sure. Schedule is Thursday - Saturday: -Ice time at 9:30 -Dryland time at 10:45 -Catered lunch at noon -Ice time at 1:00 -Dryland time at 2:00

I paid a $200 deposit on just a glove and the rest will be paid once it reaches the shop in Surrey. In addition to Rance, Cam at The Hockey Shop is awesome. Super nice guy and super helpful and incredibly informative and knowledgeable. I had a really great experience there talking to him and eventually communicating via email for my glove.

Ah, ok. So then the real question is how exactly do Greiss gloves differ from stock and then is that even relevant to you. I've had good experience with Vaughn on the phone. You can always call and just talk (the Canada guys are nicer and more revealing than the US guys, it seems). Just say: I have these Greiss gloves. I like X, Y, and Z. I want custom new gloves. How can I best recreate gloves like these with minimal changes to stock gloves?

Hey Max, you definitely could. They obviously keep records of pro specs. Which reminds me...what are the specs on these that you like? If you know what Greiss uses, as in you have the specs listed out, you could just order the gloves with those rather than say Greiss, specifically. They would probably ask you to specifically clarify what specs you want, anyway. There's going to be an upcharge for ordering older models. I think they use current glove base price plus the upcharge. In my experience I think my V6 glove was an $85 upcharge from the VE8 base price. It's possible that they won't add this for V7 stuff since it's only 1 generation back, whereas mine was 2 back. Last I saw they still had V7 customizers on their website. There'll be upcharges for changes off of base specs, too. Say the PVE glove has a nylon wrist strap and you want a leather buckle strap, which is something I always order. That was $35 CDN for me on my VE8 glove order that I made recently (in Canada). You can definitely get Greiss gloves it's just a matter of handling the various upcharges.