September 15, 2003
I Lost 5 Pounds!!!
Well, floor hockey was a bit of a fiasco tonight. Mike, the guy who organizes it, and is one of the goalies, had surgery today and is unable to play for a minimum of four weeks. One of the guys arranged for a goalie to come out as a replacement and one of the other guys knew somebody that was going to be our other goalie. We are supposed to start playing at around 7:00PM but usually don't start until around 7:20PM. It was around 7:30PM when we discovered that one of the goalies wasn't likely to show up, so I got in the car and drove to Mike's house to pick up his goalie gear so someone could play in net. I arrived back at 7:50PM and was surprised to find out that nobody wanted to play in goal. Well, after having driven for 20 minutes to get the goddamned equipment, I decided that I would play goalie. So I put on the gear, which was a little too big for me, and got between the pipes. After a grand total of two warm-up shots we started the game.
I'm not to sound with my positional play but I do have very good reflexes. This, coupled with a team that was very aware of my inexperience, allowed us to win the shortened game by a score of 14-5. I now have a new found respect for the position, keeping track of the puck/ball is very difficult, although I think it would be easier if I had equipment that fit me properly. I also discovered that when you play that position you sweat, a lot. After the game was over and I peeled off all the equipment, I discovered that I was drenched in sweat. I can't remember being so sweaty, not even after running a 10K or playing in badminton tournaments or squash matches or anything. I think the reason is this. When playing a racquet sport or running or you can kind of "let up" if you need a bit of a break and the game isn't really stressful. When playing goal in hockey, however, you need to be focused on the action pretty much all the time and need to be ready to react whenever needed. You don't get to set the pace. I think a lot of the sweat was "nerve sweat", the kind of sweat you do when your nervous, the really stinky kind. When I got home I weighed myself and was shocked to discover that I had lost about five pounds!! Probably all sweat. Anyway, I'm hoping someone else will volunteer to do the job next week, otherwise there won't be much left of me by October.