Sore on Day Four

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The daily routine of training camp can wear one down. Fourteen-hour days leave one knackered out and begging for bed. The day begins with breakfast, off-ice warm-ups, a 1.5 hour training session, and off-ice warm-downs followed by lunch. After lunch, there is chalk talk with the coaches--where each line reviews in a group the "team system" we will be covering during the afternoon training session. So far, we have covered D-zone coverage, breakouts, and forecheck team systems. After chalk talk, we have a one or two hour break. Some of the girls go for a walk to the town plaza, while others nap or read during their down time. Then it's time for warm-ups, a 1.25 hour training session, and off-ice warm-downs followed by dinner. The warm-up and warm-down routines add a considerable amount of time to training sessions, but are important for muscle recovery. To give you an idea, a one hour training session on-ice takes a total of three hours once you factor in these routines. We are fortunate that the ice rink is next door to the hotel, so we don't have to spend a lot of additional time on buses.

On Day Four of training camp, I woke up with an excrutiating pain in my neck. Looking left or down sent shooting pains down my spinal column and made me want to shriek. I went to go see the team physiotherapist first thing in the morning, and she did some tissue releases to improve my range of movement, so I would be able to attend morning training. While I felt tender, I really wanted to be on the ice to review our D-zone coverage with my line. The "black line" is one of three, and we have a mix of both rookie and veteran players. My defensive partners are both 19 year-old girls from Christchurch who are young and enthusiastic, and I thought we would make major headway this practice in mastering our positional play.

In the first 20 minutes of training, we were still doing some game-like skill-based drills when a rocket of a slap shot nailed me in the foot. It felt like a 90 kilometre per hour bullet had just detonated inside my skate. I tenderly skated out of the drill, gently swearing. While on the one hand I wanted to get off the ice, on the other hand I reminded myself that these pains usually wear away quicker if you "walk it out." The last time I sustained a similar injury was in a local A-leauge game in Dunedin. The notorious James Van Leeuwen, proprietor of the most wicked slap shot in all of Otago ripped a 110 kph shot at the net I was defending, when my foot accidently intercepted the shot instead of the goalie. The searing pain in my foot sent me straight to the bench and off to Dunedin's Urgent Doctors for an x-ray, certain that my foot was broken. The verdict was a deep bruise, but no fracture. As my foot was throbbing and stinging on the ice in Beroun, I reminded myself of my previous incident in Dunedin, and decided there was no way this last shot could be any harder than James Van Leeuwen's. With steely determination and tears brimming in my eyes, I decided to tough it out until the pain subsided. It was a long 20 minutes until the burn faded and my tears dissipated, but not one team mate or coach seemed to notice. It wasn't until after practice that my room mate Kelly approached me and asked, "Dude, were you crying on the ice today? Are you okay?" Well, at least one person bothered to notice. Sometimes, things have to get worse before they get better.

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Photos

Team mates & Room mates
Kelly & Sophia

Comments

[Oliver Nicholson]

Tough chick!
Soph! You are one tough chick! Nice one :-D

[THORA LANCASTER]

Hope Day 5 is better!
Trust you had a good night's sleep and wake up feeling like a 19 year old. Looking forward to your next blog and know your black line Defence will have it all together.