Fighting, both on and off the ice

[abendgules]

Robert was disappointed with his own performance on the field at Coronet, and I have to agree it wasn't his best. However, we've talked the circumstances over a bit, and I think we can see where we both need to work on preparing for tournaments, and freeing both of us up from multiple commitments through an event may be a start.

At Katherine of Great Chesterfield's suggestion I'm actually going to practice to talk to all the fighters about setting performance goals, and planning for tournaments. It's rather nostalgic, actually - tapping into an area of knowledge that used to be at the forefront of my mind, and was only piqued recently somewhat by watching the Olympics over the past few weeks.

Watching the Olympics themselves, and listening to Canadian commentators and athletes, was a bit of a nostalgia trip all on its own. To my own shock, I found myself watching curling and hockey - two games I would rather driven hot needles into my eyes have avoided in the past. But because Canada was playing, I found I wanted to watch.

I was pretty horrified by the level of aggression in the hockey though. I know lots of fans love the punch ups as much as the plays, but to me, it takes away a lot of the value of the game. Plenty of aggressive sports have no trouble separating the game from just plain violence; martial arts, Olympic or sumo wrestling, rugby. Hockey could clean up its act if there was a genuine desire (or a strong mandate) to do so. I wonder what it will take to bring it in.

(For comparison value, take a look at the footage of Gordie Howe games from the 50s and 60s on CBC archives.)
http://archives.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/topics/3529/

Watching the games from the 60s is fascinating: no helmets, no faceguards, no heavy shoulder padding.

The players' posture is far more upright on the ice, leading with their sticks on the ice, rather than bent over and leading with their heads and shoulders. The speed is about 3/4 the speed of the Olympic game from the weekend. I saw one elbowing incident, and no crashes, either into each other, or into the boards.

So evidently even the 'scrappy' players like Howe had a lighter touch pre-padding.

The 1979 clip shows Gordie Howe playing with Wayne Gretsky, who is barely old enough to see over the top of his skates. The players are still only half-helmeted, and still only lightly padded; the pace has picked up , but still isn't nearly as nasty as the gold medal game last month.