A Normal Day

So the other day, we were ironing out the schedule details and I said to Peter that tomorrow would be a "normal day." He was confused so I said a "normal schedule," still nothing. I then tried "regular," losing ground fast. I finally explained that the schedule would be the same as a few days before and that the schedule was often the same and I think I got through.

Anyway, today was a "Normal Day":
We get up at 6:15 to a referee whistle, eat breakfast, have a practice meeting, go outside and do something active to warm-up and then stretch (soccer, jogging etc.) and then back in to change for practice on-ice from 8-9:30. After practice, we have an off-ice training session. Today, it was a 20 minute bike and extended stretching. Then the players shower and we have Lunch at 11:40. After lunch is nap time, which is well utilized. The referee whistle is used again at 2:30 to wake everyone up for the next practice meeting. Then, it is off to the rink for 3:30 - 5:00 practice time, but I usually go shorter than that to get a high tempo. On-ice in the morning, we work on skills and the afternoon is more systems/tactics oriented. After practice, there is dinner at 5:40. There usually some team meeting activity in the evening. Tonight, each line watched video together for a half an a hour. To end my day today, I met with the captains to get some feedback and talk about the upcoming trip to Finland. And for those of you wondering, it did not snow... cold and rainy.

So, I thought it would a good time to introduce the team captains to you...

The captain is Wang Linou (Wahng Lee-new-ah). She is the oldest player on the team at 26 and has played in two Olympic games. She speaks English very well, especially in relation to hockey terms and concepts. She is a defender and is one of the shorter players on the team at 5'3". She handles the puck very well is quite fast and controls the game when she is on the ice.


One assistant captain is Jin Feng Ling (Jeen Fung Ling). She is 23 years old and played in the Olympic games in Salt Lake City in 2002. She is half Korean and speaks both Chinese and Korean and is learning English. She is also fairly small at 5'4" but is one of our best players and figured in on the scoring of more than half of our goals this past tournament. She has good skills and speed.


The other assistant captain is Sun Ri (Soon Ree). She is also 23 and played in the Olympic games at Salt Lake City. She is a bit bigger at 5'7" and is our most highly touted offensive player. Like the other captains, she works very hard at practice and is very competitive. She also was involved in the scoring of over half of our goals this past tournament. She has explosive speed and is very crafty offensively.


Tomorrow is a busy day, morning with the team, afternoon doing a clinic for coaches and in the evening Assistant Coach Tim "Tio" McNamara arrives in Harbin....