Two way hockey stands for this.
Fluid Effortless poetic
Why are these not a part of the hockey skill lexicon?
Holistic Development
https://twitter.com/hockeythinktank/status/1511016900641370112?s=21&t=ex2zUoOjfDFxCMmK0YDNpw
As an Art of relation
“The most obvious distinction between various kinds of lines is the distinction between straight lines and curves. Straight lines will always express rigidity and stiffness while curves will suggest some sort of growth or motion; but straight lines vary in expression according to their position and direction. The horizontal line is always suggestive of repose; it is the line of resting water, of the earth of alluvial plains, of everything that has reached a state of equilibrium. The vertical line is a line of stability, of direct opposition to the force of gravity, of strength and vigor. Most compositions in which the sentiment of restfulness and enduring peace is to be expressed are built on a combination of verticals and horizontals. Oblique straight lines vary in expression according to their combination with other lines and may express anything from tottering to vigorous thrusting; but they nearly always express some form of motion.
As straight lines express strength, so curves express softness, and the softest of curves are those approaching the circular or made up of sections of circles. An infusion of straightness into a curve will give it stiffness and vigor, and the most lively and elastic curves are those approaching straightness at one end and curving more and more rapidly toward the other… All these characters of lines may be the result of association or they may have some deeper reason, but they are there, in the lines themselves, without regard to what the lines may be used to represent, and are among the most valuable means of artistic expression.” Cox Concerning Painting p130
Too Early
I had dinner with Mathieu Schneider, head of the NHLPA. He said that two way hockey was too early, that I was ahead of my time. He never said it wouldn’t work.
Variety of Tools
A variety of tools is important in giving the student an experience in the use of several kinds of material; thus he is made ready for any emergency that may arise from a deficient supply and has an opportunity of discovering for himself the medium best suited to his individual technique. Bement p. XI
The hIdden joint
There is a joint that handcuffs hockey. This joint is stuck and is crippling the game. Disturbing it is necessary for the game’s duration. Displacing it by shaking hands binds the game to a more natural harmony.
On Shooting practice and the michigan move
“The moment a man searches one quality for itself alone, he does by that very act, strip it of some of its most important attributes.” Hale on Vermeer p15
There is so much emphasis on the hockey shot that so many skills and players are lost down this dead end of skill growth when it’s divided from other skills.
the Michigan move is the height of self obsession in hockey. The compartmentalization and hyper focus leads to a short illusory moment of control amidst the chaotic game. The lacrosse style borderline circus nature of the act divorces game acts from teamplay so radically that the roots of the game are being torn from the soil bed.
No way to way
No way to way
The uses of Chance
“I’m not saying, ‘Do whatever you like,’ and yet that’s precisely what some people now think I’m saying… The freedoms I’ve given [in a musical score] have not been given to permit just anything that one wants to do, but have been invitations for people to free themselves from their likes and dislikes, and to discipline themselves… The highest discipline is the discipline of chance operations. The person is being disciplined, not the work.” -John Cage on his use of chance in composition. Kostelanetz p102
Banishing Disorder
Hockey tries to banish disorder strictly approving of one dimensional stick play. This puts the primary focus on competition which distracts from actually playing the game. For those new to this dialogue, there is a stark difference between manufacturing hockey which is done almost everywhere today and playing hockey which is more fertile realm for a mature approach to the game.
By banishing disorder coaches attempt to implement a very orderly vision of how the game should be played while seriously constricting player growth and development. Players trust coaches to encourage a hockey that is worth playing, that will also help them understand the universally applicable concepts related to success. This is where coaches today fail.
They condition players to appease coaches, scouts, advisors in dangerous ways that run contrary to any individual development initiative. The hockey community suffers because of this.
By banishing disorder I mean there are really no surprises in the game today there are only mistakes. The territory that is the game is fully mapped. And no individual tied to the game can evolve from a closed system like this.
In one sense, hockey presents an ideal learning environment for young people to learn about challenges, grit, and persistence. In another sense, it is a manufacturing business that destroys individual mastery in favor of manager profit.
Two way hockey invites disorder back into the game. Two way hockey agility practitioners cozy up to disorder in pursuit of self mastery that will redefine the integrity of the hockey community and the individuals that comprise it.
2/22/22
“The number 2 is a representation of harmony, kinship, and cooperation.”
Saving Beauty
“Today’s society of intimacy removes more and more objective forms of play and the room for play in which one can escape oneself, ones own psychology. Intimacy is opposed to playful distance and theatricality. Objective forms are decisive in playing, not subjective, psychological states. Strict play or rituals unburden the soul. They do not allow for any space to be given to a pornography of the soul: ‘Eccentricity, egomania, exaltation are not to be found here. Grace and strict play rule out emotional caprice, nudism of the soul, and anything psychopathic.’ The actress, the passionate player, is de-psychologized, de-subjectified and freed of all inwardness and becomes nobody.’ Byung Chul Han p66
Playing Straight
I want my players to be skillful, discerning, and good. Winning is insufficient. Grafted from survival is insufficient from the book Station Eleven.
My program is based on spoken instructions handed down from Smushkin that scaffold or guide the player’s perceptual activity while skating. Holding or being yourself on the ice is a crucial practice that’s hurried and disrespected to condition an ‘other’ focus. One of the big promises of two hockey agility is composability. You can build rich, powerful experiences out of basic building blocks.
“Taking on a challenge is a bit like riding a horse, if you’re comfortable while you’re doing it you’re probably doing it wrong” teddy lasso
Finding Game
In the end each player must find their own game. My hope is in dabbling with the all the varieties inside two way jockey agility that my students will find a variety that suits them and don’t finish their hockey story with a disdainful taste for the player they chose to be given the limited variety of their exposure which is mainly a reference to my own personal shortcoming in vision when I played.