Beer League Season Zero

In this episode of the Beer Leaguer Podcast, we really focus on the beginners looking to play in beer league hockey. The conversation covers physical and mental preparation, necessary gear, and game day tips to ensure a fun and enjoyable experience. With some listener questions we emphasize the importance of having a positive mindset, being open to feedback, and contributing to the team culture. This episode aims to demystify the process of starting hockey and encourage new players to join in the fun.

Chapters

• 1:10 It's Supposed to be Fun
• 2:01 The Physicality of the Game
• 8:02 Being the New Kid
• 12:17 The Gear (aka the Fun Stuff)
• 21:35 Setting a Game Day Ritual
• 24:05 Have Fun!

Transcript

THE_BEER_LEAGUER: 0:07

Okay, everybody, Beer Leaguer here with another episode of The Beer Leaguer Podcast. This time around, we're gonna be talking about playing your first season or even your first game in Beer League. What kind of stuff do you need to know, definitely should know, and honestly, it doesn't matter before you get out there. So this is questions that I've gotten from you, the audience, thank you for sending in stuff, and also from talking to people that are at least somewhat recently started playing Beer League, and the things that they wish they knew then, or somebody had told them, or things that they found out very early on. And then also looking online at places like Reddit and stuff like that for common questions that people have. So this will kind of be an ongoing series, I think, of these types of questions. So if you have questions that aren't answered, or tips or anything like that, love to hear. Send them into the show, thebeerleaguer.com. Send them in, or shoot a reply or comment down to this episode. All right, so first things first to know is, I mean, hopefully this is apparent to people. This is Beer League. It's not, you know, end of the world stuff. It's supposed to be fun. I mean, technically, it is adult recreational hockey. So keep that in mind with everything. Some people, I think, get way too psyched up, take it way too seriously for thinking what it is. I don't care what level you're playing. It's just for fun. It's not your job. So keep that in mind always. All right, so kind of trying to break stuff up into a couple of different categories. The first one that I see a lot of people asking for is, you know, how physically ready do I need to be to be playing Beer League? Like, when am I able to start? What do I, you know, kind of how much shape do I need to be and how good of a shape for things? First off, you don't. If you ever watch any Beer League games, there are people that are in terrible shape. If you go watch beginner games, there are definitely people that are not any kind of good physical shape. So that, for the purposes of playing, obviously, the better shape you can be in, the better it is for you. You don't want to be doing anything that's going to be dangerous, to be playing for an hour of hockey. So that's super important. It's a very different skill set physically from other things, mostly because of the stop and start nature of it, and because assuming you have enough people, you're going to be playing for two, three minutes probably at a time, sitting on the bench for a couple of minutes, going back out for a couple of minutes, and just doing that on and off, on and off, on and off for an entire game. So it's very different than going out and going for a run. So keep that in mind with things. If you are trying to get in better shape for Beer League, look at something like, people always recommend running sprints, or hill sprints, or hit training. That's where you do an intense bout of some sort of exercise for some kind of interval. So 30 seconds of going really hard, and then slowing way down for 90 seconds or something like that. But you really don't need that. I mean, like I said, better shape you are, the better you'll be out there for things, for getting moving around. But it's Beer League. You know, there's people that are in terrible shape playing this game. But generally for hockey, legs. It's really all about legs. Upper body strength helps, but legs is really what you want to care about. But it's that fast explosive movements that help. It's leg strength, and then it's like I said, the stopping and starting and doing intervals of things. That's really all you need from that standpoint. Now, from an actually being able to play hockey standpoint and what kind of skills you need for being able to play and not be completely useless and a danger to people out there. Some basic skating ability. Now, if you're going and starting a learn to play program or learn to skate program, none of this stuff applies to you, because most of these are assuming that there are going to be people there that have probably never put skates on in their life. So it does not apply to that. This is to people that are looking to try and get into Beer League right away and maybe haven't played in a while or have never played and want to do that, or even just go into like a stick and pucker pick up games and want to know what they're getting themselves into. So have some sort of skating ability. Skate on your own, not going to an open skate and just like hugging the railing and going around that. That does not count. Being able to skate on your own in the open ice. Being able to stop, I think is the most important thing. Even if you're not good at it, being able to do that so you don't, one, have to run to the boards every time I run into a person, or, you know, hurt somebody because you can't stop. I think stopping is the most important skill that you have for skating in the beginning like that. Because if you can't stop, you're going to be a danger to other people. Now, kind of the next level up from that is, you know, getting better at skating. Being able to change speeds better, being able to skate backwards is a great bonus. And then kind of beyond that, you're getting into, I think, more than just very base level skating. But really just being able to skate on your own in open ice is the biggest thing, the main thing to be able to do. And stopping. Because if you can stop, then hey, even if you're going awful and not being able to do anything, you can stop yourself from hurting yourself or somebody else. I'd also throw in there, being able to gracefully fall and get back up. And that's something that a lot of beginner classes do teach, but it's also something very easy to learn, especially if you go to like a stick and puck. I wouldn't really do this at an open skate because there's a lot of people around generally. But something like a stick and puck or something, you go out there, have all your gear on. You know, you can either just try falling, just fall, or you can push yourself, you know, trying to skate faster, trying to turn harder, trying to stop quicker, things like that. And you will inevitably fall. As you're falling, that means you are pushing yourself, which is good. And getting used to that and how to fall properly, you have gear on so you shouldn't get hurt, and how to get back up so you're not like a turtle. You know, as soon as you fall in the ice, you're not just lying there and flailing around because you can't get up at all. So I think that is another important skill to have. But honestly, if you just have that, I think that's enough to get you where you need to be for your skating ability to be able to go out there and try and play some hockey. All right. Next up is kind of your mental preparations. What kind of stuff do you have to have for a proper mindset or be thinking when you're going out there and playing? I think the most important thing is, again, this is Beer League. There aren't scouts watching you. I'm sorry to disappoint you. If you're a beginner, you're going to fall. You're going to look dumb. It's going to happen. Because guess what? Even the pros fall. Everybody does. Who cares? So, you just really have to get over that. It doesn't matter. It's going to happen. Just accept it. Move on. You're also going to have to deal with being the new person if you're just trying this out. Honestly, one of the great things about Beer League, you hear we talk about it in a lot of episodes with different people and everything, is the culture of it. There is, I will say admittedly, somewhat toxic hockey culture overall. But I really don't see that a lot in Beer League. And I definitely don't see it in low level Beer League. Generally, people in low level Beer League are super accepting because they probably started off pretty recently themselves. So let people know, hey, this is my first time out there. It'll probably be pretty obvious to them. Or hey, I'm really new. But it's good to let people know, joke around about it. And just be willing to accept that you're not going to be very good at in the beginning. And also be willing to listen to people. People will give you unsolicited advice. This will happen all throughout your beer league career. But in the beginning, listen to it. Take it to heart. You don't have to do everything everybody says. You don't have to try everything everybody says. But take it to heart and listen to it. You do get a lot of good info that way. You do get people saying things that might help out. Like, hey, I noticed when you're trying to go backwards and you're not getting low enough, inevitably no one ever really gets low enough. It's just, that's a thing. Bend the knees always. You're not bending enough, trust me. But you know, things like that. So be open to feedback from people and responsive to it. Even if you just say, hey, thanks, I'll try. And you don't, but at least be open to it. People are usually really good about trying to help out newer people like that, because, hey, we all want more people out there to play, you know. Getting to know kind of the culture that is around Beer League. You hear us talk about a lot on these episodes about kind of the team culture, the locker room and everything like that. You know, it's like anything else, starting a new group of friends, new work group, any kind of thing like that. It's the same kind of thing of getting to know the people, getting to know people's idiosyncrasies. What people like, don't like, stuff like that. Just realize that. It's like any other group of adults that get together. It's a very similar thing. So, you know, be ready for that. It's a whole new group of people that you're meeting. So it's like when you're a kid and you move to a new school and it's a whole new school of people, you never met any of them. That's what this is kind of like. So be ready for that. Be ready to meet a whole bunch of people and find some people you get along great with, some people you probably don't get along great with, and for that stuff to change over time. So just be ready and know that that's going to happen. Let me take a quick moment to invite you to head over to thebeerleaguer.com, where you can check out previous podcast episodes, keep up with all the goofy and sometimes informative social media posts, and contact the show. There's an easy-to-use contact form, a button to leave voicemails, and a newsletter signup. All of us here would love to hear your thoughts on this episode or ideas for future ones. Now, back to the show. Along with that, try and contribute to the good vibes in the locker room. You know, maybe bring some beers if it's that type of group, maybe hang out a little bit and talk to people if you can, but try and contribute to it. You know, these are people, hopefully, you'll be coming back again and again and again to play hockey with, maybe start a team with, maybe join a team with, you know, whatever, but try and continue whatever kind of good vibes that you can bring to that to, you know, be a part of the group. A big part of this is getting to hang out with some new people and meet some new people. It's not just playing on the ice. So that's just as important, the off-ice aspect of it. All right, so you've kind of got your mind mindset good. You feel you're physically able to start playing hockey. You think you're in a good spot for it. What else do you need? Well, you need hockey gear. There's some stuff out there for all the various types of gear that you need to have versus what is nice to have. And, you know, getting used stuff versus new stuff. I mean, the what you actually need is a pretty short list compared to all the stuff you can get. You see me talk on this channel about like various, you know, the under layers that you wear and various cut resistant socks and all that stuff. You don't need all that. You honestly could go barefoot in your skates if you want to be disgusting, but save money. Just, you know, have like a ready old t-shirt on underneath and then to put your gear on over that. You could totally do that. That is a thing that people do that have played hockey for a long time. You can get way into it and, you know, have different types of undershirts to wear under your hockey stuff. You know, ones that have the cut resistant collars or don't, and things that are, you know, like wick away sweat, things that don't. Whatever you want to do, you can get way into that stuff, but not required. The required things are, you know, just your pads, pads and skates. So, you know, skates which that you can get super cheap ones, you can get super expensive ones, all depending on what you want to do. I'd say if you're starting off, do not get the cheapest skates, but you definitely don't need the most expensive skates. Honestly, usually the most expensive skates are super, super stiff and not great for beginner players or even intermediate players because they're super stiff, uncomfortable and not great to skate in. Well, I would recommend for skates. I'd also say if you want, if you're going to get a new stick versus going to somewhere and try to get used sticks is a great way, I think, to do it is to look at near top of the line. So like middle-ish top of the line, not the bottom of the line for sure, stuff from a year or two ago and really concentrate on like that because of stuff that's a year or two old, still good, still totally usable. And you can get nicer stuff for cheaper than you could for anything that's like a current model. I think that's a great way to go with things. If you're super, super new, used everything is great just to learn. Learn about skate sizing, try on your skates before you get them, get them baked. If you don't know what that is, that is hockey skates. They put them in a little oven, get them super hot, put them on your feet. Lace them up. Nowadays, they're starting to do more and more, where they lace them up a little bit, and then put Saran wrap all around them, and get the skate to mold to your feet. Makes a huge difference with hockey skates. Some of the nicer ones have more moldable plastics, so they more of the skate molds better to your foot as well. So that is something that I would definitely recommend checking out. Most places that you're buying skates from, if you're buying them in person, which you totally should do for your first pair of skates, probably for all your skates just to make sure that they fit nice, will have that service. So I would definitely look at baking your skates when you get them. But that sticks. You can get ones that are a little bit older and still new if you don't want to get used stuff and save some money there. Everything else, I would say, if you're starting, definitely get used, just so you kind of get used to what you like and what you don't like. You know, like for your hockey pants and your shoulder pads and stuff, there's lots of different fits from the various brands and very little intricacies of things that you do and don't like. And I think starting off with used gives you the opportunity to not care if something doesn't fit right and you go, hey, I'm going to sell this back to the place I got it from or sell it to somebody else and get something that's a little bit better. And not necessarily because things just don't fit right. But you notice when you're playing, hey, you know, your shoulder pads, they might fit great in the store. But then you start playing and you realize, oh, you know, the Velcro like right on the shoulder is just kind of digs into me weird, you know, or the Velcro going around to hold in around the chest, you know, maybe that sits funny on you. Or the shoulder cap, you know, always moves a weird way for you or something like that or same thing. Maybe your shin guards, as you skate, they twist or something while you're doing it and you want to get a little bit different style. That's the thing, especially for beginners, is when you get used to stuff like that, you're a lot more likely, at least in my case, I think a lot more likely to go, hey, I didn't pay that much for these shoulder pads. I don't mind that they don't fit great. I'm not going to try and make it work. I'm going to get rid of them in some way, maybe even just trade them in where you got them from and get a different pair and look now for, I know I don't like this kind of a shoulder thing, so I'm going to look for that. You know, or I don't like this fastening system, how they have it and look for something different. And you're a lot more likely to do that and have comfortable gear versus if you just bought a whole bunch of brand new stuff and you tried it on and it fit you great and then you go play and you realize it's all super uncomfortable, you might just tough it out, which is not the best thing to do because it's not comfortable. You know, protective gear shouldn't be uncomfortable. It really doesn't have to be if you get stuff that fits you properly. But that's, you know, that's something you learn over the years of trying different gear. The little intricacies are the things you like and don't like. Besides, like the things that are very obvious, like what size gloves do you prefer, or let's say shin pads and things like that. So that's stuff to look at. The only thing I would not cheap out on, and I would never get used, and I would totally get new, but you have to try it on to make sure it fits right, is your helmet. Make sure you get helmets that are new. Make sure you get helmets that are protective. Make sure you get ones that properly fit your head. That's the only thing I would never cheap out on at all and get used or get older, is helmets. Everything else you can kind of start to fudge around on. Other thing that I saw people mention, and this is a good point, is I think a lot of times people don't realize that when you buy new skates, they're not sharpened out of the box. So when you buy new skates, you have to get them sharpened before you go use them. So, and I would honestly even do that if you buy used skates, get them sharpened. Because who knows one last time they're sharpened, who knows if somebody walked around on concrete with them or whatever. Don't assume that they're going to be sharpened properly. So after you get your skates, whatever you're getting new or used, take them somewhere, get them sharpened. Take them somewhere that knows how to sharpen skates. Probably the place you're buying them from can do that for you more than likely, and that's a good place to trust. But yeah, get them sharpened. Don't forget to do that. Then you get to do fun stuff like make sure you know how to put all your gear on. That's always at the beginning of the year. There's always tons of stuff on social media of people doing like, hey, this is my first hockey game is tonight. I'm trying on my gear for the first time. And it seems silly, but it's a thing to do to know the order to put stuff on and how stuff kind of connects to each other if you want it to or not and how it fits. And so you can fiddle with it, do that at home, do that before you're playing and get used to it. So you can get to the game and just kind of put the stuff on. You don't have to worry about adjusting everything properly. You know how it fits. You know, takes a little bit. Who cares? You're at home. Do that. Do that while you're watching TV tonight. You know, that's all. All right. So you've got your gear, got your skates. They're sharpened. Hopefully, you remember to have some sort of a jersey. If you're just going to some kind of drop in or pick up, it is always preferred to have a white jersey and a black jersey. Don't be the person that shows up in a gray jersey, saying you can play for either team or a random color jersey. If you're unless you know the teams that you're playing for and they have their own jerseys and you have that, or you know that you're playing for a team and they all have blue jerseys and you just have a generic blue one. OK. But if you're going to something that is like I said a pickup or a dropper or something like that, have a black jersey, have a white jersey. Simple as that. You know, watch stuff online how you want to tape up your stick, or maybe you don't tape up your stick. Probably want to, but watch stuff on how to do that. It's really easy. Just get some hockey tape. You can find a bunch of different ways people do really fancy tape jobs. Some people do really sloppy tape jobs. Doesn't really matter. And the great thing about something like that with tape is it's just tape. You can tape it up one way for a game, go, I'll try a different way next game. And you can totally do that and change it up every game if you want to. Maybe find something that you like. Maybe you just like changing it every time. I know people that tape their stick before every game just because they want to. Who cares? But you don't want to probably do that too before you play. All right, so you got everything all set. You're all ready to play. Hopefully, you also have a bag to put everything in. My own personal little tips of some things that I would say is, start experimenting with kind of a day of routine of things. If you're going to be playing in something regular, even if it's a game or if it's a pickup or drop in or whatever, and getting used to that and see what works and doesn't work. What I mean by that is, some people can't eat anything close to a game. Some people know problem with it. Some people eat something light before games. Some people doesn't matter. I know people that will eat like a Chipotle burrito onto the way to the game. It does not affect them at all. Make sure that you are hydrated. That is a big thing. Make sure you are hydrated. Have some kind of way to get water or some sort of hydration into your mouth during your session, whatever you are doing. Have it on the bench. Water bottle, just a regular bottle of water. If you don't have an actual, like the generic Gatorade water bottle that I think just about everybody has. You have some way to get hydration into your mouth. And honestly, you should be probably drinking more water than you think during the day and the day before. And honestly, probably every day, because I'm sure you don't drink enough water, just generally in life. So drink some more water, always. So, you know, kind of get used to those types of things and settle in on what works for you, because that's different, like I said, for every person. So settle in on what works for you and try different stuff out. And then finally, you're ready to play. You're going to go out there. You know, like I said before, just try and have fun with it. It's Beer League. It's supposed to be fun. It's not that serious, you know. Try and do one thing that you think is cool, that you can do. You know, whether that's, you know, getting off a really great shot, maybe that's making one good pass, maybe it's, you know, doing one good poke check, whatever, it's trying to do something, you know, every game. And then the next game, do something else or do two of that thing and just keep getting a little bit better and a little bit better with it. That's all you got to do. All right. And that should get you ready for your first, your first time playing hockey, first time going out there. You should be good to go. Have fun doing it. It's going to be something you're going to have a blast doing it. You're going to mess up a lot. You're going to do a lot of cool stuff. You're going to make a lot of friends. You're going to have a lot of great stories from them. If you have any great stories about things, stuff you'd like to talk about from your first couple of times playing hockey, maybe your first time on a new team, first time ever on a team, your first time at a Learn to Skate, whatever. I'd love to hear about it. Drop a note. You can leave a comment on the show or send a note over at thebeerleaguer.com. You can send a message to the show. That's how I got some of these tips. You can also leave a voicemail. We've gotten some of those. Appreciate those. Let me know. I'd love to hear more about it. Like I said, we'll do another follow up show on more things like this for starting out people because there's tons of people out there that want to play, would like to play, and I think are scared of playing because it seems so intimidating because there's so much with hockey, unlike other sports where, hey, you want to start playing basketball. Well, go get a basketball and go outside and, you know, try and find somewhere with a hoop if you can. If not, you can just practice dribbling and stuff like that. Hockey, there's so much to it. You know, you can only play to places that have ice and things and there's so much equipment and stuff, and it's very different from every other sport that's out there. But it's not that intimidating, it's not that scary, it really shouldn't be. Hockey people are fun people, they're nice people. They're good hangout people. Don't be scared of it. Go play hockey. Enjoy it. Be great. All right, and that does it for this episode of The Beer Leaguer Podcast. As always, I appreciate any time you can share the show, like the show, subscribe to it. You know, tell your friends, check it out and listen. Send this episode to somebody that wants to start playing hockey, but hasn't and has been scared to do it, and show them just how easy it is to do it. Come on. Help them out. Thanks a lot, everyone, for listening. Catch you in the next one.