Shorts Episode 11

This time around I cover the explosion in Sparx machines at retail locations, getting your show ideas actually through to the show, and more.

Links

• OVR40Goalie
• Sparx Review

Transcript

Roz (00:00)
Hey everybody and welcome to another episode of the beer leaguer podcast. This time around, going back to having another shorts episode. Shorts episodes, if you do not recall, well, shorter episodes where I kind of talk about things that have to do with the beer leaguer podcast and the website and all that kind of stuff that's going on. Plus other random stuff going on in the world of beer league hockey that I have come across.

I wanted to start things off by talking about feedback for episodes. At the end of just about every episode, I ask you guys to leave any kind of comments or shoot me a message via the website or leave a voicemail for the show. And people are great about that. I really appreciate that. I appreciate the interaction I get to have with people on social media, going back and forth with ideas and thoughts and

Honestly, stuff that a lot of times I forget to mention or just kind of gloss over when I'm talking about different things. So I really appreciate that. I especially like when people leave voicemails for the show. I will say I have recently had a couple people leave voicemails for the show that are really good. And I always want to reach out and make sure it's okay if I play those voicemails on episodes, which I would love to do as kind of like a starting point of things to talk about. So if you are one,

that is leaving a voicemail on a episode, please make sure you leave your name and your email and stuff in there. It's right there when you sign up for that voicemail leave it. So please leave that in there and check your inbox for response to that, because I just want to make sure if I do use it in an episode that you guys don't mind. Staying on the show topics, talking about the show, there is in every episode also

A couple links that show up in all the show notes. One is text the show, which I know I've talked about it a couple of times before, but I've also had people ask cause it's a little bit, I guess could be confusing if you don't really get what's going on with it. When you click the text, show link that is in every show description, it brings up your default texting app on your phone. If you're doing it on your desktop, then it'll try and bring up some sort of

texting app if you have one set up on your desktop, but it's really the idea is most people check this stuff out on their phone. So it's really kind of geared toward that. And if you're doing that on your phone and brings up a texting app and it throws in what looks like a random number at the start of that and what that random number actually is, ⁓ keep it there because that's what filters to send that message to me. So I actually get it.

And I only get what you put in there. Uh, I get what you put in there and I see that it comes from an area code. So I don't get anything else about that. So if you do send a text to the show and want to put your name or something in there or say where you're from or anything like that, put that in your message. I have no other way of knowing that of what's happening if you don't put in the message. Cause all I get is the message and it says it's from, you know, the

418 area code or the 716 area code and that's it and I also know that most people with Assuming you're doing this from a cell phone That your area code might not match up with where you're actually from

please, if you are leaving a text to the show, I would love it if you'd leave your name and if you would like to, where you're from. I'd appreciate that. You don't have leave your whole name, just first name's fine.

Also, the other link that is in every show notes is a support the show link. And what that is, is just a link. If you like the show, if you like the YouTube channel, if you like any of the stuff, if you like the weird ramblings that I do on Tik TOK and that kind of stuff is a real easy way to say, Hey, I like the stuff you're doing, keep doing it. And it's a way you can basically just support the show with a donation to help offset the costs.

that it takes to run all this stuff. You know, if you don't do it, that's totally fine. Don't need to,

Another thing that has been out for a little while and some people have signed up for some people have not and I don't think I do a good job of promoting it because honestly, I do a pretty piss poor job of promoting anything the beer leaguer related in general. I just kind of put content out there and don't promote it. Don't promote the different ways to, you know, get a hold of different things that I try and offer for people. One of the big ones is the newsletter. I do have a newsletter that you can get to.

from thebeerleaguer.com and sign up for that. And what the newsletter is is, and this is all it is, this is all I plan on it ever being, is once a month at the beginning of the month, I send it out and it's a recap of the previous month of kind of everything that I did in the previous month. So it's showing you all of the podcasts that were done, any like YouTube specific videos that were done, any...

kind of interesting shorts that were put out on Instagram, X or TikTok, anything like that. And that kind of stuff. So if you miss any of that, you see what it's there. I assume most people, if you're signing up for the newsletter, you're following the podcast at least, but you might not realize, hey, I put out something on a YouTube short that wasn't a full podcast thing. was just a quick little video that's like 30 seconds or whatever to put out that I'm not gonna integrate into.

a full podcast episode. That's something that would be in the newsletter. The same thing of, you know, me responding, especially on TikTok. I do this a lot where I respond to comments on videos. Could you chop up the videos and put them up on TikTok? So it's really just kind of like snippets of the podcast, but the video version of it and people leave comments or ask questions or, you know, want clarification on different things. And I will respond to those. And some of those are.

You know, things that I don't think necessarily need to go out beyond, beyond that and be like a full episode or anything like that. But some of them do turn into bigger things, but that kind of stuff winds up in the newsletter of kind of highlights of things that have happened on social media, things that I thought were interesting or things that sparked me getting into a longer discussion about something. So I really do encourage checking out the newsletter. Like I said, it's, you know, it's totally free.

It's something that I completely control. The list doesn't go to anywhere else. Nobody else is touching that. There's no ads in it except for ads for the newsletter. So if you send it to somebody else, there's like in the newsletter, it says, Hey, if somebody sent this to you and you'd like to sign up for it, that's it. No other stuff in there, but it's just a way to keep up on all the different things that I kind of put out for the month. so you don't have to,

Follow us closely on social media, know it's tough to follow all that stuff and to keep up on all of it, because it's kind of all over the place. And if you don't specifically follow everything, it's an easy way to get a recap of the things that you missed.

Something that I would put in the newsletter, an idea that would be in there, is I have started a new page on the website. It's thebeerleague.com slash rookies. And what that is for is really just a collection of just different stuff that I've put out over the years meant for people that starting in beer league. Right now, all it is is a YouTube playlist

that are really just like beginner friendly stuff. Everything from, you know, how to find a team for beer league, different hockey to play when you're a beginner, like finding different things to play in that's not actually just having to find a league, picking out gear and all kinds of stuff like that. Very beginner centric questions that people have and beginner centric episodes that we've done.

And whenever I do an episode that I think is very, very beginner friendly or really geared towards more beginner players, I will add to that playlist and then other non video elements are also going to go out there. So that's the beerleaguer.com slash rookies. And that's not something I mentioned every show. I'm definitely not going to mention every show, but that's the kind of thing the newsletter would have in it. So a good thing to sign up the newsletter and find out cool stuff like that about.

All right, on to other non show specific stuff.

I'm wondering out there for all of you folks listening, have you noticed a rise in the use of Sparx machines in place of more traditional skate sharpeners out there? That is something I thought was maybe just really regional to me because we have some newer stores popping up near me, but talking to other people and kind of going to other cities.

and going to like actual hockey stores and seeing this, I've noticed that more and more. And I have some ideas behind it. I think the main one is Sparx machines are cheaper to buy than, you know, a giant skate sharpening machine. So if you're a new shop or a new hockey store, I get that, you know, or if you're going to have multiple machines, it's going to be cheaper. That I think is a big one for new places, but for existing places,

that are replacing like a Blackstone or a Wissota machine, you know, switching to Sparx machines, or I guess also like the Bauer or Pro Sharp machines or some of those other ones that are out there, but usually it's Sparx I mean, they're the big ones out there for the automated sharpening. I think the other big reason this happens, and I'm not sure that I like this as a reason, but I think that's what it is, is a lot of these stores and these chain stores especially,

see getting a Sparx machine as a way to offer skate sharpening without having to train anybody in skate sharpening. You know, they think if they get that, they can just kind of drop it in and whoever they hire automatically knows how to sharpen skates. Because, I mean, you can sharpen skates on a Sparx with having kind of no idea what you're doing and no experience whatsoever doing it. That is totally a thing that you can do.

But as I've talked about in other episodes about Spark sharpeners and if you've ever seen me on any other media, especially with equipment people, I think that's where Sparx gets a lot of their bad name from is these places that just drop in these machines with people that have no clue what they're doing and you know, kind of no care in it and just drop a skate on there and let it rip.

And sparx machines are super easy to use, but they're not foolproof. You know, they do take a little bit of setup. And when I say setup, mean going from, you know, pair of skates to pair of skates and doing stuff every so many sharpenings and after every sharpening, kind of checking the blades and things like that. And, you do have to change the sharpening wheels on them to get the proper hollows and stuff. Again, not hard to do.

You know, I have a full, it's about an hour long, super in-depth Sparx review. I'll throw a link to that in the show notes if anybody wants to see that. And I do mention there that there is a process for using a Sparx machine. And I think a lot of people don't use that. And I think that's what causes a lot of the hate towards Sparx machines. Cause I mean, a Sparx machine can give you a bad skate sharpening.

I don't think you can mess up your skates as much as someone that has no idea how to use a traditional machine can mess up your skates, but they look like they're super easy to use, but take, you know, it takes like two minutes extra to use one. So I don't know if other people have noticed that and seen that places. And I'm wondering how widespread that's becoming across, well, really everywhere. I'd say across North America, but I think it's.

kind of everywhere in the world that that's starting to happen. And I think that's kind of why I think it's, I think it's places not understanding it and thinking that it's an easy out for having sharpenings. But yeah, I just wonder if other people are noticing that kind of thing. I would love to hear your thoughts on that. Again, this kind of thing. Would love to hear a voicemail or send some feedback to the show, either via comments on wherever you're listening to this from, or over at thebeerleaguer.com.

I do have a form in there, you just put your name, email, fill the thing out, and send it, and it comes directly to me. So there's a bunch of ways to get a hold of me for stuff.

as of the time of recording this, is Tuesday, November 25th. And here in the United States, we have Thanksgiving this week, which means we have black Friday coming up here. And I know that that is a uniquely American thing to have black Friday, but I'm pretty sure that that is also kind of observed in Canada as a big deal day.

to have and lot of sales and stuff go on. So once again, as I've done in the past, I will put out a video with any kind of Black Friday deals that I can find that I think are worthwhile and are interesting and different and beer league appropriate for stuff. I will put out a video for that. I will also throw that stuff on other other social media platforms. So be on the lookout for that.

Let me if there's any kind of things you want me to keep an eye out for or something specifically that you're looking for and I'll do my best to find that stuff. I will also once again be putting out a Beer League gift guide this year. So cool ideas of things that you can ask people for or, you know, by yourself, but also stuff you can ask people for. And as always, Beer League really specific stuff.

And I don't put in there things like, ask for a new $300 stick or $1,200 skates. Cause one, who's buying you that stuff really? Come on, seriously. And two, do you really want somebody buying you your hockey stick kind of sight unseen? Do you really trust people to do that? I know I don't, even though I gave them specifically what I wanted. I don't, don't trust somebody to buy that stuff, you know? So I don't even, I don't even mention that stuff. It's more talking about.

kind of accessories and little bit more of the oddball items that I like to talk about and stuff like that that you can find or even things that are not specifically made for hockey but totally work for hockey. Along with that gift guide, I have a kind of a big announcement that will be going into that episode. If you are looking to get some cool

beer leaguer branded merch for the holiday season.

And also with that kind of as a part of the the gift guide and everything, I'm going to be doing some video roundups for your hockey base layers of things. So I have a sock roundup coming up, kind of the your shirt roundup and then a pants roundup. If there's any kind of stuff you want to see that make sure I highlight or make sure I talk about or compare with these things again, let me know.

Leave a comment, shoot a message. And, you know, I'll try and include that, that kind of info when I talk about these things. Cause I have found that I do have a weirdly large collection of bass layers and way more hockey skate socks than I thought I did. I thought I only had a couple of pairs, but no, I have a lot of them. so I'll be talking about what my favorite stuff is.

things that I like and don't like about all the different ones that I have used. And they're all ones that I've worn. This is all stuff that, you know, I've worn over the years and some of it I've worn for multiple years. Some of it I wore for one year and things that have lasted things that didn't last. And, kind of all those, all those things that you really only get from stuff that you've actually worn for a decent amount of time.

You know, not just a, this looks good on paper sort of review. Uh, also, you know, things, if they're comfortable or not, that's one of big things I noticed when people do these equipment reviews, they, I think where the months or twice do the review and everything's very comfortable. was like, no, some of this stuff after the third or fourth wearing, like I, I'm, shot the sock video already and there's some of those socks that were great until you wore them for 10 games. And then all of a sudden.

seams start kinda coming apart, or, they stretch weirdly or something like that, and they're not comfortable anymore. You know, but after a game or two, yeah, sure, they're fine, but when you get to 10 games, 15 games, you know, through a season of wearing them, they're no good, and they're not worth it. And let's be honest, anything hockey, even if it's just socks, it's expensive, man. So even if you're paying, you know, like, 20, 25 bucks for

kind of a lower end pair of skate socks. You don't wanna waste that. So that's the way I'm approaching that and that's the way I am looking at doing these roundups. But if there's specific stuff you want me to highlight or talk about or compare throughout the stuff that I do have.

Drop me a note, let me know over at TheBeerLeaguer.com and I will make sure to include that stuff.

And finally, as I always like to do in the shorts episode is highlight a social media account. And this one is, it's, I think it's a pretty fun one. It is a YouTube account. And he goes by over 40 goalie. And let me just kind of read you his description because I think it sums it up really good. Why I like this channel is he says it's.

A channel dedicated to helping goalies who never got the opportunity to learn the position properly. I have been playing beer league hockey as a goalie for over 20 years now, but never really took it seriously or tried to improve. Joining me now that I'm in my forties doing everything possible to become a better goalie. I think that explains everything that this guy's perfectly. So he's got, it's a great channel. It's over 40 goalie and over is just OVR the number 40 and goalie.

He's got all kinds of videos out there. He's got equipment reviews. He's got like how to's out there for everything from how to, you know, tie tow ties to how to properly do a push off in the butterfly. He has game videos that it's just kind of like game footage that he talks over really nicely. Just does like a voiceover with some highlights on things like, I think I did this really well. Or I noticed I didn't do this good. Things like that.

He talks about his struggles and the good things that he's doing playing goalie into his forties. So all kinds of stuff about that. He also has coaching clinics that he's gone to and he records chunks of that. And you get to hear some of the coach and the stuff that he's giving him feedback on as well as him doing voiceovers on, you know, kind of his takeaways from the different coaching that he's gotten and stuff. it's, it's a really good like,

really complete vision of this guy's journey as a goalie in beer league. And I think it's really interesting. I know that we don't feature a lot of goalie stuff here on my channels because I'm not a goalie, but I think this stuff is still super interesting And everything that he does is not strictly related to goalie things. A lot of the kind of off-ice stuff that he'll talk about is

really I think pretty universal for beer league. But yeah, definitely go check it out. have a link to the YouTube channel in the show notes, but it's just over 40 goalie is the channel name. And like I said, over is OVR, the number 40 goalie. So that is the social media account ⁓ of the shorts episode.

All right, so I think that that's it. think that's everything that I wanted to get out here for the shorts episode. ⁓ I will remind everyone to check out the links in the show notes. I always put links for everything I talk about into the show notes.

And like I said, if you have anything else that you'd like to see on the show, be it more content of a certain kind, more in depth on anything, show ideas, anything like that, I would love to hear about it. The easiest way to do that is either leave a comment on whatever platform you're watching this on. can leave a comment there. You can leave a review. I appreciate any reviews I get on.

any of the platforms. They all have a way to leave a review, so I appreciate any of those. Or if you want to send something directly, you can head over to TheBeerLeaguer.com. And like I said in the beginning, you can leave a voicemail to the show, you can send a message directly to me from that as well. You can also comment on any episodes, because all the episodes do wind up over there at TheBeerLeaguer.com. You can comment on those episodes as well. And, you know, let me know if there's, want me to go more in depth in something or something else you want me to cover.

I always love hearing feedback from people. can also use that text to show link that we talked about. That's an easy way to do it as well. All right. That's going to wrap it up for this episode. Thanks everybody for listening.

We'll catch you in the next one.