Just as a disclaimer, please don't expect proper grammar and punctuation in this blog post, or any other future blog posts. I'll do my best with the spelling, but everything else is up in the air. Run-on sentences, incomplete sentences, numbered lists, and bullet points are all very good friends of mine, you will meet all of them very soon.
Two words.
Floor. Hockey.
I’ve been waiting for this since last May.
But now — it’s back.
The first pickup game of the season was the other night.
It was magical.
As you may or may not be able to tell, I’m a big fan of playing floor hockey.
I’ve loved it ever since I was a little kid playing in my friend’s driveway.
And now, for the first time in eight months, weekly pickup floor hockey is back.
The actual season doesn’t even start for another month. We don’t even have the boards up yet.
But it didn’t matter — because floor hockey was played, and I loved every single second of it.
The pickup games usually end up being more fun than the actual regular season games.
I think that’s because it’s a more laid-back atmosphere. We usually don’t even have a ref, and the teams are chosen at random.
Don’t get me wrong — I absolutely love the regular season too — but the pickup games are where it’s at, folks.
I’m going to be on a new team this year, joining three of my childhood best friends. The same guys who were all in that same driveway with me as kids, playing hockey together.
That’s where my competitive drive came from — playing every sport you could think of with the kids from my neighborhood.
Hockey.
Basketball.
Baseball.
Soccer.
Football.
And everything in between.
You name it — we played it.
The final score the other night was 10–8, I believe.
We were all completely drained by the end, which is the mark of a great hockey game.
And this also means the return of “PGI Wednesdays / Fridays / Saturdays.”
That can stand for either “Post-Game Information” or “Post-Game Interview.”
It’s versatile.
The little snippets and stories I make throughout the hockey season are honestly what I live for.
I also feel like I’m making up for lost time with floor hockey.
As a kid, I played in the 11–14 league, and it was incredible. But I didn’t join until I was 13, so I only got two seasons out of it.
Both were fantastic.
Then when I was 15, I went to watch my old team play in their first game of the next season. My former coach came up to me and asked, “Do you miss it?”
I said, “Every single day.”
Fast forward 26 years, and I’m finally playing organized floor hockey again — back where it all began.
And now I’ve got my perfect weekly balance: floor hockey as my HIIT workout on Wednesdays, plus three strength-training days every week.
It’s perfect.
I’ve always loved team sports.
That definitely started in gym class.
Every sport was a chance to be a Gym Class Hero, and I took full advantage.
You had the Gym Class Heroes.
You had the kids who didn’t even want to be there.
And everything in between.
Hitting the game-winning shot that no one will remember except me in a random gym class on a Tuesday?
Priceless.
Diving full-out in Four Square to avoid elimination and earning a permanent knee scar in the process?
Love of the game.
Forming an alumni dodgeball team after graduation, making it to the finals, and losing?
I still lose sleep over it.
Which is why I genuinely wish there was a place called “Gym Class” for adults.
You show up.
There’s an instructor.
They pick the teams, explain the rules, and you just… play.
One of my favorite gym games was Bombardment.
It’s dodgeball — but with a twist.
In regular dodgeball, once you get hit, you’re out. If a teammate catches a ball, you can come back in.
In Bombardment, if you get out, you go behind the other team. When a ball goes out of bounds, you grab it and fire it back at them. If you hit someone, you’re back in.
So you’re never really out of the game.
And if you eliminate someone, now they’re behind you — so you have to keep your head on a swivel at all times.
That level of panic?
That’s what I live for.
I basically want adult intramurals without needing to be in college.
And adult playgrounds.
And adult recess.
Because honestly — adults need play just as much as kids do.
Maybe even more.
We need competition that doesn’t matter.
Movement that isn’t a chore.
Community that isn’t built around work.
We need moments where the only goal is to run, laugh, sweat, and forget about everything else for a while.
That’s what floor hockey gives me.
That’s what gym class gave me.
And that’s what I think a lot of us are quietly missing.
So if you ever get the chance to pick up a stick, throw a ball, join a league, or just play something for the sake of playing — do it.
Your inner kid is still in there.
He just wants recess.
And with that, I think I’ll wrap things up here.
Thanks for reading — and as always, I’ll see you next week!
No comments:
Post a Comment