Backyard Hockey

[nwtrailtrekker]

Alright, so for the last few months my friend and I have been playing hockey on my back deck. (Just one shooter one goalie kindof thing), as time has progressed, we've gotten better and better, my friend is becoming one hell of a goalie, and my shot is getting pretty good. Also, as time has passed, we're getting more and more goalie gear. Keep in mind, all of our "goalie gear" is crap. The helmet is my dad's high school football helmet (but we're working on getting a regular mask). The chest protection is a soda-cracker pillow (a thin, flimsy pillow), the left hand covered by a baseball mitt, the right hand bare holding a broken hockey stick, and we use strips of carpet attached to our legs as blockers. It's kinda funny; we look ridiculous when we're suited up. We shoot tennis balls. They come in pretty quick. Basically, all we do is take slapshots from about 25 feet away, and take breakaway wristshots. Oh yah, and we dont use skates.

I dunno if any of you guys have experience doing this with your friends as kids or anything, but do any of you have any good ideas on how to make these games really fun? Any certain little games that can be derived from what we have? Any suggestions for goalie gear modifications? Any suggestions or help is appreciated.

I'm interested to hear your responses.

[Shumway]

I have a feeling you know this one's coming, but getting real goalie equipment would be a definite bonus. You can't exactly "stack the carpet squares" or make a "mitt save". Also, a football helmet's probably not gonna protect the goalie's eyes, and believe me, you don't want to take a tennis ball to the eye. I don't even know what a soda cracker pillow is, but I doubt it's sufficient. I don't know if they have I'd also suggest using skates, but if you're not a strong skater, it might not be such a great idea. Plus, I'm not sure if a deck's the best place for skates, assuming your deck is wooden planks. I don't know if there's a Play-It-Again sports or anything of the like around you, but you can generally find cheap street hockey equipment there, or maybe even used decent goalie stuff to use.

Dumb question, but do you have an actual net? I'd suggest one if you don't.

[nwtrailtrekker]

well we dont exactly have all the money in the world. thats why we're looking for cheap solutions.

hahahaha and my friend knows all too well what a slapshot tennis ball in the eye feels like. right after he got hit he threw the helmet and started screaming profanities. thats why were looking to get a mask.

and skates...well..skates aren't gonna happen. haha

[SouthSidePride]

I play basement hockey with my 11 year old brother, his friends and even my friends. We have a desk built into a wall in the basement, and we use that for the goal with either someone in goal or a laundry basket placed on its side horizontally as to symbolize a butterfly goalie. The basket has it's opening facing us, so it can actually catch some of the pucks, if they are hit just right. The basket is placed roughly one blade's length from the 'posts' which are actually the side drawers of the desk. Our basement has poles keeping the entire house up. These polls split the room into 3 parts. The part with the goal is the attacking zone, the central part is the neutral zone and the opposite wall to the posts is the defensive zone.

To start the game one player gets the puck in the neutral zone while the other defends their zone. The defender cannot touch the puck (actually a foam baseball, but we also use a tennis ball on occasion) until it enters the attacking zone. From then on, it's a free for all. There are a few simple rules that have evolved. One, no poke checks unless you are in the same zone as the other player, necessitating you to put both feet in the zone. Two, Icing is called when a player clears the puck from the attacking zone through the neutral zone and into the defending zone, and it says there. It is about a 50/50 shot, as there is a ping pong table there to make the puck bounce around a little more. You can beat out the icing by touching it before your opponent can, also, if you play it off the boards (side walls) you cannot be called for icing. This makes clearing the puck more difficult, but the reward outweighs the risk and therefore the puck stays in the zone 40 percent of the time, making it a much faster, and better game. Three, to start your attack, you originally had to clear the zone by putting it in the defensive zone, and then head forward from there. We found it to be a better game if you only have to bring it to the neutral zone to start your attack. Four, all faceoffs are negated, in favor of a football like out of bounds system. If I was in the neutral zone and I cleared it into the bathroom, it would not be a faceoff, but rather my puck and a restart. If you move the goalie unintentionally with your stick, the goalie stays like that until the next restart, save for icings.

I can further explain the nuances of the game if you are at all interested, and yes, we don't play with skates, making tripping a lot harder, in both senses.

[STL FANATIC]

There may be nothing better than good resourceful basement or backyard hockey. Well, good resourceful wiffleball is great too.

My cousin and I have been playing in various basements for as long as I can remember. But it's been in our grandmother's basement for about the last 7 years now I guess.

I'm 20 and he's 18, I don't think we'll ever grow out of it. Our dad's play with us sometimes, and we've got our brothers (8 and 9 years old) playing now, too.

Anyways, we started with a couple of cardboard boxes as posts against a back wall. We did the baseball mit for a glove, and that was about it. We have a real goalie stick (nothing special though) and we've gone through tons of regular hockey sticks.

We used a tennis ball back then. We still do when we don't want to put on "full gear". More on full gear in a second.

Eventually we got a real net (medium size, plastic posts). We used clear duct tape which we colored on with crayons to mark a back/goal line and a crease. Eventually we added a couple of other lines to create more interesting game options.

Full gear now includes knee pads (like inline skating type)--those were one of the first additions. Our aunt played hockey. We were able to use a helmet with a mask (I don't think it was a goalie helmet, but it worked). We had a chest protector as well. And we started using a hockey glove as a blocker.

That equipment was just for hard hockey balls or pucks though.

I think my favorite equipment story was when we left our gloves elsewhere. But we had lots of duct tape. I really wanted to play.

So, I made a baseball glove out ouf duct tape to be used as a hockey goalie glove. It was DAMN good if I do say so myself.

Anyways, we sometimes just take shots. My cousin's a pretty good goalie, I'm a pretty solid shooter and puck/ball handler.

Sometimes we rotate and just use a glove and a stick and tennis ball and have shootouts.

Sometimes we use a puck or hockey ball and play games. Set up a few boxes with some openings as a goalie.

The lines we set up serve as a start behind line. Or a line where if you clear it from behind and it bounces off the wall and rolls past the start behind line, it can be touched for "icing". Somehow we did an offsides thing too.

All kinds of things.

[JustForFun]

When do we get a Backyard Wrestling thread?

[udubs03]

When I was little, we would alway make the Stanley Cup out of construction paper and foil...that way you have something to play for.

[friarcanuck]

I've spent many hours of my childhood playing road/basement/backyard hockey. Going from playing mini-stick hockey at recess in grade 3, to road hockey after school everyday in grade 11 & 12.

Mini-sticks are what we called those foot long sticks you get at the merchandise stands at hockey games. We'd play on your knees in the basement or in the school yard at recess with two balls of tape for posts.

Road hockey in high school we were lucky enough to have hand me downs and a Play-It-Again sports down the road. Everyone just pooled their money together to get equipment. I remember one pair of goalie pads got left in the rain and smelt like wet dog all the time cause they were stuffed with horse hair. When we had enough people, but too few for two full teams, we would play what we called World Cup. Kind of a everyone-for-themselves game with one goalie and everyone trying to score on the goalie. If you score a goal, you go onto the next round. Last one to score in the round was out of the game. Rounds would repeat until there was two finalist. The finalists would then play first to five goals. The loser of Round 1 played goalie in the next World Cup. Greatest part was my friend's parents billeted a couple of the Kingston Frontenacs and some would join in every now and again. Stopping a Chris Allen (hardest shot in the OHL at the time) slapshot in the gut was not so great.

As for patched together goalie equipment, here is what we've used before:

mask - We never used a helmet, just a baseball catcher's mask

trapper - Baseball glove on an old hat

blocker - Get an old textbook or binder and rip off one of the covers, then tape that to a hockey glove or your arm

goalie stick - Same as the trapper, but tape it to a regular hockey stick

pads - Find a couch where the cushions have a zipper in the back. Take out the foam, fold it in half and tape it or tie it to your leg with string. Remember to put the foam back before mom comes home.

[Brass]

Knee hockey games in our area were always epic. They became even more epic when we went on trips with our hockey teams in various cities and played other states. We were in Montreal in early 2001 and played an entire knee hockey tournament IN BETWEEN our regular ice tournament and it was sick! We ended up winning the knee hockey defeating a team from South Boston. We lost the ice hockey tournament, however, but our wounds were healed after winnin knee hockey. The hotel actually gave us their conference room to play in, since no one was using it that week.

[pcgd]

When I was little I'd put my feet into regular pillows (with the pillow case on) and those would be my goalie pads.

I can't remember what we used for sticks or balls, but I will always remember me and my brother playing on the hardwood with pillows on our legs.

[gojetsgo]

Backyard hockey is really hockey in its purest form. I always feel great when I hear about a kid being resourceful and creative just to play the great game of hockey.

Some of my suggestions surround getting better equipment, but it doesn't have to cost you alot.

- If you can get the goalie protected enough, get a really hockey ball. They are harder and hurt a hell of a lot more, but they improve the quality of your stickhandling, passing, and shooting. And if you ever make the move to ice hockey, they are much more comparable to a puck than a tennis ball. These hockey balls are usually a buck for the cheap ones at any Canadian Tire.

- Get a net. Look around at garage sales or thrift stores. They add so much to the game. Going "top-shelf" just isn't satisfying if the net is imaginary.

- Get more kids. Even one more will add a a great dimension to the game. 2 on nones are fun and exhausting for a goalie. Great training too. One-on-ones are a great way to learn how to deke out a defender and how to play defensively.

Like most Canadian kids, I've played a lot of different incarnations of hockey - from living room hockey on my knees to full ice hockey and everything in between. I'd have to say, the most fun times I've had playing were with 10 guys in a parking lot. 4 on 4 plus two goalies with goalie equipment, nets, and endless hockey action. I think the closer you get to that, the more fun you'll have.

Go around the neighbourhood. There's gotta be other kids playing their own mini-games because they dont have enough people/equipment for a full game either.

Have fun!

[nwtrailtrekker]

we got a net

also, finding other people in the neighborhood that are interested can be quite difficult when you live in an area of the United States where ABSOULTELY NOBODY plays hockey.