Living in the Bubble
Goalie camp weeks tend to be a long tunnel from which very little enters or leaves.You probably noticed the version change, but Eli 15.0 changed major version numbers on Sunday. He's 5'11 1/2" and 135 lbs.
He deadlifted 205 lbs. last week after a series of lifts to build up to it (with his trainer), and said afterwards that he could have done a bit more.
I still see that little boy version 9.0 when he plays now, remembering all that mismatching gear and his consistent determination.
It's hard to imagine that what he is today came from that little 9.0 guy, but it did.
For him to keep progressing, though, things need to happen quickly. It's a bewildering maze of leagues once you hit the 16U age (next year), and kids go on distinctly separate tracks depending on the aggregate scout perception.
I'm grossly oversimplifying the process, but kids have to distinguish themselves by the time they're 16. If they don't, it's hard to recover.
Believe it or not, after five years at goalie camp, I finally did something during the two-hour lunch break. Because we didn't fly this time, but just drove down (only two hours!), I brought my golf clubs (all four of them) and played nine holes at a course just minutes away from the rink.
When I play by myself, and the course isn't crowded, I get very, very absorbed. I think I'd forgotten how much, since I haven't played in a few years, but it's a place I can go and not think about anything else except what I'm doing.
I find that increasingly difficult to do these days, so it's a particularly good feeling when I do.
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