10 Things Nobody Tells You Before Joining Beer League Hockey

SPEAKER_00
0:00

Maybe you just finished up learn to play class and try to figure out, am I really ready to start playing hockey now? Or maybe you're finally ready to dust off your gear and give it another go after 20 years off. Either way, there's a lot of stuff that people don't tell you before you start playing beer league hockey. That's what this episode is all about. In this episode of the Beer Leaguer Podcast, we're talking about 10 things nobody tells you before you join a beer league hockey team. All right, now this is not the super obvious stuff that hopefully everybody knows. So this isn't things like, hey, make sure that you have all the gear that you need. You know, make sure that you know how to skate a little bit, things like that. That's stuff that hopefully is common sense to know. But there's a lot of stuff there that I think people just don't realize what they're getting themselves into when they're playing beer league. And they don't know, are they ready to take that step from, you know, just going to stick and pucks or just going to learn to play or learn to skate classes or haven't played in a long time and been out there, you know, helping your kids play hockey. And are you ready to jump back into playing somewhat competitive beer league hockey or not? That's what this episode's all about. I see all the time online people saying, Hey, I've gone through one cycle of learn to play. Am I ready to go? I've done two learn to skate classes. I think I'm ready to go. What else do I need to know? This is what we're here to answer on this episode of the Beer League or podcast. All right, so we're just going to run through the list. Like I said, we got 10 different things that you really should know before you kind of get yourself taken over by the wonderful world that is beer league hockey. So 10, hopefully super practical and new to you ideas and better explanations of things that maybe you didn't think of if you haven't

— Beer league schedules can be rough

SPEAKER_00
2:03

played before. Number one, beer league schedules. Uh people joke about it all the time, but it's a real thing. Uh, some leagues are lucky enough to have set days or set times or set rinks that you play at, but honestly, most of them don't. Usually you're playing different days of the week. You're going to be playing at different times. Like for the league that I play in, you're playing at different rinks. Could be the same rinks three times in a row, could be three different rinks in a row. You never really know. You have to get ready for late games. Again, some people luck out and their beer league games start at eight o'clock at night. Ooh. But most of us are playing at 9:30, 10, 10:30 at night, after all the kids' stuff is all done, after all the high schoolers are out of there, things like that. So that's something you have to be ready for and be expecting. Games are going to be late. Playing Beer League, one thing that you will kind of unknowingly learn to appreciate and know when they happen is when the various kids' hockey seasons end. Because you'll see as the seasons for the kids end, ice time be gets a little bit easier, a little bit easier to come by. And by the end of generally the beer league seasons, your games are starting earlier. So you'll kind of know, like, okay, cool, high school's finally done. Now maybe we can get a nine o'clock game this month. So you'll kind of learn that stuff. But it's something you have to know going in. Your schedule probably is going to be pretty terrible. But you're going to do it anyways. It's fun. Know that it's going to wreck your sleep one night a week. Just accept it and know that that's something going in. It is a joke for it that people always talk about with Beer League, but it's Joe for a reason because it's so

— Hidden beer league hockey costs

SPEAKER_00
3:56

true. Okay, number two, money. Beer League's not free. I mean, you know that the gear costs you money. You know that you're learning to play, learn to skate, whatever you call it, classes are going to cost you money. You know that the gear that you wear costs you money. You know, whatever you're wearing underneath your gear, hopefully it's something. Don't be gross, is gonna cost you something. And if you have questions on some of the gear to wear, I do have episodes reviewing various undergarment gear for you to check out. But something else to be aware of for Beer League, there's costs associated with it. There's league fees. Maybe your team that you go to decides to pay for the goalie, so you're paying for part of an extra person or not. Jerseys. Just did a whole episode all about jerseys. They can go check out for a little more insight into that. But jerseys cost most teams you're buying two jerseys for, so that's something to tack on to it. Do you have to have matching socks for your jerseys? That's another added cost onto there. So these things start to add up, especially when you're joining and starting a new team for things. It just keeps adding on and adding on and adding on and adding on. On top of that, do you do any kind of like beer rotation? A lot of teams have, you know, some kind of way for people to bring beer after games or before games, and it's hopefully distributed amongst the team. So is there a fun that it goes into and somebody always goes out and buys it? Or are you going to be in charge of it for one or two or three games for the season? So that's another expense on top of it. Not that all these things are hugely expensive, but just something to be aware of so you're not shocked. Uh or are you joining a team where everybody goes out after the games? You know, that can again start to add up for stuff. Uh, then you have like normal incidental things that everybody playing some level hockey, you know, has to buy stuff like tape or um shower shoes. Don't be the gross person that doesn't wear shower shoes, wear shower shoes. It just just do. Don't don't be disgusting. Get some shower shoes if you're gonna shower to rink. And stuff like that, you know, stuff that everybody kind of has to buy throughout the season. And then honestly, if you're just starting off and you've just gone through like a learn to play and you're getting into hockey for the first time, be be ready to want to buy uh more hockey gear, you know, wanting to buy stuff like training aids, drying racks, maybe extra sticks, trying out other other equipment, things like that. Be ready. It's addicting. You're gonna want to do that stuff more than likely. So be aware of all these costs that can come into it. Again, nothing is hopefully prohibitive for it, because again, hockey is an expensive sport. I think everybody knows that. But at least so you have a better idea of what you're walking into. I mean, all this stuff adds up. You know, I don't want to scare you off. Like I said, everybody knows hockey is expensive, but you know, you just don't want to be completely blindsided going into this stuff if you're just starting off

— Beginners are supposed to be bad at first

SPEAKER_00
7:09

playing beer league. You're not gonna be good. And it's fine. This is super important to know. This is the thing people always seem to get nervous about when they're jumping into playing beer league for the first time, thinking that they're not ready for it. Hopefully, you're playing somewhere that has low-level teams. Find the lowest level teams you can find that you can play for. Don't jump into some, you know, hey, I got through, I went through an entire six-week learn to play class. Now we're gonna try and play beer league with some ex-pros. Don't do that. Don't, don't do that. They might be nice and not, you know, completely just burn you out there every time, but don't be like that. Find a nice low-level beer league that you can get into. Generally, the larger the league, the more you're gonna have separated amongst levels. So if you can find a larger league, usually they're gonna have something more designated for low-level, for you know, just out of a beginner program or something like that that you can get into. I mean, but just know you're not gonna be very good. And that's okay. No one's really gonna care, especially if you find something low-level like that. It is what it is. You know, hopefully you're around people that are taking beer league for what it is, which is to go out there, have fun, you know, have a little competitive fun, get a skate in, things like that, and not be super hard asses about it. So that's a super important thing to know is that you're gonna suck, accept it because you're gonna get better. Because the best way to get better at hockey is by playing more hockey. So just know it. Yeah, you're not gonna be good. That's okay. It's fine.

— The locker room is the real secret

SPEAKER_00
9:02

Four. The locker room. The locker room is probably gonna be at least 50% of the reason why you have fun at hockey. If you've listened to any of these shows before, you hear me harp on it all the time. The locker room is one of, if not the best part about Beer League, it's really just a social club where you get to play hockey. And that's really that's the whole appeal of it. That's not a knock against it, that's the whole appeal of it. You show up, you see the same 10, 11, 12 people every week. You catch up on whatever you talk about. Get you go out there, play hockey for an hour, get back to the locker room, catch up on stuff, talk about the game. There you go. It's a great social activity that you get to do. I mean, it's one of those things I talk about all the time on here, where instantly, no matter what, the people you're playing hockey with, you have at least one thing in common. You like playing hockey. If nothing else, you at least have that going. I mean, you've seen the guests that I've had on some of these shows and talked to people, it's all through hockey. Uh, some of my closest friends that I have are through hockey. Honestly, as an adult, it's hard to make friends outside of like work. And where else do you meet other people? You know, to make new friends. Something like hockey is a great way to do that, to get out and meet other people. I know people that when they move to a different town and they don't know anyone, and they start playing hockey, and that's how they meet people. That's how they expand and make a friend group in a new place that they're in. So it's a super important and vital part, I think, of Beer League is the locker room, is the social scene of it. So don't take it for granted and appreciate it.

— Don’t be “that guy” on your team

SPEAKER_00
11:03

Every team is gonna have the guy that plays like there's a scout in the stands. There is always, always one person on every team. Sometimes there's more than one, who plays like this is the game that's gonna get them called up to the pros. Because there's somebody out there that's watching for you know, the middle-aged guy that just started playing hockey in his 30s that really needs to get him that pro contract. That's the person that's you know slamming their stick when passes don't connect, that's you know, yelling at the teammates, that gets way too hard into it with refs. There's always that guy out there. Not not the most fun person to play with, but something you need to be aware of, something you need to know. So, you know, hey, when you go out there and you join a team, be aware of where that line of being competitive and just being a jerk is. There is a line, stay on the right side of it. You know, you can always try hard, skate hard, read the room. You know, learn learn how competitive and how hard everybody takes this stuff. Every league a little different, every team a little different. Learn to read that properly. And hey, you know what? Another good point of this is is if everybody else on the team is just laughing off stuff, and you're the one that's always pissed about every call or pissed about every missed shot or missed pass, you're probably that guy. And nobody wants to be that

— Hockey, relationships, roommates, and late nights

SPEAKER_00
12:57

guy. Your significant other will probably not understand any of the stuff that you're doing for hockey, and that's that's okay. Just know that. I hear so many people that when they start up for hockey, it they take it as hey, it's a great thing. I'm getting out of the house once a week, getting a little bit of exercise, that's great. But then when it gets to be, oh, you're out of the house at night, you know, you have to leave for your game at 9:30 and you're getting back at one in the morning. You know, you have to spend X amount of money on new gear. You know, you're having hockey gear all around the house. You know, you're drying gear in the living room. I mean, you hear about this stuff all the time from people that live like in smaller apartments with someone and they are not ready for it. You know, they bring home their bag of gear and they lay it out because they're like doing the good thing and airing their gear out, which you should always do. Airing that out, and you know, the significant other that they're with in the apartment wakes up to the beautiful smell that is hockey gear. So my advice on this is make sure that whoever you are living with, I'm saying significant other, but it could be roommates, it could be anybody, whoever you are living with, is aware of what you playing hockey entails. That it is something that you are you're kind of bringing home with you with all this stuff. And just make sure you have some sort of a plan for it. You know, know that, hey, I'm leaving at this time to go play hockey, make sure everything is okay with that, that you're not leaving anyone in a lurch, make sure that you have a place for your gear, make sure that you're not, you know, just leaving it in the back of your car or anything like that. Make sure this stuff is kind of figured out or at least thought of, and be considerate about it before you start. So that way it's not a shock to everyone after you've started hockey. And on a very similar note, that leads into number seven. Hockey gear smell is something you're gonna have to learn to figure

— How to keep hockey gear from smelling terrible

SPEAKER_00
15:15

out. Hockey gear, I mean, even if you're only playing like once or even twice a week, it gets stinky fast. It really, really does. So plan for it. And by plan for it, I don't mean be the person that leaves their gear in their bag in the trunk of their car or in the bed of their truck for the entire season. Because while you might think your stuff doesn't stink and you might think that's totally fine, every single person on your team thinks that's disgusting and doesn't want you to do that. Okay, they don't, so it's not okay. So figure out some sort of plan for it. It's not super difficult to keep your hockey gear from stinking terribly. You can, you know, air it out. That's really the biggest thing. If you wear some sort of stuff underneath your hockey gear, so you're you're wearing some sort of undergarment. Hopefully, it's some sort of like workout gear. It doesn't have to be hockey specific, but some sort of workout gear that will help with the sweat and help with the smell. Just taking that off and washing that after games, that does a huge help. Just taking your gear out of your bag and letting it sit out overnight and dry out will go a huge way to stopping your gear from stinking. Just that little bit amount will go a huge way. Now, like how the next step up from that is having some sort of way to like nicely dry your gear out so it's not just sitting on the floor. So either having a drying rack that you make yourself or one of these cool things, like they make hangers you can hang your gear on. They make a thing I've talked about on here a couple times called the I think it's the the UDI, the UDI U T T Y. I'll put a link to it in the show notes for it. And it's a really, really simple uh contraption that is just hangs on the back of a door and has a bunch of hooks on it to hang your gear on it. Super easy. I mean, you can leave it in your hockey bag then. You know, you just hang that on the back of your door, hang all your stuff up for the night. In the morning, take the whole thing off and just drop it right in your hockey bag. Boom. Stuff should be nice and dry. A little bit step up from that if you want to. And again, if you're playing more than once a week, you need you need to do more than just probably air your gear out. You're gonna need to do some of these other things. Put a fan on it. You can just get a regular box fan, room fan, whatever, point a fan in it, have a run overnight. Makes a huge difference. You can get all kinds of different gear sprays from hockey stores that will really help out and help break down stuff. You can also just spray it with rubbing alcohol. That totally works. There's all kinds of non-expensive versions of hockey gear, disinfectant smell killer sprays out there. If you just search around on the web for them, there's all kinds like homemade concoctions people use with everything from, like I said, rubbing alcohol to cheap vodka to spray on your gear, stop it from smelling. It's not that difficult to do. And just doing that, huge, huge difference. The next step up from that, actually wash your gear. You do not have to wash your hockey pads and everything after every game. I think most people I know that wash their gear any amount, wash it once or twice a year, and that's about it. And that usually does enough. If you're airing your gear out, that's gonna go a whole huge way to help you out with stuff. Now, again, I do have uh some other stuff on the channel here about washing your gear, getting the specifics of it, steps for it. You can buy stuff to wash your gear, you can buy stuff to dry your gear, you can make do with all kinds of stuff that you make yourself or stuff that you already have at home. But it's something you need to figure out. Uh, and this is if you're living alone or living with people or other people, you're gonna need to figure out how to handle hockey gear smell and minimize it as much as

— Why every team needs a reliable goalie

SPEAKER_00
19:20

possible. The hardest person to find in beer league is a consistent goalie. Now, if you're joining an existing team, you're probably not gonna deal with this right away, hopefully. But at some point, your goalie is either gonna get hurt or go on vacation or just not be able to make a game for whatever reason. And you're gonna discover something that pretty much every beer leaguer learns. Goalies can be the most scarce resource in recreational hockey. There's a reason that goalies always seem to have invites to tournaments. There's a reason that goalies always get pulled in to play pickups and get to really know everything that's going on in the hockey world around you because everybody needs goalies. And if you have a goalie that will show up to things, they are like gold. And they will know all the pickups, they will know all the different things that are going on. They'll probably know tons of people in the area that play hockey because of all this. Because if they show up regularly to stuff and they're not a jerk, people want them out there because you need a goalie to play hockey. So when you join a team, be nice to the goalie. You know, maybe buy them beer after the game. Maybe you don't blame them for every goal that they let in, even if it's totally their fault. Recognize that they're doing something that probably no one else on your team wants to do. And you kind of need them. So, number nine.

— Common beer league injuries and warmup tips

SPEAKER_00
21:01

Injuries. They're gonna happen. Uh and I know if you haven't played beer league before, you're probably thinking, wait, I thought beer league was like no checking. So you shouldn't really get hurt, right? Because they're not hitting. Yes, but no. You're probably not gonna get hurt from getting, you know, like a legit check in beer league. But you're probably still gonna get hurt at some point. So just be ready for it. There's a lot of ways you can prevent getting hurt. You're probably not gonna be getting hurt from getting checked in beer league. But beer league will find a way to break you. It'll be the groin pole reaching for a puck that's just a little bit too far. It'll be your ankle rolling on you because you didn't notice that you stepped on a puck. It's hurting your back, trying to just pick up your hockey bag that you haven't emptied out, and it's full of a bunch of empty beer cans from the whole season. It's any of these things. That's beer league. It's what happens. But that's beer league. So my advice to you on this is warm up. Actually, warm up before games. That doesn't mean you need a you know huge 45-minute routine that you know involves off-ice stretching and running in place and you know doing a whole crazy thing before even put your gear on. Great if you can, but I'm not saying you need to do that. But actually use the time you have to warm up. So that means not just standing around on the ice right before the whistle and bending over a little bit and maybe doing a couple of twists or something like that. You know, actually try and stretch a little bit. You know, skate around a couple laps. Most beer leak you get just a couple of minutes, but use that time. You know, use the time to actually get yourself warmed up, get a little limber, try and stretch stuff out, and do that on the bench too. You know, try and stretch out a little bit while you're playing. It helps. A little bit of stretching goes a long way. Just a little bit of warming up can really, really help. So try and warm up a little bit before games. Maybe stretch a little bit after games. That also helps too. Just a little bit. Give it a try. It'll, it'll, it'll help. If you need a stretching routine, there's tons of them you can find out there online, tons of people that do them. Like I said, you don't need a super long, huge stretching routine if you don't have any kind of injuries that you're dealing with or any kind of problems. But actually doing one is better than not doing one. So save yourself a lot of agony, a lot of just aches and pains that you'll have from playing hockey. Because let's face it, playing hockey is a weird motion for your body to do things. It is not stuff that you do in your normal day-to-day life. So if you're not stretching the stuff out, if you're not doing your most you can to stop yourself from hurting yourself, you're gonna wind up feeling it for days afterward. And that's just not fun. So stretch. Take a few minutes. It's worth it.

— Nobody remembers your mistakes like you do

SPEAKER_00
24:33

All right, number 10. The last thing nobody tells you before joining Beer League. And this one's this one's important. This is this is a pretty big one. That's why it's at the end. You're gonna remember your mistakes way, way longer than anybody else does. You know, the turnover that you made in the third period that led to a goal, the shot you completely whiffed down from two feet in front of the net. The time or one of the many times that you just completely fell going over the blue line. Because it will trip you. It it jumps up. We all know that. It jumps up and grabs you and trips you those. You're gonna remember those. You're gonna be kicking yourself about those. Probably for a while. Hopefully, not for too long. But you're gonna remember them way more than other people will. I mean, it it's beer league. It's not that deep. If you want to joke about this stuff after the game, great. You should. But you're gonna remember your screw ups way longer than anybody else does out there. Don't let it bug you, don't let it discourage you. Don't let it make you not want to come back the next week and try and do just a little bit better. One of the absolute best things about Beer League, that unlike pretty much everything else in an adult life, the stakes are almost zero. It's just beer league. It's not life or death. You're gonna mess up. Everybody messes up. Nobody cares as much as you think

— Wrap-Up

SPEAKER_00
26:21

they do. So there you go. Ten things nobody tells you before you join a beer league team. The terrible schedule, the real cost of things, the fact that you're gonna be bad, how awesome the locker room is, stupid injuries that you have to account for. All this, all this wonderful, fun stuff that makes Beer League the weird, crazy, fun place that it is. So if you're on the fence about joining a team, I hope this helped you out. I hope it didn't scare you off. I mean, some of the stuff sounds negative. I don't mean it to be. It's just it's real stuff. It's stuff that you should be aware of so it's not as negative when it happens. So you're ready for it and you're aware that it can happen. Because listen, for all the late nights and the dumb injuries and the money and smelly gear, Beer League is one of the best decisions I've ever made. It's gotten me friends, it's given me ridiculous stories that involve these friends. It gives me a reason to get out of the house and do something that I love, and I really think it'll be the same for you. So, as always, guys, I love to hear your stories on these topics. If you just joined your first beer league team, or you just joined your first beer league team 30 years ago, what was the thing that surprised you the most about actually playing hockey as an adult versus learn to play classes or back when you played as a kid? There's something I completely didn't cover and should have. Something you wish somebody had told you, like I'm trying to tell people right now. I'd love to hear about it. Drop a comment, text the show, send a voicemail. As always, all that stuff you can do over at thebeerleaguer.com. That's the best way to get a hold of anything for me. Plus, check out all the past episodes and things I've talked about. Down in the show notes, have links to all the stuff that I talked about, all the other shows that I mentioned and things like that on there. Always down there. Check those out. And as always, thanks a lot for listening, everybody. Catch you in the next one.