Anybody Play Street Hockey?

[jet0002]

After getting into hockey along with some of my buddies, we all wanted to try and play some hockey ourselves.
The only problem is we live in Alabama so there is no chance of that happening. So we all thought we could try street hockey instead.
Does anyone have any experiences or know a good place to try and buy equipment? Thanks!

 

[G $MONEY$]

Played Street Hockey my entire life :lol:

Nowadays we play "ball Hockey" inside a large warehouse that we rent out (They charge us $50/hr and usually 20-25 of us turn out). The warehouse has a cement floor and has boards just like a Hockey rink. We actually have many organized, competitive ball hockey leagues up here in Canada that anyone can join. The goalie wears full equipment (When we were younger and had no $$$, we made goalie pads and blocker out of foam and shoe laces and used Baseball glove as a catcher) but all us other players just wear shorts, sweat pants, Basketball shoes and tshirts. The only equipment we use are Hockey gloves and sticks (some use wooden sticks, most use aluminum.) We just buy our equipment at the department or sports stores (look on ebay under "Street hockey equipment"). The warehouse we rent even has a large electronic score clock. If you don't have access to a place like this, tennis courts work great

It looks very similar to this (Expect we have netting instead of glass and we don't wear helmets (only the goalies), just baseball caps :lol: )..



If the goalie we have is a "wussy" or has no pads we use a tennis ball, but usually its an orange hockey ball.

 

[ThoseBackPages]

hell yea! back in the early and mid 80s, couldnt play street hockey enough!
even played with roller skates (remember those? lol)

it was mega fun!

 

[jet0002]

G $MONEY$: Thanks for the help. We would definitely just be playing on tennis courts or something like that. There isn't any type of nice warehouse like that. :lol: I thought about ebay, but was just curious if there was some type of trusted online distributor or something.

TBP: We actually thought about getting roller skates too, but we figured we should get basic equipment and learn to play first without them.

 

[pghbuccos]

I too have played street hockey my whole life. for the last few years I have been the goalie for my Dek Hockey team. I am not very good on roller blades and I was always a goalie when we played street hockey so I figured I might as well do it for Dek. I have become a lot better over the last few seasons and we actually won our championship 2 seasons ago.

I'm sure it's pretty hard to find hockey equipment anywhere in Alabama but if you have a Dick's Sporting Goods or a Sports Authority around they should have some stuff and if not might be able to order it for you. I get all my equipment from a local hockey equipment store here in Pittsburgh.

here's a website that I have ordered from in the past as well...

http://www.prohockeyequipment.com/

 

[gonzagacubs]

never really played any sort of hockey, but here is another website you might check out.

hockeyoverstock.com I have ordered stuff from them in the past, and they usually have pretty awesome deals.

 

[jarcar]

AAAHHHH street hockey, brings back great memories. As kids we would play on the street every day after school, and yell CAR whenever we had to, the goaly was covered in foam tied up with string, think michelin man... good times. I lived near a school and also near two laccross courts so we started using those when we got older. Now being old (I turn 40 this year) the only time I play street/ball hockey is when my son and his friends/cousins play and need another player.

Like Gmoney said you just need a stick and hockey gloves.

 

[Brad]

Street hockey was awesome when I was younger. I think Bauer was the one who made the wood shaft and screw on plastic blades for sticks. I curved mine and had a decent wrister.

One of my birthday gifts, say around 8, was a set of these

and a Red Wings goalie mask (which I of course used playing baseball around the neighbor hood too since they had just taken off in the majors).

Since I played regular hockey I upgraded to my old stick that I was not using and always wore hockey gloves. That is about all you need. The plastic pucks Dick's would sell sucked balls so you have to use a tennis ball or street ball. And yes, we tried the knuckle puck too with it though. Very unsuccessful

 

[KC37]

I played Dek Hockey (not on rollerblades, but it was a linoleum surface instead of cement) for about 12 years, until my league shut down when the place we played at turned the dek rink into another ice rink. A new place popped up last fall, but it's outdoors, so it didn't play over the winter. Rumor is that my team started up again last week, so I'm hopefully back to playing. Of course, now I'm 35 instead of the 22 I was when I started, so I'm pretty sure it's going to take a lot longer to get back into game shape.

It's always interesting when we get ice hockey players to join, because they get winded so easily, since they can't glide on skates anymore and have to run everywhere. I guess it's a pretty big transition to make - luckily for me, I could never skate, so I don't have that problem. My problem is just age...

 

[nborton]

I played Dek Hockey (not on rollerblades, but it was a linoleum surface instead of cement) for about 12 years, until my league shut down when the place we played at turned the dek rink into another ice rink. A new place popped up last fall, but it's outdoors, so it didn't play over the winter. Rumor is that my team started up again last week, so I'm hopefully back to playing. Of course, now I'm 35 instead of the 22 I was when I started, so I'm pretty sure it's going to take a lot longer to get back into game shape.

It's always interesting when we get ice hockey players to join, because they get winded so easily, since they can't glide on skates anymore and have to run everywhere. I guess it's a pretty big transition to make - luckily for me, I could never skate, so I don't have that problem. My problem is just age...

Haha, reminds me of playing in college. The hockey coach came up to me after intramurals and asked me to join the hockey team. I had to tell him I couldn't skate (well enough) to play on ice. Which he found odd for someone going to school in the North. Then I told him I was from NC, and that cleared it all up. :lol:

 

[jet0002]

Thanks for all the tips and suggestions everyone. I have a couple of more questions.
What is the standard stick length used? I'm 5'7 if that matters. Also what are the pros and cons of a steel vs. pvc goal.
I assume the pvc would be easier to transport, but does anyone else have any experiences? Thanks!

 

[nborton]

Thanks for all the tips and suggestions everyone. I have a couple of more questions.
What is the standard stick length used? I'm 5'7 if that matters. Also what are the pros and cons of a steel vs. pvc goal.
I assume the pvc would be easier to transport, but does anyone else have any experiences? Thanks!

Not too much of a difference other than the pvc goal being lighter and thus easier to knock over. However, if you plan to transport it's WAY lighter.

Thinking back on it. One thing that can kinda be a pain after a while is that the connections in the pvc can get a little loose over time. Not really a huge deal considering you can always find a solution to keeping them together.

 

[G $MONEY$]

What is the standard stick length used? I'm 5'7 if that matters.

With the stick standing on the edge of the blade, the top of the shaft of the stick should come up to your chin level. Some guys will use a stick a bit taller than that, some will use one a bit shorter than that, but you will find what you like over time. But generally that is a good place to start.

 

[KC37]

What is the standard stick length used? I'm 5'7 if that matters.

With the stick standing on the edge of the blade, the top of the shaft of the stick should come up to your chin level. Some guys will use a stick a bit taller than that, some will use one a bit shorter than that, but you will find what you like over time. But generally that is a good place to start.

Yeah, I'm 5'7", too...I just buy the standard stick and cut it down to where I like it. I personally use a shaft with changeable blades as opposed to a one-piece stick, but guys on my team also use one-pieces, so it's personal preference there.
EDIT - I just remembered, my last stick is actually a junior stick, instead of cutting it down. Because, the ice hockey sticks are built to take into account extra length needed for the skates, but on sneakers you're closer to the ground.

I did play Sunday - it was 102 on the surface of the dek (it's outdoors, and the linoleum-on-asphalt really radiates the heat). I didn't die, but I didn't feel far from it...and this morning is when the muscles really ache. Oh, to be young again...

 

[miguelcabrera]

my dad played in college (ice hockey) but i just never got into it
this does sound fun though. anyone know if there are these leagues in boston?

 

[G $MONEY$]

my dad played in college (ice hockey) but i just never got into it
this does sound fun though. anyone know if there are these leagues in boston?

You got roller hockey leagues

http://www.borhl.com/

http://www.emrhl.com/

 

[G $MONEY$]

woot woot


speaking of Street Hockey, we have a huge Street Hockey tournament, put on by the CBC, coming to Calgary!!

http://flames.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=528792

http://www.playon.ca/