Whilst watching a video put forward by the Canadian field hockey association (not sure if you can make a donation from another country), I was stunned to see Kindler making use of the bus, or riding the bus (I think that's what they say in North America, the continent, don't want to offend Canadian sensibilities, without using much maligned stereotypes!). I assume it's more than just a gimmick shot for raising awareness and the finances to help support Canadian (field) hockey, no idea why it's not popular/supported as much as other Olympian competing countries! I have heard of goalkeepers taking the bus (always worried about being able to, but I used the train a lot, quicker and those distances a bus would take forever on!). I guess it could be cheaper with the rising prices of petrol, but was always worried about encroaching on peoples' ability to use the space that you're supposed to use for bigger luggage, impeding on the disabled/mums with push chairs etc.!
Anyhoo, it's a case in point of sacrifice and doing whatever it takes to get things done, whether that be goalkeeping (scrambling, unorthodoxy, helmet saves and so on) or getting to training in the first place!
This is just a chance to blog about the lengths we can and sometimes have to go to as goalkeepers and athletes working hard to follow our dreams. I would regularly used public transport to get places for hockey. I have traveled a bit for my hockey! I have taken a full bag of goalie kit down escalators and on the tube and the usual trains. The best bit is the comments you get. Sometimes people will ask if I'm hiding a body in there (which I'm not, it's just smelly goalie kit!), to which I would smartly retort (goalies aren't stupid!) that if it/I were, I would have chopped it up into smaller bits and into a more confined space. Oops with the dodgy humour. Plus the Obo bag design that says "smelly" or "toxic" doesn't exactly help us in our endeavours as goalies!! But it does give a good example to evangelise our love of hockey (chatting to a woman on the train after she had been to the 'disabled' - I don't like that term - athletes at their Olympics, this summer past) and reach out to people who show interest!!
Besides all this random commentary, it does go to show and question how far do you want to go with your hockey and to what lengths will you go and what sacrifices will you make to make it happen? And in Kindler's example, illustrates our status as 'amateur' athletes how much more the elite have to fight against to play the sport we love.
Other than the technique you can learn from watching Kindler (the guy in the red TK pads and skinniest-as-possible elbow pad on his right arm) i.e. pushing away with face of the pad in a splits save etc. you can see his absolute dedication in the example of getting the bus!!
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