Yoga+Hockey= Hoga... Yockey... Hocka?

I wish I had brought my camera. One of the most unexpected sights while Andrew and I were out watching our friend H.'s hockey game was a yoga demo....

Our friend H. is amazing, she decided a few years ago that she wanted to play hockey... even though she could barely skate. Her boyfriend K. picked up a pair of "boy" skates, brought her to an arena, found out there was no "women's hockey school" in Halifax for her to learn- so he started one. Fast forward two years later and she's seriously kicking butt in their division. I am so proud of her.

Although I strongly support her with my sign making, cheering madness (she says she isn't embarrassed when I show up to her games, but I don't know lol), her hockey playing has resulted in quite a few barriers to her yoga practice. She often has shoulder bruises and soreness from a hockey game, making so many of the asana's painful. She knows the modifications, but admittedly it's annoying and frustrating to have to constantly adjust most postures during a flow practice. It would be difficult to keep track of more than a few adjustments let alone trying to move gracefully between each asana, maintaining a semblance of flow.

It may have slowed her down, but yoga has been fully entrenched in H. and K.'s lives, which was fully evident last Saturday night.

As their team skated on the ice, pucks were dumped on each side of the rink and a quick few minutes of shooting, skating and warming up took place. I was settling into my seat with period "warm-up" cheers to Andrew's complete embarrassment (hah) when I noticed that about 6 players were all lined up stretching... No surprise, hockey players stretch on ice before games.

But then... "Is, is that H. doing upward dog??? She's TOTALLY doing upward dog on ice in full gear!" The entire line up wasn't just doing regular hockey stretches, but recognizable full yoga postures, on ice with skates, padding, gloves, helmet the whole nine yards.

We saw upward dog, pigeon (both sides- go balance!), frog, child's pose, reclining hand to big toe twist finishing with, I kid you not- plow pose. On ice. In skates.

Now *that* is guerrilla yoga :)


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