As many of you know I'm quite an active person and play a lot of football, golf, cricket (badly) and cycling as well as having just signed back up to a local 'proper' gym to work on my strength. A few weeks ago I was working in the garden and came to the sudden realisation that I was as weak as a kitten compared to how I was 20-30 years ago, and while I know that's to be expected I figured I should start amending that a bit before I hit 50 (in 13 months time...).
I adore playing football, but I am not the most naturally gifted player, more like one of those players who makes a solid career out of being decent (far from great, or even good) but working harder than everyone else to make up the difference. The problem I've found recently (past 2-3 years) is that my body is getting injured far more easily, and taking longer to recover, so I finally resigned myself to retiring from Sunday league football and just carrying on with my casual 8 a side matches on Monday/Wednesday.
An unexpected meeting with an old friend at a Manchester Storm match in January then reignited a long smouldering flame in me, so I've swapped football for a new hobby, which I've been doing with my son Barney for the past 4 months and we're just about to sign on to a team together...
Here's me sporting my number 17, Steve Hanson, Charlestown Chiefs kit, for anyone who's ever watched the 1977 Paul Newman classic, Slap Shot!
Here's a few more pics of myself and Barney (he's just 15 and 6'1" tall, with a mountain of curly hair) in our matching jerseys, he has number 18, Jeff Hanson.
So far, so not so injured, but now we're getting into regular 1h scrim sessions, against people MUCH more experienced than us, it's getting harder and faster so let's see how that works out...!
So far, so loving it though, and it's great to have a sport I can do with my son where we're both able to compete at the same level. I'm sure he'll improve a good bit faster than I though. He's already laughing at how comparatively slow I am next to him, to which I have to explain that I'll be going slower until I'm more comfortable at the faster speeds because when I bounce on the ice, it's a lot harder than when he does!
I adore playing football, but I am not the most naturally gifted player, more like one of those players who makes a solid career out of being decent (far from great, or even good) but working harder than everyone else to make up the difference. The problem I've found recently (past 2-3 years) is that my body is getting injured far more easily, and taking longer to recover, so I finally resigned myself to retiring from Sunday league football and just carrying on with my casual 8 a side matches on Monday/Wednesday.
An unexpected meeting with an old friend at a Manchester Storm match in January then reignited a long smouldering flame in me, so I've swapped football for a new hobby, which I've been doing with my son Barney for the past 4 months and we're just about to sign on to a team together...
Here's me sporting my number 17, Steve Hanson, Charlestown Chiefs kit, for anyone who's ever watched the 1977 Paul Newman classic, Slap Shot!
Here's a few more pics of myself and Barney (he's just 15 and 6'1" tall, with a mountain of curly hair) in our matching jerseys, he has number 18, Jeff Hanson.
So far, so not so injured, but now we're getting into regular 1h scrim sessions, against people MUCH more experienced than us, it's getting harder and faster so let's see how that works out...!
So far, so loving it though, and it's great to have a sport I can do with my son where we're both able to compete at the same level. I'm sure he'll improve a good bit faster than I though. He's already laughing at how comparatively slow I am next to him, to which I have to explain that I'll be going slower until I'm more comfortable at the faster speeds because when I bounce on the ice, it's a lot harder than when he does!
Hmm. Ice hockey. A sedate non contact sport, no chance of injury there then. 
