Tariff Puck - Biography

[RCGG 10]

Loud boisterous beginnings and a short walk to the rink is how Tariff stated his hockey career, in a small town in Ontario, a mere half a kilometer to the rink you could see him lugging his equipment to the outside rink every night of the week. Captivated by his Uncle Johns tails of legendary players and the Canada Russia series. Stories of how the defense is getting weaker and how the defense is getting softer, helped mold the thought process of how Tariff would become the player he became. 
 

It didn't start out easy for him, he was a bit gangly and awkward for his age, the doctors always said oh should grow into his body, but most people who liken him to a baby giraffe for the first 9 years of his life. He could barely skate but that never deterred his effort, he was almost always a clean half foot taller then everybody else on the ice, that included when he fell down, which was for a while any time he would turn sharply or have to change direction in a hurry. 
 

12 years ago it certainly didn't look like there was going to be a be a player who would one day have scouts praising him and teams lining up to watch him. It all started kind of haphazardly in the summer he was turning 10, a friend begged him to come out and play doubles with him as a youth at a badminton club. When he got to the club there was no other youth just some adults who were more than willing to play a few young fellas who weren't half bad, but weren't half great either. They played 4 different teams of people; they lost, pretty badly. But they realized something on the way home a revelation of sorts as they talked about playing side to side and how they crashed their rackets into each other a few times going for the shuttle cock at the same time. What if we just play front and back. Who should play front? Who should play back? Tariff didn't know, his friend Kris didn't know. Luckily it was summer time school just got out and there was Wimbledon Tennis on. Not exactly the same idea, but pretty close. They found doubles on and noticed how the players shifted angles, but one team in particular caught there eye, a team with a very Tall guy, and an average height person. How they moved in unison, the shorter player in most points attempted to get closer to the net, and the Tall guy would just slide back and play somewhat defensively.

This was it, this was the beginning of Tariff's transformation from a falling around the rink giraffe with bad legs to a fast paced player with a level of ice vision that began to become unrivaled at his level. The quick twitch and rotations of badminton began to help him stop and go quicker, when he played ball hockey during the summer he started being able to block shots with his stick better and see the puck clearer. He was batting every ball that was attempted to be passed near him, his hand eye skill began to increase and increase the more he played both sports. He stayed in shape all summer playing badminton versus adults 2 nights a week, they started to win the odd game versus average players at the club, continuing on for the summer some of the adults started to wonder if they could be badminton prodigies. 
 

The truth came around in the Fall, Hockey is all that matters in Canada. When Tariff laced up his skates for the first time that year he noticed he didn't feel so uneasy on his feet. He could feel the blade pushing against the ice, he was able to stop on a dime now a summer of messing around with badminton had made his legs and ankles much stronger from having to constantly move from side to side for hours on end every night they went to play. He was able to pick off pucks going up the boards a lot easier, and he was now a complete menace to try and get around, it appears his hand speed and grip strength also improved!
 

Eventually coaches took notice as he improved his speed and mobility, a kid who is much larger then his peers moving around gracefully at 10, this lead to tryouts with the local rep teams, which lead to invites to other camps. A simple twist of fate had activated a complete world of hockey had begun to unlock. Now 12 years on and just finishing his University season, hes been asked to come play in the VHLM as the season is near the end of the year, since hes 21 hes passed the youth draft rights phase and he can just join his local Minor team the Ottawa Lynx and see what the future holds and if he will be picked up next year by any teams.

Who knows what greatness can be unlocked?

 

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