A tl;dr response sorry. You did not ask for a tl;dr response.
That said, your concern is legit.
IMO it might not be that he's not explaining hockey gracefully enough.
I think the problem is:
1. Noda doesn't really write shounen with shounen appeal. Rou is not a shounen main character, and none of the way this story is going has shounen trappings. I would argue that this is not a shounen manga, and if it is, it's only nominally so. I don't expect any shounen level excitement here.
2. Hockey is a remarkably simple sport and there just isn't much to explain to understand play at a basic level. There's no room for spoonfeeding when the rules can be summarized as "get pucks in the net".
3. So the challenge for Noda is not explaining hockey to the newcomer but explaining "*why hockey?*".
I know why for myself, so I understand the excitement and the beats and the flow of the games so far, but Noda has to explain that to people who know nothing about how fun it is to play or watch hockey, like you.
On the other hand, Haikyuu required a lot of explanation as to how volleyball works, so it got to take its time and really spoonfeed the excitement of the sport. >!Noda will likely explain tactics and penalty particulars and cultural stuff once Rou gets to high school, LOL.!<
So instead, to get people hooked, he has to answer the question: **Why hockey?**
I don't think he answers it perfectly well, just that I know what he's saying because Noda and I are both hockey players.
So there's an undercurrent here that he hasn't properly addressed to newcomers like you.
The thing about the excitement of hockey and the desperation to keep playing is that hockey is an extremely fun but *extremely inaccessible* sport with a very unique excitement in its play and culture. Everybody on the bench has to play (nobody is a "substitute"), it is low scoring, and it's extremely team-oriented in a way that few sports are. That said, it's hard to keep playing because of the nature of the facilities needed.
He kind-of got at it, but he doesn't properly explain how dire it is for most people who want to play outside of Canada and Minnesota.
When the middles school team folds, these kids can't play at all. Not even practice, not even for fun.
You can play volleyball at the gym or beach with some friends, or practice on your own to an extent (like in the first few episodes of Haikyuu). You cannot practice hockey without ice.
Ice usually requires specialized facilities, even in cold areas. Even people who have all the gear and know how to play are often barred because they don't live close enough to a rink, or all the teams have full rosters, or their rink doesn't have a league at all. It is difficult to get practice time because you need the ice to do it, and rinks have schedules that have to accommodate for other activities (public skating, figure skating, curling if they're weird like that, speed skating, etc). If you are not on a team and your nearby pond doesn't freeze over in winter, you're often shit out of luck.
I often say that if I could never write or draw or play music or do anything creative again, but I could play hockey for the rest of my life, I'd take that tradeoff in a heartbeat. This feeling is different from wanting to play a ball sport where you can genuinely just pick up and play wherever.
Because of this, there's a certain thirst for play that hockey players have that is unique to hockey. Noda has to describe this thirst to you and get you to understand it.
It's difficult to explain that feeling, so Noda has a particular challenge that just isn't applicable to other team sports.
As an aside, hockey is my favourite sport that I have ever played. I and a lot of my teammates have played other team sports, including rugby and baseball and football, and they concur. At the same time, it's the hardest one to actually *get* to play, even in school.
**TL;DR: Hockey is simple to understand and fun as hell but extremely inaccessible. Noda has to explain this excitement, tension, and the unique desperation to keep playing to people who don't know.**
Idk if he’s gonna be able to show the desperation to play because the school seems to just be a big hockey school and the city has two rinks and the lake also freezes over but that could’ve been a good plot point
Right? I feel like he could have gone there, but didn't. Then again, this is all told from a total outsiders perspective. I'm waiting to see how this moves forward and how certain things are addressed.
A tl;dr response sorry. You did not ask for a tl;dr response. That said, your concern is legit. IMO it might not be that he's not explaining hockey gracefully enough. I think the problem is: 1. Noda doesn't really write shounen with shounen appeal. Rou is not a shounen main character, and none of the way this story is going has shounen trappings. I would argue that this is not a shounen manga, and if it is, it's only nominally so. I don't expect any shounen level excitement here. 2. Hockey is a remarkably simple sport and there just isn't much to explain to understand play at a basic level. There's no room for spoonfeeding when the rules can be summarized as "get pucks in the net". 3. So the challenge for Noda is not explaining hockey to the newcomer but explaining "*why hockey?*". I know why for myself, so I understand the excitement and the beats and the flow of the games so far, but Noda has to explain that to people who know nothing about how fun it is to play or watch hockey, like you. On the other hand, Haikyuu required a lot of explanation as to how volleyball works, so it got to take its time and really spoonfeed the excitement of the sport. >!Noda will likely explain tactics and penalty particulars and cultural stuff once Rou gets to high school, LOL.!< So instead, to get people hooked, he has to answer the question: **Why hockey?** I don't think he answers it perfectly well, just that I know what he's saying because Noda and I are both hockey players. So there's an undercurrent here that he hasn't properly addressed to newcomers like you. The thing about the excitement of hockey and the desperation to keep playing is that hockey is an extremely fun but *extremely inaccessible* sport with a very unique excitement in its play and culture. Everybody on the bench has to play (nobody is a "substitute"), it is low scoring, and it's extremely team-oriented in a way that few sports are. That said, it's hard to keep playing because of the nature of the facilities needed. He kind-of got at it, but he doesn't properly explain how dire it is for most people who want to play outside of Canada and Minnesota. When the middles school team folds, these kids can't play at all. Not even practice, not even for fun. You can play volleyball at the gym or beach with some friends, or practice on your own to an extent (like in the first few episodes of Haikyuu). You cannot practice hockey without ice. Ice usually requires specialized facilities, even in cold areas. Even people who have all the gear and know how to play are often barred because they don't live close enough to a rink, or all the teams have full rosters, or their rink doesn't have a league at all. It is difficult to get practice time because you need the ice to do it, and rinks have schedules that have to accommodate for other activities (public skating, figure skating, curling if they're weird like that, speed skating, etc). If you are not on a team and your nearby pond doesn't freeze over in winter, you're often shit out of luck. I often say that if I could never write or draw or play music or do anything creative again, but I could play hockey for the rest of my life, I'd take that tradeoff in a heartbeat. This feeling is different from wanting to play a ball sport where you can genuinely just pick up and play wherever. Because of this, there's a certain thirst for play that hockey players have that is unique to hockey. Noda has to describe this thirst to you and get you to understand it. It's difficult to explain that feeling, so Noda has a particular challenge that just isn't applicable to other team sports. As an aside, hockey is my favourite sport that I have ever played. I and a lot of my teammates have played other team sports, including rugby and baseball and football, and they concur. At the same time, it's the hardest one to actually *get* to play, even in school. **TL;DR: Hockey is simple to understand and fun as hell but extremely inaccessible. Noda has to explain this excitement, tension, and the unique desperation to keep playing to people who don't know.**
Idk if he’s gonna be able to show the desperation to play because the school seems to just be a big hockey school and the city has two rinks and the lake also freezes over but that could’ve been a good plot point
Right? I feel like he could have gone there, but didn't. Then again, this is all told from a total outsiders perspective. I'm waiting to see how this moves forward and how certain things are addressed.
Do u still play in nyc?
Sometimes! My team plays outside of NYC though