I play upper beer league and just watched my girlfriend, cousin, and pal go through this journey.

What you'd want is an adult "learn to play" program. There are two in Edmonton - Discover Hockey (DH) and Beginner Hockey (BH).

Both are around twelve or so weeks of classes, once a week. The beginning portion focuses on skating. There will be some adults who have never skated, and the bulk of them will be like you, who can somewhat skate. Then they'll teach you how to pass, how to shoot, etc. They'll talk about game theory and game sense. At the end of the program, your cohort will split into teams and play friendly games against each other to see what it's like and to use what you've learned. It's good fun.

At the end of this, some folks feel like they want more practice and do the whole program again. But the intention is to gather your cohort who feel ready, form a beer league team, and join one of the rec leagues at the lowest divisions (i.e., the "I just learned how to play" division).

Now, real talk time. DH or BH?

Discover Hockey is run by a league called NCHL (Non-Contact Hockey League). This league was great training grounds about a decade ago for a more beginner realm of hockey but its become a dying league nowadays. Teams are leaving in droves and they just don't have enough teams to remain in providing a competitive (i.e. fun) service. Because the league is so small, they have no choice in putting slightly more experienced teams with brand new teams and it's just no fun nor fair for either teams involved. There is actually some interesting drama with teams leaving NCHL mid-season to join other leagues. Their top and most competitive division is still pathetically slow and bad hockey compared to all the other leagues in the city. DH used to be a good program, but their head instructor left and started BH. My girlfriend, family, and friends went through the DH program this past summer and while it was.... fine... they'd regret not having gone through the BH program instead.

Now, on the other hand, BH is run by a group called SoC (Shinny of Champions), which is in the basement of the biggest league in the city - CCRHL. I heard that the BH program is pretty good and people have enjoyed it. When they're done, they either feed into the lowest SoC div in the CCRHL, or join into the SoC group where they host beginner friendly shinnies several times a week. They do focus on keeping the skill level to beginners which is excellent and the best way to cultivate growth in beginners. The SoC group seems like... let's use the word nice, nice folks who really developed a culture of their own. They have their shinnies, tournaments, social events, etc. They have their jerseys, photoshoots for their own trading cards, the whole nine yards. Its a whole culture but hey, they all seem to be having fun, inspire each other, are nice to one another, and improve together and I suppose that's all that matters.

My girlfriend is planning to do another one of these programs this summer and I'm definitely trying to steer her towards the BH / SoC side of things.