Resource Questions

I'm currently looking at the turret resource, and have a question or two.

I'm trying to implement something similar, by adding bits to Player.

In turret, some of the code looks like this:

shapeResource = ResourceManager->load(shapeName,false);
turretNode = shapeResource->findNode("codeTurret");
mShapeInstance->setNodeAnimationState(getDataBlock()->turretNode,
   TSShapeInstance::MaskNodeHandsOff);

I want my code to look something like:

shapeResource = {insert code here};
handlNode = shapeResource->findNode("Bip01 L Hand");
mShapeInstance->setNodeAnimationState(handlNode,
   TSShapeInstance::MaskNodeHandsOff);

Two questions:
1) I'm trying to add this to Player [as opposed to PlayerData, or anything else]. Is this right? All I'm doing is some client-side animation of individual bones
2) Is this the right way to do it? Is there an easier shapeResource = ThisPlayersShapeResource; ? Should I be doing this in PlayerData instead? [even though it's purely some client-side voodoo]
3) If there's not, what goes in the {insert code here} bit above?
4) What other incrediby stupid things am I missing?

Thank-you very much,
Gary (-;