Flabby Derby Meat: OCRD vs South Florida

On Monday we got some homework from our coach, “Homework assignment Vets! I want you to write down a list of pros and cons about the bout for me. What are your thoughts about yourself, the refs, your team, and the coaching. This gives me a chance to hear your stories without using our practice time to do so.”

I was going to do a full write-up on the bout, but I think my homework really says a lot about the bout without me having to do a new post. Below is an edited version of what I sent to our coach.

Pros:

Good communication in the pack
Pack aware of jammer location, informing others of upcoming jammer
On the knee starts were awesome, I enjoyed that they got us moving faster and we didn’t have any super slow and drawn out starts
Very few out of play issues on our side as compared to the last two bouts
Played as a team rather than individuals

Cons:

Too many penalties
Too many mistakes made near the end, possibly due to tiredness? (still skating short, one day our team will have enough people to have a full roster and it will be awesome!)
Umm…we didn’t win?

Thoughts on myself:

Way too much falling, could be due to bad stance, no balance, unpreparedness for hits?
Majorly need to improve: balance, stance, endurance, hits (especially hip checks), quick feet, lateral movement, general skating skills, breaking up walls, getting up faster, and rejoining the pack quickly
Need to be more aware of the other jammer’s location when I am jamming
Need to fight more when trying to get out of the pack, I don’t believe I pushed the wall as hard as I could have; I would like to be a more aggressive jammer
I’m proud that I got lead jammer twice, and I want to work hard to make sure that I get lead jammer and points more often when jamming; I seriously need to improve my speed and endurance for this to happen

Thoughts on refs:

Made very fair calls on my majors (not counting my first major, because I have absolutely no idea what it was, so I have no idea if it was fair) – their calls made me realize that I straddle the line without even realizing I’m doing it, so I need to make a concentrated effort to stay on the damn track so I don’t get more track cuts in the future
Did not like how the refs were slow to call off the jams, especially when the jammers had to signal for an entire half of the track.

Thoughts on team:

As a team, we didn’t use our learned skills in the bout (stepping into a hit, turning and hitting, putting our chest into the blockers, gut hits); I want to make an effort to try to use them more during our scrimmages at practice so they can possibly become second nature
Bench was more supportive than at the last bout
In my opinion, everyone’s level of playing and spirits were more elevated

We lost 212 to 160, but the score was within 10 points for a majority of the bout. We tried our hardest and can only get better!