So yesterday’s practice was interesting. Earlier in the day I had gone home because I was sick and ended up sleeping the entire day away. I wanted to go because I thought that once I got there I would want to say, “Screw this cold!” and skate anyway. Instead I decided to watch the brand new fresh meat do the land drills (because it is hilarious to see people in pain) and then I helped them put on the gear from our donated gear bag. I eventually got sick of not being on skates so I put mine on (I had loaned out all of my gear, so I was gearless) and went to go help a girl on the wall (she eventually came off of the wall by the end of practice!).
The vets saw me on skates so called me over to watch what they were doing so I skated in the center of the track with our ref and tried to see what it was like to be a ref. Clearly you have to be super observant, and my brain is just not trained as a ref. I was just seeing where there were holes in the walls and what the girls needed to do. I have skater brain rather than ref brain, I think. When they were taking a break Looney, who was coaching fresh meat, asked me if I would come over and work on the basic stuff with the super new fresh meat while she went over more advanced stuff with our soon-to-be- testing fresh meat.
I have learned that I am not a good teacher by any stretch of the imagination. We skated in a circle for a while working on scooter pushes and attempting crossovers, and then moved to a bit of sticky skating. The biggest problem I had was that my fresh meat just kept going off to the edge of the wall because they hurt. What? You can’t just quit in the middle of the drill! But yeah, they just took a minute at the wall and got back to it, so I figured I would let them since it was their first practice and they were all hurting even though they’d only been on skates for an hour. Plus, they’ll never have another coach as forgiving as I am. Everyone else can be the slave driver.
I got bored with just going in circles, so Looney suggested I set up some cones so they could try one foot glides. Out of our five brand new freshies, three of them could already do it (and do it well!) on both feet. For those three, I had them move on to t-stops while one worked on one foot glides and the other worked on just skating and staying up. The girl that was on the wall in the beginning eventually fell (forward) and then couldn’t get up by herself. She’s going to have to learn pretty quick once it comes time for their falls and everything like that. Last week at practice we did laps where we started on our stomachs and backs and then had to spring up and sprint. She’s got a long way to go if I had to use both of my hands and a lot of force to get her up off the floor. I really hope that she sticks with it because out of our 5 freshies she was the only one ready with all of her gear.
At the end we had a mandatory league meeting (which was the only reason I went to practice in the first place), so practice was cut a bit short. I imagine the freshies are going to appreciate the shortened practices today and Thursday (the rink isn’t available for our full practice time so we can only be in there for an hour), but next week? They’re in for some pain and I don’t have to be the one to give it to them! I’m actually pretty excited about a few of them because two of the better skaters are guys that want to be refs, and we could seriously use some more refs! Right now we have two, so if we had two more that would be awesome!
Showing posts with label skating. Show all posts
Showing posts with label skating. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
A Bit Different
Last night’s practice was a bit different than normal, and that was a good thing. There needs to be a bit of backstory first though.
When the team first started there was a group of guys that were coaching. Due to several conflicts (I’ve heard so many different snippets from everyone but in all honestly don’t know very much about it), the male coaches were asked to leave. The fresh meat coach was not part of the problem so he stayed, but the other guys did not stick around. I know that they discussed if one or two guys would be willing to stick around, but it was an all or nothing situation with them. I vaguely talked about it several months ago back when I was fresh meat.
Well anyway, we needed an occasional practice coach (when normal coaches couldn’t be there) and one of the guys offered to coach us on those nights. He’s an amazing skater and derby player with the Magic City Misfits and brought some really great drills to practice.
A Magic City Misfits highlight reel
We started out by making two 4x4 squares on the floor with some tape. It was kinda funny because we had no idea why we were making the squares (and to be honest, they were some wonky squares because I am bad at shapes). Once we did, J told us what we would be doing. It was like sumo wrestling in that two girls would be in the square and could only use legal hits and pushes to get the other girl to either fall down or go out of the square. Once she lost on that square, she’d move on to the next square. So basically there would be two “matches” going on at any one time. It was so much fun and I hope we do it again in the future!
After that we did a last man standing type of thing, but rather than the typical spread out way, it was closer with a ref at each end about 15 feet away from the pack. There were two hitters that would go around and try to hit you out or down, and if you went behind or in front of the ref you were out as well. The first two rounds were fun and then the third kind sucked a little because I was one of the hitters and I just failed so bad. Ugh.
The next thing we did was a Push & Pull Pyramid. With a partner you start out pushing them for one lap then they push you for one lap. You go to two then they go to two, and so on until you’ve done five laps. After five you start pulling them rather than pushing and work your way down until you each end with one lap. The one thing I didn’t like about this drill was that it was not fair for me or my partner. We needed to find a partner that was similar in size so it would be fair, but everyone else had already paired up and I ended up with a much skinnier girl. She’s one of our fresh meat that was a great skater already, so I got to push and pull a very light girl and she had to push and pull heavy me, but it wasn’t too bad because she’s already a strong skater (although in the pulling drill I cheated a little and sticky skated so she wouldn’t have to work as hard).
The next drill we did (yes, we did a lot of new drills; fun new drills are always awesome) was a competition between two girls. The two girls would start out about 15 feet behind the rest of the skaters who were in a pack. When the ref blew the whistle the entire pack would go on a knee and just stay there. It was up to the two girls to race through the downed skaters without touching anyone and do a lap around the track. Whoever made it to the back of the pack first was the winner. I lost my first one (because I was literally stuck right behind the other girl going around the track so I didn’t lose by much), and I won my second one.
We did several other things including building and holding walls, scrimmaging, and some very in depth scrimmage strategy but I think I’ve gone on a bit long already. I left practice feeling really pissed off at a few people and it sort of spoiled my good practice happiness, but typing this up has made me feel a lot better about how fun of a time I had!
When the team first started there was a group of guys that were coaching. Due to several conflicts (I’ve heard so many different snippets from everyone but in all honestly don’t know very much about it), the male coaches were asked to leave. The fresh meat coach was not part of the problem so he stayed, but the other guys did not stick around. I know that they discussed if one or two guys would be willing to stick around, but it was an all or nothing situation with them. I vaguely talked about it several months ago back when I was fresh meat.
Well anyway, we needed an occasional practice coach (when normal coaches couldn’t be there) and one of the guys offered to coach us on those nights. He’s an amazing skater and derby player with the Magic City Misfits and brought some really great drills to practice.
We started out by making two 4x4 squares on the floor with some tape. It was kinda funny because we had no idea why we were making the squares (and to be honest, they were some wonky squares because I am bad at shapes). Once we did, J told us what we would be doing. It was like sumo wrestling in that two girls would be in the square and could only use legal hits and pushes to get the other girl to either fall down or go out of the square. Once she lost on that square, she’d move on to the next square. So basically there would be two “matches” going on at any one time. It was so much fun and I hope we do it again in the future!
After that we did a last man standing type of thing, but rather than the typical spread out way, it was closer with a ref at each end about 15 feet away from the pack. There were two hitters that would go around and try to hit you out or down, and if you went behind or in front of the ref you were out as well. The first two rounds were fun and then the third kind sucked a little because I was one of the hitters and I just failed so bad. Ugh.
The next thing we did was a Push & Pull Pyramid. With a partner you start out pushing them for one lap then they push you for one lap. You go to two then they go to two, and so on until you’ve done five laps. After five you start pulling them rather than pushing and work your way down until you each end with one lap. The one thing I didn’t like about this drill was that it was not fair for me or my partner. We needed to find a partner that was similar in size so it would be fair, but everyone else had already paired up and I ended up with a much skinnier girl. She’s one of our fresh meat that was a great skater already, so I got to push and pull a very light girl and she had to push and pull heavy me, but it wasn’t too bad because she’s already a strong skater (although in the pulling drill I cheated a little and sticky skated so she wouldn’t have to work as hard).
The next drill we did (yes, we did a lot of new drills; fun new drills are always awesome) was a competition between two girls. The two girls would start out about 15 feet behind the rest of the skaters who were in a pack. When the ref blew the whistle the entire pack would go on a knee and just stay there. It was up to the two girls to race through the downed skaters without touching anyone and do a lap around the track. Whoever made it to the back of the pack first was the winner. I lost my first one (because I was literally stuck right behind the other girl going around the track so I didn’t lose by much), and I won my second one.
We did several other things including building and holding walls, scrimmaging, and some very in depth scrimmage strategy but I think I’ve gone on a bit long already. I left practice feeling really pissed off at a few people and it sort of spoiled my good practice happiness, but typing this up has made me feel a lot better about how fun of a time I had!
Monday, January 30, 2012
Umm...What?
So tonight I had a great night at the rink. After many months away, I finally returned for Adult Night! It was weird going back to it because when I stopped going I was just getting the hang of skating and when I did one crossover around the curve I felt like I was doing magic. It was our Zebra's (we currently have one because one moved and another is training) birthday, so we all went out to adult night to hang out and skate.
I felt really great. I skated a lot (and fast, but I made it a point not to be sprinting, just skating at a good pace) and had conversations with people. I'm finally opening up to the girls and it is nice. It only took 5 months, lol (although in comparison that is a lot less time than it took for me to open up to my co-workers, that took about 9 months before I shared anything personal or entered into conversations).
I meant to only stay for about an hour and a half, but I ended up being there for the full 2.5 hours. Near the end of the night I was talking with one of the girls on the team about our jammers for the upcoming season (she's now our primary jammer) and while she was listing off who would be jamming she mentioned me. Umm...what?
So apparently they've been scouting me out and testing me as a potential jammer. I'm just completely blown away by this idea. I've been working really hard to become an effective blocker and when I jam at practice, it's just because everyone has a turn and I might as well make the best of it. Now that I know they're looking at me as a potential jammer, I really want to work on it more. I'm just still really taken aback by it and I'm insanely flattered!
This has made me want to work on myself that much more. I'm excited, I'm scared, and holy hell, I might just have a jammer in me somewhere!!
I felt really great. I skated a lot (and fast, but I made it a point not to be sprinting, just skating at a good pace) and had conversations with people. I'm finally opening up to the girls and it is nice. It only took 5 months, lol (although in comparison that is a lot less time than it took for me to open up to my co-workers, that took about 9 months before I shared anything personal or entered into conversations).
I meant to only stay for about an hour and a half, but I ended up being there for the full 2.5 hours. Near the end of the night I was talking with one of the girls on the team about our jammers for the upcoming season (she's now our primary jammer) and while she was listing off who would be jamming she mentioned me. Umm...what?
So apparently they've been scouting me out and testing me as a potential jammer. I'm just completely blown away by this idea. I've been working really hard to become an effective blocker and when I jam at practice, it's just because everyone has a turn and I might as well make the best of it. Now that I know they're looking at me as a potential jammer, I really want to work on it more. I'm just still really taken aback by it and I'm insanely flattered!
This has made me want to work on myself that much more. I'm excited, I'm scared, and holy hell, I might just have a jammer in me somewhere!!
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Aaaand, we're back!
Last night was the first time back to practices since the scrimmage on the 11th and I nearly died. Okay not really, but I realized about an hour into practice that I should have worked out and skated more while we were on break. But let’s start at the beginning, and I’ll get to the “holy crap I am unfit” part in a bit.
The practice started out with a league meeting and the fresh meat recruitment. The vet skaters went over to the other side of the rink for our meeting and I found out one thing that I’m kinda bummed about. Now that the team has more than enough skaters to fill a roster, there are stricter requirements to make the bout roster. Last season there was a problem filling the roster so skaters that had poor attendance and were behind on their dues were still allowed to skate in bouts. Now that the team has enough skaters, each person must be fully caught up and have good attendance but that does not guarantee that you will make it onto the roster. Now skill is being considered. So if I’m caught up on dues and have good attendance, I might not roster for any bouts because I’m not that great of a derby player (compared to everyone else on the team; I’m one of the lowest, which is to be expected). While that is obviously a good thing for the team, that really bums me out and at the same time motivates me to be a stronger player.
I’m hoping this weekend I can hang out with Heather maybe at a park in Orlando so I can work on skills with her (also, I’ve heard that Itzel gives great hits, so I want to be hit by both of them!). I really just want to be great and be confident on my skates. One encouraging thing that happened at practice took place during our scrimmage time during the last 30ish minutes of practice. I not only managed to hit someone hard during a jam, but I hit one of the most skilled and experienced (talking 6+ years of derby) skaters HARD and I believe she either went down or out of bounds (I didn’t get to see the results of my hit). After that jam was called she congratulated me on the hit I gave her! It makes me smile just thinking about it. I freaking love derby. :D
---
Anyway, onto the part about the new fresh meat. There were about 10 or 11 girls for recruitment. One of them is a returning skater who is going to do fresh meat for the required weeks before testing out to come back to the vet side. I don’t know how skilled the others are or if any of them have skating backgrounds (although at the end of practice I did see one of them trying out her skates along the wall, so she’s definitely a beginner), but a couple of them must not have realized that they would be starting right away because they were wearing normal clothes and didn’t have good work out shoes.
Later in the practice I looked over while they were doing lateral hops and squats and felt extremely nostalgic (is it weird to feel so nostalgic for something that happened just a few months ago?). I kind of wanted to join them. I miss being sore in the way that the beginning of fresh meat made me. I was completely unable to move for several days, but it was awesome. Now I’m sore in a different way, and that’s awesome, too.
---
Also, this is totally braggy, but I got the best x-mas gifts from Heather and Itzel. Heather got me custom Dark Mark toe snouts from Derby Vixen and Itzel commissioned a picture of my derby persona!
The practice started out with a league meeting and the fresh meat recruitment. The vet skaters went over to the other side of the rink for our meeting and I found out one thing that I’m kinda bummed about. Now that the team has more than enough skaters to fill a roster, there are stricter requirements to make the bout roster. Last season there was a problem filling the roster so skaters that had poor attendance and were behind on their dues were still allowed to skate in bouts. Now that the team has enough skaters, each person must be fully caught up and have good attendance but that does not guarantee that you will make it onto the roster. Now skill is being considered. So if I’m caught up on dues and have good attendance, I might not roster for any bouts because I’m not that great of a derby player (compared to everyone else on the team; I’m one of the lowest, which is to be expected). While that is obviously a good thing for the team, that really bums me out and at the same time motivates me to be a stronger player.
I’m hoping this weekend I can hang out with Heather maybe at a park in Orlando so I can work on skills with her (also, I’ve heard that Itzel gives great hits, so I want to be hit by both of them!). I really just want to be great and be confident on my skates. One encouraging thing that happened at practice took place during our scrimmage time during the last 30ish minutes of practice. I not only managed to hit someone hard during a jam, but I hit one of the most skilled and experienced (talking 6+ years of derby) skaters HARD and I believe she either went down or out of bounds (I didn’t get to see the results of my hit). After that jam was called she congratulated me on the hit I gave her! It makes me smile just thinking about it. I freaking love derby. :D
Anyway, onto the part about the new fresh meat. There were about 10 or 11 girls for recruitment. One of them is a returning skater who is going to do fresh meat for the required weeks before testing out to come back to the vet side. I don’t know how skilled the others are or if any of them have skating backgrounds (although at the end of practice I did see one of them trying out her skates along the wall, so she’s definitely a beginner), but a couple of them must not have realized that they would be starting right away because they were wearing normal clothes and didn’t have good work out shoes.
Later in the practice I looked over while they were doing lateral hops and squats and felt extremely nostalgic (is it weird to feel so nostalgic for something that happened just a few months ago?). I kind of wanted to join them. I miss being sore in the way that the beginning of fresh meat made me. I was completely unable to move for several days, but it was awesome. Now I’m sore in a different way, and that’s awesome, too.
Also, this is totally braggy, but I got the best x-mas gifts from Heather and Itzel. Heather got me custom Dark Mark toe snouts from Derby Vixen and Itzel commissioned a picture of my derby persona!
Thursday, December 8, 2011
The Night of Encouragement
Practice last night was awesome (technically today is Thursday, but I started writing this Wednesday morning, so let’s go with that). I was really expecting it to be super cruddy because I just started my period, but after 5 minutes on skates I completely forgot about it. Because we’re in the off season most practices only end up having handful of girls show up to them, so last night we had 8. We started out by splitting off in to two groups of 4, with a drill of doing 5 sets of 5 timed laps. First we would do our laps and then the other group would do theirs. After the first set of five, I was surprisingly winded and felt like an idiot. The other girls were too, but they had legitimate excuses (one had just come from a workout and another was just getting over laryngitis. We did three, took a water break, did our fourth, and then did one set skating the opposite direction. My times were 54, 52, 50, 54, and 60.
After that we skated 5 laps backwards (some of the girls did 10 laps because many of them are awesome at skating backwards, so they did 10 in the time it took me to do 5, lol), and followed it up by skating forward a bit and then just turning around go backwards and turning around again (to get us comfortable with turning around, I think). Then I got to do something I’d never done before: toe stop runs!
In the drill we would skate backwards for a bit and when our coach blew the whistle we would go onto our toe stops and try to walk six steps (it would progress into running, but for the first few times it was just walking on toe stops). The first time I had no idea what I was doing and I fell, so one of the girls said to pretend like I was walking on high heels. I got it pretty well, I think. I definitely want practice it more because it feels weird and unsteady, but it’s doable.
The next drill we did was going out of bounds and trying to re-enter play quickly. When our coach blew the whistle we had to skate out of bounds, tomahawk stop, and quickly get back in. In the next one we would go out of bounds on a knee and then get back up and in bounds. The last one was tiring, but fun. When the coach blew the whistle we went down on our belly outside of the track and had to get up quickly. I’m still not as speedy as I want to be, but it’s a ton less flailing than it used to be and only one time it took me 3 seconds to get up (it was the last time).
Finally we did some scrimmage practice. We did some 4 on 4 (not enough people to have jammers) practicing different blocking strategies. Then we did some 3 on 3 with 2 jammers. I gave a few good hits and a TON of encouragement, tips, and compliments. Even when it was my turn to wear the jammer panty I was complimented (I didn’t do well, but the fact that I just kept going and going without giving up was good). Sometimes when I do well at jamming, I think that I might be a jammer in a real bout some day. If I work on my speed and endurance a lot, it might just happen (although I should learn to block first, lol). Also, I got a weird new injury: rink rash of the nipple! I was hit when I was jamming (she was out of play and ended up in the penalty box, so yay) and when I fell I slid on the floor and I swear my nipple hurt so damn bad. Apparently it happens to everyone, so I guess I’m proud to be part of the club?
I’m excited for Thursday practice (the last before the scrimmage!!) and I hope I keep improving. :D
After that we skated 5 laps backwards (some of the girls did 10 laps because many of them are awesome at skating backwards, so they did 10 in the time it took me to do 5, lol), and followed it up by skating forward a bit and then just turning around go backwards and turning around again (to get us comfortable with turning around, I think). Then I got to do something I’d never done before: toe stop runs!
In the drill we would skate backwards for a bit and when our coach blew the whistle we would go onto our toe stops and try to walk six steps (it would progress into running, but for the first few times it was just walking on toe stops). The first time I had no idea what I was doing and I fell, so one of the girls said to pretend like I was walking on high heels. I got it pretty well, I think. I definitely want practice it more because it feels weird and unsteady, but it’s doable.
The next drill we did was going out of bounds and trying to re-enter play quickly. When our coach blew the whistle we had to skate out of bounds, tomahawk stop, and quickly get back in. In the next one we would go out of bounds on a knee and then get back up and in bounds. The last one was tiring, but fun. When the coach blew the whistle we went down on our belly outside of the track and had to get up quickly. I’m still not as speedy as I want to be, but it’s a ton less flailing than it used to be and only one time it took me 3 seconds to get up (it was the last time).
Finally we did some scrimmage practice. We did some 4 on 4 (not enough people to have jammers) practicing different blocking strategies. Then we did some 3 on 3 with 2 jammers. I gave a few good hits and a TON of encouragement, tips, and compliments. Even when it was my turn to wear the jammer panty I was complimented (I didn’t do well, but the fact that I just kept going and going without giving up was good). Sometimes when I do well at jamming, I think that I might be a jammer in a real bout some day. If I work on my speed and endurance a lot, it might just happen (although I should learn to block first, lol). Also, I got a weird new injury: rink rash of the nipple! I was hit when I was jamming (she was out of play and ended up in the penalty box, so yay) and when I fell I slid on the floor and I swear my nipple hurt so damn bad. Apparently it happens to everyone, so I guess I’m proud to be part of the club?
I’m excited for Thursday practice (the last before the scrimmage!!) and I hope I keep improving. :D
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Practice on 11/29 & 12/1
Practice was originally canceled on Tuesday, 11/29 because the rink was unavailable. The reason it was unavailable was because it was being recoated. Luckily, it dried fast enough so they allowed us to practice that night. To be honest, I couldn’t feel much of a difference. My t-stops made sounds (I am notoriously bad at t-stopping, so this was a first) and it was harder to knee slide, but other than that it felt the same to me. More experienced skaters could feel the difference, I think.
Anyway, practice was okay on Tuesday. I did just fine, but not great or horrible. Honestly, I would rather fail spectacularly at something and work to improve it than just do an okay job at practice. When we left I didn’t feel exhausted or exhilarated, which is very unusual. I thought about it on Wednesday and realized that I really hadn’t skated as hard as I could have. We did a drill where we just did crossovers only around and around the track. I know I could have pushed myself to go faster. All in all, I was just disappointed with myself and how I didn’t give it everything I had. I decided that on Thursday I would push myself to exhaustion and if I wasn’t sore after practice then I did something wrong.
I’m happy to say that I didn’t do anything wrong. I was worn out and absolutely exhilarated after practice on Thursday. There were only 7 of us there (included the fresh meat coach and our head ref) and worked hard. I found out shortly after I got there that we would be doing an endurance practice. Rather than jogging for five minutes we put our skates on and did ten sprinting laps around the whole rink. That was followed by some planks, burpees (if you’ve never done burpees on skates, don’t do it, it is scary as hell), and stretching.
Then it all becomes a blur from there. We did all sorts of pace line drills (I still have a lot of trouble figuring out if I should be calling “inside” or “outside” and it makes me ridiculously anxious when we do pace line drills, which happens at almost every practice) including weaving forward, backward, lateral hops, hip bumps, pushing through, hip whips, arm whips, back whips (I’ll get to that in a second), and all of that again and again. Usually when we do pace lines we do an exercise once and move on to the next one. Thursday we did everything at least twice, sometimes three or four times.
This part may have happened before or after the pace line (I’m pretty sure it was after). We got in a line and did laps, our coach for the night said we would be skating hard for 15 minutes solid. First we did two laps at pack speed followed by one sprinting lap. We did it that way about 3 or 4 times before the faster people went to the outside of the track while one girl, our coach for the evening, and I did it on the inside. The girl with us in the middle of the track had to leave (she has sports related asthma and her inhaler wasn’t helping), so I joined in with the people on the outside.
We did another 2 rounds of 2 slow, 1 sprint before changing it to 1 slow, 2 sprint. While the other people were able to keep up with the line, I was about 10 feet behind the whole time. I think it was about 10 minutes into the sprinting drill that we started doing pushing and pulling. First I pushed the whole group around the outside of the track, and after everyone else had gone, I pulled everyone else around the track. It feels like walking through the worst mud when you’re pulling 5 people behind you. One of the hardest parts was staying in derby stance the entire time we did the pushing and pulling.
After we finished up that part we went to get water and our coach that evening said we just skated the equivalent of an entire half hour of a bout (minus the intense hits you’d be getting). I felt insanely proud of myself for not quitting or giving in, or even slowing down. I knew that if I just kept going that it would get over eventually. Think of Dory from Finding Nemo, “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.”
I can’t even remember what happened for the rest of practice. All I know is that when I left I was feeling amazing and unbelievably exhausted.
Anyway, practice was okay on Tuesday. I did just fine, but not great or horrible. Honestly, I would rather fail spectacularly at something and work to improve it than just do an okay job at practice. When we left I didn’t feel exhausted or exhilarated, which is very unusual. I thought about it on Wednesday and realized that I really hadn’t skated as hard as I could have. We did a drill where we just did crossovers only around and around the track. I know I could have pushed myself to go faster. All in all, I was just disappointed with myself and how I didn’t give it everything I had. I decided that on Thursday I would push myself to exhaustion and if I wasn’t sore after practice then I did something wrong.
I’m happy to say that I didn’t do anything wrong. I was worn out and absolutely exhilarated after practice on Thursday. There were only 7 of us there (included the fresh meat coach and our head ref) and worked hard. I found out shortly after I got there that we would be doing an endurance practice. Rather than jogging for five minutes we put our skates on and did ten sprinting laps around the whole rink. That was followed by some planks, burpees (if you’ve never done burpees on skates, don’t do it, it is scary as hell), and stretching.
Then it all becomes a blur from there. We did all sorts of pace line drills (I still have a lot of trouble figuring out if I should be calling “inside” or “outside” and it makes me ridiculously anxious when we do pace line drills, which happens at almost every practice) including weaving forward, backward, lateral hops, hip bumps, pushing through, hip whips, arm whips, back whips (I’ll get to that in a second), and all of that again and again. Usually when we do pace lines we do an exercise once and move on to the next one. Thursday we did everything at least twice, sometimes three or four times.
This part may have happened before or after the pace line (I’m pretty sure it was after). We got in a line and did laps, our coach for the night said we would be skating hard for 15 minutes solid. First we did two laps at pack speed followed by one sprinting lap. We did it that way about 3 or 4 times before the faster people went to the outside of the track while one girl, our coach for the evening, and I did it on the inside. The girl with us in the middle of the track had to leave (she has sports related asthma and her inhaler wasn’t helping), so I joined in with the people on the outside.
We did another 2 rounds of 2 slow, 1 sprint before changing it to 1 slow, 2 sprint. While the other people were able to keep up with the line, I was about 10 feet behind the whole time. I think it was about 10 minutes into the sprinting drill that we started doing pushing and pulling. First I pushed the whole group around the outside of the track, and after everyone else had gone, I pulled everyone else around the track. It feels like walking through the worst mud when you’re pulling 5 people behind you. One of the hardest parts was staying in derby stance the entire time we did the pushing and pulling.
After we finished up that part we went to get water and our coach that evening said we just skated the equivalent of an entire half hour of a bout (minus the intense hits you’d be getting). I felt insanely proud of myself for not quitting or giving in, or even slowing down. I knew that if I just kept going that it would get over eventually. Think of Dory from Finding Nemo, “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.”
I can’t even remember what happened for the rest of practice. All I know is that when I left I was feeling amazing and unbelievably exhausted.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Great Practice Tonight!
So I've been a bit quiet, and I'm aware of that. I haven't really wanted to say anything because I might just jinx it, but awesome things have been happening! Our entire fresh meat group has gone through testing. Out of all of the people we started with, only three made it to the end for testing out. I made it (as you know) and another girl did. The other girl sort of passed, but with stipulations (her skills aren't as high as they'd like them to be). An hour ago I sent an email to my captain with my derby name! Yep, that's right! I have officially submitted my derby name to be entered into the master list!
Also, I was asked to create the flyer for our upcoming charity scrimmage (which I will be skating in!!). Being a skater is important to me, but being an active league member is also insanely important and I want to help however I can.
So anyway - tonight's practice. We started out with our normal jog and then did dynamic stretching (stretching while rolling on skates around the track). After that we did this sort of "bus driver" drill where we would get picked up at our "bus stop" (orange cone) and led (by our captain) around the rink while doing various skills. There might be a school zone (everyone slowed down) or a tunnel (squatting), a downed tree (jumping), and all sorts of other stuff. I hope we do it again because I think it was a really cool exercise.
Then we did some hitting! It seems that all I ever do is take and give hits and I am 100% fine with that! I've been getting some really great looking bruises from it, so I'm not about to complain. My hip checks are pretty crummy though. I'm better at full body or shoulder checks, but my hips just aren't as...snappy? There are several girls on the team that can hip check like woah. I just need to keep practicing, I know.
One really weird thing that a girl pointed out to me is that I have been looking away when I make a hit. I'll put it out there - I say sorry a lot and I don't want people to get hurt. I'm working around that so I'm not a piss poor derby player. So when I've been hitting people, I look away as I make impact, meaning my impacts are not as strong and on target as they need to be. She told me that if I looked away when I hit her then she would punch me; I did not look away after that. It really helped, so I'm going to make sure to focus on actually looking at the person I'm making contact with!
After that we did some scrimmaging while learning the strategy that big teams are using: starting the jam at the jammer line. If you haven't been watching a lot of high level derby playing, this is how it goes: the entire pack (or at least one team) will start on the jammer line, taking a knee. Because they are not up when the first whistle is blown, a no pack call is made and the jammers are released instantly (without having to wait for the pack to cross the pivot line). It was interesting to learn and do. I think the best part was that everyone was learning it. No one on the team had ever tried it before, so we learned together.
During one of the scrimmages my best moment so far happened. The opposing team's jammer was coming up and I went for her. Not only did I hit her off the track, but she went down to the ground. I was insanely proud of myself and everyone else was excited for me, too! Everyone cheered, our captain gave me a high five, one girl hugged me, and I think someone smacked my butt but I didn't see who it was so I'm not sure if it was on purpose. Either way, it was AWESOME. I loved everything about practice tonight!!
Also, I was asked to create the flyer for our upcoming charity scrimmage (which I will be skating in!!). Being a skater is important to me, but being an active league member is also insanely important and I want to help however I can.
So anyway - tonight's practice. We started out with our normal jog and then did dynamic stretching (stretching while rolling on skates around the track). After that we did this sort of "bus driver" drill where we would get picked up at our "bus stop" (orange cone) and led (by our captain) around the rink while doing various skills. There might be a school zone (everyone slowed down) or a tunnel (squatting), a downed tree (jumping), and all sorts of other stuff. I hope we do it again because I think it was a really cool exercise.
Then we did some hitting! It seems that all I ever do is take and give hits and I am 100% fine with that! I've been getting some really great looking bruises from it, so I'm not about to complain. My hip checks are pretty crummy though. I'm better at full body or shoulder checks, but my hips just aren't as...snappy? There are several girls on the team that can hip check like woah. I just need to keep practicing, I know.
One really weird thing that a girl pointed out to me is that I have been looking away when I make a hit. I'll put it out there - I say sorry a lot and I don't want people to get hurt. I'm working around that so I'm not a piss poor derby player. So when I've been hitting people, I look away as I make impact, meaning my impacts are not as strong and on target as they need to be. She told me that if I looked away when I hit her then she would punch me; I did not look away after that. It really helped, so I'm going to make sure to focus on actually looking at the person I'm making contact with!
After that we did some scrimmaging while learning the strategy that big teams are using: starting the jam at the jammer line. If you haven't been watching a lot of high level derby playing, this is how it goes: the entire pack (or at least one team) will start on the jammer line, taking a knee. Because they are not up when the first whistle is blown, a no pack call is made and the jammers are released instantly (without having to wait for the pack to cross the pivot line). It was interesting to learn and do. I think the best part was that everyone was learning it. No one on the team had ever tried it before, so we learned together.
During one of the scrimmages my best moment so far happened. The opposing team's jammer was coming up and I went for her. Not only did I hit her off the track, but she went down to the ground. I was insanely proud of myself and everyone else was excited for me, too! Everyone cheered, our captain gave me a high five, one girl hugged me, and I think someone smacked my butt but I didn't see who it was so I'm not sure if it was on purpose. Either way, it was AWESOME. I loved everything about practice tonight!!
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Long posts are my specialty!
“What week are we on?” a fellow fresh meat girl asked me as we were gearing up.
I didn’t know and I told her exactly that. A few weeks ago I had looked at a calendar and determined that the last week of fresh meat should be around the last full week in October, but it may be the week after that, depending how the weeks are counted (back in the beginning, we didn’t have practice for a full week so I don’t know how that factors in). So basically, there are about 3 weeks, or 9 practices until we do our minimum skills test (ack!).
A few weeks ago I was full of love for all of the girls in fresh meat, but now it has formed into some kind of strange anger. I’m angry at the girls that have quit. I know I shouldn’t be, but the fact that there are usually only 2 fresh meat girls (myself included) at any given practice is frustrating. There are essentially 3 of us left.
So this sort of goes against my personal rules regarding talking specifics about people that may read this in the future, but our fresh meat was like this:
--- deleted all of this, I think it was much too intrusive to people that may not want to be blogged about ---
I think a lot of the anger comes from the fact that people came out to try for derby and aren’t really trying. It isn’t something you can just do casually and it bothers me that some obviously tried to approach it that way. I am 100% committed to doing derby and even when I’m not feeling well or my life is crap I am going to go to derby practice and not spend the whole time whining about my various aches and pains (although I admit that last night I had to skate off the track during my 25-in-5 to puke and I didn’t finish my laps and get a time *sadface*).
Wow, this post is already long and I’ve got more to talk about. So, let’s start with Saturday.
Saturday was like fun & games. We did some drills for footwork and did the dodgeball exercise again. We also did the “last man standing” thing again and even though everyone was told not to hit me too hard (since I’m fresh meat and apparently have bones of glass), one of the guys that was skating with us didn’t hear that and got me good. Not the worst hit I’ve taken, but it was pretty brutal.
After practice I rushed home to shower, do homework, and watch Doctor Who before going back to the rink for some more skating. Yeah, even though I had skated for 3 hours I was going back to skate some more because I was meeting with a girl that I had skated with once before derby started. The coolest part was that I was able to convince my sister Laci to join me!! I was worried that the girl wouldn’t show, be late, or not want to skate very much (in the end, the girl was late and didn’t skate very much) and I didn’t want to be all alone.
I have been trying to convince my sister to skate with me for months! We got to the rink and it felt so weird. I had just left there two hours ago and it seemed like a different place completely. The colored lights were on, there were people of all ages, music was playing, and I was wearing jeans. Laci got some rentals and I had her wear my kneepads. It’s a good thing she was wearing them because she fell…a lot. The best part was that she kept getting up. She was sweating and it was a real work out for her (Laci used to be a lot heavier but over the last year and a half she’s lost about 100 lbs). She really enjoyed skating, too. I don’t think it’ll be too hard to get her to go with me again.
While we were there I saw the team’s former coach (he was up in the dj booth putting on some good music and said hi to me when I skated by), my fresh meat coach (he has a very young son that loves to skate), and one of the girls on the team that couldn’t make it to practice. It was refreshing just to skate without having to worry about doing a skill or being evaluated. I definitely want to go to next Saturday’s evening session (no practice that day).
So, on to last night’s practice (finally!). We started out with our normal routine of jogging, doing crunches, pushups, and other icky things and then geared up. Fresh meat was going to do the 25-in-5! I was hoping to get a lower time than my last one of 4:58 but that didn’t happen. After 4 laps I started to feel sick and skated off the track to throw up in the bathroom. When I get stressed and worried I get physically sick and worrying about real life crap made me ill. I shook it off and skated around the track while the other fresh meat girl did her 25 laps.
We split off with a vet and once again, we had to show her our falls just to make sure we were doing them right. Left-footed T-stops were discussed, and it has become very clear that everyone has a preference and most girls are crap with stopping on their non-dominant foot. Most say that they did it okay enough to pass their test, but haven’t really bothered with it since. We practiced plow stopping for a bit before another vet, S, that has led our fresh meat practice once before came over to us. We did some general stuff with stance, grapevines, and some sticky skating.
At one point I said that I thought I could kind of do a tomahawk but that I was still not good at all. S asked me to show her my tomahawk and she could help me out with it. I did one just fine and told her that it was a fluke. Then I did another one without any problems and said that was a second fluke. She told me that if I did it five times in a row that it means that I can do a tomahawk and that it’s not a fluke. So…yeah, I did 10 tomahawks in a row and only slightly stumbled on my very last one.
Sometime later in the practice I asked if we could go over pushes and whips, so we did that for a while. S said that, “If you fall, it means you’re doing it wrong.” I am glad that I am not doing it wrong, but it is kind of a bummer that I’m the heaviest girl and I think the other fresh meat girl was kinda pissed that I would be whipping from her.
While the other fresh meat girl was tending to her skates, S asked me if I wanted to learn something cool. Of course I do! It’s called a suicide fall and while there are a lot of other falls that can be done, this is basically just a crowd pleaser that looks cool. You go down on one knee and then tuck and roll back onto your skates. It’s really cool looking and I think with some more practice and speed on it, that I can do it. I don’t need to do it, but yay fun!
Practice was great for stress relief, and I’m hoping tomorrow’s practice is good like that too (although our fresh meat coach better come to practice!).
I didn’t know and I told her exactly that. A few weeks ago I had looked at a calendar and determined that the last week of fresh meat should be around the last full week in October, but it may be the week after that, depending how the weeks are counted (back in the beginning, we didn’t have practice for a full week so I don’t know how that factors in). So basically, there are about 3 weeks, or 9 practices until we do our minimum skills test (ack!).
A few weeks ago I was full of love for all of the girls in fresh meat, but now it has formed into some kind of strange anger. I’m angry at the girls that have quit. I know I shouldn’t be, but the fact that there are usually only 2 fresh meat girls (myself included) at any given practice is frustrating. There are essentially 3 of us left.
So this sort of goes against my personal rules regarding talking specifics about people that may read this in the future, but our fresh meat was like this:
--- deleted all of this, I think it was much too intrusive to people that may not want to be blogged about ---
I think a lot of the anger comes from the fact that people came out to try for derby and aren’t really trying. It isn’t something you can just do casually and it bothers me that some obviously tried to approach it that way. I am 100% committed to doing derby and even when I’m not feeling well or my life is crap I am going to go to derby practice and not spend the whole time whining about my various aches and pains (although I admit that last night I had to skate off the track during my 25-in-5 to puke and I didn’t finish my laps and get a time *sadface*).
Wow, this post is already long and I’ve got more to talk about. So, let’s start with Saturday.
Saturday was like fun & games. We did some drills for footwork and did the dodgeball exercise again. We also did the “last man standing” thing again and even though everyone was told not to hit me too hard (since I’m fresh meat and apparently have bones of glass), one of the guys that was skating with us didn’t hear that and got me good. Not the worst hit I’ve taken, but it was pretty brutal.
After practice I rushed home to shower, do homework, and watch Doctor Who before going back to the rink for some more skating. Yeah, even though I had skated for 3 hours I was going back to skate some more because I was meeting with a girl that I had skated with once before derby started. The coolest part was that I was able to convince my sister Laci to join me!! I was worried that the girl wouldn’t show, be late, or not want to skate very much (in the end, the girl was late and didn’t skate very much) and I didn’t want to be all alone.
I have been trying to convince my sister to skate with me for months! We got to the rink and it felt so weird. I had just left there two hours ago and it seemed like a different place completely. The colored lights were on, there were people of all ages, music was playing, and I was wearing jeans. Laci got some rentals and I had her wear my kneepads. It’s a good thing she was wearing them because she fell…a lot. The best part was that she kept getting up. She was sweating and it was a real work out for her (Laci used to be a lot heavier but over the last year and a half she’s lost about 100 lbs). She really enjoyed skating, too. I don’t think it’ll be too hard to get her to go with me again.
While we were there I saw the team’s former coach (he was up in the dj booth putting on some good music and said hi to me when I skated by), my fresh meat coach (he has a very young son that loves to skate), and one of the girls on the team that couldn’t make it to practice. It was refreshing just to skate without having to worry about doing a skill or being evaluated. I definitely want to go to next Saturday’s evening session (no practice that day).
So, on to last night’s practice (finally!). We started out with our normal routine of jogging, doing crunches, pushups, and other icky things and then geared up. Fresh meat was going to do the 25-in-5! I was hoping to get a lower time than my last one of 4:58 but that didn’t happen. After 4 laps I started to feel sick and skated off the track to throw up in the bathroom. When I get stressed and worried I get physically sick and worrying about real life crap made me ill. I shook it off and skated around the track while the other fresh meat girl did her 25 laps.
We split off with a vet and once again, we had to show her our falls just to make sure we were doing them right. Left-footed T-stops were discussed, and it has become very clear that everyone has a preference and most girls are crap with stopping on their non-dominant foot. Most say that they did it okay enough to pass their test, but haven’t really bothered with it since. We practiced plow stopping for a bit before another vet, S, that has led our fresh meat practice once before came over to us. We did some general stuff with stance, grapevines, and some sticky skating.
At one point I said that I thought I could kind of do a tomahawk but that I was still not good at all. S asked me to show her my tomahawk and she could help me out with it. I did one just fine and told her that it was a fluke. Then I did another one without any problems and said that was a second fluke. She told me that if I did it five times in a row that it means that I can do a tomahawk and that it’s not a fluke. So…yeah, I did 10 tomahawks in a row and only slightly stumbled on my very last one.
Sometime later in the practice I asked if we could go over pushes and whips, so we did that for a while. S said that, “If you fall, it means you’re doing it wrong.” I am glad that I am not doing it wrong, but it is kind of a bummer that I’m the heaviest girl and I think the other fresh meat girl was kinda pissed that I would be whipping from her.
While the other fresh meat girl was tending to her skates, S asked me if I wanted to learn something cool. Of course I do! It’s called a suicide fall and while there are a lot of other falls that can be done, this is basically just a crowd pleaser that looks cool. You go down on one knee and then tuck and roll back onto your skates. It’s really cool looking and I think with some more practice and speed on it, that I can do it. I don’t need to do it, but yay fun!
Practice was great for stress relief, and I’m hoping tomorrow’s practice is good like that too (although our fresh meat coach better come to practice!).
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
4:58 and Jumping
Last night during practice we did the 25-in-5 again. I was doing pretty great in the beginning and our ref, who was timing, said, “Good time!” when I had reached 5 laps. After about the 7th lap, I felt like I was slowing down. I don’t know what it was, but I felt extremely exhausted (it didn’t help that we had just done some off-skates stuff that made my legs feel like noodles). I pushed through and tried to just finish instead of collapse right on the track.
When I finished, I was told that my time was 4:58!! Sure, that’s only a 9 second improvement from my best time, but it’s less than five minutes. I was really stunned because I thought for sure my time would be around 6 minutes. Another thing that made it easier was that there was only one other fresh meat girl on the track with me. I really dislike passing people when we’re doing our 25-in-5, so I usually pace behind another person because it allows me to remember which lap I’m on (I lose count almost every time, especially if anyone yells anything to me – and I have ended up doing an extra lap before).
Anyway – the rest practice last night. So our fresh meat coach will be coming back, but he wasn’t at last night’s practice because he was having car issues. *sigh of relief* One of our skaters (she got MVP jammer at the last bout) was running the practice along with her boyfriend, who skates for a men’s team and was part of the old coaching staff. Oddly enough, there were only two of us fresh meat for the practice. One of the girls has officially dropped out for money and time reasons (but she had missed a lot of practice), another two or three don’t come in all that often because of their jobs, and another has school on Tuesday nights, so she usually comes late (but didn’t come at all last night).
She was going to torture us with some off-skates stuff, but since there were only two of us, she had to do it differently. We’d done crunches and leg lifts in the team stretching exercises after the initial jog, so we didn’t have to do more of those. We did some frog hops, suicides, high knees, and planks ; also, we did do a couple of new things:
After that she had us show her our falls and stops, I totally dorked up one of my 180s and another of my baseball slides – both on my left side, of course. I told her that we were still having trouble with left footed t-stops so we worked on those. The other fresh meat girl is now pretty good at them, but mine just blow hardcore. I can’t bring my left foot up and when I get it in the right place I don’t stick it down hard enough. Then we did plow stops. I’m feeling pretty comfortable with them and I love the sound a plow stop makes!
After that we moved onto some tomahawk stops, or rather, the basic turning around to get to a tomahawk. The guy, J, was helping me out while Y was helping the other fresh meat. The big mistake I keep making is that my left foot just wants to hang out somewhere else than where it should be. J even asked me at one point, “What is up with your left foot?” It just doesn’t do what I want it to do! I want it to turn around naturally, but the only way I am going to get it to be in line and not widely spaced out is to pick it up and turn it around to match my right foot. Rather than picking up my whole skate to turn it, I’ve started to get better at just lifting up half of it and turning it. The only thing I can do at this point is practice, practice, practice until I can do them right.
The other exciting thing we did was JUMPING! We did some hops on Saturday, but we did some actual jumping this time. The really exciting part is that J is basically amazing at jumps. He’s not quite Quadzilla, but I’ve seen him jump over 2 or 3 people, get 3+ feet of air, and he can go from a standstill to a fast skating 360 jump in a second. Not saying that Y isn’t amazing at jumping, she can jump ridiculously high.
The first thing we tried was jumping over a line on the floor. Once I was comfortable doing that, I moved to jumping over a broomstick handle. Once I made that handle my bitch (as Y put it), I moved to some downed cones. After the downed cones, J put a shoe on top of the downed cones put together (see the crummy drawing below) and I did that a few times. Except one of the times I hit the shoe with my skate and it fell off the cones. The last jump I tried was two cones standing together and upright. I did not clear them. In fact, I fell pretty spectacularly (last night I fell a ton, I have no idea what was up with me).
We joined the vets shortly after that and did a drill that I’m sure has a name, but I’m too lazy to look it up. We were separated into two groups of six with the slowest up front and in a tight paceline (physically keeping your hand on the person in front of you at all times) we skated 5 laps and then got off the track. Then the other group skated their 5 and we got on the track to skate 4 laps, then they did their 4, then we did three, and so on.
It was a good practice, but the lack of structure and the fact that there were only 2 of us made it feel kinda long (which has never happened at practice before). I’m hoping that Thursday’s practice has more fresh meat because just having two people is not awesome.
Apologies to anyone actually reading this blog; it’s more for me and a way to talk through and remember what I do from week to week. Once I get started talking I can’t really stop.
When I finished, I was told that my time was 4:58!! Sure, that’s only a 9 second improvement from my best time, but it’s less than five minutes. I was really stunned because I thought for sure my time would be around 6 minutes. Another thing that made it easier was that there was only one other fresh meat girl on the track with me. I really dislike passing people when we’re doing our 25-in-5, so I usually pace behind another person because it allows me to remember which lap I’m on (I lose count almost every time, especially if anyone yells anything to me – and I have ended up doing an extra lap before).
Anyway – the rest practice last night. So our fresh meat coach will be coming back, but he wasn’t at last night’s practice because he was having car issues. *sigh of relief* One of our skaters (she got MVP jammer at the last bout) was running the practice along with her boyfriend, who skates for a men’s team and was part of the old coaching staff. Oddly enough, there were only two of us fresh meat for the practice. One of the girls has officially dropped out for money and time reasons (but she had missed a lot of practice), another two or three don’t come in all that often because of their jobs, and another has school on Tuesday nights, so she usually comes late (but didn’t come at all last night).
She was going to torture us with some off-skates stuff, but since there were only two of us, she had to do it differently. We’d done crunches and leg lifts in the team stretching exercises after the initial jog, so we didn’t have to do more of those. We did some frog hops, suicides, high knees, and planks ; also, we did do a couple of new things:
- Teabagging Squats – okay, there is a real name for them but I can’t remember, so they are officially teabagging squats to me. You’d get into a squat and hold it and then you’d bend up and down like you’re teabagging someone. The first set had 5 teabags, then 10, and then 11. It was a really great exercise and I’m going to try do it at home, I’m surprised I’m not sore from this one.
- Squat Hops - Basically like the three hops and a squat but with one big hop rather than three
- Squat with leg movement - No idea what to call this one, but we were in a squatting position and we would tap one leg forward and then back. Yeah, I can’t even explain it, lol
- Leg Lifts - Standing on one foot and bringing the other leg up and then down without letting it touch the floor. This one helped create noodle legs since we did a ton of them.
After that she had us show her our falls and stops, I totally dorked up one of my 180s and another of my baseball slides – both on my left side, of course. I told her that we were still having trouble with left footed t-stops so we worked on those. The other fresh meat girl is now pretty good at them, but mine just blow hardcore. I can’t bring my left foot up and when I get it in the right place I don’t stick it down hard enough. Then we did plow stops. I’m feeling pretty comfortable with them and I love the sound a plow stop makes!
After that we moved onto some tomahawk stops, or rather, the basic turning around to get to a tomahawk. The guy, J, was helping me out while Y was helping the other fresh meat. The big mistake I keep making is that my left foot just wants to hang out somewhere else than where it should be. J even asked me at one point, “What is up with your left foot?” It just doesn’t do what I want it to do! I want it to turn around naturally, but the only way I am going to get it to be in line and not widely spaced out is to pick it up and turn it around to match my right foot. Rather than picking up my whole skate to turn it, I’ve started to get better at just lifting up half of it and turning it. The only thing I can do at this point is practice, practice, practice until I can do them right.
The other exciting thing we did was JUMPING! We did some hops on Saturday, but we did some actual jumping this time. The really exciting part is that J is basically amazing at jumps. He’s not quite Quadzilla, but I’ve seen him jump over 2 or 3 people, get 3+ feet of air, and he can go from a standstill to a fast skating 360 jump in a second. Not saying that Y isn’t amazing at jumping, she can jump ridiculously high.
The first thing we tried was jumping over a line on the floor. Once I was comfortable doing that, I moved to jumping over a broomstick handle. Once I made that handle my bitch (as Y put it), I moved to some downed cones. After the downed cones, J put a shoe on top of the downed cones put together (see the crummy drawing below) and I did that a few times. Except one of the times I hit the shoe with my skate and it fell off the cones. The last jump I tried was two cones standing together and upright. I did not clear them. In fact, I fell pretty spectacularly (last night I fell a ton, I have no idea what was up with me).
We joined the vets shortly after that and did a drill that I’m sure has a name, but I’m too lazy to look it up. We were separated into two groups of six with the slowest up front and in a tight paceline (physically keeping your hand on the person in front of you at all times) we skated 5 laps and then got off the track. Then the other group skated their 5 and we got on the track to skate 4 laps, then they did their 4, then we did three, and so on.
It was a good practice, but the lack of structure and the fact that there were only 2 of us made it feel kinda long (which has never happened at practice before). I’m hoping that Thursday’s practice has more fresh meat because just having two people is not awesome.
Apologies to anyone actually reading this blog; it’s more for me and a way to talk through and remember what I do from week to week. Once I get started talking I can’t really stop.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Three practices (long post is long)
In my last post I was worried about my ankle. It swelled to an outrageous size all through Tuesday and I was planning on telling the fresh meat coach that I wasn't going to be able to skate. I checked my email before leaving work for practice and saw a reminder that we were meeting at Greenway rather than the rink since they had an event. I decided I would give skating a try and if I had trouble skating to where the trails started then I wouldn't skate.
Practice started with an hour long league meeting before we donned our skates. I laced up my skates and skated with the team. I was able to keep up much better than I had on Friday. In the end we only skated 3 miles before it got too dark to do anything else, so we packed it in. When I took off my skates I noticed that the swelling had gone down about 90%. So yes, healing powers of skating!
Thursday practice was great! One of the girls that has been in fresh meat with us was testing out. She's a former vet of the team and per the team's bylaws, she's eligible to test out of fresh meat after her 4th week (this was the 6th). So while we did our jog, stretching, and a few drills she was doing her minimum skills (she passed!). I'm excited for her, but kinda sad that she'll be leaving our small group (although we're halfway through, so the group won't last all that long).
We freshmeat were lucky enough to be able to do some drills with the vets. I'm kind of an idiot, because now I've sort of forgotten what they were because I waited so long to post about them, but I'll remember to the best of my ability.
The first one we did after our initial warm up laps was a paceline drill. As we skated in the paceline the very front person would skate ahead and pass the line on the outside and then skate around again to join them in the back. After that we worked with a partner on staying in the blocker's blind spot by weaving from side to side as well as some positional blocking and a bit of pushing.
After that we did a sort of "pass the panty" type of thing. Everyone was skating as a big giant pack and one person would be wearing the jammer panty, they would skate around the track, find holes through the pack (with no blocking - except on some we were told to make it hard for them) and on their second pass through the pack they would hand the jammer panty off to someone else and they would do the same. I ended up being the last one to get the jammer panty (IT FELT SO WEIRD TO TRY AND PUT IT ON WHILE I WAS SKATING!!) and as I was making my final pass through the pack someone yelled something like, "Shae wants to be a jammer, make it hard for her!" and EVERYONE THREW THEIR ARMS OUT TO BLOCK ME! I crouched low and went through on the inside. Just as an fyi - no, I do not want to be a jammer, she just wanted to make it hard for me, lol.
All of that was in about an hour and a half of our practice, and then freshies broke off to go do our normal thing. We did the normal falls with the addition of 180 knee slides and some plow stopping. We focused a lot on stopping for our part of the practice. We're all pretty good stopping with our right leg, but the left is a mess. I really need to figure out a way outside of practice that I can work on stopping with my left. About 10 minutes before practice ended we joined the rest of the team to do backwards laps. I fell 3 times, one of them forward! When I fell forward I got a large round of applause, lol. I am not awesome at backwards skating.
Today was a very different type of practice. First of all, our fresh meat coach wasn't there. After the meeting we had on Tuesday, I don't know if he just wasn't there or if he's not going to come back because of all of the main team coaching changes that are happening right now. I guess we'll see how Tuesday practice is.
As I said, it was very different than normal because our fresh meat coach wasn't there and there were only 2 freshies, 6 vets, our captain (who was leading the practice), and the team's head ref. Also, a couple of the ladies had gone to part of the matinee skate that happens before practice to drum up some interest in the league and the sport. Several people, including a bunch of kids, were allowed to hang back and watch us practice for a bit. Rather than doing our normal run and stretch we immediately geared up. We started with some warm up laps before forming a line for some paceline drills.
In the line we did: regular weaving, backwards weaving, butt swipes (you get in real close and swipe your butt across their lap/vag area), and hip whips (my first time trying them!). After that the vets did a little mock 3 on 3 scrimmage. Right as they were finishing up a jam the spectators left, so they ditched doing that since they never start practices with scrimmaging.
We got back into a line and did an exercise where we had to cut across from one side of the track to the other when a whistle was blown. Never having done this, I fell (of course) and it made the girl behind me fall. The tight paceline separated and practiced the actual movement involved. Once I got exactly how the lunge to the inside/outside worked, it became a lot easier. I really liked that one and want to try it some more!
The next one was getting from one side of the track to the other with *ominous music* lateral hops! Now, we've done lateral hops in fresh meat, but that was during off-skates training. Big surprise though - I didn't fall! Not even once! I think I did several good ones, a lot of mediocre ones, and one or two bad ones.
After that we worked with a partner and I did not do well, in my opinion. I didn't fully understand the drill and was a little lost. We combined the cutting movement and the butt swipe for blocking someone, but I think we were supposed to be passing them, and I wasn't passing my partner. I don't know. I felt like a bit of an idiot during this part (especially because my partner is an amazing skater with a lifetime of skating experience).
Rather than keep practicing that one on each other, our ref changed from skates to sneakers and got out a large hitting pad so we could practicing hitting it. We did some of the same butt swipe hits; none of my attempts were right. After that he held the pad to the side and we had to cut from one side of the track to the other to deliver a hit with our whole body. I think out of all of the ones I did, I landed 1 or 2 correctly. Kind of discouraging, but this was the first time the fresh meat practiced any type of hitting at all.
The next drill the vets were going to do was skate around the track and when a move was called they would do it (tomahawks, falls, stops, etc). We were pulled aside and worked with the skater I had partnered with before. She wanted to know what we had been taught to do and correct a few of our falls. Our knee falls were good, but we were falling a bit too hard (and me leaning a bit too far back) in our double knee falls. Our pornstars/superman falls were good, but our baseball slides were wrong. She showed us another way to do them, so we did one of two of those. The one we learned before was a bit harder than the new one. I don't mind either though.
We did some t-stop practice after that, and I came the closest I ever have to actually stopping with my left foot!! So yays, hopefully I'll keep improving! We did some plow stopping after that, not too much since we both had the basic concept down, it's just a matter of perfecting it. Then we did...TOMAHAWKS!
The other fresh meat girl has already been able to turn around (and around and around and around) since we started, so she got those really easy. As long as I think about the steps involved in turning around, I can kinda do them. So I was able to do 2 good, but very slow, tomahawk stops. I definitely want to practice the hell out of those! Then we did hockey stops. The same turn around as a tomahawk, but with one leg out in back. I did one good one of those, and definitely want to work on it (I need more work with the turn around rather than the stopping motion in both the hockey and the tomahawk). The captain announced that it was time to start picking up the track, but the skater that was with us wanted us to try some regular hopping. We hopped in place once, and then started rolling, doing 3 hops down one part of the rink, and then 3 hops down the next part. I am happy to say that I only fell once, and I knew exactly why I fell (put too much weight on the front of my skates rather than the middle). I was kinda bummed when that was the end of practice, because I was very excited at the new skills we were able to tackle today.
I've also decided to stop going to Monday night skate because I need more time for homework type stuff and this week I have two tests (also, I don't like spending money). On Monday I'm going to study and prepare for both tests and on Wednesday night I'll go ahead and take both of them. Right now I'm skating at practice Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday and then I will be doing trail skating on Friday and Sunday (except tomorrow since I'm going to Orlando in the early morning). After this coming week, I think I want to start doing zumba or another kind of cardio on Monday & Wednesday when I'm not skating.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Fresh Meat Mom
Okay, it is official. I have been declared the mom of our fresh meat group! Since we started I've been a bit of a mother hen, and apparently everyone realizes it. When someone falls I'm always trying to help them in any way I can, when someone needs water I've got my giant 1 gallon jug of ice water ready to fill up their bottle, if someone starts their period I've got pads and tampons in my bag, if someone needs a bandaid and blister pads I have those, and if someone is breaking in some new skates, you know I have an extra pair of super thick knee socks that I'm ready to give away (they were white and I've been toting them around in my bag for a few weeks, so I do need to buy another pair of socks for my bag). So yes, while several girls are older than me and at least 1 or 2 are younger than me, I am the mom.
I really want all of us to make it through fresh meat, and I actually think most of our group will. Out of the 9 girls that started only 2 have dropped out, both of them within the first week. It may sound weird and mushy, but I freaking love these ladies! They're so much fun and the practices always go by way too fast!
Tonight's practice went by super fast (and it was awesome as hell!). As soon as we geared up we joined the vets in a 20 lap warm up, and then laps in the opposite direction around the track once we finished those. I think I'm getting a little closer to an opposite direction crossover, but I need a lot more confidence with gliding on my right foot.
After that we did a pace line drill. With the team. Oh my god.
I was super nervous and in the back of the line (one fresh meat girl was behind me, but she wasn't able to do the drill), so the captain showed us how to do it. AND THEN I WAS UP. I was seriously nervous and trying to figure out how bad I was going to destroy the line when I fell, BUT I DIDN'T. I yelled my inside and outside as I weaved through the girls. It felt amazing once I got to the front (and then I accidentally sped the line up way too fast and had to slow down until one of the vets came up in front of me). Usually when the team does the drills they'll do regular, hip whips, arm whips, and something else that involves putting your butt right into another person's lady area; luckily we just did the normal pace line and went off to the other side of the rink for fresh meat stuff.
We did some sticky skating and a whole lotta falls! Apparently I was totally on my game tonight because our fresh meat coach told me I was doing awesome and gave me a high five. After one of my baseball slides he said, "I want you all to do that!" while pointing at me. YAY! Baseball slides. How awesomely fun are they!?
I really should get some sleep since I'm going to be meeting some of the awesome vets for some skating in the park in the morning. In conclusion - my night was perfect. I'm so glad I had such a great practice!
I really want all of us to make it through fresh meat, and I actually think most of our group will. Out of the 9 girls that started only 2 have dropped out, both of them within the first week. It may sound weird and mushy, but I freaking love these ladies! They're so much fun and the practices always go by way too fast!
Tonight's practice went by super fast (and it was awesome as hell!). As soon as we geared up we joined the vets in a 20 lap warm up, and then laps in the opposite direction around the track once we finished those. I think I'm getting a little closer to an opposite direction crossover, but I need a lot more confidence with gliding on my right foot.
After that we did a pace line drill. With the team. Oh my god.
I was super nervous and in the back of the line (one fresh meat girl was behind me, but she wasn't able to do the drill), so the captain showed us how to do it. AND THEN I WAS UP. I was seriously nervous and trying to figure out how bad I was going to destroy the line when I fell, BUT I DIDN'T. I yelled my inside and outside as I weaved through the girls. It felt amazing once I got to the front (and then I accidentally sped the line up way too fast and had to slow down until one of the vets came up in front of me). Usually when the team does the drills they'll do regular, hip whips, arm whips, and something else that involves putting your butt right into another person's lady area; luckily we just did the normal pace line and went off to the other side of the rink for fresh meat stuff.
We did some sticky skating and a whole lotta falls! Apparently I was totally on my game tonight because our fresh meat coach told me I was doing awesome and gave me a high five. After one of my baseball slides he said, "I want you all to do that!" while pointing at me. YAY! Baseball slides. How awesomely fun are they!?
I really should get some sleep since I'm going to be meeting some of the awesome vets for some skating in the park in the morning. In conclusion - my night was perfect. I'm so glad I had such a great practice!
Saturday, August 27, 2011
5 minutes, 28 seconds
Today's practice was pretty damn awesome! First of all, we got to try the dreaded 25-in-5! The fresh meat went first so we could gauge where we are in our skating ability and our skills. Each fresh meat girl was assigned a Vet that would watch them and give them tips when we were done with our laps. I did mine (and only lost track of counting once, I am bad at counting) and I was able to finish my 25 laps in 5 minutes and 28 seconds!!! I'm super proud of myself! I still have 30 seconds to shave off my time, but according to the other girls I should have no problem having it be under 5 minutes in 10 weeks.
The vet assigned to me told me that I need to get a bit lower (no shocker there) and showed me how she and the other girls approach the track like a circle. Inside on the corners and outside on the straightaways. It allows girls to constantly do crossovers. I don't know how I didn't notice it before, but it really seems to work! I'm excited to approach the track that way next time.
After our laps we watched the rest of the girls do theirs. We did 5 backwards laps (getting better at backwards, I think) and then the fresh meat ladies split off to work with one of the refs (none of the coaches were able to make it). So we went over to our area of the rink and practiced some stopping for a bit. I'm still not great at stopping, but I am getting there. I know that I will eventually be able to stop. After that we did a LOT of sticky skating. We did wide legged scissors to prepare for our eventual plow stop lesson, the figure eight, and then one leg at a time scissors (which is actually the elusive slalom that seemed like magic, but it is insanely easy). I thought I was going to fall flat on my face during the figure eight, but it was surprisingly easy once I started doing it.
We were going to do some knee falls and whatnot, but a couple girls still don't have gear. One had borrowed most of it from someone, but another one didn't have knee pads, so that plan was scrapped. Instead we did some weaving drills...which I am very bad at.
Okay, okay, I'm not very bad at them, but I know I could do better and should be doing better. The biggest problem is the whole "comparing yourself to others" thing. I have read so many derby blogs that tell you to never compare yourself to anyone else and I agree...but I still do. I can't help but compare myself to the girls that have done derby before, or the girl that has a background in skating, or even the girl that has a harder time than most. I'm sorry, but I compare myself to them and I probably always will; simple as that.
But yes, I think that's it. Oh wait! I also made a purchase after practice!
I never ever imagined myself as the girl that would buy safety cones for a real reason and not for cosplay reasons. I am going to use these cones for everything!
The vet assigned to me told me that I need to get a bit lower (no shocker there) and showed me how she and the other girls approach the track like a circle. Inside on the corners and outside on the straightaways. It allows girls to constantly do crossovers. I don't know how I didn't notice it before, but it really seems to work! I'm excited to approach the track that way next time.
After our laps we watched the rest of the girls do theirs. We did 5 backwards laps (getting better at backwards, I think) and then the fresh meat ladies split off to work with one of the refs (none of the coaches were able to make it). So we went over to our area of the rink and practiced some stopping for a bit. I'm still not great at stopping, but I am getting there. I know that I will eventually be able to stop. After that we did a LOT of sticky skating. We did wide legged scissors to prepare for our eventual plow stop lesson, the figure eight, and then one leg at a time scissors (which is actually the elusive slalom that seemed like magic, but it is insanely easy). I thought I was going to fall flat on my face during the figure eight, but it was surprisingly easy once I started doing it.
We were going to do some knee falls and whatnot, but a couple girls still don't have gear. One had borrowed most of it from someone, but another one didn't have knee pads, so that plan was scrapped. Instead we did some weaving drills...which I am very bad at.
Okay, okay, I'm not very bad at them, but I know I could do better and should be doing better. The biggest problem is the whole "comparing yourself to others" thing. I have read so many derby blogs that tell you to never compare yourself to anyone else and I agree...but I still do. I can't help but compare myself to the girls that have done derby before, or the girl that has a background in skating, or even the girl that has a harder time than most. I'm sorry, but I compare myself to them and I probably always will; simple as that.
But yes, I think that's it. Oh wait! I also made a purchase after practice!
I never ever imagined myself as the girl that would buy safety cones for a real reason and not for cosplay reasons. I am going to use these cones for everything!
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Lesson Learned
from Fresh Meat Otter
Yeah, I started a tumblr yesterday. I really like Roller Derby Otter, but most things don't apply to me since I'm just a freshie. So behold, I have created Fresh Meat Otter. I've made about 10(?) of them so far, and here's my favorite -
So anyway, to the point of my post and the graphic up at the top. Apparently Saturday practices aren't that well attended (last week was the exception), so we got to strap on our skates. Because I thought today would just be another day of land drills, I didn't even think to bring my skates. Honestly, it didn't even cross my mind. So after we did about an hour of off-skates training, I was able to race home, grab my bag and race back (I did it in 8 minutes! Hell yes!). Once I got back to the rink I had to take my outdoor wheels off and put my indoor wheels back on. I did them wrong, too. I have two kinds of wheels and I'm used to them when I skate. I put the wheels on wrong and my skating just felt sort of off (as evidenced by the almost!spill during laps).
All in all it was a pretty okay practice, but I didn't walk out of there as exhausted as I usually do. Hopefully tomorrow's outdoor skate will put me in my place. Also, I'm currently wishing I had a full set of good wheels rather than two half sets of average wheels. It'd be nice not to have to think of which are which. :P
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
The Last Skate Session
Last night was my last normal skate session before derby starts up. Recruitment is THIS SATURDAY! From what I can figure out, it seems that the first hour and a half will be information on joining, policies, dues, practices and the like, and then the next two (?) hours will be the normal public skate that takes place at Skate Mania on Saturday nights. Eeeep!
Anyway, back to last night’s skate session: it was fantastic!! I actually left work on time for once, so I had plenty of time to have dinner and do some other things around the house before I left to skate (if only I could leave work right at six every single night). Even though I used my new wheels on Saturday, last night was really the test to see how they worked. The new wheels were amazing. It was so weird to start out because it was ridiculously smooth and with just a few pushes I was going faster than I ever had before. It was scary for the first five minutes, but then I got used to it.
The control I had was amazing. My old wheels would slip a little when I was doing a crossover so I usually only tried to do one around a curve; with my new wheels I can do several in a row and really pick up speed. On the straight areas I only had do three or four pushes to get me to the next turn. I tried what Heather’s league calls “sticky skating” and I was able to get around the whole outside of the rink (although it took a bit of time). The last time I tried that, my wheels and legs slipped in a strange way and I ended up slowly falling to my butt.
The best part about skating last night was that almost no one was there (apparently not many people like to leave the house when it’s raining like crazy). Near the end of the night I was literally the only person skating for about 15 minutes. I was able to push myself to go faster than I do when there are other people around. It was great!
Anyway, back to last night’s skate session: it was fantastic!! I actually left work on time for once, so I had plenty of time to have dinner and do some other things around the house before I left to skate (if only I could leave work right at six every single night). Even though I used my new wheels on Saturday, last night was really the test to see how they worked. The new wheels were amazing. It was so weird to start out because it was ridiculously smooth and with just a few pushes I was going faster than I ever had before. It was scary for the first five minutes, but then I got used to it.
The control I had was amazing. My old wheels would slip a little when I was doing a crossover so I usually only tried to do one around a curve; with my new wheels I can do several in a row and really pick up speed. On the straight areas I only had do three or four pushes to get me to the next turn. I tried what Heather’s league calls “sticky skating” and I was able to get around the whole outside of the rink (although it took a bit of time). The last time I tried that, my wheels and legs slipped in a strange way and I ended up slowly falling to my butt.
The best part about skating last night was that almost no one was there (apparently not many people like to leave the house when it’s raining like crazy). Near the end of the night I was literally the only person skating for about 15 minutes. I was able to push myself to go faster than I do when there are other people around. It was great!
Sunday, July 31, 2011
I went skating on concrete yesterday. My knee is swollen.
Luckily, those two statements are not related in the slightest. Today I helped a friend move, and because I am so very graceful, I smacked my knee on the U-Haul's trailer hitch. Of course it's the same knee that I keep hurting, so that's delightful. It's bruising and pretty sore and I feel completely stupid. The worst part is, I was in such pain I couldn't stop giggling/laughing. Is that going to be my new thing? Am I just going to laugh when I get hurt? That can't possibly be a normal thing.
Sooo, to the important skating bits of this weekend! First off, I have updated my Gear Post!! I ordered and am waiting for my elbow pads, wrist guards, and mouth guard (should receive them tomorrow or Tuesday) but I do have my wheels!!
When I was first putting my wheels on
I got these wheels from a fellow cross stitcher that I know through flickr and tumblr (it's been super awesome to see how many of my fellow crafty and stitchy friends are also into derby). She's doing derby and is currently upgrading, so she offered to sell me her wheels at a super cheap rate. So now I have some Radar Tuner and Radar Flat Out wheels!!
I only got to skate with them for an hour yesterday and it was a very miserable skating session. Heather, Itzel, and I went out to Barber Park to skate at the rink there (Barber Park is where the Orlando Psycho City girls do their practices every Sunday). Heather and Itzel are heroes, because this is where they practice every week, and were practicing at tonight (even after the sweaty ordeal of moving Itzel). It was so damn hot and the coated concrete was really dirty. I will need to wash my wheels before I take them anywhere because they got so gross.
Hopefully tomorrow night's usual Adult Skate session will give me a chance to properly test out my wheels. I definitely noticed a difference even on that crappy surface, but I imagine the difference will be even greater once I get on a different surface.
Also, eeep! Less than a week until recruitment night! I think I'm starting to really bother Heather and Itzel because I spend all of my time interrogating them on what they do at training. I want to get started now! I know I will regret saying that, but I am excited to learn! They can do all of these cool falls with an IDGAF expression and they act like it's not an amazing thing that they're doing. "Oh, we're just doing a fall and turning around 180 degrees and then getting up in less than a second, no big deal." JEALOUS, I am so jealous. ONE WEEK!
Sooo, to the important skating bits of this weekend! First off, I have updated my Gear Post!! I ordered and am waiting for my elbow pads, wrist guards, and mouth guard (should receive them tomorrow or Tuesday) but I do have my wheels!!
I got these wheels from a fellow cross stitcher that I know through flickr and tumblr (it's been super awesome to see how many of my fellow crafty and stitchy friends are also into derby). She's doing derby and is currently upgrading, so she offered to sell me her wheels at a super cheap rate. So now I have some Radar Tuner and Radar Flat Out wheels!!
I only got to skate with them for an hour yesterday and it was a very miserable skating session. Heather, Itzel, and I went out to Barber Park to skate at the rink there (Barber Park is where the Orlando Psycho City girls do their practices every Sunday). Heather and Itzel are heroes, because this is where they practice every week, and were practicing at tonight (even after the sweaty ordeal of moving Itzel). It was so damn hot and the coated concrete was really dirty. I will need to wash my wheels before I take them anywhere because they got so gross.
Hopefully tomorrow night's usual Adult Skate session will give me a chance to properly test out my wheels. I definitely noticed a difference even on that crappy surface, but I imagine the difference will be even greater once I get on a different surface.
Also, eeep! Less than a week until recruitment night! I think I'm starting to really bother Heather and Itzel because I spend all of my time interrogating them on what they do at training. I want to get started now! I know I will regret saying that, but I am excited to learn! They can do all of these cool falls with an IDGAF expression and they act like it's not an amazing thing that they're doing. "Oh, we're just doing a fall and turning around 180 degrees and then getting up in less than a second, no big deal." JEALOUS, I am so jealous. ONE WEEK!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)