Test Time

Hello! I know I have continued my dismal writing trend this month but I really have had a lot going on a much of which has been derby or derby related business. 

As you know the test was fast approaching and in fact occurred on Sunday. Well, it occurred for many of the Freshmeat girls, but not me. So sad! But, it is not the end of the world so I take heart. The reason this happened was that I had (when I had my car accident) missed a whole module. The rules set out at the beginning say that this makes you ineligible for the test writing. 

Luckily the ladies in the Freshmeat Committee are actually going to do a boot camp for those of us who fall into this category, and then let us write the test at that time. They said that they will let us know but they are hoping for in a month or so to make that happen. So, that's that.

Because there is a whole month before my test now there are some good and bad things. It means that I can practice more jumping and hopefully become more comfortable with that. (Although I don't really know where I will practice that as I don't relish falling onto pavement from a jump.) It means, in fact, that I can become better at all of my skating skills, as long as I am vigilant about skating practice as there will be no regular training scheduled at the hangar for me.

It also means that I will be further away from the training and practice of the derby skills (hitting, blocking etc.) which require another person to practice with. I am hoping that I will not forget those skills and obviously I will try and do my best to practice the skating skills which help in those derby skills. That's a lot of skill. 

I have become very comfortable with my previous issue, the one foot weaving. This is no longer an issue for me especially since finding out that we do not have to weave on each foot, we just choose our strongest. No problem.

I also found out that the test that is points based, that is, for each skill you get a mark of 0, 1 or 2. To pass the test of 79 skills (each is very specific, ie. giving an outside whip, taking an outside whip etc,) you are allowed two get eight 1s. You are not allowed to get any 0s. Also, for the endurance portion, which is 25 laps in 5 minutes there is a special marking, 0 to 3. This means that you do not have to get 25 laps in the 5 minutes to actually pass the test. You only need to get 20 laps in the least, which will give you 1 point, 23 laps gives you 2 points and 25 gives you 3 points. My current best is 23 laps.

So, before finding out that I was not able to take the test I was very excited and feeling pretty good about taking the test. I am going to do my best to take the extra time to learn the rules perfectly as I would hate for that to be the reason I fail, and continue to do my squats and keep on rollin'. If I pass the test when I take it in a month it will still be time for me to be up for the draft (though I highly doubt I will be placed on a team (which is okay as you immediately go in the farm team the Divas and can still play), there are like 30 new girls in the league and last year they drafted seven girls).

I have volunteered to work as an NSO (non skating official) for 2 Fast 2 Furious, the rookie tournament being held by GTAR Rollergirls in Toronto in July and will continue to be a part of derby in this way. I'm very used to NSOing though I think I will be doing a new position as jam timer which sounds pretty funnerific to me! 

That's updates for now. I will try and write more soon!

May Already!??!

How it is possible that time passes this quickly I can't even imagine.

Last week was an absolutely FABULOUS training session with the Dolls. We just love them. We had three groups set up and each did different drills with the Dolls at that station. 

My first drill section was weaving with one foot! I was so excited to try this on my indoors for the first time with my new truck set-up, but things did not go my way. I was disappointed in how wobbly and off kilter I felt on my skates. I had done better outside on the shit pavement with my outdoor wheels, well, after a while I had. I only started to feel normal on my skates nearing the end of the training session too. Meh. 

The Dolls did have lots of input as to how to improve as they watched and shouted things at us to try and help mould us into the best skaters we can be. One of the biggest things to remember is of course bending the knees, so we heard this a lot. I start out good and bendy but as I'm concentrating on other aspects of what I'm doing I slowly raise up. 

Keeping my ass down is also something I have to work on a great deal, though sometimes I feel it is down when they tell me to put it lower. Like at least twice after being told to think, shit in the woods, I was thinking, this IS what I look like shitting in the woods already. My back hurts me a lot when I am in this position for an extended period and I'm trying to find ways, by being stronger and with better posture, to combat this.

Today I practiced in the parking lot besides my kids circus school. (Yeah, circus school, cool eh? I wish I was my kid.) This turned out to be really awesome because it's a decently clean pavement area and also the business there had these uber reflective windows so it was like having mirrors there. This was super helpful because I was checking out my posture a lot thinking about all the things I am being told and actually being able to see how it looks. I look forward to practicing there again.

I did, while practicing today, really get a better handle on weaving with one foot. I'm wondering after today's evidence whether I do better skating on my outdoor wheels? I'm thinking of leaving them on for this weeks practice and see how that works out for me. They are narrower then my indoor wheels so that is making some amount of difference in how they skate for me. But, they are softer so they will not skate as fast as my indoor wheels; but do I even skate fast enough for that to be a noticeable difference? I dunno. We'll see how it goes.

Okay, that's it for now brothers and sisters. I should be sleeping. I shall write more later and answer some questions for Ana about outfitting for derby.

Skate Upgrades!

I have been lagging with my writing and have in fact had three sessions since last I wrote. Not only have I learned a whole lot more about roller derby but I have also greatly increased my knowledge of my skates. 

Even though there is more skating session info and other stuff to talk about I first have to tell you about my skates. I got new bushings!! Do you know what a bushing is? I just learned. I do recall hearing them spoken about as well as my trucks, and knowing it had something to do with the bottom of my skates but that's about it. But now I know for real. You can too! Check out the diagram here (you have to scroll down a little) if you don't know what the hell I'm talking about, it is really good and makes it simple to see all the bits on the bottom. 

The whole assembly with the bushings (numbers 4 and 6 in the diagram) is called the truck so loosening the nut at the end is having looser trucks. I also learned that there are different hardnesses of bushings, so not only had my trucks been tightened tightly I had the hardest bushings possible (I switched to medium softness). So with the hard bushings there had been very little give of the boot on top of the wheels, leaning to either side didn't really make the skate turn just start to tip over. This is also why (I can tell now) I had an easier time with plow stops then some others. With looser trucks and softer bushings plows are now more work for me. 

The reason getting new bushings on my skates, and loosening my trucks a bit, was such a big deal for me was how it has allowed me to weave on one skate. This is a skill I will need to pass my WFTDA test (I have mentioned it before) and had hoped that hardware changes would help. Guess what? They did! 

When I went to Cardinal skate shop (if you recall, earlier I didn't purchase items there and felt bad) the girls who were working there (who turned out to be Bambi and Dust Bunny of the Gores) were super helpful. Dust Bunny actually showed me how to take my skates apart and put new bearings in the wheels, put in new bushings, loosen my trucks and change my wheels (to the red outdoor wheels I purchased). I feel like a pro! Also I couldn't help myself I bought a pair of those cute bootie shorts with the skeleton hands on the ass. 

I had already been skating outdoors on my indoor wheels. I went to the skate park near us where I take the kids to ride their bikes (it has ramps and stuff that they like to use). The ground is asphalt and somewhat littered with broken bottle bits and crap. I did end up getting used to it with my indoor wheels on, but it took a while. It came down to little steps, better footwork. I figured that was a good way to get better at that, nothing motivates like the the fear of falling on broken glass.

At any rate, I was hoping it would be a bit better with outdoor wheels on and of course I wanted to know what the softer bushings and looser trucks felt like. I reminded myself that I would have to tighten my trucks no matter what initially as the new bushings squished in a bit. I had a new skate tool now too to do this with. See, pro! 

So when we got home we stopped for bikes and off we went to the skate park. It was SO exciting in how different it felt. When I first got on my skates I felt like I was on jello, they are bouncy and squishy now. Of course being on the bumpy asphalt made me have to get used to the new squishiness fairly quickly, again the fear of broken glass was a good motivator.

I was very excited to try and skate on one foot and do some weaving but I had to skate around in circles getting used to the new feel for a while before I could do that. Eventually it was feeling more normal and I tried the weaving on one foot and I could do it! Not to say I was a super pro and perfect at it, but I can do it. I still need lots more practice to be super good at it but the difference in how I can move my skates by the pressure in my foot is crazy! As you can tell this excites me a great deal.

I have many more things to talk about (cool derby websites, the upcoming test, a derby moniker for me etc.) but I think I will leave you with this for now. I am going to re-watch Doctor Who episodes to try and spot The Silent. 

I'm BAAAAAACK!

Well, I was pulled out of the country there for a bit due to familial issues and property dealings. I had a visit with the old country, which for me is Latvia. I wonder if they have roller derby? I suspect not but I had no time to find out as I was busy, busy, busy!

But the day after I got back it was time for derby practice once again and I was ready to go! It had been two weeks since I was on skates and though I have been trying to do extra squats and whatnot none of it compares to actual on-skate time.

We were hosted for training by the Death Track Dolls and they were absolutely delightful. We were working on hits and whips, both a lot of fun. I found it interesting that the way they split us was by asking those who felt they were a bit more advanced to go to one side of the hangar and those who didn't to go to the other side. It wasn't an even split but it worked okay.

 It was interesting to note how many of the actually advanced skaters went into the less advanced group, and then there was me, smack dab in advanced knowing it might be the case that I oughtn't to be there. But, how else are ya' gonna get better! I have high a bar, I hope one day to actually be able to reach it!

So first my group did whips, we tried the inside whip and the outside whip. I found these a lot of fun and really not too hard do. They are very intuitive. Inside whip grab girl, who is coming up on the inside, with your outside arm, whip forward. Outside whip, grab girl, coming on your outside, with your outside arm and fling her (that one is super fun!). I initially wasn't grabbing my partners arm too well for the outside whip but with a little insight from the Dolls and my partner it was all good. Whips are fun! You get to go even faster then normal.

The hits were fun too but actually a bit harder then I had expected. That is, hitting in the best way possible required more of a fine tuned hip raising motion then I had really thought about. I hadn't considered the fact that you're really trying to get under the girl you're hip checking.

The Dolls told us to watch the youtube clip of Beyonslay doing some great hip checking. So of course I went and watched the video (good stuff stuff is at :44). Here she is doing it again to a different jammer. She is AWESOME at getting under her opponent and depositing them on the sidelines, certainly someone I will try and emulate in my hip checking.

The last thing we did was play a game they called Last Chick Standing. I'm sure you can guess the idea. We had to practices our hits and try to stay standing while others did the same. If we went out of bounds or got put down we were out of the game. I actually did pretty well at this, took some girls down and lasted till close to the end.

 I know that all of the girls were not hitting with all their might though, nor was I. You can't help but monitor what you're doing with the girls who you know are less capable skaters, it just feels nasty. I mean, you hit them, but I don't think most of us were using all of our strength on each other, I know I wasn't. I still don't know what it will be like when I use all of my might, I will have to be surer on my skates to release most power I can.

Of course, I did feel a bit wobblier then I would have liked on my skates this session. I know that I have not had enough time on them lately. I have been doing some exercises, like this great one from the great Hard Knox Roller Derby Fitness site to try and improve my ability. As well, I actually have been watching youTube videos roller skate instruction and derby. This has also been very enlightening, but no comparison to time on skates. I am waiting with bated breath for summer to come so I can skate outside and get better faster.

Speaking of the videos, I really like this one and this one, which show how to turn from skating backwards to forwards specifically, but also really helps with the turning stop and whatnot (which I STILL can't do properly, though I am getting closer). Also this one here for the sideways skating skill that is SO important for a lot of things that I can't do!

I have been practicing the ballet first position, feet pointed out sideways from body, an awful lot lately, cause doing that in skates is not as easy as bare feet where your feet stick to the floor a bit and hold you. In skates you roll, shocking as that may be. My knees are not used to stretching in that direction either so practice, practice, practice.

Clearly being able to have yourself with your feet, knees and hips in first position is very important to derby and good roller skating. I have to be able to more comfortably flip my skates around into different positions and, of course, I still can't do the steering around pylons on only one skate. Need to get that one still too. Lots more to know that's for darned sure.

So, more skate time required, I need to start improving more. Plateaus can be annoying, but I shall keep on keeping on.

It's game time on Saturday, I shall be trying out a new NSO posting as Outside Whiteboard. I am frightened, I do not know the ref hand signals well enough. Learning is FUN!

Game Day

Well this training session was a ref run event. This means that we spent a fair amount of time going over rules and having questions answered.

The first thing the refs went over were some hand signals. I have actually been reading the book, and have looked at the hand signals more then once (though I certainly haven't studied them) but I couldn't remember what any of them were standing there looking at her motions. Meh.

In any case it reminded me that I really need to keep up with studying the book as well as trying to become a better skater. I certainly wouldn't want the written rules test to be the thing that kept me out, that would be embarrassing!

After the sit down lesson we did the funnest part yet. We got to play! Real scrimmage, like we all knew what we were doing. Hahahaha...well, actually not so much like we knew what we were doing, but it was still LOADS of fun.

When the ref announced we were going to play everyone was really excited, but when she told ten people to take places not everyone jumped in at once. I, on the other hand, immediately went to be the jammer, I was so excited to try for real. I was up against a guy (who had also immediately gone into the jammer position) who was training for refdom; he was a better skater then me but that just made me want to try even harder.

I almost made lead jammer but was checked to the ground and lost my place. Du-oh! But I kept on keeping on and did my best to catch up with him and make it through the pack. I had two skaters from the other team doing a great job blocking me but eventually I made it through. It was so much fun! I even got two assists from my teammates, one push and one mini-whip. Super COOL!

I was so happy that playing was as much fun as it looks. It's awesome. I also got to try blocking in our second time around, which our team, team Rainbow (we were all delighted by this in a very silly way) got to do because there had been fewer people not wearing black shirts. So we got to skate more whilst the black shirted people sadly waited in line for their turn.

Blocking is hard. I know it is SUPER important because I have seen (as I've spoken about here) the difference in a team with good blockers, with a strategy, working together and one without. A team without good blockers could waste a super jammer, leaving her stuck behind the pack without a way out. They are exceedingly important.

I found it difficult as a blocker to keep looking back and keep track of where everyone was and where I needed to be in relation to them. Even though I know we were move in slow motion compared to a real derby game, it really felt like stuff was happening SO fast.

Going from slow pack to trying to move quickly to get in the jammers way to stop her, while also fighting your way in the pack for a good placement to clear your jammer's path. It's a lot of stuff to think about while skating and looking backwards and fending off other blocker's hits and shoves and whatnot.

It was all great though. I liked being a blocker and a jammer. Being a jammer is a bit easier in a way, certainly not in skating skill but in how much thinking is required as there are a lot fewer decisions to make really. There could be decisions of course about calling the jam and whatnot but that would be about it. You know you have to skate fast and then get through the pack, and then skate fast and then get through the pack and then skate fast and etc.

A number of the women are too frightened to be jammers. This works out well truthfully because with the amount of us not all of them would have gotten to try it yet. There were some girls trying the jamming who were not the strongest skaters though and I loved seeing their bravery. I love being able to be proud of other women, there is so often I am ashamed.

If even most of these women finish the fresh meat programme TORD will have to add another team, I've heard rumours that it would be another farm team (newbie team) which certainly makes sense with so many new players. I hope that this means that eventually the TORD teams will change from having so many shared players, making the teams more even and team fan following more compelling.

It does seem now there are a couple of all-star teams on the league and then those same all-star players playing on other teams to make them better. Though, one imagines that the reason for this shared-ness is due to the lack of players and with more players that problem would slowly solve it self. I hope I can become one of the good players the teams actually want!

Here is a picture of me in my gear!

Next Up: The Game Continues

Drilled Into Submission

Time for derby drills! Everybody loves drills, it means you get to show everyone over and over again how well you do or do not know a skill. And, well, it is also a lot of really good practice especially with two roller girls watching you and giving you pointers the whole while.

For this training session we were split into four groups, which is good because though we have lost at least twenty fresh meaters there are still about sixty of us which can be a bit unwieldy at times. There were four stations on the circuit and we spent about fifteen or twenty minutes at each (which seemed like an hour when it was a hard one let me tell you). The stations were stops (plough and t), rockstar fall (and 180 stop), baseball fall and duck walk.

The group I was in began with baseball fall. This is a fun fall to do, in a way, once you get it. The thing that some girls had trouble with at first was not falling on both knees at once (ouchy!) but dropping first to one knee and tucking that leg, bent, under your body, and then dropping to hip/bootie while you slide in.

Also there was the whole coming to understand how to fall on your hip or ass in the right way so that you weren't totally hurting yourself. It's fun to learn. I had also learned in the warmups that my left leg has definitely been injured in a real way, in that first or second training session.

This is the muscle in my left leg that I have been able to instantly feel when I try to raise from a fall since that initial hurting time. I think it is my adductor longus or possibly magnus, which I have strained badly (I hope that is all at least) and hasn't yet been able to heal all the way. Anyway, this just means that the falling isn't the part that hurts me the most (though I did fall once REALLY hard on my hip), it's the getting up.

The next stop for me was duck walk. Duck walk is so ridiculous and hilarious yet very effective. It is tough getting your skates to be in the first position of ballet, pointing out sideways and sort of stomping about but it's fun to try. It sure does allow you to start quickly when you get it working right. It is a skill I look forward to trying to put into action in a game.

Rockstar fall looks cool. There's no denying it, the sliding in on two knees leaning back, very cool. This was no problem for me to do but my leg sure was starting to be angry with me. With this fall part of the requirement is a no hands on the ground get up. Hello burning thighs! We've met here before haven't we?

G-Force then showed us the 180 stop, which starts with a one knee slide except right after you begin your slide you take the leg still up on it's skate and swing it around the outside of your body, which swings you around and then you quickly lift up your other leg for getting up. If you do this right it just whips you right around so you're facing the opposite direction and you can get up and skate away all cool like. I really liked this, it was fun whipping around. Even with my stupid leg hurting I did some giggling.

Ploughs and t-stops were, well, stoppy. Not exciting but great practice and some good insight from the roller girls how to do them better and faster. You get the drill.

We also did measuring for endurance again. I forgot to mention that we did this last session, I don't know how cause I thought it was so cool. For the WFTDA test to be a part of roller derby you have to be able to skate around the track twenty five times in five minutes, this is called endurance. So, we got to try this last week and I got twenty laps in five minutes.

I was proud of my last weeks number, and I wanted to try and get at least one lap better. It may have been a lofty goal considering the insane drill session we had just been through but, it's good to have goals. At any rate, I was lucky to get twenty. I think I pushed to hard at the beginning and there was so little left to give, I was happy with my twenty by the end of it cause I wasn't even sure I would get that!

My very sweet husband had a hot bath ready for me when I got home, because he loves me and enjoys it when I take off my clothes. I have been trying to take good care of my leg with nice stretches, hot baths with epsom salts, massage, rest balanced with minor muscle building exercises. Until next weekend of course, then it's back into battle.

Coming Soon: Game Day!

Back on My Skates

Well was I ever happy to be back on my skates. I was however also a bit worried about how awful I would be having not been on my skates for two weeks. Although I was a bit wobblier then I had been two weeks ago I  hadn't slipped too far back.

I certainly noticed the difference that the two weeks had made in the skaters around me. Many of those who had just started on skates didn't look that way anymore and the skaters who had been rusty weren't looking so rusty anymore. Gah! I had catching up to do.

In my absence the girls had moved forward but I was determined to claw my way to their skill level. I spent a lot of this session practicing skills we had already gone over and trying to catch up on things I had missed. I asked a lot of questions about what I had missed and a had the instructors show me the moves I didn't get, which they were so willing to do.

It was a very informative session but not that exciting news wise. The one neat thing we did do was jumps. I found out that one of the sessions I had missed they had done a class of jumps, so I thought they must all be pros at it. Luckily this wasn't the case and it turns out I was okay at them. I didn't even fall on my ass! That's always a good omen.

The other thing which we did that left an impression (because of how much I couldn't do it) was weaving between pylons on one skate. So that means after you have some speed just lifting one skate up (I can do that part) and then making yourself turn and weave using your body weight and skate edges to turn the skate where you want it to go.

When they did the demonstration of this skill we were all a bit frightened. Gliding on one skate is one thing but turning? I did my best here, but I have to say, I sure didn't get it. And, even the times I got a tiny bit close to doing it  I was always on my left skate, and we have to be able to do this on each foot, respectively, to pass our WFTDA test. Crumbs.  This will require some practice.

A number of us skating were a bit downhearted about this skill and our lack of ability in it, but one of the roller girls pointed out that this is a difficult skill and in fact kept her from passing her test on her first try. So, try and try again. And, try and try again.

Hopefully, eventually I will get it!

Coming Soon: Drilled Into Submission