Monday 3 November 2014

Hit me with your best shot

Wow, a post not about NSOing.  Not had one of those in a while!

Training's been fairly standard, with steady improvements across the board but not much new to report until now.  Transitions are getting better, footwork is getting better, laps are consistently at the 24-ish mark, which is mildly irritating but I know it's just a plateau and as long as I keep giving 100% during laps one day I'll just break through it without realising. Plateaus are annoying like that :)

But this weeks deserves a post because this week we did HITTING.




We've been building up to this for a few weeks now, practising the technique off-skates with big bolster cushions, then on-skates with the cushions, then on-skates in a pace line taking turns to hit the 'jammer' as they came past (I still can't land a good hip-check but I'm pretty happy with the shoulder- and body-checks so that'll do for starters and the rest will come with practise).  Now this week we each got the privilege of donning the much coveted Jammer Cap and get walloped to death by our team-mates.

It was super fun :D

As well as the obvious adjustment of having people throw themselves at you all the time, being in a proper pack adds an extra dynamic of madness.  Up until now a lot of what we've been learning has been technique based, so you're on you're own, in a space, practising one thing repeatedly.  Suddenly there are nine other people round you, some of them your friends, some your opposition, things are changing every second and you're expected to think strategically when frankly you're not even sure you remember how to skate half the time.

And on top of that our coaches had us practise the drills under game conditions - that is, we'd get sent off for penalties we accidentally committed during the drill.  Apparently I need to watch out for False Starts :P

 There are times when it's great, you've got the jammer cornered, two of you are holding her and then the third blocker comes in and just bundles them off the track.  And then there are times when you have an agile jammer, the wall you're in just can't move fast enough to cover the whole track, and you're not sure whether to leave it and engage the jammer solo (which is more risky) or stick with your wall and have them dodge round you anyway.  And then sometimes that's happening, and your own team-mates decides to solve this issue by using you as a projectile weapon and shoving you backwards at the jammer so that you impact them ass-first.

We had a go at Power Jams, where one of the jammers is sent to the penalty box mid-jam and their own blockers hang back, forcing the remaining team to stretch out the pack by bridging as the jammer moves forward. (I especially likes jamming in this scenario, as I'm not particularly prancy.  I'd rather hunker down, get up on my toe-stops and PUSH all the blockers forward until the pack is destroyed and they're forced to let me go.)

At the end of the day it was our first try, we all had a lot of fun, and we all definitely learned a lot.  And to top it all off I finally have my first proper (read: not self-inflicted) derby bruises.  Hooray!  Like any masochistic rollergirl I'd been waiting for this!
Two on my right leg, two on my left arm, and one on my cheekbone.  Another player and I fell down on top of each other and I took a flailing forearm to the face.  After a few seconds of shock and "Ow!" where you know you've hurt something but you're not quite sure what or how badly, I decided it was just a good bump and got back up to carry on.  It was a bit red and swollen this morning but after holding some ice on it you can barely see it.  I'm just not poking it :)

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