The Mental Game: Green-Eyed Monster!

As well as all the physical stuff we have to handle in roller derby, there's a big old mental side that's a little trickier to navigate.

A few weeks ago some of the skaters from my intake passed their Minimum Skills and crossed over to the Advanced midweek practises, that mystical kingdom where all the hitting happens.   This has happened before, when I was too injured to be skate, but this time a rescheduling meant I had to miss one of the testing days.  And like before, I found myself dealing with a little personal issue.

Oooh, what was that?  Was that… JEALOUSY?

Oh my gosh I DID IT!!!

I can't quite believe it.  I keep trying to give myself reasons why it didn't count, or didn't even happen, but the fact is... I did it.  I skated 25 laps in 5 minutes.

I made my laps.

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.

Weirdness in the box - Penalty Box Manager

Sooooo last weekend's roadtrip was to my home county of Norfolk.  Unlike most of the NSOs I got to combine my derby day with a visit to the parents.  If only I'd know we had a roller derby team there a few years earlier, this could all have been a very different story...

The Norfolk Brawds were hosting a 3 game event; a cherry popper, followed by a male-male game, followed by a female-female game, so lots of variety and a nice big crowd.  I was only really needed for the first game and, due to a last minute swapsies with my friend Drew I ended up managing the penalty box for the first time ever.  I knew the theory at least, but had never done it in practise.

"It'll be fine!" they said.  "You won't have two jammers in at once!" they said.  "The box will never be full, refs are lenient in a cherry popper!" they said.

Ha. Ha. Ha.

Excuse me, may I borrow your flamingo? - GYSD & The One Stopwatch method

This weekend I hoofed it up to Leeds to NSO at the Great Yorkshire Showdown 2014!  This is a full day tournament where 6 teams from throughout Yorkshire battle it out in single period games.  The winner gets bumped up to the next round until, in the eighth and final contest, a full length game between the two remaining teams.  Fun day out?  Eight live roller derby games in a row?  Getting my NSO on?  Sign me up!

Laps update

23 laps in 5 minutes

23 laps in 5 minutes!

23 laps in 5 minutes!!

23 laps in 5 minutes!!!

Watch yourself, min skills 25-in-5 , because I am ALL OVER YOUR ASS!!  

I totally screwed up my start, which lost me I reckon half a lap.  So I need to practise some toe-stop runs and sprint-starts.  I think all that's missing now is high-speed crossovers on the corners, so that I can increase power there instead of coasting round.  And those crossovers are coming, THEY ARE COMING.  I think I'm just going to have to pick a week and say that I'm going to go for those crossovers if it kills me, and risk falling over my own feet and splatting all over the track.  It's the only way.


Edit:  It WAS the only way.  My coach was yelling at me "Michelle, why aren't you doing any crossovers?" so I took a deep breath and did one, and then did another one, and then did some more.  They weren't the best crossovers ever, but I did not fall over at all and Pushed my personal best up to 23.5 laps.  I'm a'comin' for ya Minimum Skills!

Flamingo takes off! - NSOing done right

Whew, what a weekend!  It's been heavy on the NSO side of things, but all in very good ways.  I feel like I've graduated into NSO-dom or something.

On Saturday my fellow Dolly Newbie and NSO compadre Quillotine hoofed it down to Cambridge (despite GoogleMaps' attempt to make it otherwise) to help out as a double-header between the Rockabillies and Granite City, and then a B team game between Cambridge and Suffolk.  They were short a few positions so she hopped on as a Scorekeeper and I took care of the Inside Whiteboard.

What was extra nice is that Quill and I were the two candidates for Deputy HNSO with the Dollies (she won, and I am the Deputy's Deputy :D), so the fact that we were travelling two hours together to help out another team made a lot of sense.  It was like a Derby Officiating lovefest!

Why I will never be sporty...

I don't run.  This is no secret.  I don't like the feel of running, the bouncing, the shortness of breath I get, any of it.  Cycling, fine.  Swimming, fine.  Running, not on your nelly.

Things are changing though.  After a lot of persuasion my housemate finally convinced me to go on a short jog with her.  And... I didn't hate it.  I didn't love it either, but it was ok, nobody died, not even me.  This kind of punctuates a long process I've been going through of realising that maybe most of the reason I don't think of myself as sporty comes down to what's been going on in my head rather than my actual ability...

The times, they are a-Changing

Loads of stuff is going on at practise right now.

The pack is HERE!

Our resident refs, Skew and Drew, were helping lead our midweek coaching session this week.  Often when you're skating so much is going on immediately around you that you can't see the wood for the trees.  Seeing things from a refs perspective is a great way to get an understanding of the bigger picture of a game.  I'd recommend shadowing one during a scrim if you can - just don't get in their way!

We were looking at the idea of The Pack and The Engagement Zone.  This was something the newbies hadn't covered in great detail yet, so I learned loads.

What is The Pack?

Fledgling Flamingo discovers the importance of paperwork - Penalty Tracking + HNSO

Last weekend I NSO-ed at my first ever away game down in Bedford!  It was also my first ever time Penalty Tracking, and boy was it a baptism by fire...

Here I am, concentrating hard...

Dinos in Spaaaaaace!!

I realised I never showed you what became of that doodle of dinosaurs on skates that happened in the pub.  What became of it is that it became the base for the poster of the teams next home game!

I'm actually really proud of this.  I enjoyed the theme so much that I ended up making a collection of Dino Derby stickers.  Each features a different dinosaur with a different derby name, like Terror-Dactyl, Stego-Sore-Ass, and my personal favourite Tyrannosaurus Ref.  Because our hard working refs deserve some love and stickers too!

What's been really nice is that I've started noticing them on the helmets of our team.  I already sold out of one particular design, so I'm going to keep taking these to games and see how long it takes for me to get rid of them all :)  Look out for them at a Dollies game near you!

Baby Flamingo does a Dance! - Penalty Tracking

For an upcoming game our team needed a Penalty Wrangler and Tracker, and since we didn't have a volunteer I've gone in for some re-training!  The main thing is learning the hand signals and codes (letters) for each of the penalties a referee might give, so that you can recognise them from a distance and write them down.

When running through them all I couldn't help noticing that they form a lovely 90's style dance, so I had a go at putting them all together.  My friend suggested the perfect song!  This took about four takes to get right :P

Back to Skates!

After four weeks of hobbling around everywhere recovering from a broken toe, this week I finally got back on all eight wheels again.

Coming back from any longer stint off the track, there's going to be a little adjustment period, so I was planning to take it easy on my first day back and make sure my foot was properly working again.

But naturally the gods of derby saw fit to throw me in at the deep end...

The risks we take

I've broken my toe.  Fortunately it's just my littlest toe so I can still hobble around quite merrily.  I've never broken anything before so the novelty and sympathy votes I'm getting out of it are still interesting enough to outweigh any annoyance and being stuck off-skates again.

Since I've got this injury, I thought I'd find some use for it and write a post.  

What to do when things aren't going your way

I've realised that my roller derby life at the moment seems to have a theme.  The theme is that things are Less Than Ideal.

• I can't make as many Sunday practises as the rest of my group.
• The midweek practise, which I can make, has a gummy floor.
• I'm not as fit as I'd like, or as brave, or as agile.

But I've realised that don't want to complain about these things any more.  They are true, but complaining would be the wrong response, it won't change the situation, and I don't want to be that annoying girl whinging in the corner all the time about how things are sooooo baaaad for her.

Take the floor, for instance.  It was horrible.  I hated it, at least for the first hour of practise.  But saying "I can't do this... because of the floor." would be a complete cop-out.  I'd be whinging and excusing myself for performing badly and not trying my hardest.  The correct response would be "I can do this, IN SPITE of the floor.  Screw you, floor!  I shall skate on you anyway, no matter how crappy the results!"  I've been reading some other skaters blogs recently and something they all seem to agree on is that (although we all have our legitimate meltdowns) to try something terrifying and bite the dust is far better than to do it half-assed for fear of falling.

SO, let's carry this theory on.  I can only make half of the Sunday practises for the next 6 weeks or so.  I hate that, but that's the way it is.  I can't change it. I could go to practise and make excuses for myself and why I'm behind everyone else, or I could say "Hey, look how much effort I'm going to give, in spite of having missed a few sessions."  I want to be the first up on skates, I want to be practicing my laterals and transitions while the others are still doing up their laces.  I want to get the most out of every drill, make note of every bit of feedback I get from my teammates, coaches and refs.  When I can't skate, I want to be cycling, and doing my leg-cercises at home so that when I am on track I've given myself the best chance of kicking ass.

No more complaining.

Let's skate.

No one likes change

Something exciting has happened!  Over the summer (and possibly longer) our team's midweek training has been forced to change venues, which also means the days training happens have changed.  Which means I can attend!  Our old Monday Freeskates were always an impossibility for me due to my course, but now we've switched to Wednesdays I'm going to be able to go pretty much every week!  This is especially good news as we are currently in mid-May, the beginning of the holiday/wedding season.  I already have two hen parties and their subsequent weddings in the diary, as well as an 8-day long trip with my course, and a walking holiday followed by a short festival.  While these are all fantastic events involving people I love and want to be there for (and many of them planned since last year) as a new skater I find that it really frustrates me to have to miss any of the Sunday sessions.  Sunday is our main Newbie training day, and my only day on skates each week until now.  Missing one training session can mean I don't skate for a week, or even a fortnight, which is just too long.

Baby flamingo acquires whistle! - Jam Timing

I had to use this picture.  I had to. She's so classy 

I've been having a go at Jam Timing.  Our NSO-organiser-person is good enough to let us have a go at any new NSO skills we want to, so since I feel like I've got the hang of the Penalty Box I've been trying some new things.

Scorekeeping was my last one, but with our usual Jam Timer absent it seemed like a good time to don the stopwatch and whistle and have a go at bossing around every single senior skater I know, most of whom I am still in Newbie Awe of.

Oh dear me...

New skates, new challenges!

So this happened...

This week, my new skates arrived!  They are Sure-Grip Rebels, good for wider feet like mine.  I got them second-hand from the Recyclables Facebook page, and they came almost totally unused with snouts and gumball toestops included!  I'm so excited they're finally here (and that they're purple. I secretly wanted purple ones but didn't want to be superficial about it).  

Today was my first go on them.  So how were they?

Weird...

Skate maintenance 101

How skates work, what all the bits do, and the basics of how to make sure they are in good working order and don't fall off.  Info courtesy of King Typical.  Warning: contains copious amounts of diagrams!

The gimpy foot saga continues...

So, I've been to the physiotherapist, and despite my misgivings (I have the classic British trait of not complaining about a medical problem unless a limb's actually dropped off) it was very helpful.  I have an explanation, and I have a plan...

Skill update: Week 10

I think it's week 10.  I really have no idea any more, but I'm going to say it's week 10.  SO...

This week's training was directed by us newbies!  We picked what skills we most wanted to work on, and our two senior Dollies would drill us through it.  It was a really good way to break up the flow of learning something new every week, and everyone was able to tackle their problem areas with one-on-one advice from the Dollies so we all made great strides in some of our most challenging new skills.

My feelings about what I achieved today are kind of akin to playing a video game:

Baby flamingo acquires clipboard - Scorekeeping

Fun news.  The advanced level Dollies practise tonight included some special guests.  We had the most excellent Judge Fredd reffing with our skating officials, and also a visiting reporter from a local radio station.  Fun times all round!  We also managed to get a full contingent of skaters, which meant we could do proper scrims rather than directed ones (which are still useful, but less fun for me to watch!)  We also had loads of people to take turns refereeing and NSO-ing.  I've been manning the penalty box for the past few weeks, but after our recent lesson on Scorekeeping and Line-up tracking I really wanted to have a go with some paperwork.  This was the perfect time!

EIGHTEEN AND A HALF LAPS!

First attempt, if you remember, scored me 15 laps and included a spectacular wipeout which I'm really quite proud of :)

Second attempt, one week later, was a fall-free 16 laps.  I assume the same speed, but with the focus I clearly didn't have the first time round, and no subsequent face plant.

Third attempt was EIGHTEEN AND A HALF.  (The half is important to me).  That's two and a half whole laps up from last time!!

This week felt a lot better.  Unlike last time, where it felt more fun-and-games, this time I was really working hard from start to finish.  I zoned out and wobbled once or twice as I got more tired, but corrected myself and pushed for more speed on the straights.  I also had some of the faster newbies to chase, which was a great boost, and the senior DollyRockits keeping count and yelling tips and encouragement.  All of this really helped.

I also think it was at least partly to do with my crossover prediction.  In last week's lesson I did manage to do a few crossovers, and although I didn't feel confident enough to attempt them at high speed yet, I positioned my legs and worked my feet as if I was going to step into a crossover, and when I got it right I felt the difference.  Less sliding of the wheels, and less loss of speed on the corners.  In fact there were several points where I thought to myself that I really should have stepped because I felt so stable.

This bodes well, and I am proud of myself, and very tired, and I going to go eat some crispy cakes now as a reward.

Roller-skating-space-dinosaurs

All roller derby games have a theme.  And we were in the pub.  And this happened...

Why do I get the feeling I'm going to end up on yet another creative team?

Jason says Lean

This week we had another lesson from the excellent Jason, who taught us the essentials of backwards skating and crossovers.  I've been hankering to learn crossovers for weeks now and I DID SOME!!  I PUT MY FOOT OVER MY OTHER FOOT AND DIDN'T FALL DOWN AND DID IT ABOUT TEN TIMES AND IT WAS AMAZING!!!  I FEEL LIKE A BALLERINA!!!

Now to do it in the other direction -_-

Newbie training: Week 7

So, I've reached week seven (Seven?  Eight?  Who knows any more) of roller derby newbie training.  I feel like it's worth doing a little check-in of what's been going on, the joys and trials of taking up a new hobby/sport/activity/thing, what I've learned, and what I want to work on next.

How not skating can make you skate better - NSOing

The flamingos are relevant.  I promise...

Our two hours of weekly training has been extended to three.  Somehow I managed not to be aware that this was going to happen, although I'm sure somebody must have mentioned it at some point.  At any rate, it makes little difference to me as the fact that I go to church (fortunately in the late afternoon!) means I cannot stay for this extra hour and probably won't be able to for most of the year (the exception being summer when the church times will change to account for the lack of students).

Right now this extra hour is being used for 'Derby Brain', where we learn the rules and strategy of the game.  This is kind of important stuff, and I need to learn it, so I have come up with a Cunning Plan.

Laps

To graduate up to the next level of roller derby training, one of the requirements is to skate 25 laps in 5 minutes.

Until this week, I didn't realise just how many laps that is.

Actually I'm pretty pleased with myself, because on my first ever attempt I clocked 15 laps.  Considering that four weeks ago my roller skating technique looked and sounded like a nervous penguin wearing high-heeled shoes, or Bambi On Ice (you know, like this) I think this is a very respectable first try.  I even fell down (on my first lap, no less), skidding into a marvellous four-point-slide, but managed to control the landing and jump straight back up to skate on.  With all this in mind, what is that is that lap score, Scottie?

Damn straight :)

My gimpy foot and me

Most of the skating techniques we'll learn will mean standing with all our weight on one leg (the 'support leg') while doing an action with the other leg ('action leg', unsurprisingly).  The most basic form of this is gliding, which is balancing on one foot while in motion, and it's an essential skill.

However.  I am a special snowflake.

During our first lesson on gliding I discovered something... well, just really weird.  Most people will start a glide and travel in a roughly  straight line.  I glide on my right foot ... and make a beautiful arc to the left (admittedly this is very handy for going round the ends of the track!)  When I stand on my left foot ... I can barely do it for more than a second without toppling to the right.  Some further investigation and a reluctant visit to the doctor revealed that I have a dazzling future career as part of Monty Python's Ministry Of Silly Walks.

Ro-lloller De-berby

A new sport has entered our house - Roller Derby.  My housemate took it up in the middle of last year, I watched a couple of bouts (games), and now I find myself on my third session of learning to skate.  For those that don't know of roller derby it's kind of a cross between skating races and the gauntlet on Gladiators.  Two teams are on the track at once, each with a 'jammer' and four 'blockers.  Points are gained by the jammer completing as many laps as possible within two minutes, but to do so they have to fight their way through the four blockers of the opposing team.

I just can't seem to stop drawing skaters

I'm not really a fan of sport. At all.  But for some reason I really like watching this game.  Part of it's the quick pace and the atmosphere of theatre and entertainment that's created around it (there's usually music playing during the game, live commentary, and the skaters have their own larger-than-life personas on track), but a lot of it is to do with the girls themselves...