Self-congratulatory Scrim!

A friend of mine pointed out that I've been writing and drawing lately out of a place of frustration... and I realised that he was right.  So this post is going to be entirely filled with self-congratulatory things about me!

I am scrimming!

Tonight I went down to Northamptonshire Roller Derby to scrim with some other recently-mins-passed skaters.  It was a completely different experience from scrimming with my own team (which I did for the first time last week) and actually I had a really great time and came away feeling really good about myself.  Because we were roughly around the same level, play was a bit slower paced than I'm used to, and it was easier to see where I'm at relative to other Mins-passed skaters.

1. I learned from my last scrim!

I made some mistakes in my first scrim (one of them rather large) that I felt really bad about.  But I went home, thought about what had gone wrong and why, and set myself some things to work on.  Today I implemented them!  When I was lapping the track while jamming I was looking ahead, thinking about my speed and trajectory as I came up to the pack, and slowing down a little in order to be more jukey, which isn't my natural forte.  It worked really well and I felt like I was playing smart and safe.

2. I communicated well!

I was always talking, sounding off where the jammer was, saying if I was reforming or bridging, calling my team mates to get together or get into a wall, or that the jammer was coming.  If we were together I'd often turn backwards, partly because I like to block that way but also so I could see where the jammer was and tell everyone else.  When I was jamming I even tried a few hand signals.

3) I am disciplined!

It was interesting to see the Pavlovian responses I've picked up from training with the Dollies.  When the jammer is coming I wall up, look for braces, and hunker down.  When the jammer is gone I look for a team mate to get with, ready to help our jammer or prepare for the next lap.

4) I'm smart and rules aware!

The officials team were great but a little short-handed, and I found myself internally calling no packs, narrating to myself if I or someone else got a penalty, even if it wasn't called by the refs.  If I got knocked out I knew where to re-enter the track.  When I fore-armsed someone but didn't knock them down I knew not to take advantage of the opening I'd made.

I also kept my head enough to think about how I was jamming.  I naturally want to barge through everyone, which I did get to do, but after a few jams of getting to know people I started to figure out different ways to tackle them.  One of them likes to face you and psyche you out: I got lower to keep my balance and started to fake and dodge away from her rather than going for the direct hit.  Two blockers liked to chase me out of the pack, but I realised I could dart about and put them out of play.  I remembered I could side-surf round people while using them as a support, I could rebound off them and pinball through the pack, I could dig in my edges and let a hit push me out the front of the pack.

5)  I am a good jammer!

After my first go at jamming in a scrim was a bit hit and miss, I was nervous to do it again, but by the end of it I was feeling really good about it.  A lot of the time I got lead jammer!  Playing against people of a similar level to myself, all the challenges felt like things I could tackle.  I watched the box and listened to my team mates for advice to see when it was a good time to call off the jam.

6) I don't give up!

It was a fairly casual scrim, but I was pleased with my fitness, stamina and attitude all the way through.  I'm a Badass Dolly!

Skating Sundae

I’ve been skating for a year and nine months now.  In that whole time I’ve only cried three times at training.  Two of those times have been in the last fortnight.

Playing with the Big Girls!

I really should have written about this a month or two ago, but life has been... interesting and there's not been much time for blogging.  But the news I should have written is good news.  I have moved from the newbie group up to the advanced group!

I am Fresh Meat no longer!

When surviving is winning

Much as I'd love to be able to say that roller derby brings only good things into my life, this would be a lie.  It does bring good things: there are markable improvements in fitness, lots of new friends, passing milestones and feeling good about yourself.  Good things that happen in derby can carry over into the rest of your life.

Unfortunately this also means that what's going on in your life can carry over into derby.  And life, as we know, does not always go smoothly.

Today I Am One!

I just had my derby birthday!  I joined the Dolly Rockit Rollers at the end of February 2014, barely able to stand on skates, but now it’s 365 days on and we just had a Minimum Skills test.

I’ve missed a few in the past due to my broken toe, then being on holiday, then an NSO fixture, and it didn’t really bother me because I knew I would never have passed everything anyway.  This time I was ready.  I was there, and I felt confident.

I passed everything

…except for two things.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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...

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:

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.

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.