Sometimes I fail- Practice 6

Sometimes derby is going to kick you in the ass.  I know this.  However, it's not fun when it does.  I'm not going to pout, but I do need to make sure that I don't just track my progress and such, but also my fall downs.  I can't pep talk myself unless I see both my good and bads.

I started out the night thinking that everyone was having a bad day, and I was hoping their karma didn't rub off to badly.  We had a guest coach, and I was stoked to learn from someone new.  We started off with jogging and jogging and all that fun stuff (thank GOD for a sports bra), and although I'm not the fastest, I did it.  Then we did this weird stretch that I just could not get my mind around.  Note to self- figure it out!  After we got our skates on and started sprints.  I was doing good until someone fell and someone else got in front of me and slowed down.  I thought it was the start of the pack, so I followed her.  Then I got booted!  I know, if you are going to slowly then you need to go to the outside so you and others don't get hurt.  And I know I should have spoken up if I didn't want to be booted, since I was doing ok.  I CAN NOT expect someone to know what all 60 women are doing.  Instead I got into a funk and skated to the sides. 

Later we worked on things for our assessments.  I was in such a funk from before that I just kept screwing up, causing a bigger funk.  At one time I was in tears because I felt like I just couldn't do it.  I ended the night badly, and went home.  On the way home a derby announcer posted this on his FB page-  The Reverend Al Mighty “Anyone can give up, it's the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that's true strength.”

I need to remember that I'm not always going to get it.  I'm not always going to kick ass, even if it's just my own ass.  But what I do need to remember is that true strength is holding it together and keep going.  Chin up and keep trying. 

Between a phone call from a dear friend, popcorn and a date with the green fairy, I got myself together.  I know I'm going to have bad nights.  I've seen even the most amazing skaters have boo nights.  No one is perfect, especially not me.  But what I need to remember is nothing is personal, and if I'm taken off of things, it's for a reason.  And I need to step up my game, not just pout.  I'll get there.

Jelly Legs- Endurance, pratice 5

I've been dreading endurance week since I first heard of it.  It's not that I'm not in shape, but let's face it, I have some extra baggage on me.  And I'm not in great shape.  So when I heard that there were practices with plyometrics and endurance marathons, I wanted to cry... well after I figured out what the fox a plyometric was. 

But I went, water bottles full, and sneakers on.  I figured if I died then I wouldn't need to worry about my pending birthday.  Or rent. 

And let me tell you, I now have a love hate relationship with plymetrics, and also our "drill mistress" Tank.  She kicked my ass but I felt good.  I learned that I can not do walking lunges gracefully.  Just can not do it.  Kept falling.  (yes, strengthen my core).  And also I re-confirmed that jumping jacks and F-cups were not made to be in the same sentence.  However, I learned that I can do squats and crazy ass sit ups with my feet in the air, and I can even kinda sorta do a push-up.  I also learned that I have the ability to push myself.  If I can walk 60 miles for breast cancer, I can do some push-ups when I'm tired.  So I went home, wrote down everything that my muddy brain remembered, and I'm going to make sure that on non-endurance weeks, I do them twice a week, as well as adding yoga to my day twice a week.  I NEED TO STRENGTHEN MY CORE!

After kicking my ass we did 2 drills with our skater sisters, and WooT! my sister was there.  So Trixie and I started by doing C-swoops.  First I just kinda fumbled.  But I kept watching her.  And then trying.  And putting my now sore ass into it.  And I got it!  Then we did scissor sisters, where one of us would swoop in front of or behind the other, and we would try to skate as close as possible kinda cutting each other off.  When Tank first showed us I laughed.  All I could think was  I'm going to kill Trixie and get kicked off the league.  However, I did it.  And when I cramped up, I skated harder until the cramp went away.  

I have found that although I am not able to skate like a seasoned derby vet, when someone shows us a new move, I am able to get my body to start doing it.  Muscle memory is important, and with practice I will do it better, smoother, and pass my assessment.  But before I can get better, I have to do it.  And I feel like I am at least getting it.  Realizing this makes me very proud.

I did loosen my trucks a little tiny bit, but I don't know if it was jello legs or loosened trucks that made me feel smoother.  More practice, and next non-endurance I will loosen a tiny bit more.

And on top of a kick ass evening, during scrimmage I did a squat to look at something and pulled my groin.  Fortunately, it wasn't a bad pull, and by morning I was sore enough all over that I couldn't figure out where my groin was anymore.

I can... skate wicked fast? Practice 4

Thursday night brought me back to where I love to skate.  JFK has floors without divots, tape or strange bumps.  I feel like when I'm at Roller Kingdom if I push I'm going to be ass over tea kettle... so yeah, I LOVE JFK!

Before practice I tried to re-lace my skates so that I would have room in my toe box and my foot top where all the nerves are.  I think I need to tighten what isn't loosened,  however, it felt soooo damn good to feel my feet for the whole practice!  We are getting there, and all it took was a little "you can do it" from Betty!  Woot.

However, once I got to practice, I felt like I missed the memo and it was really endurance week.  I'm still trying to figure out how to skate in the other direction... so that started my ass kicking for the night.  Then we did knee drops.  The theory behind that is that while skating you can drop to one knee, and then get right back up and keep going.  Every time I dropped my knee pads would wiggle and then I would face plant.  So I tightened them.  Still no getting back up for me!  Finally I was told to just do picking up my feet on the whistle.  Still not comfy with that, but when the end of that torture was done, I did better at skating on one foot!  More practice will equal more confidence.  Once during our skating I did a really great fall- on my hands and knees, but I got up almost without taking a breath and kept on going.  I'm also starting to understand crossovers, when I'm moving at least.  And I realized that when I'm told to go I'm now starting to push off with my toes first, which gives me an extra boost.

And then the highlight of my night.  Maybe even the highlight of my derby career thus far... maybe.  We were told to find our sisters... mine was MIA, so I got adopted by N. Raging Grace.  She is my new hero!  We did pushes (maybe called shopping cart pushes??).  I got into derby stance, and she started to push me.  Now, when I'm pushing, I can skate kinda fastish.  She put her hand on my butt and showed me that I'm about as fast as a slug... by pushing me faster.  My job was to drive us, she pushed.  I started to have to worry about other people, making sure we were not hitting others or skating into them or anything.  She pushed.  FAST!  Holy FUCK ME!  This is better than any vice ever.  Better than roller coasters or speeding or sex or... well you get it... skating fast rocked my world!  And then I pushed her.  :(  Not so rocking, but I'll get there.  And I've decided to *gasp!* loosen my trucks a little.  I think that will help.

We did other things with the "big girls" like plow stops, and such, and then went off to be fresh meat.  We learned more on T-stops (hey, I'm getting it!!), and plow stops, and I finally go the hang of sticky skates, where you skate with all 8 wheels on the floor.  Then we did some actual derby drills.  We skated in a pack, where you have to be touching 2 people at all time, and Ivanna would shout a name and tell us to move through the pack to the front or back.  Then we did 3 at a time and learned how to fill empty spots.  The last part of practice I felt Caleb could have done better, but I tried.  We did hops.  First just bunny hops, and then dolly hops.  I can hop without falling, but as Dave pointed out, I'm not hopping far or high... so I'm really not succeeding all that much.  :(  After practice Helen taught us how to do stats, which was really good to learn, and also helps with learning the game.

I hope to have my stops mastered within another week.  I think I can do that.  And still working on derby stance.  That's one of my nemesis... when I'm in derby stance my upper bum hurts.  I need to work on my core.  Going to do some home exercises starting now...  I need to start strengthening my core!

Why I love my derby family- fundraiser and Practice #3

Yes, I'm slow at posting.  Such is life.  But the good news is today is a 2-fer!

First a little background.  When I first told my family I was going to join Roller Derby, it was not met well.  Reasons not important, but we didn't see eye to eye.  (Well except my bro, who knew?)  So I thought if I invited my dad to the season opener kick off party fundraiser he might feel a little better about his little girl joining.  I met him at Penuchies, semi decked out in my finest, and we had a beer and he talked to people. 

We stayed about an hour, and as we were leaving Hazel asked my dad how he felt about me joining.  I know part of why he's scared is because he used to watch roller derby when he was young... and that shite was scary!  I was so touched that someone would take the time to ask him, and what he said had me almost in tears, and flying!  Because I have a kick ass derby family.  He said "when she first told me I was scared, and I still am.  But meeting the people she is skating with has shown me why she wants to join, and that she is with good people, and I support her." (not verbatim, but you get the gist).  To every single person who took the time to say hello, or tell him I'm doing good, or even just "she'll be ok" (thank you Woody!!)... Thank you.  Driving me home he asked if he would be "Papa insert nickname here".  Yes dad, you will be.

Then we swapped off little man and my man and I got to party all evening.  If you say party like a rock star... you are not partying enough.  Party with the NH Roller Derby, and you will see a good fun time.  And great job fundraising too!  Everything from arm wrestling to dancing and pool and (thank you Sin D...) a leg wrestling match between me and my sister Trixie.  LoL, I can not wait for a re-match... not on a dirty bar floor.  Great times!  Only time my man got mad was when another guy bought me (and him) a drink!  Oh well, he's gotta get used to people being fans of derby girls!  But I have to say, I LOVE MY FAMILY!!

Now onto my third practice. 

We started with warm-ups.  I love them, except when we skate in the other direction.  But I'm getting it, and I really enjoy being loose.  Still don't know all the calls, but hey.  Then we did "Skater Sister Says".  Trixie was still getting into gear so I got teamed up with Empress.  People were doing stuff like push-ups and running in place and stuff... OMG!  But she was so sweet, and took the time to do "baby" stuff.  Which I'm doing at home when the boys are not around.  I'll get it, and it gave me some things to work on at home.  She did tell me to pull my toe stops in a little more...

Then practice with slides and stops.  We did 180 turns, where you fall on one knee and then do an about face.  Or in my case, a face plant.  I can go about 20 degrees... Gotta work on that. We did rock-star slides, which I can do, but I am not confident enough to speed up into it.  And knee slides.  I'm ok.  Enh.

Stops though, I had a break through.  I realized in the first practice I didn't actually ever get to do the plow stop... too many people and we moved on before I did it.  I'm slo-ooo-wly mastering the T stop, and I'm doing ok with the toe stop... but I had never done the plow stop (see image below of the blue pivot).

But hey, one try and I think I GOT IT!  I felt really confident in it, and as I sped up, I was still able to slow considerably without worries. 

However, I'm still not comfy with being on one foot at all.  Makes me want to cry, I just can not do it for more than a nano second right now.  So the next parts were hard.  We couldn't skate the diamond if we didn't know how to do crossovers... so we did other exercises.  I'm kinda getting "walking" in my skates.  To the left, and right and front and back, without the wheels moving.  Practicing it more.  Also walking up my stairs sideways (not with skates!) to get my legs doing the crossover motion.  But I think that's going to be a thorn in my side.  Also, we walked on our toestops.  Sin D. told me I needed to lower my toe stops.  (ok, who do I listen to, I was told to lower and raise in the same night!)  I had to stop doing that, as my toes were numb and my body was just numb.

I'm doing better.  I will do better.  I want to learn some exercises to strengthen my core... and my balance.  I did re-lace my skates so they are more open in my toes and on my arch top where my nerves are.  We shall see tonight how they do.  Back to JFK tonight, I love it there.  My confidence is so much better there. 

AND LASTLY- I am going to be the mascot for the Queen City Cherry Bombs!  All Hail the Queen that is me!  Just gotta come up with an awesome outfit to go with a crown, scepter, cape and red and black boa!  I love to rock boas!  And I feel so honored.

Practice 2, aka OMG my league is amazing!

Practice 2.  We started out in JFK, our "home".  This is where we practice most of the year, and also where our home bouts are.  So it's a good place to be.  Everyone told me 2 important things to be warned about with JFK.  First, it's slippery.  So be careful.  And second, it's hot, so be naked (well, not naked, but be prepared).  So I prepped for both.  And I never should have!  I skated more comfortably on that floor, and felt comfortable going fast.  (Just gotta stop better).  And OMG!  I froze my ass off!

Just before heading out I got the e-mail about my skater sister.  They are there to make sure we don't die.  Or something like that.  It's our big sister.  She says BEND YOUR KNEES!  And I'm thrilled, I have a kick ass one!  Not that all the women on the league aren't kick ass, but she's awesome, and a red head. Thank goddess for S.S. Trixie!  I think we are going to have fun. 

We started out practice as normal, with warm-ups. This is good.  Getting the muscles loose is a good thing.  Having blood flowing... yup, that's wicked important.  Especially because we had a scrimmage against the awesome NutCrackers.  I had signed up to help with stats, and ended up being put on score keeping.  I think I did good, and I'm going to keep doing stats to learn more.  I really felt like I got a much better feel for the game, and had to pay much closer attention... and not just to one person, but many people and refs.  This is good... because I know that on the track, you can't be tunnel visioned... So woot!  And I did good I'm told.  Asked questions.  Learned.  Had fun...

And got major toe cramps and leg cramps!  Note to self:  No matter if you warmed up, an hour and a half on skates without movement in an ass freezing room is going to cramp you up.  And yup, it did.  But we WON!!  99 to 53.  YaY!  After scrimmage I should have taken the time to re-stretch and then warm up again.  I also should have taken my skates off while we were scrimmaging.  Lesson learned.

After scrimmage we did an agility line... First the whole team (half were away that night thank goodness!!!) gets into a line and starts to skate, arms length from the person in front of them.  Then the person in the back of the pack peels out and starts to weave in and out between the girls in front of her WHILE THEY ARE STILL SKATING!  At first I didn't know what was going on.  Then I figured it out, thanks to my awesome derby sister Sin D. Lap Her.  And then, omg, with 2 charlie horses it was my turn.  I wanted to cry.  I can't do that!  But I went.

I went, and I did it!  I screwed up a few times by going to fast or slow.  I was afraid.  I wanted to puke.  And I completed it!  All the way from front to back.  Between each and every sister.  That was my proudest moment of the whole night.  And then I sat down.  Hey, I can only be so much, and I pushed in a way I didn't think I could.  Then I worked on stops.  I'm getting the whole toe stop.  T-stop... working on it.  And I'm also forcing myself to skate in derby stance, no matter what.  Kness bent.  Ass out.  Arms in.  I can do it.


Goals for monday- live through practice.  Push harder.  Bend my knees.  Ass out more.  Stretch better. T-stops need to be mastered soon... a girl's gotta stop!  And start working on 2 sets of gear... my skates need to be re-laced and toe stops moved... and also I found out on Thursday that I have been wearing my mouth guard upside down.  I have never worn a mouth guard before.  I didn't know.  Wow I felt dumb.

What a great league I'm a part of.  :D

Yoga in a halmet?

Monday night was my first practice with the New Hampshire Roller Derby!  I don't remember the last time things just felt so right.  But OMG my mind is blown.  Sometimes I felt like even though I had never been there, I needed to know what to do.  I will... I'm a fast learner.


But what made me laugh the most was when someone told us what yoga pose we were doing.  In quads, knee pads, elbow pads, wrist guards, and helmet (mouth guard was optional).  Yoga is supposed to be graceful.  I know someday I too will be graceful on my skates... but maggie + quads and gear + yoga = messy pretzel!

When I got there Hazel made me feel really welcome, and then Betty gave us fresh meat name tags for our helmets!  I'm told she stayed up forever the night before making them.  They are HAND DRAWN T-bone steaks with our names on it.  And she actually fit my full name in mine!  When I get my derby name I'm going to mount and frame that steak!

So anyways, we got into Roller Kingdom and started handing in info while putting on gear, then all of the sudden I looked up and people were skating, and someone yelled "practice has started, everyone should be skating!"  Wha?!?  you want me to get out there and skate with them?  Yes, I know.  I'm now official, that means get your ass out there and skate!

So skate we did, then yoga, then introductions (please don't give me a test!), then fresh meat and a few others went off to skate.  We did stops... derby stance (omg my bum!)... knee stops (falls)... rock star falls... plow stops... and swimming with our skates.  Then we got with the big girls again and skated in a line.  Supposed to be within arms reach of the person in front of you... yeah, that never worked for me.  I need to become more aware of my surroundings.  I tried.  Then we watched whips and then practiced some more before scrimmage.  And I think my night was made when Trixie remembered me (and my name!) and told me I was doing great.  God, these women are like rockstars!  Yes, I know, I will be too.  I just... wow, I can not believe I've joined this group of such strong, amazing, nice, and awesome women!

THAT was amazing!  Someday I AM going to be like that.

Then I had to scoot.  But more practice tomorrow.   This feels so right.  I'm sooooooo happy!

Oh and check out the team webpage!  I'm on it!!!!

Goals for tomorrow

A wise man told me that if I only fall down once then I didn't try hard enough.  Now, I don't really WANT to fall down, but I'd rather fall down with little man at the play ground than on the rink during my first night with the NHRD.  So tomorrow after errands we are taking skates and scooter and finding a good clean surface and skating.

Since I don't have ruler or anything, my goals for tomorrow is to not fall down all day (although I will be wearing confidence, aka, protective gear), but to start picking up speed, and also start to skate while picking up one foot!  And derby stance, because my back (upper butt?) is killing me!  If little man is not into the plan, I'll wear the skates while he plays on the playground and keep going from foot to foot balancing.

This is my last day to skate before APRIL 5!  Which is THE DAY!  So... here I go.  The more I skate, the sooner I'll be ready, the faster I'll learn, and the more bruises I can show off while prancing around the house.  The countdown begins!!