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.
4 comments:
You will ROCK as QCCB's Mascot... ALL HAIL THE QUEEN - you need a sign that says that! OR Mascott's name could be called ALL-HAIL (get it?)
If standing on one foot scares you, start doing it in non-threatening off skates situations, like when you're brushing your teeth or washing dishes. That way it feels slightly less foreign and sketchy when you're trying to do it on skates.
I stand on one foot while I nuke my lunch at work. When I started I couldn't got more than a couple feet on my off foot. After practicing my balance I could do the whole straightaway and around a turn. It will come! :-D
Most things that people tell you to do to your skates - loosen your trucks, lower your toe stops, etc. - are more about personal preference than anything definite. When I started skating, I had my trucks tightened all the way and my toe stops really high. I tried different things and now I skate with pretty low toe stops and moderately loose trucks. But it took a lot of back-and-forth and getting used to the feel of different adjustments to figure out what works best for me (I could probably stand to loosen my trucks a bit more, esp. for JFK!). My point is that you can always go back to the way you had your skates if you don't like the way something feels. As you become a stronger skater, you'll probably make adjustments to fit the level of speed and skill you are at. It's definitely a good idea to try out suggestions from other skaters, but don't worry that there is a "right" way to configure your skates.
You're doing great at practices - I love reading your blog and being able to follow along with your FM journey. Just focus on the things that you are doing well, stay positive, and the harder stuff will come with time and practice!
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