Amazing growth- assessment time!

I started out skating with NHRD at an open skate in March.  I strapped on my hand-me-down skates and stumbled to the floor.  And stumbled.  And fell.  And fell.  And tripped and...  well you get the picture.  I didn't do much in the way of skating, hardly even standing up.  After about 1/2 a lap Gil T got her knee pads just so I wouldn't kill myself.  Sat me right down in the middle until she could pad me up.  I think if she had a huge roll of bubble wrap, she would have brought that too. She showed me 2 things that night.  First, that derby sisterly love is not reserved for best friends or people who have been around for a while.  She didn't even know my name, but she gave me encouragement to keep getting up.  Secondly, she showed me that I can get back up.  This was a very important lesson to learn VErY early on.  Even the best skaters fall.  And the worst fall a lot.

Come to find out that not only did she notice me, I drew a lot of laughs and "omgs!" from other skaters there.  No, I'm not surprised.  Most people didn't think I would come back.  Or that I'd probably kill myself.  But someone took the time to say you can do it, and I did.  My last lap around (lap is a very loose term) the rink that night I fell really hard and actually broke the boot off of my skate.  It had felt wobbly for a while, and I have a feeling a wheel or 2 (or 8!) were coming loose.  The skates sucked, and that didn't help my graceful entrance into the world of roller derby.  But I tried, and didn't give up.   The very next day I went to Bruised Boutique and got real skates, pads and needs.  I was going to start my journey.

Fast forward to May 5, 2010... assessments.  Going into it I knew I was not going to pass, but I still wanted to go out any give it my best shot.  I loaded up the family and took them to Roby Park to play and I started to strap on my skates.  I had done the skate clinic with Betty, and had cleaned up my bearings ahead of time.  I had the "I'm going to do great and surprise myself even if I don't pass attitude".  I went with my chin up and skated.  Empress and Betty were assessing us, and I wanted them to be proud of my progress.  We did laps and warmed up and then Empress had us come and stretch, while she talked to us.

First she had us remember a time when we did something and said WoW.  I had 2 good moments, and remembered those.  The first was one time in JFK when I was skating really fast and *almost* had my crossovers going, and I was just skating.  I was skating like it was a natural thing.  The other time was the practice that Monday night.  We had to do falls, one being the 180s, another the baseball slides.  Both are arch nemeses of mine because I don't have great core strength yet... and I have a hard time getting up.  But from tons of practice falling, I'm also learning how to get back up.  And all of the sudden not only was I doing the 2 well, I was getting back up.  The other thing she reminded us was that no babies were going to die because of our pass or fail, nor were new wars going to be started.  We were not going to be kicked out of roller derby, and people were going to still love us.

Ok now time to skate.  First we just skated, working on our crossovers. Those just elude me, right now.  Someday...  Next came stops and I did ok with those.  Still wish that plow stops were on the level 1 assessments, I rock those like nobody's business, but that just means I'm that much closer when I pass to go onto my level 2's.  I can do a T-stop well... I'm afraid I will hurt my skates with a toe stop.  Then came the squats (I know these are in the wrong order, but since you don't know :P)... propelling with all 8 on the floor while squatting.  I don't remember this at all, but I do know I suck at it.  I can do it upright, and I can skate squatting, but I can not skate, squat and have all 8 on the floor.  We dodged, and I did ok with that... not sure if I failed or passed, but I dodged and didn't hit anyone.  We did our slides.  I rock the 180s now, I can do the 1 knee and the rockstar slide, baseball I'm pretty good at.  And I CAN get up from those.  However, not sliding because of the concrete threw me right off my game.  Lastly, my arc nemesis- skating on one foot.  I just can not see to get the balance.  For my defense, I can not stand on one foot for long because I have no balanace.  Must work on that.  Assessments over, time to bring the family home and then get back to hear my results.

I came back just in time.  They started calling us over one at a time.  As Empress said from the start, there really will not be any surprises, and nope, I wasn't surprised.  But I wanted to cry.  Not because of discouragement.  I wasn't discouraged at all.  I skated my best, and I proved a few things to myself.  First off- I can skate.  And I'm growing as a skater.  Read back- when I started in MARCH I could not even stand up.  Trixie always yelled at me to bend my knees (in a great sisterly kind of way).  I had bruises on my ass and my knees all the time.  I was scared.  Fast forward to MAY- 2 months later, and I was confident enough to take my assessments.  I grew.  I skated, and I *think* (ok I know) that I showed Betty and Empress that they do have a good skater in the making.  I cride because I'm proud, and I think I shined a little bit, even in my lack of passing.

Not passing isn't failing- it's getting more time to fine tune and spend more time in the nest with Betty.  I have goals- one being to pass BEFORE the next fresh meat group comes in.  I think it's possible.  Just need to spend more time on my skates, and PUSH PUSH PUSH.

Smile.

P.S. - I have a skater name (pending twoevils.org)  I am now Slay D Bug- 68 proof.  Aka Bug.