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!

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