Week 8 Scrimmage

Last night was another scrimmage. When we have scrimmages, until my skating skills come up to snuff, I usually NSO.

This is good as we don't have a ton of NSOs and I have a lot of time on my hands, so I like to get involved as much as possible.

The skating part I did do was just the first 30 minute warm up. It's kind of a bummer when I don't get any real skating in. I'm trying to get up my endurance, I'm trying to work on skills, and I am really trying to get into shape!

But on days where you can't get a full skate in, or you're just too exhausted physically or emotionally to do a full skate, a few minutes is actually fine and really important.

Something I've found with newer skaters. I don't know if this is true for more experienced skaters, I'll let you know when I get there. Is that when you put your skates on there is this warm up period where you have to remind your body why there are wheels on your feet.

You feel weird, unbalanced and a lot like you've never skated before. If you didn't skate the day before or missed several days skating it's even worse. So my recommendation for newer skaters is that if you are not going to skate today, put your skates on and do some skills in your kitchen or hallway.

Even if it's only for 10-20 minutes. Just remembering how to move on skates for a few minutes will make the next skate practice that much easier.

Anyways last night was not a huge skating triumph for me, but I am feeling the flow of what to do for a scrimmage and hopefully soon a bout.

After practice we had a ref meeting and then a few of us went for food. While meeting and making friends has not been my primary focus, am I really glad this is a benefit to joining derby. I really like the people I'm spending my time with.

Week 8 crossovers

Crossovers crossovers crossovers. Transitions transitions transitions.

This is kind of the pattern of my life right. Today was a surprising improvement.

When our fearless leader Rpod is not able to come to practice. "What? He has a life outside of practice? Hogwash!" We usually default to the next best skater, or loudest.

Today the best ref skater was Brian. Brian has led us a few times and of course is a fairly competent skater, which means he is still surprised when I can't do simple basics. Welcome to my world Brian! Though I'm never actually surprised by it.

Anyways we worked on transitions, which I should spend an endless time on. And the elusive crossover.

All the encouragement in the world is still no match for practice so there wasn't much to do other than keep doing transitions over and over.

But today there was a little surprise in Brian's methods that may have pushed me into the strange and exciting world of crossovers.

We worked on the crappy concrete floor with all it's divits and "character" spots. We only had a small space, but he had us do about a 10 foot circle in constant crossovers.

It started slow, but it totally worked! I got faster and while it may not have been the beautiful and amazing crossover that I'm working towards, it was a bonified legitimate crossover.

Sweet. The man's a genius!

Week 7 In the shit

Oh and I mean in a good way. Each practice just gets better and better. This is what I have been working so hard for. Being able to skate well enough that I can participate in drills.

Now I can't whine about how much I suck. The girls aren't hearing it. This is part of the beauty of working in a group. I need the peer pressure and no bull attitude. They tell you to shut up and get moving. For me this works better than anything else.

We did stopping drills. Oh how I need this! First we did knee slides. I like these a lot. I need to work harder on getting up quickly, but whatever.

Then we did t-stop drills. Today is the third practice that Megs and I have really worked on t-stops. We had fooled around with them a little, but I doubt either of us had done it more than 3 or 4 times before this week. I really felt like I was doing it today. Instead of skipping and being freaky, it really dug in and felt good.

On to plow stops. I was doing them all wrong. We did shopping cart drills with plow stops and Gary gave us 20 seconds of wisdom. It's amazing how a few words of well directed pointers can make that world of difference. There isn't really that much to them, but there are lot of wrong ways to do them.

Then turn around toe stops or tomahawk stop. This involves transitions. After carefully informing our group that neither Megs or I have effectively done these. Technically we've done them off the wall at least 3 times at the rink and I did them in the hallway today. Our sob story. We'll stop doing that soon enough.

Anyways after garnering enough support from our group we did it. We sucked, we were slow. But oh yeah, we did it!

Then the drills just didn't stop. We did dodging drills where we darted in
between the skater in front of us. This was awesome, but kicked my ass.

Today was a really good day. I am very sore and so very happy.

Week 7 It was good

Today was awesome! I feel so good skating and that totally boosts my confidence.

What I need to work on right now though is transitions. Anything that gets me used to moving in multiple directions. And that is what we did. Lots of them.

We worked with the players a bunch. Which again is something I really need. I need a little peer pressure to motivate me and the team really does that.

I did a couple on the wall and a couple on the carpet. Then I hit the floor and did them without crutches. I can't say I do them well, but they are ok. They are of course at a teeny tiny snails pace. But one step at a time.

The team did pack drills and I practiced skating the infield. I wasn't as fast as I needed to be, but boy did I get a workout. I'm pretty sure I won't be able to walk tomorrow.

Week 7 The hard part

I skate ok. But here comes the hard part. Where I have to push myself. No more wall. No more super slow. No more worrying about falling. It's time to get going for reals.

Open skate tonight. That past week I had stayed home and missed a bunch of skating opportunities. This was a bad idea. My stamina is atrocious. I need every skate minute I can get. And every time I go I am so glad I did.

Crossovers feel better, though I don't look down so I'm not really sure there is any cross. I didn't practice a lot of skills like turns and transitions. Mostly I spent time weaving through traffic.

This is a really good skill that I need to get up on. Serious weave. I was watching Dig Dug trying to keep up with Zilla as she darted through the crowd. This is what I need to do. Go faster then slow then fast. Step to the side, cruise through. Start using these fabulous skills I am so diligently trying to learn.

Practice tomorrow. I hope Rpod kicks our collective ref ass!

Week 7 Derby Night

This has been a slow week for me. Wed and Thurs night I stayed home from open skate to rest my knees. After a little conferring with my league mates they suggested stretching and exercises. So after 30 minutes my knees felt fine. Go figure.

Anyways, I wanted to skate Fri and Sat. But Fri is teen night and I was unnerved. Then Sat I helped set up for the Jet City bout, then hung out with Bricks for a while. No skating. We watched the bout, then to the Rockers and Rollers show and that was that.

So that's a total of four days of no skating except in the hallway.

Anyway, today was a scrimmage and derby night at Lynnwood. Freakin finally. I was starting to get depressed about my lack of time on skates. Scrimmages are my NSO training time, so no skating there.

But then there was finally derby night. How have I never been to this? There were a ton of preteen and teenage derby girls there. They are so good and so freakin cute! How I wish I had derby when I was a kid. I know my child will!

So skills for tonight were:
Crossovers- getting closer and feels very weird.
One leg balance- significant improvement.
180 turns-getting farther from the wall, always a good thing.
Transitions- very slow, but off the wall and of course only one direction. That's ok.

Week 6 off days

Yesterday and today have been spent laying around. My knees have been sore and I've been being good by staying off them and icing.

I always hate the beginning of getting back into shape, I get sore knees and it slows me down. I can work through it and the still get a work out in, but it usually gets a lot worse before it gets better. This time I am being conservative and staying off them.

If I had kept up even moderately on exercising the past three years I probably wouldn't be dealing with this. Or if I hadn't gained an extra 50. But blah blah blah. I did and there is no use whining about it.

I would really like to go to the gym today. I would have really liked to go skating last night. And hopefully after resting and icing today I can go skate tonight. But it's hard to complain when the punishment is having to rest.