week 11!

man oh man, i cant believe i have been doing this for almost three months now...time sure is flying! ive got a derby name all picked out (but it's not going to be revealed publicly until it gets accepted!) and i cant wait to order my super fancy ARRG league jacket! plus i'll have voting rights...pretty important, i'd say!

monday was a really hard practice. we spent almost the entire three hours running jams, and i was totally EXHAUSTED by the end of it because our numbers were kinda low. i was in for three jams in a row at one point...holy moly that was SO FREAKING TIRING! i felt like i was going to throw up!! there was one jam at the end of practice where i was lead jammer and i was just totally exhausted and i wanted to call the jam off, but i just kept going and managed to score 5 points before the jam was called off after time ran out. i just kept getting knocked down, got back up, knocked down, got back up. it was quite a fight for me to keep going, but i did! i felt good about that.

thursday practice was a travel team practice, and it was led by magnum PIMP and high pains drifter, two very excellent gatekeepers players and also excellent coaches/refs! there was a bit of fitness at the beginning which was nice and challenging, and then we spent the rest of practice doing drills. they were a lot of fun and i spent most of the drills in the jammer line. downtown dallis asked if i was wanting to be a jammer and i told her i figured i would just give it a shot! for some reason i do better as a jammer than a blocker; at least right now i do. guess i am better at taking/avoiding hits than actually giving hits! i hope to work on that though; i'd like to be as well-rounded as possible. one funny part of practice is that if you cut the track or backblocked anybody you had to use a shakeweight for 15 seconds as "punishment". ive never actually used a shakeweight before, but i did that night! it really wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for that totally embarrassing noise it makes when you use it :-P

i also got new kneepads! this might not seem like a big deal to most people but my current kneepads were almost a year old already and i definitely needed some new ones. the ones i got are PROFESSIONAL grade, mmk? they're a lot thicker than the ones i have now, and it was a bit of an adjustment skating with them (crossovers were weird the first few times, kept knocking my legs into them) but after an hour i didn't even notice them anymore. having good knee protection is essential because that's where a lot of injuries can occur in derby. its worth it to spend a little more and have the best pads available rather than spending thousands on knee surgery!

last but not least, the draft is on tuesday! yikes!! very nervous as i have submitted myself for it. i really have no clue as to whether or not ill actually get drafted, but i figured it was worth a shot. guess you'll all find out in my next posting about my experience with the draft and the outcome of it as well. cross your fingers!

weeks 9 and 10

gah!!! i am way behind! and im totally gonna cop out on this entry because my dad is visiting and ive just been pretty busy in general. but to sum up:

- yes, we were finally allowed out of our yellow shirts, which means we are scrimmage eligible!
- i did an off-skates kettlebell workout that totally kicked my ass but was AWESOME and i wanna do more

- i went to my first away bout in columbia as an NSO. my ARRG girls lost but it was a great experience seeing roller derby in another city
- scrimmaged with the big girls for the first time. i only got to go in once as a jammer, but it was still a great experience to have
-learning more and more each time i play this game. learning to use my hips more, not just take hits but actively hit back, and to always keep my feet moving so people dont know where i intend to go
- signed up to play in two expo bouts!! first one is may 21. incredibly nervoussss
- been reading the book "rollergirl" by melissa "melicious" joulwan. great, informative read, i'd recommend it to those wanting to learn more about the beginnings of roller derby!
- us newly out of yellow girls were determined eligible for the draft, which i submitted myself for. its just over two weeks away. very nervous and excited about that!

thats it in a nutshell. sorry to be so lame with the short entry, but ive got a life i need to go and enjoy :) next entry will be longer!!

week 8! jams and bouts

i've been a part of ARRG roller derby for two months now. this is very exciting for me, because it means i am one month away from being able to do all sorts of cool stuff like submit a derby name, order a league track jacket, and vote on issues regarding the league. in short, i'll finally be a full member! i can hardly wait :)

girl on the right showing you what NOT to do: no elbows!

not much to report this week! however, on mondays i can see romo slowly but surely working towards clearing us to be scrimmage eligible. as you read in previous posts, we are cleared to hit and be hit, but only during drills, not actual scrimmage. suri o'killer came back and we worked on some more hitting. i think i am really starting to get the hang of it. i just need to be careful about my elbows! i am going to get a hundred million penalties if i keep skating with my elbows out, so i asked romo about it and we are going to work on it this next week.

there is a bout scheduled in columbia, missouri for next weekend, and some of the newer girls are forming a team and going there to play como (for short)'s b-team. the girls on the roster for this game have been coming to monday nights so romo can help train and prepare them. so what we did on monday was actually run a few jams! it was us yellow girls versus the rookies. i figured it would be crazy uneven since these girls have been skaters longer than we have, but i felt us yellows really did hold our own! we even managed to get lead jammer a couple of times! we all rotated positions, and i have to say, being a jammer is TIRING. everyone is trying to hit you the hardest and then when you finally break out of the pack you have to sprint faster than everyone else so you can catch up to them again, get hit some more, then sprint some more, etc. PHEW! i dont think it's my favorite position, since i am not the speediest skater on the block. being a blocker, however, i LOVED. i especially loved being at the back of the pack and holding back the opposing team's jammer. i was particularly proud of myself on one particular jam when i manged to hold their jammer back by using the techniques i learned in practice; i just sat on her and she couldnt get around me and had to ask for help! meanwhile, our jammer had gotten through cleanly. i am really starting to see why people love doing this so much. i cant wait to do more!!

i went to practice on tuesday, but unfortunately there wasnt all that much for me to do since it was a scrimmage practice to prep for the bout on saturday, so i just worked on my turnaround toe stops, a wee bit of jumping, and some hockey stops. the bout on saturday was really exciting to watch! it was our league season championships, and the m80's ended their winless season on a high note by overtaking the smashinistas, getting third place. witnessing a 30-point jam was pretty incredible, i have to say! i was very busy working the merchandise table during the first place bout between the stunt devils and the rebel skate alliance, so i was only able to catch glimpses here and there. i can tell being one of the heads of the merchandise committee is going to be a lot of work, but also a lot of fun! it was also great being at our new venue in queeny park. we were lucky enough to have the guys' league play there first a couple of weeks ago and we learned a lot from being at their bout and adjusted everything accordingly for our first bout there. i think things ran really smoothly, and we had a sellout crowd! the stands were totally packed!

next week: romo told us to wear yellow to practice tomorrow, but to also bring black and white shirts. could this possibly mean the end of the yellow era for us newbies...?

week 7 and HEADSHOTS!!

name soon to be revealed!

last week wednesday i had the supreme pleasure of getting my roller derby headshot taken! usually the league waits a little while to have the new girls photographed since dropout rates tend to be kinda high (roller derby is not for the wishy washy types!), but we got lucky and our league photographer, lynn terry http://www.lynnterry.com/ agreed to let us new girls get our picture taken. i was so very excited/nervous! she was a total delight to work with and put me at ease right away. the picture turned out pretty good, dont you think? i decided to bring my wooden shoes to use as a prop in the picture, since i know i want my derby name to have something to do with my dutch heritage! i've got a few names in mind, but i have to wait another month or so before i can officially submit anything to the master roster of rollergirl names (view the amazily HUGE list for yourself at TwoEvils). once i've picked, i'll let everyone know!

last weekend was also the gatekeepers first bout of their first local season! it was at a great venue which was new to me: queeny park in ballwin. the drive there was particularly heinous due to SNOW, but my mom and i managed to make it there. the guys were relying on me...i was scheduled to sing the national anthem! i felt kinda nervous about it but i know i did just fine. it was also interesting to note the difference between men's and women's derby. i asked romo what she thought some of the differences were and she noted the men seemed to skate faster and rely more on speed, and were using more shoulder hits as opposed to using their hips to hit. i agree with her statements, but i do feel that the men rely a bit more on brute force, whereas i can see the women using more tactics and "mind games" on their opponents. can't wait for the rest of the season and watch more of their bouts! i feel very fortunate to have arguably the best men's roller derby in the WORLD right here in st. louis!!

suri o'killer

this week in practice we spent a great deal of time working on our hips!! it really amazes me what my body is capable of...who knew by sticking my butt in the right direction i could knock someone down?? retired m-80s skater suri o'killer came out and show us new girls how it's done. she was so helpful! i especially liked the drill where we skated through a line of veteran skaters and got to practice putting hits on them, and then having all the vets hit us! i remembered the advice eli and bevo gave me last week and kept my stance wide and didnt put my knees together, and i definitely felt a lot more stable when receiving hits. yay for improving!!

we also got to start putting everything we've learned together all at once by skating in some practice jams! its very challenging when youre out there at first because so much is happening all at once and you have to keep track of what everyone on your team is doing as well as everyone else on the other team! fortunately watching a lot of derby helps and god knows ive watched plenty in the past year, so it wasnt as overwhelming as it couldve been.  then on tuesday i did the off-skates workout (thanks for letting me feel the burn, julia ghoulia!), skated in the warmups, but then spent the rest of practice (which was really a bunch of scrimmages) working as a non skating official (NSO for short). i was standing in the center of the track for a while keeping track of penalties and points, and after a while switched to being a penalty timer. i need practice being an NSO, because in a few weeks i will be accompanying the rookies (non-rostered girls, lots of girls from the group that tried out ahead of mine) to columbia for a bout, and i will be NSO-ing there. i'm very excited about it!

well, that's it for this week. who knows what the future holds??

weeks 5 & 6!

so, here's the big news....we've started HITTING!! after our monday newB practice romo cleared us to do contact drills, and it was so exciting! i am one step closer to getting out of my yellow shirt and being cleared to scrimmage with the big girls :)

eli wallop

week 5 was really, really intense for me. truth be told, i think i overdid it. i went to the practice on sunday, newb practice on monday, then practice tuesday AND thursday. i wanted to get in as many practices as possible since my mother would be in town the next week and i wanted to be able to take the week off and enjoy my time with her, but still get my minimum number of practices in. as a result, i was a total WRECK by thursday. i wasnt able to take the hits that the vets were giving us very well at all, and i was falling a lot. eli wallop and bevo kill explained to me that i was getting low, but giving myself a false sense of stability by putting my knees together, which in reality made me LESS stable. it was nice to get some useful, constructive criticism! however, being able to do contact has really taken things up a notch, and i totally overestimated by ability to fully participate at that many practices, especially when my body isnt used to this yet. it IS nice to not have to practice on my own off to the side so much though!

week 6 is really just monday, since i didnt want to miss a newb practice, and i wanted my mom to come watch and see what a practice is like for me. we worked on some more hitting drills as well as some situational stuff, such as when you THINK there is an opening in between two players on the opposite team, and they close up against you at the same time. working on some "dirtier" hits and situations is great practice for the real scrimmaging/bouting i will eventually be doing. we also worked on rotating blockers as you move around the track to protect the inside line. again, very useful! im really starting to get the hang of tactics and employing them as well.

i'll post again soon! theres a mens derby bout this weekend...very exciting :) the first local season of the st. louis gatekeepers!!

week 4

i know i'm super late with this post, since its already the beginning of week 5, but there's been a lot going on, although its been kinda low key all at the same time. hmmm... in short:

- monday night's newbie practice didn't happen due to a league meeting :( i was bummed since we were scheduled to start practicing hitting this night
- tuesday was a scrimmage in preparation for the upcoming bouts this past weekend, so i didn't attend because i'm not cleared for contact yet
- thursday wasn't very well attended due to the fact that everyone was resting up in preparation for saturday

chewblocka!!

sherry and i were two of the yellows that did attend thursday, however, and one of the highlights was that chewblocka gave us permission to start hitting each other a little bit! there wasn't too much we could do and we were both very careful so as not to improperly block and learn bad habits, or risk getting injured. but it was nice getting that little taste of hitting. we also did whips which i hadn't done before; previously i had only done hip whips. this is the "famous" one where you stick out your arm and the other person grabs onto it and you throw them forward like a discus, giving them a huge burst of speed. and, of course, where the movie "whip it" gets its name. that was fun too :)

then saturday came and it was time for the bouts!! i was working will call. i was a little stressed out about it beforehand but i just kept a smile on my face and before i knew it everyone was all checked in and watching the first bout and my job was pretty much over. i wish i could've had the chance to see a bit more of the bouts, but i'll just watch the online footage which bob so wonderfully records for us. every time i watch derby i learn something new, so the more i watch, the more beneficial it will ultimately be for me!

sunday was the first time i attended a travel team practice. probably wasn't the best timing on my part since they are preparing for a bout this upcoming weekend in colorado (and therefore wasn't able to participate in their multitude of contact and strategy drills), but i got a chance to warm up with them and get some good practice in on my turnaround toe stops, jumps, and weaving.

wait until you guys read about what i did THIS week...coming soon! ;)

week 3: and so it begins...

this week was....weird. a lot of highs and lows for me personally. i went to monday practice with lower back pain that had gradually gotten worse throughout the day, which i was blaming on PMS even though back pain is never a symptom of mine. so i just popped some ibuprofen and headed to practice even though i felt like ass.

we did a quick off skates warmup that included skipping and jogging and some stretching, and then we put our skates on. i knew right away that something just wasnt right. my feet felt like they weighed about a hundred pounds each and the knee falls we did which are normally easy for me (although quite tiring, dont get me wrong), were suddenly REALLY difficult. we did some running on our toe stops which is very useful for a quick start. i need a lot of work on that because i am a super slow starter. i was a slow starter when i ran the sprint in high school too, so i was excited that we had that opportunity. but i could barely even stay balanced on my skates!!...and that's when i realized i couldnt feel my leg.

i sat down and squeezed my left buttcheek and upper thigh and couldnt feel it, and although i may have looked chill about it on the outside, on the inside i was FREAKING OUT. numbness is a very scary feeling! then i wanted to cry, not because of the pain, but because i was worried i would have to miss practice! then i felt outright angry. i took my skates off and watched the rest of practice. at least i had managed to get an hour of skating in, and even just watching can still be helpful.

i was feeling very upset about my injured back on tuesday, but then when i got home from work i had some very exciting news waiting for me on our league's forum: romo said that all of the girls who skated in practice on monday were cleared to skate in the st. patrick's day parade! OMG! i had already volunteered and had figured i'd be walking, since the general rule is that you must be scrimmage eligible to appear on skates at any ARRG event (we are still quite a ways away from scrimmage eligibility). but i guess romo was so pleased with our overall progress that she gave us the go-ahead! so next weekend i will be making my big "rollergirl" debut ON SKATES for the very first time. i couldn't even tell you how excited i am for all of st. louis to see me skating around :)

the girl in the front is doing great derby stance!

i went to a chiropractor for the very first time the next day, and went again today. i went to practice straight after my chiro session! the doctor said it was okay though, so i went ahead and did it. i could feel the back pain starting to flare up but i know its because im not skating in the proper stance. derby girls have to "skate low" so they have a lower center of gravity and are harder to knock over. what i have been doing is bending at the waist, which was putting a lot of stress on my lower back. what i need to be doing instead is bend at the knees. its REALLY hard, especially since i am so tall, and it makes my quads burn like hell, but they are a lot more capable of handling stress than my poor back, so i guess i am now forced to use proper derby stance! i took a little break, stretched it out, and re-entered the track with improved posture and i could notice the difference almost immediately.

the rest of practice was good. there was a crazy endurance drill where you skate two laps fast, and then one lap squatting, and then one lap doing alternating knee falls. we did that whole sequence ten times....woooo, did my legs hurt after that one! we also did some light beginner blocking exercises by skating along the wall and purposely bumping ourselves into it...i was glad i had my butt pads on because otherwise i would have some mighty fine bruises tomorrow! we also worked on our turnaround toe stops and 180 degree falls. now i am ready to take my weekend to rest and enjoy mardi gras with my friends!

coming up next week: our first REAL blocking exercises. i get to HIT PEOPLE!!

summary of week two

this week, for whatever reason, wasnt as intense as last week. i made it past thursday with minimal soreness! hooray! but also boooo, cause it means i probably wasnt working as hard as i shouldve been....

my new wheels: radar tuners!

monday was unfortunately a shorter practice, because our league holds a scrimmage once a month for the recreational league, which always falls on a monday. so we started the night on our skates and quickly ran through our essentials (stops and falls), and then worked a bit on turnaround toe stops, which was especially nice, since it was a review after working on it a LOT at thursday practice. a mere two months ago i thought i'd never be able to do them, but im learning quickly, and its nice. unfortunately for whatever reason i felt sluggish that night and probably didnt skate to my full potential; i told a couple of people my feet felt like molasses. to help combat this i also ordered some slicker wheels from romo, since my skating skills are better now and i dont need as much grip. the floor at the skatium has also been redone and is not quite as slick as it was before, making my current wheels feel kinda slow and "heavy". who knew wheels could make such a big difference?

after the short practice was the rec bout. id been to several as a pre-newbie but this time i actually got involved, which i was REALLY excited about! i was a penalty timer, which means i sit in the penalty box and time skaters as they enter the box; they have to sit there for one minute. i tell them when ten seconds are remaining that they may stand, and when they are done and may re-enter play. it was kinda cool seeing the other side of the sport a little bit and eventually when my body cant handle the constant intense hits that are required of you in derby, i would love to be a skating ref!

skating backwards...where are her pads??

thursday's practice was HARDDDD. romo led it and she loves to skate backwards, so guess what we did? we skated backwards almost the entire time. my feet, especially the arches, were just KILLING me. i know i feel nervous skating backwards since i cant really see where i am going even when i look over my shoulder.  therefore, i dont feel as confident, causing me to use my feet to grip the bottom of my skates, causing a lot of cramps and pain. im working to try and unlearn that and relax my feet, and i can tell it is going to be one of my biggest challenges. i was able to pick up my speed a bit though, and i feel a bit more confident now.  the last part of practice was some positional blocking and using "lanes" on the track to create a wall that the jammer cant pass. of course all of us yellow girls couldnt do any REAL blocking, but it was nice to learn and go through all the motions and have a bit of strategy in our practice.  i got to feel a teensy bit of what contact was like when one of the girls kinda forgot herself and started shoving me around a bit. romo yelled at her that i was in yellow and she stopped, but hey, i am okay with contact! i can hardly wait to start hitting people!!

i skipped thursday practice, but it was a scrimmage and i felt i could use the rest. i did go to a local skating rink on wednesday though and skated around with a friend. any practice is good practice, right?

first league meeting

whether people realize it or not, there is a lot that goes into making roller derby actually happen. most people see cute girls skating around in fishnets with their intimidating names and kinda assume that's the end of it. when in fact, that is the end RESULT of a lot of very hard work behind the scenes. as a member of this league, as scary as this may sound, i am also now a part-owner of the league. scary, but cool! the fact that modern roller derby is "for the skaters, by the skaters" is one of my favorite aspects of the whole thing.

yesterday was my very first league meeting. we have them every other month as a way for all of us to remain on the same page, discuss concerns, give praise, share new ideas, revise policy, etc. i never realized roller derby has SO MANY committees! as a newbie i was immediately put on bout committee, meaning that on bout day, i am one of the people who makes things run smoothly, like setting up seating, taking tickets, etc. i kind of thought that was the main "chunk" of the organizational part of derby, and how very wrong i was! even when the girls aren't bouting, there is a lot that needs to be taken care of, such as publicity, merchandise, coaching, recruitment, events, insurance, safety, sponsorship, charity, graphics, website, etc.....whew! thats a lot of stuff!!! i was kind of intimidated at first, but realized that its not on my shoulders to do ALL of it; i just need to do my share. and if everyone does their share, we will thrive as a league.

the meeting was long, but left me very excited to be a member of this league. as a two-week old newbie, there isn't much i can do (yet), but in a few months i will have voting rights and i will really be able to get myself actively involved in running ARRG. for now, i can just be helpful and assist with as much as possible. i've flyered at events, talked to countless people about what modern derby is all about, pimped our league on my facebook page, and in a couple of weeks i will even be appearing in my very first parade as a rollergirl! i just need to figure out what my skillset is and how i will be best able to help the league, and join the appropriate committees. because if we didn't take care of this league, it wouldn't exist! and at the end of the day, ARRG exists because we love to skate, right? :)

coming up: second week of practice, st. patrick's day parade, and our march bouts!

first week of practice

so, umm....i currently can't move. let me take the following few paragraphs to explain why:

monday was our very first "official" newbie practice. it was great!! romo and some of the other girls came and brought us cupcakes and dressed up in tutus and capes to welcome us. that was a very sweet gesture :) the practice was good and we worked hard, and it was like an extension of the stuff we worked on at bootycamps. something new i worked on was cross-steps. this particular exercise is very helpful for me because i've noticed that during my crossovers my back foot gets kinda lazy and doesnt help propel me like it should, and since the back leg is really the only thing moving you forward during cross-steps, it really helped to isolate the skill i need to work on. but we continues doing falls and stops and jumps. for the first time, i jumped over a 6" cone!! before we were only jumping over the little "disc" style cones. since jumping was one of the things i was most scared of, it's really exciting to see myself making progress in that area.

artemischief

well, since monday nights always leave me pretty tired/sore, i felt kind of insane going to a league practice the VERY next day. but, as a member of the league we are required to attend at least 7 practices a month, which means i can't just rely on my monday newB practices. so i went, and the first 45 minutes were an off-skates workout, which was led by one of the league's top skaters (in my opinion), artemischief. teel had warned me in the past that she was insane, but i didnt realize how insane until last night. her workouts are TOTALLY BRUTAL. i was seriously about to vomit and had to quit halfway through; i still had another 2 hrs of skating ahead of me!

so i caught my breath and got my skates and gear on, and then julia ghoulia took over for regular practice. that was also tough. much tougher than newbie practice! its obvious the veterans have been doing this for a while and as a result, are much more agile, faster, and in WAY better shape than i am. i was huffin' and puffin' all over the rink, but i did my best to keep up. then a little later the newbies went off to the side and worked on jumping, weaving, lateral movement, and hip whips while the vets worked on contact-based drills. there were 8 out of 15 newbies there, so it was nice having some company. a few of the vets even came over to check on us from time to time to give feedback and some instruction. i really love the support and appreciate that they are looking out for us, the future of ARRG (as romo always puts it).

so i woke up this morning, after two straight nights of practice, and i felt like absolute hell. it took a serious amount of motivation to even get my body out of bed, thats how sore i was! but no matter how much it hurts, its a good kind of hurt, cause i know it's from working hard. still trying to decide whether or not i'm crazy enough to attend thursday practice as well. guess we'll see how i feel tomorrow!

february '11 bout

last night was my first bout as a member of the league! i was very excited to make my big "debut", but little did i know that would become much more literal than i had imagined it to be...

these bouts were the beginning of the ARRG season playoffs: RSA (rebel skate alliance, and our newest local team) vs the M-80s, and the Smashinistas vs the Stunt Devils. I knew it was going to be a great couple of bouts before i even made it to the all-american sports mall (where all our bouts are held); i had heard that we had completely SOLD OUT!! there's been a few sell-outs before, but it was always because of ticket sales at the door. this time, we were sold out through online presales! our cap is at 1100 fans, so it's pretty incredible to realize that derby has become so popular, and that our sport just continues to thrive and grow every day.

didnt want to pull a "christina"!

i made it to the venue early, since i was volunteering. i signed in and was shown to the merch table (yay! as a member of the league, im allowed to handle money now!), and stayed there for about twenty minutes until trippity hooha, one of the bout coordinators, pulled me aside. i TOTALLY thought i was in trouble for something, but it turned out that she wanted to know if i would be okay with singing the national anthem! it was pretty cool that they put so much faith in my singing talents, especially since i'd never formally auditioned or anything; i had merely expressed interest. so here i am, about to sing in front of over a THOUSAND people, and all i can think about is "i hope i dont forget the words!"

of course it went great, and i did fine (although i probably couldve done a little better, but it was a LOT of people, okay??), and i got a lot of compliments afterwards. but now, there were bouts to watch! i finished up my merch table duty and watched the second half of the first bout as well as all of the second. i feel like every time i watch derby (and i've watched a LOT, believe me) i learn something. i'm really starting to understand the fine points and strategy of the game better now.

the afterparty was a lot of fun as always, and i was able to talk derby with lots of different people. i got to hear some feedback about my tryout from one of the judges, and she told me she could tell that i had been working very hard on my skills, and that i was ahead of the pack as a result. that was really, really nice to hear. i just have to keep working hard and show everyone in the league now how passionate i am about this, and when the time rolls around, they will be fighting to draft me! haha

first newbie practice tomorrow...so excited!

trying out: not as easy as you might think...

as you know from my previous post, i had been training on my own for about 5 months when i got the email about recruitment. i had been eagerly (and somewhat impatiently) waiting, and by the time info night rolled around i was more than ready to get this whole process started!

i made sugar cookies...

not gonna lie, i felt like kind of a douchebag going to info night when i already knew half the league and all the ins and outs of roller derby. so what did i do? i baked cookies. probably made me seem like even more of a suckup, but i really did it with the best of intentions. so anyway, i pull up to the st louis skatium (where the arch rivals hold all their practices) and find the parking lots and and surrounding street completely CLOGGED with cars. "uh oh. how many girls are coming to this thing??" was the thought that immediately ran through my head. i was early too, but when i walked in it felt like there were a hundred other girls there. yikes!!! i hadnt expected this huge of a turnout, and i dont think anyone in the league did either. but i pulled up a chair and patiently listened to all the information that i already knew about buying gear, the time commitment that derby demands, etc etc.

not all leagues have a tryout process, and the ones that do probably vary greatly in intensity and difficulty, but this is how it works with the arch rival roller girls (ARRG, for short): there are three nights that you attend, with skates and all your gear, where they teach you the skating basics and the skills that are expected of you at the tryout night. these three nights were initially meant to be spread out over several months, to give girls time to practice these skills on their own time in between these nights (affectionally called bootycamps). but of course the universe hated me, and the skatium had their floors redone, so the first night was pushed back from mid-december until after the holidays. ugh, fine. i had waited this long, i could wait a little longer! this also meant that the tryout date had to be pushed back a week. ok, fine. then the weather decided to be a bitch, and we had to cancel and postpone. what was initially meant to be a two-month process was crammed all together into one month. tryouts were supposed to be january 31st, but then SNOWPOCALYPSE '11 arrived, and we had to postpone it a week.

what crossovers look like!

the skills we were taught during bootycamp were basic beginner derby skills: skating with confidence, using bent knees and a powerful stride, using crossovers in the turns, weaving, proper falling technique, proper stopping techniques, and jumping. we were also timed for speed. luckily, i knew these were the skills we'd be learning and eventually tested on during tryouts, so i had been practicing them on my own. still though, it was hard since a lot of the skills i wasnt comfortable trying on my own (jumping), and some other skills are frowned upon at the local roller rink. they wouldve kicked me out if i had been practicing falling on purpose over and over and over! but, since i had my foot in the door with the league already, i found out that skatium would be soon be open to skaters in the early morning (5-10am) sweet! i had an afternoon job, which left my mornings totally open to go skating. for a few months i would go twice a week, every week, and practice whatever i wanted to my heart's content. still, not having anyone there to give feedback was frustrating, and after a while i felt like i had plateaued as far as what i could achieve on my own.

i got a full-time job and the practices diminished a bit, but i still made a few practices where i got up at 4:30am to be at the skatium by 5, so i could skate for an hour before i had to leave for work. it sucks getting up so early, but i always feel great after i skate, and i never regret going, so i kept up with it as best i could. i couldnt help but feel that at that point, i was almost OWED a spot in the league. come on, who else was getting their ass up at that hour to go skate? barely anyone thats even IN the league even did that! but i didnt want to get cocky, because i had no idea what kinds of skills the other girls were hiding when i sized them up at the very first info night.

thankfully, the 60 girls that showed up at the info night was reduced to about half that number on the very first night of bootycamp. the talent level was mixed, but definitely a bit higher than i had expected. however, i felt that personally my stamina and comfort on skates was great, and that all my practicing had paid off. yess!!! i just had to keep working and keep practicing the skills they were teaching us, and i would be ready for tryouts.

newbies have to wear yellow as a signal
to the veterans so they know not to hit us yet!

tryouts were yesterday. i was SO nervous leading up to it that whole day; i could think of nothing else while i was at work and when i got home i tried to take a nap and failed MISERABLY, since my heart was practically pounding out of my chest. i visited romo at the shop and talked it over with her, and i realized that it really is no different than preparing to give a big speech or singing a solo in a musical. you just have to trust in yourself. if you have done the proper work to prepare, your body will take over and do what it has been trained to do, and everything will turn out great. so thats exactly what i did. i just kept a level head and didnt overthink it; i did the skills that were asked of me to the best of my ability and that was that.

it was after the tryouts were over that i got REALLY nervous. i felt i had done well, and that all my hard work had paid off and served me well that evening, but there were 21 of us that tried out and i knew there wouldnt be spots for all of us. the hour that passed between the end of tryouts and when i finally saw my name on the list was a total haze, i was so incredibly nervous. but then i saw it on the website link that was provided to us, and i was SO incredibly excited. i had PASSED TRYOUTS! 15 of us had made the cut. then my phone and my facebook started to blow up. i received such a huge outpouring of support from my friends and my family, and i felt so incredibly elated and satisfied. i had set a goal for myself, worked hard, and as a result, achieved it. i really felt like i had earned that spot, and it felt SO DAMN GOOD.

so now it's the day after, and the fact that i am a derby girl has sunk in a little, but not completely yet. perhaps it will next monday when i attend my first newbie practice as an ARCH RIVAL ROLLER GIRL. but for now, i just feel like little old mindy :)

i must explain that my celebrations arent going to last long. because now that i have passed tryouts and become a member of the league, i am still only at the beginning of a very long derby journey. i must attend newbie practice on monday nights, pass a rules test, pass the women's flat track derby association (WFTDA) minimum skills test, and i have to get cleared to hit and get hit by other girls. once all that is done, THEN i can submit myself to the draft and hopefully i will get drafted to one of our four local teams. for now, i am in newbie limbo, and i know i wont see actual playtime for several more months. but let me tell you: i am so incredibly happy to be here!

next week: first REAL practice in yellow!

where it all began...

hello! i am starting this blog to document my trials and tribulations as i enter the world of roller derby! i am not the greatest writer and this blog will mostly serve as a way for me to look back on everything that's happened to me. but if you enjoy reading it, all the better! now, let's start at the very beginning (its a very good place to start!):

i had seen and heard about roller derby probably not long after it's modern-day inception (austin, year 2001), but i was only 13 years old at the time and never paid much attention to it; any thoughts involving derby were probably something to the effect of "those girls are weird. i dont like the way they dress!". but over the years, the sport evolved, i grew older, and a little movie named "whip it" was released. i went to go see it in theatres and thought to myself that hey, this was pretty damn cool. i knew right away in my heart of hearts that i would LOVE to play this sport, but didn't feel brave enough. so i went online and found that there was real live roller derby right here in st. louis! the arch rival roller girls www.archrivalrollergirls.com popped up on my search and as luck would have it, there was a bout the very next weekend. so i dragged a friend to come with me, just thinking i would go watch it once and it would be a unique way to spend a saturday night.

i attended my first bout in january 2010. i was mesmerized from the moment i walked in; there were girls rollerskating around the hallways right in front of me! i knew right away this was something very very cool. at my urging, my friend and i picked seats in the splash zone (i was always the little girl who loved to get soaked by shamu at sea world), and as i watched the game unfold i knew i was hooked. the girls were all so self-confident and strong and unique, not to mention totally badass! i knew right then and there that i wanted to be one of those girls. but it seemed really intimidating, so i just poo-pooed the idea. still, i got home and immediately sent recruitment an email, and received a reply shortly thereafter that recruitment was currently closed. i secretly sighed in relief and decided i would just be a spectator for now. this didnt stop me from going to sports authority and trying on a pair of "roller derby" brand skates though, and feeling terrified when i realized i could barely stand up in them!

anyway, time passed, i attended bouts, and suddenly in may 2010, i received an email. recruitment was open! attend one of these nights to learn more about the league and start the tryout process! i was like, "cool! i can go to a meeting"....then i read further. i had to buy equipment. equipment is expensive. REALLY expensive. plus i had already promised work i would attend some late-night function on BOTH of the nights that they had info night. bummer. so i figured i was too poor to do this anyway, so i let the info nights pass. however, i knew i was still interested in roller skating, so i started going to a local rink, rollercade www.rollercadeskating.com and just started skating around in circles for the first time in years. one of the regulars told me there were rollergirls skating there and i thought, oh cool! let me go talk to them! who did those girls turn out to be? teel and brandie, both of whom were trying out for the current round which i had passed over. they were so nice to me and i even exchanged numbers with teel, agreeing to meet up and skate more later.

that was around the time my stepmom called and told me that she could tell i was really interested in roller derby, and that she would sponsor my efforts and help cover the cost of my skates and gear. well....shit. i remember tryouts being a week or so away at that point. my dad said "maybe you can talk to them and see if theyll still let you in?" but i knew it didnt work that way and i would have to wait. i celebrated with teel when she passed tryouts in july, but secretly wished i could've been doing it with her. brandie wasnt so lucky; i had heard she didnt pass. so i solemnly went to a little place called rockstar skates www.rockstarskates.com to go buy my gear.

this is where i met a real rollergirl for the first time! and who better to meet than joanie rollmoan (known as "romo"), who had just opened up her own brick and mortar roller derby shop right by my house. she was very kind and sold me my gear, but i was too scared to say hi when i saw her at one of the bouts. but still, when i get passionate about something, i try to immerse myself in it as much as possible. so i attended all of the bouts (even when i had to go alone and sit alone cause i didnt know anyone), read up about derby online, and scoured the arch rivals website for player bios and any morsel of derby knowledge i could get my hands on. then romo invited me to come watch roller derby regionals streamed live at her shop, and since i was so hungry for derby, i went.  not only did i go, i stayed. all day. every day (being out of work at that moment gave me lots of free time). and i met lots of people from the league! i kept wondering and kept asking about tryouts, and every time i asked it seemed the date had been pushed further and further back. i was starting to wonder if i would ever get to try out!

but the burden of having to wait was also the gift of time. i had many months to practice and feel comfortable on 8 wheels. i even brought my skates with me to the netherlands and skated a practice with the amsterdam derby dames! http://www.amsterdamderbydames.nl/ i slowly assimilated to derby life here in st louis. i met more and more of the girls who skated, and the people who made it all happen, such as NSO's (i found a familiar face in brandie, who decided to bide her time until the next round of tryouts by being an official!), referees, superfans, and the male derby players as well. i started attending the parties and started talking to people and not being afraid to ask questions.

then suddenly, in november 2011, it was time! i got the email! RECRUITMENT WAS FINALLY OPEN AGAIN. the process i had been waiting for, for MONTHS, was finally about to begin....

(tryout process, from info night to tryouts, in my next post. stay tuned!)