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??