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!!