Damn, I suck at updating

I keep letting this get away from me - I'll get home from derby at about 10.30 some nights (there is at least half an hour of obligatory gasbagging that needs to be done at the end of each night, and my lovely wifey Rebelicious and myself are normally the last to leave the car park), and then I'll just crawl into bed with nary a thought towards my poor little undernourished blog. Well, no more, I say - I'll update you more often, little one!

Anyway, now that I'm done with my little bit of verbal/typed spew, on to the good stuff.

Last Thursday was our first night really introducing the jam set up to the freshies, and they've taken it on well. They did do some during their Fresh Meat program, but it's much more intensive now, and they're progressing well. There were a lot of run throughs, so everyone had a chance to familiarise themselves with the positions at the start of a jam, and we did a nice bit of endurance for which my ass thanks our lovely trainers. I made doubly-sure to PUT MY DAMN INSOLES IN MY SKATES, which made skating much more pleasurable.

There was an extra training on Saturday for Freshies, which Rebel and myself asked permission to join (as she missed the equivalent session during our Fresh Meat, and my skating has improved greatly since then/I am a giant wussbag). It was amazing. We did some basic team jam drills, then started doing proper jams with Freshie refs calling us out on penalities. My team had the bonus of one of our girls being a lacrosse coach who is all over teamwork and communication, and we were discussing what each jammer wanted from her teammates before we went out, which opposing team members we had to be extra vigilant about, and what we were learning for each jam. It was invaluable experience for each of the girls that attended that day, and during the last jam from my team, I jammed. Imagine my horror when the opposition jammer was called off on a penalty, and I was the only objective for the other team. I'd passed through once, but could never quite break the pack for the second time, what a bummer - though I did learn quite a bit from it! I managed to think while I was going, and yielded when I had to, and tried to use my teammates to my advantage. I really need to work on footwork, and taking the inside. I also managed to land on my good friend Nichole when she fell in front of me, so she has learnt to fear me (I'm not at all intimidating, so someone needs to be afraid!).

Last night was a great endurance night - we did some scrimmages, and I have learnt that I still need to get over my tendency to avoid contact. Being near people is different for me, I'm not used to this kind of contact, and trying to hit someone triggers a weird "Oh but you really shouldn't" response in my brain. We also did more of the air traffic controller drill, which I love as it's helping me immensely with my footwork.

I also have to say, this is a very derby week. Tomorrow night we're all off to the Adelaide Showgrounds for our league poster photo shoot! I'm very excited, but a little tense as I've got a doctor's appointment right after work and I'll have to haul ass from one side of the city in a very limited time frame. I'll make it though!

Unfortunately we won't have training next Monday as it's Australia Day, but I think that just means we'll have to go for a little outdoor skate (stupidly hot weather permitting).

Also, if anyone's interested in a sticker swap, I've started a thread over on the Skatelog Roller Derby forum, as I've got a few of our league stickers going spare at the moment, and I'd really like to cover my 2009 diary with something fun (like derby stickers from around the world!).

Cheers and beers,
Ivanna