I'm back

To be short, a lot of things have happened in the last year; I injured myself (dodgy knees from childhood netball, being a tomboy and a klutz come back to haunt me), I broke up with my long term boyfriend (right about the time of my last post, too), and I withdrew from derby socialising a bit too, since everything seemed so damned hard for a while there. It certainly wasn't the best time for any of it, but shit happens. I wish I'd stayed more on top of things, but my survival mechanism has always involved withdrawing.

So I'm back. Back at training as of the new season, which started last Monday. Back in an online capacity. For the first time in a long while, things are back on the right track for me. I even accidentally managed to find a guy that ticked all of the relationship boxes, and get into a relationship with him (and he provides moral support on derby to boot). I plan on making myself more available to my league, committee and most importantly, my team - an amazing bunch of women and men all in all.

To be brutally honest, toting my gear to work last Monday, I couldn't help but think to myself: is this a mistake? All of my old fears came back to nibble at me throughout the day, until I turned to my cubicle mate five minutes before work finished (who happens to be another derby player, my amazing friend and track-rival Lady Roll d'Mort) and stared squeaking about finally getting my skates back on. It had hit me all of a sudden, I really was excited to be back.

Returning to training is always hard; not having done any exercise in the last few months took it's toll on me. But coming back to training, putting my skates on (forgetting my inserts and skating without them), and finally doing this again got me so excited for the coming year, the sweat and pain that it's sure to bring.

We've started with just under thirty freshies to train up - whittling them down from the 100-odd we had at the start of the last fresh meat was an unenviable task for the league members who ran the training sessions. A new team is on the cards for us. Another league has developed in our city, so the chances of inter-league bouts have escalated. I can't wait to see what else 2010 will bring to Adelaide Roller Derby, but chances are, it's going to be magnificent.

Prepare: Game Face

Last night we had our last training before the next bout - we did some clockwise warm up excercises (in slow motion as our floor was very slippery), some footwork excercises, and then, the skates came off for scrimmaging.

It was the most hilarious excercise we've ever done! Unfortunately I went down in the first scrimmage onto my sprained wrist, but it was the funniest session I've ever seen. Scrimmaging with skates on is a lot easier, but I think we all learnt a lot about player capabilities, and how important basic skating skills are in a scrimmage.

I'm trying to keep my mind busy for the next two days, so that I don't think about the bout too much. I've only played one jam in a public bout before (I managed not to fall over, which was about all I could think of at the time). I'm not terrified at this point, but I'm a little worried that come tomorrow night, I won't sleep a wink. Fortunately I've got plenty to do (Rebelicious! is taking me to see her mum perform in a musical tonight, work and Stas's birthday tomorrow evening) but in the moments between, I'm getting a few butterflies in my tummy.

So, let's just hope I don't injure myself too badly on Sunday, and that the Salty Dolls prevail over the Road Train Rollers!

I am a lazy, lazy cow

So, here I am, back again after neglecting the blog I said I wouldn't neglect any more. No more promises, but I'll try.

I've been in a bit of a funk for the past few months. Since I last posted, I quit my job and moved into a different field. I've been second guessing my decisions, myself in general, and my abilities as a skater, virtually the entire time.

I think that the problem started because derby was my crutch when I hated my job. Now that I don't have a job I hate, it's been difficult for me to concentrate as much as I had been on derby. It got me through a lot of difficulties I was having, when I needed a support.

One thing it hasn't, until now, been able to rid me of is my lack of self confidence. I'm a late bloomer when it comes to derby - I'm the first to admit it. And even when I am doing well, I need external validation in order to truly believe that I'm getting somewhere.

My latest funk started a few weeks ago, on the day of the last bout (Road Train Rollers versus Mile Die Club). I was getting ready to leave the house when I did one of those supremely uncoordinated things that happen when you're just not paying enough attention - I kicked the edge of a door. While my toe felt, and looked broken, my doctor has told me it's sprained. I tried to skate at the next training and got half way through the session, then couldn't skate for a week, and wearing boots is still a pretty big problem. The combination of not being able to skate, and the onset of winter put me into a foul, depressed state, where in throes of self pity I would tell myself I would better serve my team and league as a referee.

I went back to training last Thursday for a practise scrimmage, and I think that it might have been when the roller derby lightbulb in my brain officially switched all the way on. The Salty Dolls had two thirty minute scrimmages, the first against the Rollers, then against the Dies. I helped make walls. I bootied people out. I hit people. I was vocal about opposition positions.

All of the trainings since then have been awesome for me. I feel like I've finally gotten in touch with what I need to in order to perform well. My skating style has improved, as I'm trusting my body more. I wish I knew what had brought it about. I can think of a couple of things, including catching up with my oldest friend - I haven't seen him for a few years, and in that time I've come out of my shell and, he tells me, I am noticeably more confident and at ease with myself (also nerdier, as I dragged him to see the new Star Trek and squealed with glee the entire time).

I've even tried jamming a couple of times at practise, which isn't something I've done much of in the past - in fact, I would flat out refuse. This change was brought about by one of our star players, Smooch - she's normally our pivot, and skates more than anyone else in our league (frequently to university in the morning, home, to derby, and back home!) on her roller blades. At our last bout, our captain Melvin Star asked Smooch to jam twice in the last half. Smooch has always maintained that she will not jam, but will do anything that Mel asks her to in a game. When I asked Smooch if she would jam in the next game, she told me that for every jam I played as jammer, she would match it. She encouraged me to try it at our last practise, and although I get a little shaky, I can see myself trying it more in the future at practises to get my confidence up, and I think I might even like to try jamming in games next year when I'm feeling a little more confident. I've got to say, I love the girls on my team, and I couldn't imagine being on a different one, as awesome as they are.

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

Thursday and Monday updates

Well, I'm finally getting around to posting about last Thursday - it was pretty intense! We're doing a lot of pack work, which makes me very happy, as most of my problems now seem to have a lot to do with skating around others. The main drill of the night was the continuous block - everyone on (a larger version) of the track, with 6 girls jamming at a time, all positional blocking. It was an asskicker, and despite my initial misgivings, I even grabbed a helment cover and had a complete ball slipping by people as they were distracted. What a blast; I hope we do that drill again this Thursday.

Monday night this week was more pack skating (this time with balloons that we had to protect, which made for a laugh when they got away from us). Then, some whip drills and then endurance and time trials. I was shaking in my boots the entire night as I'd taken my inner soles out of my skates to go for a walk with my dog, Sasha, and I'd never put them back in - so I put an extra pair of socks on and skated on the bottom of my skates. Not comfortable, but I still managed to make my 5 laps in 1 minute, and I made 24 in 5, which I hadn't expected to do since I wasn't trying to skate fast. I have now earnt myself another little foot creature - this time a callous on my pushing foot, to keep my blisters company. Neat!

I have also come to the sad conclusion that the Carreras do not make my feet happy. Consequently, they're going to have their old Probe plates remounted (after we experiment with changing the cushions to fix them). My lovely derby wife Rebelicious has recently started her own derby/skate business, and has started to get in stock, including some Roll-Line plates and Labeda boots.

Now, I was umm-ing and ahh-ing about the Variants, as I wasn't sure how much of a weight difference there would be between those and my single action XK-4's. I went over to Rebel's place to have a lookie, picked up one of the plates and immediately started gibbering. There was a noticeable difference between the two, and I didn't even have my plates on hand for comparison. The Variants went to the top of my shopping list.

Next, the Labeda boots came in. Size 8. Rebel was told that they run half a size bigger than the Riedell boots. We decide that I need to try them anyway. She surprises me last Thursday night at training by having them in the boot of her car. I very carefully prop myself up against the car, and slip my foot into the boot. Cinderella's stupid little slippers don't fit her as well as these boots fit my long, warped surfboard feet. I am in love.

Consequently, being that on top of that I'll need 7mm bearings instead of the 8mm I've got - I have a slightly pricey shopping list, and a zebra that I can rent out for special occasions.

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Monday night meltdown

Well, Barrelhouse Bessy and Violent Krumble just kicked our asses into next week. We had a two hour session devoted to endurance skating, and boy, am I going to be feeling it tomorrow!

We had our little warm up skate, and moved on to the 'I have never' game. Ever time someone says they have never done something that you have done, you have to skate a lap around the group. The questions were more tame this time, so I didn't spend the entire drill sitting down like I did last time!

From there, we did the an agility drill, the pyramid drill (to 7 laps and back), pulling and pushing (I never though I would feel so good pulling three girls behind me on skates), and then 1 minute and 5 minute time trials. I stopped a few laps into the 5 minute time trial as I'd snapped the stay of my velcro strap at the start of the night, and the gaffer tape had loosened off enough to making skating uncomfortable.

It was an awesome night, the drills worked fantastically (making the new girls more aware of their position on the track and other peoples'), and having the whole court to ourselves really made a difference.

Tomorrow, provided I can walk, stumble, or even move, I think I'm going to take Sasha for a jog around the block - I forgot how good excercise feels, and only two hours twice a week won't make enough of a difference for me right now.

Back so soon...

I managed to forget my password for blogger, almost immediately after completing that last post. At least I've now managed to 'remember' it (find the piece of paper that I happened to scrawl it on).

League training is starting up again tomorrow night, and I have to admit, I'm feeling a little apprehensive.

Fortunately, it's just because I happen to have seen the training schedule, and I know we're going to get a work out like never before. My poor thighs and booty are not looking forward to it!

We should have an additional 40 ladies joining us tomorrow night; the result of Fresh Meat 3. It was the longest Fresh Meat intake that the league has run, and far and away the most successful. We had such an unexpected response that our local skate store ran out of beginner skates, and some of the girls had to continue using hire skates for the basic skating skills weeks, until new stock was available.

Barrelhouse Bessy has managed to wrangle us the entire court for training every Monday, instead of the half court we normally use (so, two full size basketball courts instead of one).

The position of ref captain has been split to co-captain roles - my own personal zebra, Peter Pain, and the lovely Kia Kaha will be running the ref team.

We will be having Cheapskate of Gotham Girls, and Smarty Pants of TXRD come and train us for the entire month of February.

At the end of February, Cheapskate and Smarty Pants will help to split us into three teams - the current teams being the Mile Die Club, and the Salty Dolls, and our newest team, the Road Train Rollers.

Tonight, Peter and I are going for one last skate with Rebelicious before training resumes at our outdoor skate spot - a park with at least 20 netball courts. I can't wait to skate inside again!

2009 is going to be awesome.