Roller Derby Boot Camp
AKA- The day I learned how to whip!
Yesterday they taught us how to do hip assists and whip assists.
I don’t really use my team-mates momentum to my advantage with the hip assists. I need to really grab hold and pull myself around. Apparently a lot of us are timid and just kind of move them out of the way instead of using them to get a boost. Something for me to keep in mind and work on.
And whips- they are fun when done properly. They had us do it with our teammates, which resulted in some interesting results. So, then the coaches whipped us to show us how it’s done. OMG, the speed is incredible. I did two successful whips and on the third one, I don’t really know what happened. I found that one spot on our track that is slippery and where I fell a couple times before and just went down. My feet lost traction at the same time I let go of the whip too early and they combined for a nice fall. At least I fell in proper baseball slide form, but man, the hip took a hard hit.
And then they had us give them whips. This is where I kept messing up. First time I let go before really looking where I was and let go too early. Second time I let go and gave it everything and down I went. I fell backwards and landed on my butt and hit my head. Thank god for helmets and wrist guards. I could tell I used my hand to brace myself because there was a slight twinge, but no damage done, thankgod. Needless to say, I woke up super sore today from that fall. I need to learn how to give the whip and not completely fall like that. It’s hard though, when you use everything you have to get them going. Also, how does one fall forward instead of back when giving a whip? Because I’d rather fall on pads than my ass…
And then it was more endurance drills that completely tired us out. And tonight, tonight we get to hitting! Nervous and excited at the same time.
