Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da

Self Doubts As A Roller Derby Newb

Newb. I hate that word. Hearing it always puts into my mind that I still suck. That I have a lot to learn. And I do. I do suck. I do have a lot to learn. But, that designation as a newb puts those thoughts into others and makes me feel like crap. We’ve been training for about a month and I can see all of the rookies start to have self doubts. Our first bout is in 19 days and about half of the rookies probably won’t make the roster. (Myself included.) Sometimes, we can’t keep up with the pace line. Sometimes, we can’t do a certain skill. Sometimes, we have a really bad jam during scrimmage and the other team racks up 15 points to our 0.

It’s hard to tell yourself that it’s okay. You’ve only been doing this for a few months while these All-Stars have been doing it for years. It just happens sometimes. Sometimes, you just have a bad day. And those All-Stars? They have bad days sometimes too. Sure, they look like they got it all down, but they may not feel that they do.

A team-mate summed it up best when we were lamenting to each other that we all felt horrible about our derby careers: the instant gratification of getting down the basic skills is over. These new skills take time to master. An All-Star player told us yesterday that she couldn’t get the turn-stop down until mid-season last year. And now? Now she looks like a pro.

So, while these self doubts keep creeping back every time I take a hard hit and fall, every time I fail to do a proper turn-stop, or every time I get stuck in the pack as a jammer, I have to remind myself of where I was just a few months ago. I have gotten faster. I can now not only do the t-stop, but the plow stop as well. I can do the turn-stop if I just slow down and do it. I have gotten better at cutting (my wheels now make that nice ‘squeaking’ noise when I turn them quickly). I have gotten better at hitting. And most importantly, I have gotten over my fear of scrimmaging with the All-Stars (those girls can hit!).

“To my ladies on the B-teams and new skaters, you keep your chin up and have some pride. If you’re on the B-team- you’re A-team must be pretty bad ass. If you’re brand new just know- it gets better. But I get it, sometimes it makes you feel inferior. You forget that this league is YOUR league too. You forget that you have the potential to be the best damn skater in the country. If you will it dude, it is no dream.  … the future is bright and it’s full of derby. So show some love to the ones coming up.” (Every Bunny Loves Derby)

So, my goal for today and the rest of the week is to TRY to believe in myself. They wouldn’t have put me on the team if they didn’t think I had what it takes to be a derby girl. I WILL get the hang of it. I WILL get better. And one day, I WILL be an All-Star.

Derby Boot Camp- The Day Poor Bex Broke Her Leg

So, yesterday’s boot camp practice was a bit overwhelming. It was a review day, so we were going over everything- pack work, bumping skates, weaving, getting hit, hip assists, pushing, whips, and blocking. I hold my own pretty well with each. I suck at giving whips- mainly because I don’t quite stand correctly to transfer my momentum to the other person. Something I need to work on. But, I thought I was okay at everything else.

We were practicing the whip when Bex went down. No one is even sure what happened, because it wasn’t in the area where the whips were going on. She went out on the track to skate towards her partner to recieve a whip and I think she collided with someone as she was crossing the track to get in place. She fell awkwardly and immediately started panicking. Which is understandable. You fall hard and something snaps and suddenly you’re in severe pain. Yeah, I think I would have screamed like she did. She was laying face down on her belly with her right leg laying flat and left leg held at an unnatural awkward angle. We stopped immediately and went to the middle to give the First Aid crew room and to give her some privacy. We were all shaken and scared; this was the first injury we’ve seen. Poor Bex. Turns out she broke both her tibia and and her fibula (both shin bones) at the knee. Yikes. She has to have surgery to get a rod put in.

After the paramedics wheeled her away, practice continued on. But, after that, we were all so timid and scared whenever anyone fell. I’m still shaken.

It sounds like she’s in good spirits and will be a NSO this season, but it sure has to suck for her to make it to the very last practice before becoming an official derby girl and have that happen. I hope she doesn’t get discouraged and I really hope she tries out next year.

And we have our skills test tomorrow! I’m already getting nervous.

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.

Roller Derby Boot Camp

Oh hey there! So, I passed the basic skills test with an average score of 3.2 (only needed a score of 3 to pass).
This is how it was all broken down with a zero being “didn’t even attempt” and a 4 as “does it perfect”:

• Side stepping: 3
• Forward and back stepping: 4
• Derby stance: 4
• Crossovers: 4
• Sculling: 2.5 (really thought I had this down, but apparently I don’t use my hips enough and was a little unstable the lower they made me go)
• Squats: 3
• One foot glides: 3
• Lateral cuts: 3
• Weaving: 3
• Lateral hops: 3
• Jumping: 3
• T stops: 2 (yeah, I just could.not.do.them that day. I was overthinking and let the pressure get to me.)
• Plow stops: 2.5 (these are still a work in progress…)
• 180 turn on knee: 4
• Two knee fall: 3
• Single knee fall- left: 4
• Single knee fall- right: 3 (I do my 180 turn on my left as well. Just not that coordinated to fall with the right.)
• Baseball slide: 3
• 4-point fall: 3
• 25-lap test: 4:49

After the basic skills test, there was a two week break (in which I got married and subsequently did no exercise). Our first “intermediate” practice was last Sunday and it was a little rough skating again after two weeks off. I felt rusty, but quickly remembered everything and got back into it. I was slightly surprised by how many people didn’t pass the basic. I think only about half of us continued on, although it’s possible more people passed but couldn’t make Sunday’s practice?

Here’s what we did:

• Pacing- basically what it means. We formed a line and kept the pace around the track for a few laps.
• Weaving- weaved between team-mates in the pace line. When people left a huge gap, this was super easy. When people only left that arm’s length gap, it was a little difficult but fun.
• Leaning- in which we just leaned against a partner and sculled with our outside foot. This is the first fundamental step to learning how to block. It took a little while to get it- mainly because i’m short, so my hip doesn’t exactly match up to her hip, so there’s some weight shifting going on and finding that right balance so we can successfully lean into each other.
• Pushing (which is really fun!). It took a few times to get used to the push. But that little speed boost is amazing!
• And then we did an endurance drill called “push-carts” in which we formed a train of about 4-5 people and placed our hands on the person in front of us’s hips and the back person pushed the group around the track. Started with 1 lap pushing, then 2, then 3, and then 4. Talk about tiring.

I have no idea what’s in store for us tonight, but I suspect some push-ups and squats are in order and I’m hoping we get to whipping and hip assists. We test on the “intermediate” skills on December 6th, which leaves only 5 more practices to learn it all. (Eek!) And if I pass this test, I’m offically on the team and a roller girl!

Roller Derby Basic Skills Test

We’ll just preface this all with “I PASSED!”

Started with the 25 in 5 lap test. Finished my 25 laps in 4:49 (boo-yah)! I started off right on track and once I warmed up I actually got faster as time went on. All that long running paid off with endurance.

Then we moved onto testing of derby stance, how low I can squat and still skate, sculling, weaving through cones, and crossing the track. Nailed all of those things. I don’t know what my actual scores were throughout it all, but I like to imagine these were all 4’s. 

After all the track skating work, we tested with jumping. I nailed this during practice, but somehow just could not do it perfectly during testing. Probably got a 2, maybe a hopeful 3. I did manage to jump, but landed quite hard. :(

Then we moved onto stopping. Once again, I can do these perfectly during practice, but put me in front of judges and I’m a mess. Just could not do the t-stop. Managed to salvage myself a little with the plow stop, but it still sucked. These were probably 2’s.

Then it was falls. I’m pretty sure I was a solid 3 or 4 for all of these. I felt strong and got up quickly.

Now that I look back at my overall scoring, I can see that I should have passed easily, but I felt so embarrassed and horrible after my stopping attempts and jumping that I thought I was going to fail. And it was nice when the coaches all came over to congratulate me and tell me that they’ll see me when I come back from vacation. And then the real fun begins: we start with hitting practice!

Roller Derby Boot Camp

Day 7- aka the day they made everything hurt

I both love and hate endurance practices. Sprint, fall, sprint, fall, sprint, slide, spint, and fall again. Wait for your turn to sprint and fall again and while you’re waiting do some squats! Oh, you’ve done the sprint drill 4 times already? Okay, now do the plank while you’re waiting! Congrats, you’ve done the sprint drill 8 times and can now rest.

Let’s break you into three groups and go over some old and new skills. We’re testing two of you on Sunday and we forgot to teach you something! (That would be me.) Group 1 go over your T-stops and plow stops. (I can finally, finally, finally stop within the 10-feet!) Group 2 work on crossing the track. (The new skill we haven’t done before but need to be able to pass for the basic skills test. We had minimum time to cover this and I was a bit put off when I asked if there was more to it that I needed to know before I test on Sunday and she just told me that if I can weave through cones I’m okay. That didn’t really answer my question, but if she’s confident in me, I guess I don’t need to worry?) Group 3 work on static walking. (Ugh…can’t get this one down pat. My wheels like to roll. I know how to stop it, but I can’t seem to stabilize myself enough to keep it from happening. I can walk on my toe stop just fine, but side-by-side will be a bit rough.)

Alright, now that you guys got those skills down, lets do another endurance drill! Skate around the track and when we yell “front”, stop and do push-ups! When we yell “back”, do bicycle kicks! When we yell “go”, toe-stop sprint and skate again. Let’s do this for about 10 minutes and kill your arms! (Yeah, this was a little brutal. My arms are weak to begin with, and I started my push-ups regular style and then had to switch to doing them on my knees. Sigh. Talk about burning; My arms are a bit sore today.)

And now i’m all nervous about testing on Sunday. I feel like I know this stuff and do it correctly, but there’s still that part of me that thinks that i’ll screw up enough things to not get an average score of a “3” to pass the test. (They have a 4 point system of grading. A 1 means you absolutely suck. A 2 means you have the concept down you just don’t execute it properly. A 3 means you do most things perfectly. A 4 means you’re a rockstar. I don’t know if this is a WFTDA thing or if it’s just the way my club does their grading?)  At least the 25 in 5 isn’t do or die. If I fail that but pass the skills test, I still go on. I have until the end of the year to pass the 25 in 5. I think i’ll try to skate Friday or Saturday to get some nerves out and practice some things.

Roller Derby Boot Camp

Day 6- AKA the day I couldn’t do anything right

Ever just have one of those days when nothing seemed to go right? Yeah, that was yesterday. It started with a burnt dinner (woo slow cooker not having enough water!) and ended with a giant bruise on my right hip.

Let’s break it down shall we?
Dinner sucked, so I didn’t eat enough, and what I did eat tasted like bleh and I ended up with some acid reflux and almost threw up twice during practice. A good meal can go a long way towards success, but a bad one can throw you off completely. I will be eating well tonight and hoping this is a one time occurrence.

I learned a valuable lesson about cleaning skate wheels. Do NOT use baby wipes as they contain a lotion and will leave said lotion on your wheels. This is most likely the cause of my slick wheels and why it felt worse with each practice. I learned this lesson the hard way- by falling down twice around the curves because I had no grip. Nice fall the first time, epic wipe-out the second time. But hey, I did a perfect baseball slide on that second fall! Too bad the hip took a big hit though and it knocked the wind out of me. But, I got back up and finished my laps.

Then we went onto some review of basic skills. One of the coaches watched us individually do falls. I got called out for doing the two knee fall wrong. What? Yeah, I apparently don’t do one knee than the other and I don’t space my knees out far enough. I’ve been telling myself to first hit with one knee and then the other, but I just…don’t.  And my four point fall is off too as I slam my elbows and wrists down at the same time instead of elbows then wrists. These things are hard to control when you’re falling, but I must practice practice practice so it becomes muscle memory. At this point, I was so ready to give up and pout, but somehow I sucked it up and finished practice. My only saving grace here is that I have excellent form with one knee falls and the 180 degree fall. My baseball slide is a little hit and miss on perfect form. Sometimes that lead leg comes up a little too high.

After that we did an obstacle course. Skate to cone, do a 180 fall, skate back, do a 180 fall, skate towards the end of rink and then come back weaving through 10-foot spaced cones, skate back towards end of rink and do 2 T-stops (nailed it! FINALLY!), then skate back towards the start and jump over cones. My jumping was off and I didn’t keep my feet together. I think that was mainly due to a lack of confidence after being called out twice during fall practice.

I’m going to TRY to have more confidence in myself tonight. After what felt like a disaster (in my mind at least) yesterday, today has got to be better, right?

Roller Derby Boot Camp

Day 4
AKA- I can jump over a 5” cone!

Practice started as usual- warm ups and stretching. A few drills around the track- skating as fast as we could, T-stops, skating right (I can now almost do crossovers in that direction!), plow stop, then water break.

We then split into our usual drill lines and worked on another endurance drill. We had to skate midway, do a one knee 180 turn, skate back to the line and do a two knee fall. Get back up, skate towards the end while doing a right knee fall and a left knee fall along the way, and do a baseball slide at the end. Get back up and skate back towards the drill line while doing one knee falls and end it with a four point fall. We then went to the back of the line and while we waited to go again she had us do calisthenics. First we did squats, then after our second time doing the drill we did lunges, third time we did crunches, fourth time we did the plank. Fifth time we could whatever one we wanted, I chose squats as those were the easiest. After everyone did the skating drill 5 times, we were done (thank god).

They then broke us into three groups and we rotated from station to station learning 3 different things. I started off at Station 2 and there we learned how to do lateral jumps. This is where we skated straight ahead, balanced on one foot and then hopped to the other foot while pretending there was an obstacle for us to jump over. We kept going back and forth doing these jumps and we all slowly improved. I was overconfident on one and fell. At least I fell forward on knee pads, so no harm done.

Then we moved over to station 3 and learned how to jump over cones! First we started by jumping over a duct taped line on the floor. After we all successfully completed that, she laid cones on their sides for us to jump over. The cone tips that we were jumping over were probably only 1.5” high. Not too bad. Then she laid more cones down and we had to jump over the cone base, which is 3” high. To pass the skills test, we must be able to jump over a 3” obstacle. This was a bit daunting, but I reminded myself that these cones will move if I hit them. They will not trip me up, the only one who could do that is myself. So, I skated towards it and jumped. And landed successfully. It was exhilarating and surprisingly easy. After we did the 3” test, she wanted to challenge us and laid the cones up sitting normally, which gave them a height of about 5-6”. We didn’t have to jump those, but could if we wanted. So, I gave it a try and did it! I was running on the high of being able to successfully jump that high for the rest of the night.

Station 1 was an easy one. Weaving through cones spaced about 10ft apart. She moved them closer so they were probably 5-6ft apart and had us weave through those. No problem there.

After we did all the stations it was cool down time. And we were all running high on a good practice and I have to say, it felt good. :)

Roller Derby Boot Camp

Day Three
AKA- Man are my arms sore!

Alright, this practice started just a little different than the others. The 1’s and 2’s arrived at 12 and did their 25 laps in 5 minutes test. I think most of them passed, but I really have no idea. You could just see the fatigue setting in after a few minutes….Those of us in Group 3 or 4 arrived at 12:30 so we could meet up with everyone else after their lap test. We warmed up on the side while they skated.

Once the lap test was done, we did an endurance skating drill.

1. First we started skating left.
2. Skull (ie-sticky skate)
3. Skate again
4. T-stop and switch directions
5. Skull right
6. Skate
7. Two knee fall
8. Push-ups (I think this was for a minute, but I lost track of time. I counted how many I did and got about 10 in. Now, push-ups aren’t exactly easy, but add in skates and all that padding and it’s incredibly hard!)
9. Skull left
10. Skate
11. Two knee fall
12. Plank (Yes, as in yoga style plank. Again, I think this was for a minute. She said the record was 5 minutes. I would like to know who can hold that pose for 5 minutes, because holy wah was that tough!)
13. Skull right
14. Skate
15. Two knee fall
16. Bicycles (As in lay on your back, knees bent with skates in the air and pretend you’re riding a bike. All of these things are not *that tough* without skates, but add in those weights to the end of your feet and it’s quite the workout.)
17. Skull left
18. Skate
19. T-stop
20. Water break

Somewhere in there she also had us coast on one leg during the straight-aways. I can’t remember the exact order of things, but you get the general idea.

After that little endurance drill, we worked on two more falls: the four point fall and the baseball slide. The four point fall is basically just that- using your knees and your arms. Easy peasy. The baseball slide is a whole other beast that I hate. I was able to do it, but in the process I landed on my hip and gave myself a nice bruise. I know bruises will happen, but it just sucks when you do them to yourself vs. someone else doing it to you, you know?

After that we had some time to just “free skate” and work on things we needed to work on. So, I joined the group that wanted to work on stopping, because I need to nail the plow stop and t-stop down. After getting pointers from about 4 different people, it finally just clicked with me. I can now do the plow stop and the t-stop! Doing it within the 10 feet is another story though. I don’t know how much distance it took me stop, but I did it at least a few times. :)

And today, my upper body is quite sore. Normally push-ups and yoga poses don’t cause soreness, but I think I hold myself differently with the padding on, because otherwise it gets in the way. And next practice is tomorrow (Tuesday), so I have a day to recuperate.

Roller Derby Boot Camp

Day Two

When they said it was going to be hard, I kind of didn’t believe them. I mean, how hard could it get? I can do most of the things they ask us to do, and if not, I at least attempt it and learn it. That’s not hard, right? Well…come to find out, they mean hard on the body. I didn’t feel sore at all yesterday. I felt fantastic! Then I put on the skates. Man oh man were my legs and lower back not feeling it. The soreness showed itself during warm ups and stretching helped some, but the back…man the back. I need some heating pads. I have to keep reminding myself that I’m not in my low 20’s anymore and things are going to be a little rougher. I’ll be 29 at the end of this year, and while that’s not old by any means, it does make me older than most of the people there by at least 5 years. And 5 years is a long time. I’m not as fast as I used to be, and things don’t heal as quick as they used to. Sigh.

Anyways. After we did our little “speed” test yesterday, they grouped us into 4 different groups based on our speed. Group 1 is the fast people- mainly comprised of people who made derby teams already and for some reason have to go through boot camp again. Group 2 is comprised of the few guys who are trying to be refs and those girls who are quick (most of them apparently took a speed skating class- I wish I knew about that class, I would have taken it!). Group 3 is those of us who are decent on skates, but probably won’t pass the 25 laps in 5 minutes test (although- there are two of us who seem to be relatively quick and we might be able to pass it right now). Group 4 is comprised of those who most likely just put on skates for the first time in years. They are improving fast though. :)

I am in Group 3. I was slightly disappointed, because I thought I was fast! But, after really seeing where I was at after watching the 1’s and 2’s, I’m definitely not as fast as I thought. I have to keep reminding myself that I put skates on for the first time in nearly 20 years this past June and that I’ve come a long ways since then. I’m more stable and can almost stop properly (almost). I couldn’t do any of that in June.

Now onto what we did:

• Warm ups skating counterclockwise and clockwise
• Stretching
• Lined us up into 6 different lines and we worked on falling. We would skate towards the other side of the rink and do a left knee fall, then a right knee fall, and then both knees at the end.
• After that we worked on doing falling and turning 180 during the fall. Learned I can’t do this with a right knee fall, but can nail it every time with a left knee fall. My body is goofy.
• T-stop drill again. Starting to slowly improve on this. (Yay!)
• “Sticky” skating- skating with all wheels on the ground. They had us do laps for god knows how long and then switch direction and go that way for god knows how long. We had to keep low and oh my god were my thighs and lower back burning. No pain, no gain, right? And while I have the logistics down for this, I was thankful when Ima Firestarter gave me some pointers on making it less horrible. “Use your hips.” What a difference using more of the body instead of just hip down makes. (She always has the most useful tips for me. I really hope she sticks around and helps us out more.)
• They then broke us into two groups- the 1’s and 2’s stayed on the rink while the 3’s and 4’s went off to the side.
• Us 3’s and 4’s worked on plow stops. Something I’ve been struggling with. I can slow down dramatically, just not actually, you know, stop. Learned some more tricks on how to do it and I improved.
• After that drill, we switched places with the 1’s and 2’s and worked on crossovers. Crossovers are easy for me. It just seems natural. But they had us work on each leg pushing individually while the other leg never lifted up, which was HARD. Ima Firestarter also gave me good tips on crossovers and made me a little more efficient.
• Then we grouped back together with everyone and did a drill they “stole” from Kansas City. First straightaway, work on pushing with your stride, first curve do crossovers, second straightaway get speed, and then second curve do a plow stop. This is hard with that many people. I couldn’t effectively do strides and I couldn’t get up speed. Stopping was nearly impossible at times due to too many people in the way. We tried, and I guess that’s all that matters?
• And then, thankfully, cool down laps and stretching.

Sunday, the 1’s and 2’s are doing their 25 in 5 test. I kind of want to go and see where I’m at, but I’m not sure if they’re including that in the 3’s and 4’s workout or not? I guess I’ll see. At least we will only have 1.5 hours of practice instead of the full 2 on Sunday. :)

And I think I might go to the park down the street and skate in the tennis courts and work on stopping. I definitely need to work on stopping.