I am in love with roller derby. Every practice I love it more and more. Highlight of Sundays practice was easily barrel rolls. Picture yourself skating as fast you can and then throwing your self to the (concrete) ground only to roll and get up and spring again. Yeah..it's as scary as it sounds. And, YEAH it's as fun as it sounds! Lowlight of Sundays practice was easily getting yelled at (three times) by two different coaches. When I say yell I mean picked out of the entire group for extra..erhm....encouragement. I mean that....I actually secretly love the one on one attention even if I feel like crap for being picked out. It also sucked cuz I think they forget sometimes that I'm nursing an ankle injury. BUT...I don't' want to be the girl that uses that as an excuse...and so I endure. The ankle is getting better every week and I just HOPE it will soon be pain free. It really only bugs me now on turns/weaving, etc. I also take it easy on it when doing any predictable fast work with it....we worked on turn around falls/sprints today (relay style) and I didn't get up as fast as I probably could cuz I didn't want to risk tweaking my ankle. Thankfully my teammates still love me. I hope.
I spent Saturday night at my teammate's house and she graciously helped me wrap my ankle, so it was much more snug than I'm able to do on my own and I think it really helped. So...thanks Jessperate Measures! :D Warm ups today were actually quite easy we were just allowed to free skate around the concourse. This was also where I got yelled at the first time for not staying in derby stance. I need it. I welcome it. I just...ugh. You know? It pretty much sucks being told to get in derby stance when you already think you are! HA. We then met as a group and were told that today was going to be the hardest practice of this session and that we were really going to be pushed. We were encouraged to sit out what we needed too and really listen to our bodies. We broke into 6 "teams". 1st drill was a fast skate around the concourse and then pushing the next girl in your group. Then we went over to the side and did core work. (10 push ups, 20 sit ups, 30 mountain climbers, 40 flutter kicks). This went OK for me. I was nervous about pushing the girl behind me and knocking her over (she's a new skater this session) but she took it like a champ ...got a bit wobbly, but didn't fall. The next 2 drills were the same line/teams. Smaller distance but sprinting to a single knee turn around fall, get up and sprint back to the line and snow plow to a stop before the next person could go. Then we did it again but this time double knee falls turn around. Then we lined up again for another full concourse drill. This time we were to skate as fast we could for TWO laps and then snow plow stop from the fast pace before the next person could go. I was first in line...and wow...this was a low point of the practice. I know I'm not fast. I also know I have poor endurance. But it's embarrassing for the whole team to see it. I was a good 20 feet behind the other 5 girls I raced against on the first lap and had dropped to a good 30 feet by the time my 2nd was done. This is where I got yelled at for the 2nd time...by Tiki...which always seems to smart worse than if any of the other coaches say anything. Oh..and plus the WHOLE TEAM heard it. I come through skating as fast as my slow-ass-healing-ankle-self can push myself and I hear "Dig deep Flik, I know you can push harder than that". When we were done with the two laps we then had to do more core this time it was (10 push ups, 30 sit ups, 40 mountain climbers, 40 flutters). Thankfully this was the end of the endurance portion of practice. We then broke up in to 3 mixed groups. Wet Spot always likes to let us line up from most comfortable to least comfortable meaning the girls you are with are at the same skating level as you more or less. Tiki likes to line up and count off which makes for pretty even teams all around. The first group was with Lydia. We worked on tight turns around cones, hockey stops, and wide weaving. Hanna was there for the first part and was able to pick out what some of my problems are so I have something to work on, so that's nice. Second group was Tiki and BARREL ROLLS! OMG awesome. Third group was Betty where we worked on weaving forwards and backwards, one foot and two feet. Also did a little turning. Then we got together for one last endurance drill. Sticky skating behind Tiki trying to keep pace. I SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKED at this. Seriously. I had no business being as slow as I did. There was a time when i lost sight of the entire group. Sure there might have been a few stragglers behind me but I am so....just...hard on myself. My endurance is down cuz I haven't been able to push myself and I just feel like such a failure these days at practice. But...alas, by the time I got home I (we ..the whole team) had an awesomely encouraging email in our in boxes from Tiki. It is ours to have and to hold and I'm not embarrassed to say that I've read it about 8 times already. In fact. I am going to post it here so I will always have it.
"You ladies blew me away. Our drills were really difficult and everyone pushed themselves harder than I could have asked. Honestly, the league could only hope to get girls as amazing as you all are.
I know that some people struggled with certain skills. I also know that when we struggle we can beat ourselves up (myself included). Please believe me when I say you women have come so very far and you look like real Roller Derby players (ALL of you). I am so proud.
Whew, what a group.
Thank you for making this so rewarding.
Hugs and slugs,
Tiki"
Yeah, I guess that's probably why I hate to get yelled at by her. We all do! She's just that awesome.
To sum it up this practice rocked my socks of in so many ways. And...did I mention I love roller derby?
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