Man I'm shite-that's the official verdict!!!!!!
I had my first attempt (in fact 5 or 6) at Jamming since I injured my knee a few months ago. I have been taking it easy - getting used to skating full contact again, building up endurance, finding my form. Last practise, I stepped up to the line, I was feeling quite brave (or so I was trying to convince myself!), the whistle went and I found myself being left behind. Everyone was faster, fitter, more agile at finding holes in the pack than I was. I felt like a complete failure. Man I was shite!
I'm not gonna sit here and wallow though, I'm gonna get back up there and skate my ass off until my form returns. I'm gonna get better and fitter and stronger and I'm going to be the one who will kick ass again.
I'm also feeling very sore and stiff after practise which is a good thing - it means I was skating hard and its a good sore feeling. It hurts to sit down and stand up - I think I pulled a muscle in my ass!
The blocking was good, I think I'm kinda falling into the pivot role. I want to be able to play in any position though. I want to be an all rounder.
Its good to be back, although a little humiliating. The girls don't make me feel like a total loser though, the support is great. Also from you guys who read my blog, the little notes of support are great. Its good to know that I inspire and keep you all entertained!
Showing posts with label Jammer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jammer. Show all posts
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Feels like forever......
Fuck, its been a long time!!!! Good news though, I'm back!!!!! Back on my skates and I feel like a newbie again. Ive lost my confidence, my speed and my endurance. We were playing chase the pack the other week and I was skating a jam speed and Ive never felt so unstable on my skates since I first put them on as a freshie! My skating position was all to hell, my skates were wobbling all over the place and I thought I was going to fall and injure my knee all over again. It sucks to be scared of an injury!
Ive been practising my knee drops also and I can just about perform double knee slides again with confidence and Ive fallen a few times without injury - woo-hoo!!! The only thing I need to tackle again is Jamming...........
That word puts the fear of death into me, I used to love stepping up to the jammer line and taking everyone on. Now, all I feel is the lack of confidence that comes with not being fast enough or steady enough. The insecurity of not being able to fall properly when I'm blocked is a bit scary also. I really don't want to be injured again before my season gets off to a start.
I'm trying to remedy it though, squats, lunges and just skating are all helping. The girls are fantastic, always reassuring me and shouting me on - you have no idea how much that comforts you when your not feeling all that on your skates.
Ive managed to achieve a few things whilst Ive been off my skates though. I have managed to write up our official rules and our referees are coming on leaps and bounds - although they are calling me out on my chicken wings a little to much for my liking!!!!! WHERE DO YOUR LOYALTIES LIE!!!!!!
We are becoming more like a fully functioning league every training session. We have more girls who are joining up every day, soon we will have all our teams filled and then you all better watch out!! We will be coming for ya and we will be victorious in our world domination! Mwahh-ha-ha!!!
Ive been practising my knee drops also and I can just about perform double knee slides again with confidence and Ive fallen a few times without injury - woo-hoo!!! The only thing I need to tackle again is Jamming...........
That word puts the fear of death into me, I used to love stepping up to the jammer line and taking everyone on. Now, all I feel is the lack of confidence that comes with not being fast enough or steady enough. The insecurity of not being able to fall properly when I'm blocked is a bit scary also. I really don't want to be injured again before my season gets off to a start.
I'm trying to remedy it though, squats, lunges and just skating are all helping. The girls are fantastic, always reassuring me and shouting me on - you have no idea how much that comforts you when your not feeling all that on your skates.
Ive managed to achieve a few things whilst Ive been off my skates though. I have managed to write up our official rules and our referees are coming on leaps and bounds - although they are calling me out on my chicken wings a little to much for my liking!!!!! WHERE DO YOUR LOYALTIES LIE!!!!!!
We are becoming more like a fully functioning league every training session. We have more girls who are joining up every day, soon we will have all our teams filled and then you all better watch out!! We will be coming for ya and we will be victorious in our world domination! Mwahh-ha-ha!!!
Sunday, October 12, 2008
New Skates!!!!
I got my new skates!!!!! Yay!!!!
I wore them all day when I got them, I couldn't stop looking at them! The wheels look massive compared to my old wheels and you can feel they are stickier just by running your hands over them! I cant wait to try them out! They look real pretty, I feel just like a kid on Christmas morning!
Its such a pity I didn't have them when we had our official photos taken, but its always the way. They came just afterwards and I had to wear someone elses skates. They were about 5 times to big for me, but at least I was in the photos!
All I can say is.......
MOVE OVER JAMMERS - HERE I COME!!!!!!!!!
I wore them all day when I got them, I couldn't stop looking at them! The wheels look massive compared to my old wheels and you can feel they are stickier just by running your hands over them! I cant wait to try them out! They look real pretty, I feel just like a kid on Christmas morning!
Its such a pity I didn't have them when we had our official photos taken, but its always the way. They came just afterwards and I had to wear someone elses skates. They were about 5 times to big for me, but at least I was in the photos!
All I can say is.......
MOVE OVER JAMMERS - HERE I COME!!!!!!!!!
Bashes and Bruises
Well scrimmaging is going from strength to strength, we are getting more competitive and more aggressive with our blocking. Still too many 'sorrys' and stopping to check that people are not injured when you knock them on to their asses, but we are definitely getting there. We have had two practises since we I last posted and I had to sit out for one of them as I was taken out by one of our gals in an awesome block, but I twisted on my way down and landed on my tailbone. Man that stings.......I didn't break it, but I couldn't sit down for a few days!!!!!
We split up into teams and Jam mostly all the time now, it takes a lot out of you to play for the full two minutes - particularly if you are the Jammer. We are finding the girls that are natural born Jammers and we are finding who are more comfortable in blocking positions and we have a good mixture of both. Personally I'm finding that I'm leaning towards blocker position, but I'm still waiting on my skates coming through. Who knows, I may be able to dodge and weave better on bigger, grippier wheels. I know I will be a damn site faster on them, so I will just have to wait and see. I did manage to get through the pack quite easily on one Jam, but I couldn't keep in front of the other teams Jammer due to me sliding out of bounds when I picked up speed. She ended up catching me and won more points for her team.
The hands and pushing thing is getting better, everyone is managing to control their speed and stopping within the pack and our girls are very vocal in pointing out if anyone illegally blocks.
When I was sitting out during the last practise, I had time to really watch the girls and boy do we look good as a league. We are really starting to look the part now, it was so exciting to watch. I cant wait to see us all in our team colours doing it for real!
We split up into teams and Jam mostly all the time now, it takes a lot out of you to play for the full two minutes - particularly if you are the Jammer. We are finding the girls that are natural born Jammers and we are finding who are more comfortable in blocking positions and we have a good mixture of both. Personally I'm finding that I'm leaning towards blocker position, but I'm still waiting on my skates coming through. Who knows, I may be able to dodge and weave better on bigger, grippier wheels. I know I will be a damn site faster on them, so I will just have to wait and see. I did manage to get through the pack quite easily on one Jam, but I couldn't keep in front of the other teams Jammer due to me sliding out of bounds when I picked up speed. She ended up catching me and won more points for her team.
The hands and pushing thing is getting better, everyone is managing to control their speed and stopping within the pack and our girls are very vocal in pointing out if anyone illegally blocks.
When I was sitting out during the last practise, I had time to really watch the girls and boy do we look good as a league. We are really starting to look the part now, it was so exciting to watch. I cant wait to see us all in our team colours doing it for real!
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Wake-up Call
Its a long way to fall off that pedestal you build up in your mind. That image you have of yourself speeding around the track, crossing over in all the right places, dodging and weaving through holes in the pack looking like that hot, awesome derby gal in Blood and Thunder magazine........
Until you are in that pack, trying to dodge and weave but the blocker in front of you is really good and not getting out of the way. Yes, you are speeding around the track, but you haven't yet completely mastered the art of controlling your speed and you put your hands out on impulse and slam into the back of her - if we had a Ref and we were jamming for real - that would cost me some time in the penalty box and I might have cost my team the game. Reality sucks!!! A wounded ego sucks even more.
I have to practise more, my league needs to practise more (because there is quite a lot of us in the same boat) - but how can we if we don't have the extra time in the building we have at the moment. I HATE NETBALL AND BASKETBALL and all the prissy fucking sports that have really good floors to skate on but are afraid of their floor being ripped up by skates! I hate the council for demolishing all the roller rinks and leasing out the remaining ones to useless fucking companies that keep them empty and wont share!!!! Aaarggh!
Now that I have that rant out of the way and I have projected my anger towards something else, I can get on with my blog!
Its our first time at scrimmaging properly, playing by the rules and jam times and its a bit of a let down to realise your not as good as you think you are. I'm not only bruised physically. I really need to bury my head in the rules book and get to know my jam formations. I need to remember to keep my hands to myself and I need to find holes in the pack instead of thinking I can just barge my way through. I need to remember that if I'm Pivoting, I need to control the speed of the pack and not go speeding off chasing the jammer and causing the pack to speed up also. I need to realise that as a blocker, my job is to block other blockers and make way for my Jammer and not just focus on the opposing Jammmer. Its a lot to learn, its a whole different mentality from just skating round and round and concentrating on my own ability. I have to switch to pack mentality and team mentality - not me, myself and I.
I must say also, that I'm a bit nervous of going up against some of the other teams. Fuck, they have some good blockers - I know, I was on the receiving end of them at practise! We are going to have to start forming strategies amongst our own teams and holding back some of what we have from league practise. Don't want to show our colours too early, going to have to be devious now. Its going to be hard, cause I think our girls are awesome and I want to hang out with them and skate with them all. Its not going to be long before we are splitting the practises. I don't know how its going to work with the lack of space and time, but I'm sure that will be another story. For now, im going to take my frustration out on my boyfriend..............
Until you are in that pack, trying to dodge and weave but the blocker in front of you is really good and not getting out of the way. Yes, you are speeding around the track, but you haven't yet completely mastered the art of controlling your speed and you put your hands out on impulse and slam into the back of her - if we had a Ref and we were jamming for real - that would cost me some time in the penalty box and I might have cost my team the game. Reality sucks!!! A wounded ego sucks even more.
I have to practise more, my league needs to practise more (because there is quite a lot of us in the same boat) - but how can we if we don't have the extra time in the building we have at the moment. I HATE NETBALL AND BASKETBALL and all the prissy fucking sports that have really good floors to skate on but are afraid of their floor being ripped up by skates! I hate the council for demolishing all the roller rinks and leasing out the remaining ones to useless fucking companies that keep them empty and wont share!!!! Aaarggh!
Now that I have that rant out of the way and I have projected my anger towards something else, I can get on with my blog!
Its our first time at scrimmaging properly, playing by the rules and jam times and its a bit of a let down to realise your not as good as you think you are. I'm not only bruised physically. I really need to bury my head in the rules book and get to know my jam formations. I need to remember to keep my hands to myself and I need to find holes in the pack instead of thinking I can just barge my way through. I need to remember that if I'm Pivoting, I need to control the speed of the pack and not go speeding off chasing the jammer and causing the pack to speed up also. I need to realise that as a blocker, my job is to block other blockers and make way for my Jammer and not just focus on the opposing Jammmer. Its a lot to learn, its a whole different mentality from just skating round and round and concentrating on my own ability. I have to switch to pack mentality and team mentality - not me, myself and I.
I must say also, that I'm a bit nervous of going up against some of the other teams. Fuck, they have some good blockers - I know, I was on the receiving end of them at practise! We are going to have to start forming strategies amongst our own teams and holding back some of what we have from league practise. Don't want to show our colours too early, going to have to be devious now. Its going to be hard, cause I think our girls are awesome and I want to hang out with them and skate with them all. Its not going to be long before we are splitting the practises. I don't know how its going to work with the lack of space and time, but I'm sure that will be another story. For now, im going to take my frustration out on my boyfriend..............
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Fight! Fight! Fight!
Ever been in a playground and had people crowd round you with that chant? Remember that 'oh shit' feeling? NOT ANY MORE!!!! No-one is getting through my pads and helmet and mouth guard, no-one is taking me out! I'm a freaking awesome, hard ass Derby girl with a capital D and I'm gonna bring it this time!!!!! F*** YEAH!!!
Now, in derby, we don't condone fighting, but you have to have a little bit of showmanship now and again. You have to learn how to give it and take it and you never, ever give it to someone without them knowing its going to happen.
If you are reading this, you will be forgiven for thinking that I'm writing porn - and you will be right!! I'm writing my style of porn - derby style!!! You all know it, you all feel the same about Roller Derby! I am on a high after a totally fabtastic training session.
We had a blocking frenzy at practise. We were booty blocking, hip checking and shoulder bashing our way around the track. We were pack blocking and we all had our turns at playing Jammer. I'm gutted I don't have my new skates yet, I know I would have been a lot faster with them and I might even have given my opposing Jammer a run for her money.
Towards the end of practise, the skates came off and real scrimmaging started. We all started tackling each other and trying to bring each other down. It was like full on wrestling derby style and it was great! There was one on one wrestling and yes, there was the dog pile! I didn't realise 4 or 5 girls diving in a pile was so much fun!
Fuck, I love Derby! I have never had so much fun playing sport in my life! As I'm writing this, my legs hurt, my ass hurts and my arms hurt from blocking but I don't care. - derby is worth it!
Now, in derby, we don't condone fighting, but you have to have a little bit of showmanship now and again. You have to learn how to give it and take it and you never, ever give it to someone without them knowing its going to happen.
If you are reading this, you will be forgiven for thinking that I'm writing porn - and you will be right!! I'm writing my style of porn - derby style!!! You all know it, you all feel the same about Roller Derby! I am on a high after a totally fabtastic training session.
We had a blocking frenzy at practise. We were booty blocking, hip checking and shoulder bashing our way around the track. We were pack blocking and we all had our turns at playing Jammer. I'm gutted I don't have my new skates yet, I know I would have been a lot faster with them and I might even have given my opposing Jammer a run for her money.
Towards the end of practise, the skates came off and real scrimmaging started. We all started tackling each other and trying to bring each other down. It was like full on wrestling derby style and it was great! There was one on one wrestling and yes, there was the dog pile! I didn't realise 4 or 5 girls diving in a pile was so much fun!
Fuck, I love Derby! I have never had so much fun playing sport in my life! As I'm writing this, my legs hurt, my ass hurts and my arms hurt from blocking but I don't care. - derby is worth it!
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