Post mortem
As I was getting dressed this morning, I pinned my little CCRG button to my sports bra for luck. How big of a geek am I?
I'm really not sure how I did at tryouts. On a personal level, I feel pretty good about it. My two biggest concerns were the five-minute endurance test and blocking. The endurance test was worrisome simply because it was a make-or-break kind of thing. Twenty laps in five minutes. I knew I'd done it before and that I could do it again, but it was such a debacle when I tried out in December that I couldn't help but be a little gun-shy about it. I ended up getting either 22 or 23 laps, but was still obsessing about my form and my inefficient crossovers the whole time. I did, however, achieve the goal I'd set for myself: I never once fell down.
I was nervous about blocking because it was the skill set I had practiced the least. I knew I could take and give hits but it's a little different when you're up against veteran skaters instead of fellow skater tots. When we first lined up and paired off with an assessor, naturally I ended up with Joy. I'd tried doing shoulder blocks on her during a practice back in December and holy God it was like throwing myself into a brick wall. My puny "ehn!" blocks were like the buzzing of flies to her. This time around I was thrilled when I felt myself repeatedly connect with her shoulder, and do it cleanly and solidly. I've got a ways to go before I can knock her down, but just being able to dish out a clean hit on her without losing my balance was huge for me.
The rest of the blocking went okay. I often felt like I wasn't being aggressive enough and I quickly learned why being tall isn't always an advantage in derby. While I could get low enough to get blocks in on Shevil, Large Marge or Joy--all of whom are shorter than me--I still felt pretty awkward doing it, not to mention I know I would have been pulling some penalties. I would have liked to have paired up with someone taller like Siouxsie at some point but the line rotation never worked out that way. Ah well.
Booty blocking was the most fun although I'm not sure how well I did. I did my blocking on Shevil and while I managed to stay on her, I also got tangled up with her at one point and fell behind her, so I had to haul ass to get my booty back in front of her. I received my booty blocks from the awesome pivoting juggernaut that is Cheeta Torpeda, so I was a little intimidated. I never did quite get around her--and at one point bumped into her back, which would have been a penalty--but I stayed on her and moved around as much as I could to show I've at least got some hustle.
As for falls and stops, I felt pretty damn good about all of them. These are the skills I've been working on the most, so my confidence was pretty high. I only screwed up once when I was starting to drop down into a four-point fall and went off balance, so my ass hit the floor instead of my knees. The rest of the four-points went off without a hitch though. My falls and stops weren't always the tidiest affairs, but they were effective. Even my jumps were solid, and I know for a fact that I got considerably more air than I did the last time I tried out, and had better landings too.
Whips were kind of a mess for me because we were doing them in a pack and I just couldn't maintain the proper speed. I was always way out in front of everyone or lagging way behind, trying to slow down so I could give a whip or catch up with someone to get one. Technically speaking I think my whips were fine. They could have some more power behind them, but that will come with time. I did achieve my goal for whipping though, namely to stay in control. At the December tryout I took a whip from Shevil and couldn't get control of the extra speed. I went careening away from the track and slammed right into the wall. It was not pretty. This time however I handled the speed just fine by dropping into a crouch and riding it out. It felt awesome.
We did a blood and thunder for a few minutes that kicked my ass. I was totally distracted because I dying of thirst and my mouth had completely dried out, which was causing me to gag a bit on my mouth guard. I was really wishing I was chewing gum, but that's kind of hard to do with a mouth guard in anyway. But I hung in there, dished out some hits, took a few and at one point got laid out by Flo Shizzle. I fell into a baseball slide though, and was right back up on my feet and skating after it.
We did a pack skate which was somewhat nerve-wracking, both because I haven't really practiced much in a pack and because all ten of us skater tots were out there forming a superpack. I ended up at the front of the pack for a while and I think I did okay maintaining the pack speed. I made sure I was always looking around, so I felt like my awareness was pretty good. And I didn't fall despite some skate bumping and getting tangled up a few times. Not only that but I got to show off my ability to skate without picking up my feet.
I'm feeling comfortable with how I did. I know I was leaps and bounds ahead of where I was in December and that feels unbelievably gratifying. I didn't half-ass anything, I recovered from screw-ups, I encouraged my fellow tots, and I smiled and laughed the whole time. And I had a really good time doing everything. Hopefully the assessors saw all that too. Most of them already know how dedicated I am to the league and the sport, which I think will earn me some brownie points.
Anyway, after tryouts I went over to Denny's with my derby mate/life partner/boyfriend/husband/friend with benefits/sugar daddy oboe_sama (he calls me his "derby mistress," which I guess makes sense as I have given him his fair share of whips. Ha! Whips. Heh, just a little derby humor there), who had come up to watch and encourage all the tots. Hash browns were consumed. And there was much rejoicing.
Now for the waiting game. This time will be filled by laundry, napping, the new Harry Potter book, and dinner at the 'rents, not necessarily in that order. Joy told us to expect word on how we did by tonight or tomorrow. God willing it comes tonight, as I don't think I could handle eight hours of sitting at work wondering about it and being unable to check my e-mail!
P.S. Thanks to everyone for all the support and good luck wishes!
I'm really not sure how I did at tryouts. On a personal level, I feel pretty good about it. My two biggest concerns were the five-minute endurance test and blocking. The endurance test was worrisome simply because it was a make-or-break kind of thing. Twenty laps in five minutes. I knew I'd done it before and that I could do it again, but it was such a debacle when I tried out in December that I couldn't help but be a little gun-shy about it. I ended up getting either 22 or 23 laps, but was still obsessing about my form and my inefficient crossovers the whole time. I did, however, achieve the goal I'd set for myself: I never once fell down.
I was nervous about blocking because it was the skill set I had practiced the least. I knew I could take and give hits but it's a little different when you're up against veteran skaters instead of fellow skater tots. When we first lined up and paired off with an assessor, naturally I ended up with Joy. I'd tried doing shoulder blocks on her during a practice back in December and holy God it was like throwing myself into a brick wall. My puny "ehn!" blocks were like the buzzing of flies to her. This time around I was thrilled when I felt myself repeatedly connect with her shoulder, and do it cleanly and solidly. I've got a ways to go before I can knock her down, but just being able to dish out a clean hit on her without losing my balance was huge for me.
The rest of the blocking went okay. I often felt like I wasn't being aggressive enough and I quickly learned why being tall isn't always an advantage in derby. While I could get low enough to get blocks in on Shevil, Large Marge or Joy--all of whom are shorter than me--I still felt pretty awkward doing it, not to mention I know I would have been pulling some penalties. I would have liked to have paired up with someone taller like Siouxsie at some point but the line rotation never worked out that way. Ah well.
Booty blocking was the most fun although I'm not sure how well I did. I did my blocking on Shevil and while I managed to stay on her, I also got tangled up with her at one point and fell behind her, so I had to haul ass to get my booty back in front of her. I received my booty blocks from the awesome pivoting juggernaut that is Cheeta Torpeda, so I was a little intimidated. I never did quite get around her--and at one point bumped into her back, which would have been a penalty--but I stayed on her and moved around as much as I could to show I've at least got some hustle.
As for falls and stops, I felt pretty damn good about all of them. These are the skills I've been working on the most, so my confidence was pretty high. I only screwed up once when I was starting to drop down into a four-point fall and went off balance, so my ass hit the floor instead of my knees. The rest of the four-points went off without a hitch though. My falls and stops weren't always the tidiest affairs, but they were effective. Even my jumps were solid, and I know for a fact that I got considerably more air than I did the last time I tried out, and had better landings too.
Whips were kind of a mess for me because we were doing them in a pack and I just couldn't maintain the proper speed. I was always way out in front of everyone or lagging way behind, trying to slow down so I could give a whip or catch up with someone to get one. Technically speaking I think my whips were fine. They could have some more power behind them, but that will come with time. I did achieve my goal for whipping though, namely to stay in control. At the December tryout I took a whip from Shevil and couldn't get control of the extra speed. I went careening away from the track and slammed right into the wall. It was not pretty. This time however I handled the speed just fine by dropping into a crouch and riding it out. It felt awesome.
We did a blood and thunder for a few minutes that kicked my ass. I was totally distracted because I dying of thirst and my mouth had completely dried out, which was causing me to gag a bit on my mouth guard. I was really wishing I was chewing gum, but that's kind of hard to do with a mouth guard in anyway. But I hung in there, dished out some hits, took a few and at one point got laid out by Flo Shizzle. I fell into a baseball slide though, and was right back up on my feet and skating after it.
We did a pack skate which was somewhat nerve-wracking, both because I haven't really practiced much in a pack and because all ten of us skater tots were out there forming a superpack. I ended up at the front of the pack for a while and I think I did okay maintaining the pack speed. I made sure I was always looking around, so I felt like my awareness was pretty good. And I didn't fall despite some skate bumping and getting tangled up a few times. Not only that but I got to show off my ability to skate without picking up my feet.
I'm feeling comfortable with how I did. I know I was leaps and bounds ahead of where I was in December and that feels unbelievably gratifying. I didn't half-ass anything, I recovered from screw-ups, I encouraged my fellow tots, and I smiled and laughed the whole time. And I had a really good time doing everything. Hopefully the assessors saw all that too. Most of them already know how dedicated I am to the league and the sport, which I think will earn me some brownie points.
Anyway, after tryouts I went over to Denny's with my derby mate/life partner/boyfriend/husband/friend with benefits/sugar daddy oboe_sama (he calls me his "derby mistress," which I guess makes sense as I have given him his fair share of whips. Ha! Whips. Heh, just a little derby humor there), who had come up to watch and encourage all the tots. Hash browns were consumed. And there was much rejoicing.
Now for the waiting game. This time will be filled by laundry, napping, the new Harry Potter book, and dinner at the 'rents, not necessarily in that order. Joy told us to expect word on how we did by tonight or tomorrow. God willing it comes tonight, as I don't think I could handle eight hours of sitting at work wondering about it and being unable to check my e-mail!
P.S. Thanks to everyone for all the support and good luck wishes!