the penalty learning curve

[maybetwisted]

There are still tickets available for the championship final on the 25th April!

Buy tickets now!I've mentioned before on this journal how steep the learning curve can be in roller derby. First, you need to learn to fall properly. Then, once you have sorted falling, you've got to get the skating down, and after that you need to get the blocking

Comments

[bluekieran]

This post reminds me of a conversation I had with my flying instructor in the early days of learning to fly. I was totally baffled by the amount of things I had to try and do at once[1], and she pointed out that was normal - you just have to keep practicing things so they become learned behaviour + muscle memory, and you have some brain-space left to think about other things while you're doing them.

[1] Something like: keep the wings level, check the horizon looks good, check altimeter to see if you're rising or falling, adjust throttle to correct, feet on the rudder to correct balance - and that's just flying straight and level before you start to wonder where you are and what you're supposed to be doing next.

[maybetwisted]

Muscle memory - yes! I think a lot of derby is down to that. Once you are comfortable enough on your skates, you can learn to block. Once your body knows how to do both of those things, you can move on to the tactics. I think that's the place where you plateau...

For this game my mantra was:

Where is their jammer
Where is our jammer
Who is in the box?

[bluekieran]

That reminds me, is there a handy online resource on roller derby tactics? Would be nice to know a little more about what I'm watching.

[maybetwisted]

there are a number of other blogs from skaters all over the world who probably talk about their own tactics - it's amazing how much it can vary from team to team. You've seen a few games now, and have probably got some idea of how different game play can be, even within our own league

[maybetwisted]

Ok, forgot to put in the you tube links!

link 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1uVC0VlqwY

link 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQvDZ0VphDo