Derby Journal #16 - Hit Me Like You Mean It
Practice yesterday was really, really fun, but I had a very off day. I felt I handled the hitting drills a lot better last weekend. I struggled with my stance all through practice. Weird. I felt I kept making very basic mistakes, and it was embarrassing.
After warm-up we did a fun paceline drill where we just followed one of the coaches. It was more a game of following the leader than anything else, requiring everyone to be in proper derby stance and using crossovers throughout, lots of weaving as well, which I seem to struggle with still.
We covered the following:
I love the double knee falls, something about being allowed to slide across the floor on my knees makes me feel sort of bad ass. Hahaha. The pack skating with obstacles was very challenging, but very effective. We were all given numbers, and the coaches shouted out instructions for the various numbers, the rest of the pack had to skate on as if nothing had happened. The instructions could be things like "fall small!" or "stop!". You really have to let go of whatever fear you have of falling or being run over. I feel more confident each time we do this, and of course knowing how to fall safely in a pack helps a lot.
I managed 23.5 laps for the 27 in 5 challenge. I'm back where I was when we practiced at the warehouse. I'm going to try a new wheel setup for the next two practices and see if that'll help. The lack of grip is frustrating. No falls during today's test, but I was stuck behind a slow skater for the three first laps, and struggled to get around her T___T; that probably slowed me down a little, I know my focus was in all the wrong places during that.
SOCK DERBY WAS AMAZING. It's so hilarious and silly and fun. My teammates blocked me when I was jamming (RIGHT AT THE JAMMER LINE), I was livid hahahhaha. When they finally noticed what they were doing, I sprinted out, overtook the other jammer and scored on all the other players before the opposing jammer managed to call it off 8D so hahaha, but the friendly block had everyone in stitches afterwards. The chaos is very real, though. You forget what team you're on, you forget you're wearing a helmet cover (at least if you're pivot!), clockwise blocking happens CONSTANTLY. Sock derby is really good practice. I managed without any penalties this time!
I love just sprinting and giving my absolute all for short amounts of time, I loved that when I was playing soccer as well. I wish I was as confident in my crossover abilities as I was with my sprinting T___T then maybe I could be an OK-ish jammer. Hahahaha.
After warm-up we did a fun paceline drill where we just followed one of the coaches. It was more a game of following the leader than anything else, requiring everyone to be in proper derby stance and using crossovers throughout, lots of weaving as well, which I seem to struggle with still.
We covered the following:
- Hip hits
- Shoulder hits
- Hits in a paceline
- Whips
- Stops
- Intro to derby stop
- Knee taps
- Double knee falls
- Falling small
- Pack skating with obstacles
- 27 in 5
- Sock derby
I love the double knee falls, something about being allowed to slide across the floor on my knees makes me feel sort of bad ass. Hahaha. The pack skating with obstacles was very challenging, but very effective. We were all given numbers, and the coaches shouted out instructions for the various numbers, the rest of the pack had to skate on as if nothing had happened. The instructions could be things like "fall small!" or "stop!". You really have to let go of whatever fear you have of falling or being run over. I feel more confident each time we do this, and of course knowing how to fall safely in a pack helps a lot.
I managed 23.5 laps for the 27 in 5 challenge. I'm back where I was when we practiced at the warehouse. I'm going to try a new wheel setup for the next two practices and see if that'll help. The lack of grip is frustrating. No falls during today's test, but I was stuck behind a slow skater for the three first laps, and struggled to get around her T___T; that probably slowed me down a little, I know my focus was in all the wrong places during that.
SOCK DERBY WAS AMAZING. It's so hilarious and silly and fun. My teammates blocked me when I was jamming (RIGHT AT THE JAMMER LINE), I was livid hahahhaha. When they finally noticed what they were doing, I sprinted out, overtook the other jammer and scored on all the other players before the opposing jammer managed to call it off 8D so hahaha, but the friendly block had everyone in stitches afterwards. The chaos is very real, though. You forget what team you're on, you forget you're wearing a helmet cover (at least if you're pivot!), clockwise blocking happens CONSTANTLY. Sock derby is really good practice. I managed without any penalties this time!
I love just sprinting and giving my absolute all for short amounts of time, I loved that when I was playing soccer as well. I wish I was as confident in my crossover abilities as I was with my sprinting T___T then maybe I could be an OK-ish jammer. Hahahaha.