The wheels on the skates....have got to go!

Monday - hated by some, loved by me as its training day (well evening lol) Usual mob, usual journey, same old hall but second session on the new skates :D Time to test the Rock GT-50 wheels out on another surface. Warm ups and stretches out of the way and we get into a bit of derby stance, pushing and crossovers practice. The stance I've pretty much got down now I just need to build up the strength in my legs to maintain it for long periods of time, and the pushing exercise took a couple of goes but I pretty much got that down too! All going well so far - then we were split into 4 groups for crossovers - the aim was to take the jammer line around the track and try and get 5 laps in 1 min doing just crossovers. This I pretty much sucked at! In the other hall the Rock wheels were fine for crossovers however as I went into the first corner crossover I could feel the wheels just sliding out from under me, that was it, confidence out of the window and I only managed 3 laps.

Abadabadoo had bought some of her Radar Red Turners for me to try out before I went buying my replacements as I'd been looking at getting some 92/93a wheels. Popped them on while the girls were playing a weaving & race game and felt the difference immediately. Gave them a couple of test laps including crossovers and there was the confidence again ready to be picked up! Rejoined my group to find we were doing some passive blocking practise with the 4 groups split evenly around the track, you had to block the opposing teams jammers, communicate with your team and not get to close to the team in front or the penalty was 10 push ups. This also meant we all got a turn at blocking and jamming - eek! I'm not the most stable on my feet but I gave it a bloody good go (OK even if my first words to the other teams was 'please don't kill me!') I have to say that Nicola was awesome with her passive blocks and really tested my skills as was Knuckle Sandwich Nancy - I know the other teams were fab too and thank you to the ladies that let me through lol. I know what things I've got to work on now - and doing semi splits on skates isn't one of them hahaha. From there I went on to kinda NSOing, the teams were joined to form 2 larger teams while the blockers practised getting the jammers through the pack - my mouth guard is a bit iffy as is and I wanted to keep my teeth so a few of us were posted around the track to call out any offences.

After all that fun, a bit of a cool down and stretch I gave Abadabadoo her wheels back and planned my shopping for the morning :D The trip home involved lots of nattering about the CRoC launch party this weekend - The Gower pub, Cathays, Cardiff - free entry, masquerade theme but be warned if you turn up without a mask you'll be fined! We also discussed next weeks road trip to Birmingham to see the double header, its gonna be great! Oh and no cheeseburgers for Rhayfen :p hahahaha

Before I go I want to give a special mention to Up Ya Jonsey, she's back on her skates after a bit of injury time out with her knee - Jonsey you're doing great gal, your confidence will soon get there again, remember, be like Dory! Just keep skating, skating, skating ;)

Right, these wheels won't order themselves! TTFN

xxx