First off, apologies! I can't believe I let it slip so long between blogs! There's been a lot going on but on the same hand not a lot going on, don't worry all will become clear!
I missed 3 or 4 of our training sessions as I managed to pick up a lovely spring cold, I hate being ill and a lot of the time I refuse to acknowledge the fact I am ill and just carry on regardless, I don't 'do' ill! However, being bunged up and grumpy does not make for a productive Emilie and I especially didn't want to spread the cold to other team members so I behaved and stayed away. Instead I used the time as advised by a fellow skater to 'derby train my brain' and watch bouts, read up on rules and the like and recover.
My return to training happened to coincide with the fabulous She'za Payne coming to take us for a special training session. On the car journey up we were all panicking and decided that we were going to die after this session - although Up Ya Jonsey was reassured by Rhayfen that she wouldn't let her die as she was a very selfish person and required Jonsey to stay alive so she could get home lol. I was kinda nervous but also quite looking forward to the session too. After meeting She'za and Effin Elle we were asked what level we were - unfortunately I wasn't allowed my own special needs level so was put with the beginners lol The track went down, and the ladies took an off skate warm up then on to skates, this is where I started to unravel - my confidence had disappeared totally. After doing the right leg push sticky skating we went onto some single leg skating, and that was me off. If you've been following me up to now you'll know that my lack of balance is whats been throwing me for a long time and I felt so embarrassed that I couldn't do it that, after stripping my skates and pads off, I disappeared to the toilets and cried my heart out. Stupid huh? In all honesty I felt like I didn't belong there, if you can't do the simplest thing then how on earth are you going to manage anything else!? I got very angry with myself and was in danger of throwing the towel in.
So, I composed myself and after a big hug from the fab Hellcat Harri and a word with Dotty Destruction I redressed and got to work on the NSO stuff instead - what can I say, I'm a stats geek and like to get my nerd on! I continued to watch the session and pick up tips for stuff to work on in the future. At the end of the session I thought there'd be no harm in asking a couple of questions so I approcahed She'za and asked if there was anything I could be doing to help with my balance problems - she was lovely and explained a few exercises I could work on and also that I should develop my core as its key to becoming a good player. I took all of this on board and decided maybe I wasn't quite ready to quit yet - as was said, different people develop at different speeds, don't compare your ability to others just concentrate on doing the very best you can and things will click into place.
And so we come to yesterdays session - a few team members were missing due to the big WFTDA Anarchy in the UK bout weekender so some of the Tiger Bay Brawlers came to train with us and Rhayfen assumed the position of coach. In a bit more of a positive mind frame this gave me the opportunity to try my wheel set up on the Eastern Leisure centre floor (for the more curious of you, I've just switched it so my pusher wheels are on the left on each skate). After doing some warm up laps and stretches, we were 'treated' to sit ups, push ups and planks - thanks, really you shouldn't have! lol. A quick drink as it was so warm there and I went off to practice plow stops with RG Bargy, then on to cross over practice which I've more or less got licked now I just really need to stop looking at my feet! This did highlight for me that my toe stops may be a little too low as I was catching them every so often on the floor. From here we were all told to skate one footed, no matter if it were for 2 seconds or 30, just go as long as we could. Time to give it a bash, it was literally 1 second before my other foot wanted to go down. Not to be defeated I kept at it then Hell Neenio from TBB came alongside and explained something that Judge Redd had mentioned to me before about shifting your weight and making a line so you knee is kinda between your boobs when you look down - I guess it kinda clicks more when someone demonstrates it. I know I need to bend my knees more, its something I always get picked up on so I made sure I did this and put the advice in to practice - and now I've figured out how I used to teach myself things I went and did this over and over and over, trying not to favour one foot over the other (although my left was winning). My right foot always leans inwards whenever I try to balance on it so I figured I better try and sort that out and by the end of the session I had it cracked! Not for a huge amount of time but I've gone from not being able to skate on one foot to being able to glide about half of the straight :D I'm going to keep at practicing this and my next obstacle - turns! I WILL DEFEAT EACH SMALL SKILL ONE STEP AT A TIME, y'know PMA and all that ;)
I close with a little video I made as a kinda training aid, my wife Rhayfen demonstrating how she turns, enjoy!
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