PMA!

and so to Monday, due to one thing and another I'd been off skates for the last week so was looking forward to getting them back on my feet and practicing what I'd learned the week before (even if just to confirm in my head it wasn't a one off!) Usual nattering in the car journey on the way to Glan Hafren however Rhayfen, Knuckles and Jonsey learned that I don't give a crap about being politically correct. If it comes into my head, chances are its coming out of my mouth too - I often suffer from foot in mouth syndrome because of this but on this journey it gave us a good opportunity to laugh hard and get rid of any nerves.

Grazed Anatomy and Nikilla were taking the training session and we had no idea what to expect, however it was fantastic! The plan was we would split into partners and mentor each other on skills they flagged up starting with moving laterally. Partnered up with Rhayfen we started off and I knew the way I was supposed to move it was just getting my feet to do it. She was asking me questions about my trucks - cue blank face! After giving them a bit of a wiggle she loosened the front up as there was no movement in them at all (and as she said, just do the front that way you get used to the movement without feeling unsafe) and also that my bushings (bushings? cushions?) were rock solid. Back up to try again and its amazing how such a small adjustment can make such a big difference! Now have got the movement just need to pick up the speed. We went on to turning both left and right with RG Bargy and I'll skim over that as it definitely needs alot of work lol

From there we went onto hits, stationary practice at first and I'd practiced these with Rhay before. It was good to go over it with her again as she tells you the best places to aim for as well as other instructions/tips. We went on to doing them while moving and although I can only throw baby hits it was good to practice the mechanics of actually throwing them.

Games time!! This brings out Rhays competitive side lol - first up, how far can you push your partner across the hall with a short 'run up' - all the way baby!! and when it was Rhays turn to be pushee she not only made it across the hall but also helmet first into the wall lol! Next same again with no run up and we did it again! Second game and we were split into 3's and had to push 2 team mates along like a trolley for 2 laps fab fun and we won in our duo set off. The third game I did struggle with as it was skating for as far as possible on one foot but I still gave it a go :) The winners from each group on that game were set off together to find a champ and it got down to who could stay on the one foot the longest even after they stopped (I believe there was some cheating going on!)

Finally we went onto sticky skating as fast as we could for 2 mins, as was explained it was a necessary evil and we needed to practice. On completing this and a quick water grab we were set off in groups of 5 to see how many laps we could sticky skate in, it was either 1 or 2 mins, I forget. Anyways I managed 3.5 which I was happy with (though I should apologize to the newbie who's wheel I caught and put her off balance!) During inbetween and cool down times I'd been practicing backwards skating, the movement is basically the same as on ice skates so I'd not found it difficult to get going. RG Bargy pointed out that if I was comfortable with moving like that I could go onto backwards crossovers as my foot was trying to do it naturally anyway, so I thought I'd give it a bash! Alot of work to be done on that and I met my old friend the floor once or twice but I got up and kept trying, the more I do it the more it'll click :)

I left that session feeling more positive than I had in a long time and feeling that I'd actually learned something rather than glossed over it, and now thanks to Skate Bristol I have my fab outdoor wheels and can get on my skates more often!

Derby love

xx