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Sunday 18 December 2011

Round up, Roll Out

Long time no post!! Wow there's been so much happening since I was last here! Valleys Roller Dolls have really started to take off and the girls are so enthusiastic I've been like a proud parent.  To be totally honest with you all, it hasn't been smooth sailing but we're getting there and word is getting out!  Personally, this month has been about trial and error alot for me, I've mastered a few things - including telling my brain to STFU when its making me over think things - and I've learned a hell of a lot too both about derby and myself, letting go sometimes is a good thing!  


As you may know, I've gained a bit of a rep for being a skate boot killer - after lots and lots of research (ok and badgering of various derby peoples to whom I'm forever grateful) it turns out that I'd simply chosen skates that were not suitable for me.  People had raved about the DA-45 plates and Suregrip skates (me included) but the padding in the boot was causing me to have to lace them so tight to my feet that the lace holes would give out (although why SG don't use metal eyelets all the way up their boot is beyond me.....), also it looked as though the short mounted plate was not doing me any favours (we all know I'm very good friends with the floor yeah?).  So, after having a rather cathartic clear out of some of my 'old life' things that really needed to be out there being used, and gaining some early birthday monies I bit the bullet and ordered the Antik MG-2 skates.  Due to the customs/shipping thing (yeah, I ordered from the US - Fast Girl Skates had too good an offer not to and I've always been blown away by their service) I only got them the day of our last session before Christmas so I can't give a brilliant review on them yet but what I can say is OMFG! They've made a total difference - yeah it took a little while to get used to but I could have cried with happiness (yes, I sound mental I know).  Ok, the Heartless wheels weren't for me so they've been replaced with Poison Slims but I am in absolute love with my skates :D I can't wait til our next session!  Oh yeah before I forget, thanks a bunch to the wife Rhayfen for deciding we needed to play queen of the rink the day I get my new skates, bambi much!?

I've also been working on something which was spawned from total derby laziness - I decided that maybe it would be a good idea to finally do something with the two years of college/uni training I did and actually do some pattern drafting/designing! HA! Betcha didn't know I could do that did ya!  I can't reveal much at the moment as I'm working on something I'm hoping to release for 2012, nothing too fancy but its a babystep and babysteps lead to bigger bits of awesome! 


Til my next post, which I won't leave so long in doing!


TTFN!


Friday 28 October 2011

Riddle me this.......

How do readers! hope this post finds you well - I come with a short one this morning as I am packing for SK8 Heaven bootcamp this weekend :D


My question is this, how do you deal with someone who listens to you tell them about stuff you achieved at practice only to turn around and say "oh well, don't worry if you don't get it - you can always just become an NSO" rather than "oh well done! you're working really hard and its paying off - you'll get there!"

Usually negativity can be brushed off but its gotta get to you eventually, right?

See you after bootcamp!

xx

Monday 10 October 2011

Birth of the Valkyries and other news

Morning! lots to catch up with so thought I'd do it while the caffeine is kicking in lol. First up, there's been a bit of a shake up in the Valleys Roller Dolls HQ - we found (totally by accident) another team had a very similar name to our travel team so after some nice emails back and forth and finding they'd already done their print run, we decided it would be easier to rebrand and make new derby friends than come over as the big B and kick off. It seems like a bit of a blessing as we've gone from one epic name to another and so the Hell Valley Valkyries were born!

We're also having our official registration this week and closing our doors to new 'Greenhorns' til after christmas. The ladies are excited, the coaches are excited and I know I'm definitely excited as so much hard work is starting to slowly pay off :)

This week saw me taking my first session as coach, it was a bit odd but I found switching from Cath to 'Spew Sylvester' helpful even if slightly schizophrenic lol. The session seemed to go really quickly and I was glad to have Jinx'em G there to help explain stuff and demonstrate :) I think I found it difficult as I didn't want to come over as a complete bitch but I didn't want to be too soft on them either - fine line eh! Anyway, the girls did me proud and did everything I asked of them, even the girls who've only been attending 2-3 weeks had a bash. If anyone's got any advice/tips on coaching I'd love to hear them, I'm not going to be doing it that often but I'd like to be ready!

Last weekend also saw 3 of South Wales derby leagues coming together to put on 2 bouts as part of the Big Splash Festival in Newport. Swansea City Slayers were playing Tiger Bay Brawlers B team and the main event was TBB A team vs Cardiff Roller Collective. Unfortunately I missed the main event as I had some things to deal with but the Swansea bout was fabulous! Both teams played extremely well (I can't even remember if there was more than 1 sin bin trip!) but on the day the Slayers just pushed that little bit harder to get the win. Final scores of the day

Swansea City Slayers 79 - Tiger Bay Brawlers B team 77

And

Tiger Bay Brawlers A team 190 - Cardiff Roller Collective 37


Well thats all I've got to report for now! Til next time ;)

Wednesday 28 September 2011

Time's a tickin!

Well, here we are Valleys Roller Dolls have secured themselves a fab home and are getting ready to close their recruitment - exciting times! The journey hasn't necessarily been a smooth one but if there's one thing the dolls are full of its determination and enthusiasm. There's been lots of changes along the way, including my name change :D it's been met with enthusiasm and confusion but its veeery me lol. There's so much I could talk about but you know it'd just be my usual waffle trying to remember things, especially as I've attended so many awesome things since I last blogged - Croydon Roller Derby bootcamp, LRG rookie bootcamp and TBB vs Rainy City to name the most recent.


Now I'm back on the tinterwebz I will be blogging regularly, some random, some team stuff and about events I attend. Valleys Roller Dolls are looking forward to seeing some fab South Wales roller derby next Saturday (8th October) as part of the Big Splash festival in Newport so expect a write up and pics, lots of pics!

In the mean time, good to be back

Cath Hulu!



Sunday 17 July 2011

Movers and Shakers

Wow do I have a load to tell you! After a marked absence from blogging I figure I own an explanation at least :)


To start, some news - I am no longer a CRoC. I won't go boring you with all the he said she said etc and details but after careful consideration I decided it would be more beneficial to skate with a more local team, so that's what I'm doing now. I wish CRoC all the best for the future and hopefully see you on the track ladies ;)

So, who's the new league I hear you ask lol - I am now a Valleys Roller Doll! I am very excited as we're only just forming as a league and getting some social skate sessions under our belt before officially ending recruitment and closing our doors. I've met some fabulous ladies so far and its being very well received in the area (even if we are having to fight for training space) and to top it all off we have our first 'team awareness/fundraiser' coming up next week :D

I'll keep you informed on my new journey but for now go find my league on Facebook, you'll love us! ;)

TTFN

xx

Sunday 19 June 2011

I'm a Rebel lol

Ok, I admit, I've been rubbish with keeping this up to date haven't I! Lots of interesting stuff going on, some of it newsworthy some not lol.


First off, my skates broke :( ok it was only the lacing holes in the boot but that's not the point - I'd only had them just about 5 months! Sure Grips official line 'oh, we don't recommend them for roller derby' so anyone with a GT-50 boot be aware! However, Skate Bristol were totally awesome once more and I now have some Rebel Invaders! Whoot!

I got to thinking yesterday, I wonder if people are questioning my commitment to derby, yes I may sit out of a few things (like 1 exercise yesterday when my back decided to spasm!) and faff a bit but I am there for every session I can be! In fact, lets look at my usual Saturday shall we? Up and at'em at 7am to leave the house by 8am. Then its a mile walk with my kit to meet up with the wife to get the peasant wagon into Cardiff (30 mins and anything from £3.50 to £5) once there, meet up with ladybrother Jinx and split a cab if we haven't got a lift (£2 - £3 each) then 2-3 hours training depending on our booking then again if no lift off to get a bus back to the city centre (£1.50) by which time we're staaarvin! Then a bus back to the village and a mile walk home with my kit Now also remember that I live in the wonderful land of Wales, our national weather is rain! So chances are I do that getting damp - doesn't that sound like fun!!

Anyways enough faffing from me, back to fun stuff, my new skates! They are awesome (but why didn't I realise there'd be a weight difference? d'oh!) I couldn't tell you exactly what happened on Fridays session as I was trying to organise some stuff which made me late kitting up, leading to anger issues again! I remember we were doing 'wall exercises' and lots of stuff with fast feet which I was crap at as I was uber slidey on my new wheels! I did like the mini scrims we did at the end of session though and made a mental note not to get in Slagather Christies way - the woman is a demon!

Saturday however was a whole different ball game, I much prefer the hall at Eastern and Rhay took us through some fab hitting/blocking drills. I'm still struggling with this so the thought of hitting people while skating a paceline was a bit worrying but I figured as long as I hit one person I'd be happy lol! A few skaters in and I heard Rhay shout "c'mon, use that anger, think of the ex!" and I did, they weren't big hits but I landed them nonetheless! Unfortunately I had to sit the gauntlet out as my stupid back decided to spasm but I was back on track as quickly as I could and carried on with the games including Frogger and Angels and A**hole! alot of skatey fun and alot learned and guess what - a change of wheels and I can now T Stop (little bits of awesome adding up!)

I think thats about it for now, you've probably had enough of my waffling!

xx


Sunday 5 June 2011

Skate Skate Sliiiiiiide

Once again long time no speak! I've had the wonder that is half term here so have been amusing the small people and that kinda eats my time - but hey thats not what you're here to read about.

So what have I been up to? There's been a road trip, a training session or two, an outdoor skate and some news. Lets start at the top shall we. Road trip! Blood and Thunder boot camp were holding a double header bout to let the ladies show off the skills they'd learned and it seemed like a good opportunity to go watch and learn (and support the ladies I knew!) It was the usual suspects that travel together on Mondays for training. |Much jabbering on the way there, much watching of skaters and seeing how much derby knowledge I was actually retaining and a chance to grab some back issues of B&T mag made for an interesting day. There were a few faces I recognised from Central City Roller Girls, Tiger Bay Brawlers, Bristol Harbor Harlots and Swansea Slayers (probably left a few teams out but I've a memory like a seive!) We also got to see a ref (mentioning no names) playing with his nuts - the ones that hold his wheels on smut monger! lol and I got to finally meet the fabulous Minx Pie and Red N Roll, excited about both as one is organizing the boot camp I'm attending and the other is my Derbalife coach :D If you want to see some footage of the day you can find my YouTube channel - Just look for Emilie Mortem!

This week also saw me getting to go train with Severn Roller Torrent - this time travelling with Chant Hell, Block Booty, Rhayfen and Poll E Blockit. Once again hilarity ensued as we got a little lost and ended up asking in a primary school for directions but we got there! The SRT girls were both welcoming and encouraging, I loved the warm up drills and getting to know some of the other girls. The session was aimed at smashing walls so some practice on plough stops was done (except by me, having switched to the yellow cushions I was still struggling, although it was pointed out that my trucks were still waaaay too loose so that was sorted) and after a bit of practice doing 'can openers' at a slower speed and stepping through blockers we did a bit of scrimmaging. Again I liked the way it was run, non contact then contact, changing with each bib change over. I opted for the non contact scrims as I'm still a little bambi-esque and was quite pleased with how I managed keeping up (albeit not where I should have been but that will come) plus I got some fab feedback and advice from the ladies on my 'team' - I also now know what a back block major feels like when you get floored lol. I left the session feeling very positive :)

After only managing 17.25 laps in 5 at recent sessions (its more than I'd previously done but I still gotta up it!) I decided it was time to start outdoor skating whenever I can, starting yesterday with the wife. She's skated the local bypass route before and scoped out the terrain so I was looking forward to it and in all fairness it was a nice surface to skate on. Then she threw in the 'ooh yeah, there'll be a few uppy/downy hill bits but nothing too scary', ok I thought - what was I thinking?? this was the mentalist that went exploring on her skates! So yeah, the first downy hill bit wasn't too bad (there was a gate at the bottom to stop me lol) and I tried to skate the uphill bit but I couldn't! However it gave me an awesome chance to practice walking on my toe stops - bonus! So we carried on along the straight, putting the world to rights and enjoying the sunshine then came the second downhill bit - just stick a plough on was the advice and believe me I did try! I was continuing to try as I whizzed past Rhayfen still picking up speed and in the end decided the safest option was a knee fall. We now know my automatic fall of choice is a baseball slide, however on tarmac it does kinda smart! Rhayfen couldn't help chuckling and as she pointed out at least she now knows I can execute a good fall in a panic situation. After getting over the shakes and realizing there was more downhill I decided to do the rest of it on my knees until we were off the path. From there, there was only a road and some steps separating us from our destination, but all still on a downhill. I tried walking on my toe stops, lateral skating between the bushes and the kerb and eventually I just went sod it (bearing in mind at the bottom of this road is a roundabout for cars coming off the bypass) and with a semi worried Rhay skating infront of me I managed to plough stop at the bottom. We reached the pub beer garden and assessed the damage over pop and crisps lol






















As we were coming back along the main road I decided it may be best to walk so all in all, just over 1 mile skated and about 3 miles walked in total all day - not too shabby :) Has this put me off out door skating? Has it hell!

Last off, the news? As you know I'm following the Derbalife program (and am now a wellness coach with them) and I've lost 2" off my waist since starting :D well chuffed am I! The other bit of news is that I'm going to be taking part in my first intraleague bout against Bridgend Bombshells, admittedly I was a bit 'omg' at first but now I'm really looking forward to it :D

Until next time, derby love

Emilie
xx

Monday 23 May 2011

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle (and mend?)

A lot has been going on in my life over the past day or so which has involved some heartache, some screaming and some tears to be shed. It has also seen me developing and penting things up to take out on the track, this may or may not be a good thing but to quote the fab lady who inspired my name "I'm not stupid. I know exactly what's going on, and I'm not fighting it. If I have to go through this, I will glean from it any small benefit I can receive. I will not fight this. Bring it on. Bring on the cure. Bring on the fucking happy. I'm committed."


It has also seen me taking stock of other areas where I am going wrong, no point just having the positive mental attitude if your body can't back it up, right? All mouth and no trousers is not the way I intend to play, so I went to investigate Derbalife. Having heard so many good things about it and talking to Krissy Krash and Red N Roll I decided it was for me and under Reds guidance now have a plan. I am also intending to become a Derbalife UK coach as I know I'm not the only one in the same dietary boat.

I received my order this morning and can't wait to get started! Wish me luck!

TTFN

Emilie
xx

Sunday 22 May 2011

Derby fueled weekend

Morning! Lots to catch up on today so here we go! Friday we had an impromptu training session to make up for Monday's cancellation. After a few adjustments I'd made to my skates in the daytime to counter the numb toe thing I'd had going on I was looking forward to testing them out (I'd also discovered that not only had the plastic lacing grommets broken at the top but that they were eating through the boot - noooo!) and as I'd been having some pain in my heel too I'd fitted some memory foam insoles. So on arriving at the hall, I collected the NSO manuals that Amanita Massacre had kindly printed for me ready to get people rolling on that. Skates and pads on, lets see if the adjustments worked.......3 laps and out went the insoles! The only difference they made was to make my feet go dead quicker! Another couple of laps without them and there was a bit of an improvement, no dead toes, feet a little uncomfortable but bearable. Did some warm ups and as I was the only B* member there I went to work on my stops and cross overs so I wouldn't be in the way of the rest of the girls. TBH after an hour I admitted defeat, my heel felt like I'd stomped on a plug so I figured it'd be a good time to get the manuals in order ready for the next day (still keeping the skates on while sat, I figured it might help).


Saturday, new frame of mind, 'party feet' gel cushions and a 4 hour training session! After fun and games getting to the hall (damn you Heineken Cup!) I realized that 1, I'd forgotten to bring my lunch with me (doofus!) and 2, today was going to be interesting as CRoC's Cardiff Roll Crew had their first (albeit closed) bout against Tiger Bay Brawlers B Team. I sat and sorted out the gel cushions into the heels of my skates, keeping fingers crossed, and signed off all the disclaimers that needed doing then kitted up. Noticed an immediate difference with the gel cushions! Happy feet :D Got my warm up laps done and we were split off into our own groups again to work on skills. One footed skating up first, a bit wobbly as my new lacing system is a bit looser, I got just over half the straight done but I'll get back to my usual in a week or so (PMA). From there to t-stops, practicing the 'zombie walk' not sure if it helps me so am going to keep working on it in the house, I'm more annoyed with myself for getting it one week and not the next - work that one out! After that, the B*'s were split in to and put in opposite corners outside the track to work on lateral movements and turns - laterals to the left are much easier! As for turns, I'm slowly getting them too, I've gone from 'eh whaaa' to continually turning on the spot to get the move down, now just to add in some forward momentum!

TBH the time seemed to fly, after we' d eaten and chatted about strengths/weaknesses/team stuff for the bout there was less than an hour left so the B* group took NSO roles while the rest went in for scrims - fun fun fun!

I loved having the 4 hour session, hopefully it'll be a regular thing! As for the afternoon, I was off to watch the Bristol Harbor Harlots home teams play some exhibition derby! But that's for the next blog ;)

Thanks for reading

xx

Tuesday 17 May 2011

mix it up, change it about, its all good

Heya, how ya doing? Its been a funny old week here with me playing mother hen and changes afoot with team training, I won't go into it as it'd take up a huge blog post and its all water under the bridge now. Instead I'll treat you to more of my waffling, you'd like that wouldn't you ;)


So, this week saw me finally fiddling about with bits on my skates other than my wheels (I know, shock huh!) On seeking advice I bought some Sure Grip Super cushions in Red (hardest) as I'm not exactly the most svelte of ladies and am still a bit unstable on my skates. Everglides were their usual fantastic selves and I had them the morning after ordering so got to work fitting them that night. My ladybrother Jinx said it would only take me 5 mins and gave me a video to watch so I thought hey no problem! HAH!!! 40 minutes because the back ones on 1 skate didn't want to play ball, I even managed to throw a hissy fit on my skate tool and have a domestic with my OH after simply asking him to put the nut on so it had some grip while I pushed down on the cushions, he reckoned it couldn't be done and gave up, eventually they were on, I won and was looking forward to seeing if they made a difference the next day.

And so to Saturday training, as I said there were a few changes about to be put in place, I was a little nervous about what was going to happen to be totally honest but it was a really positive session. We were told exactly how training was going to work from now on and what was expected of us both on skates and fitness wise and I went off with my group to work on stuff I need for min skills. T-stops I am still struggling with but then that's just because I need to practice them, so turns were thrown in too! Why learn one skill when you can learn two lol. Again its going to take practice but I feel I've got the basics to get cracking on it! Little bits of awesome remember :) We all came together then to practice working on our sweeps and crossovers and this is where I got cross with myself, after the entire team practiced pushing then sweeping we were set off in our own little groups to see how people were picking it up. Ok I still get the occasional wobble when going quicker than I'm used to but its all good. What I was annoyed with myself about was not taking the opportunity to go around my team mate, it was there but my brain kept saying 'in a minute' then before I knew it we were done, grrrrr silly girl, stop thinking start doing! Anyways I'm not going to dwell on the negative, I did well with other things in that session and although last nights practice was called off at the last minute thanks to not being told about the hall being set up for exams, I'm going to be practicing all I can at home!

As for the cushions, tbh I didn't notice a difference which was disappointing - actually no, I got worse at my plow stops! I had to tighten the back truck up slightly to fix that but there's not much room for manoeuvre with the trucks as they are :s Am also looking at how my skates are laced up because for the first time since I was out of the Reidells I got totally numb feet!! Apart from that, all is good - am talking with the gym this week on mixing up my training programme and looking at my nutrition once I've got something that's playing on my mind a bit sorted but I'm getting there slowly :)

For now, much derby love

Emilie
xxx

Saturday 7 May 2011

Egg-citing!

We'd had a bit of time off due to Easter so it was good to be back on my wheels today. I'd not been slacking though, promise! I have been going to the gym and doing my She'za exercises (she's trying to kill me, I'm sure of it!) and sorting NSO stuffs so I can get my geek fix lol.

I had a complete tard moment this morning and not only forgot my water bottles but also my shiny new Prodent Tech mouth guard - stupidity at its finest eh! Luckily I still had my old mouth guard in my case, phew! So, skates on, pads on (maybe should have brought the bigger helmet to go over the braids but c'est la vie) and off to warm up and stretch. A few stopping drills to start off with an I scoot into the middle to have a quick recap on t-stops. I did hear Jen call out I was to be brave today and not sit things out so I quickly got back onto the track. We started out with a weaving through the pace line drill, fairly slow as we were a proper mixed ability group today. I was glad it was slowish as I'd not run this drill before so was a bit nervous going into it. I watched some of the other girls get down the line as quickly as they could, its all about lateral movement and I know I can do that so with a bit of PMA I was off. I got through it ok and learned that my left lateral is stronger than going to the right and that I need to work on controlling my speed, other than that I was pleased for a first go. To mix it up a bit it was then decided we'd have a double pace line and run the same thing again but going through in twos with your partner - slightly more tricky but again I think I got the hang of it :) A quick water break and discussion on whats happening with the actual A & B teams (members etc) and we were told we'd be focusing more on plays and things we need to learn a bit more which is all good. We'd been wondering what was happening with the teams as its all been a bit hush hush while people were being watched and plans were being made but it was all announced this morning and it seems there were a few surprises, again all good. I am very happy to have been marked up as a B* (B team but not ready for bouting yet as has a few things to work on first), this has given me something to push and work harder for.

Anyways I digress, so drills. Upon having 'cascading/waterfalling' explained to us there were a couple of blank looks, myself included. So 'the vets' (as I'm going to refer to them from now on, they're not exactly veteran skaters but they're a damn sight better than most of us so its sticking) put it into action and asked us to split into groups of 4 to have a go. As we were down on numbers we had 2 groups of 4 and 2 of 3. It was a heck of a lot easier than it sounded, ker-ching, another mini achievement. From there we went on to mini scrim split into team red and blue. We got to practice the different positions with it being explained to us what each position should be doing and why - uber helpful!! It was nice to get more involved with the mini scrims too instead of hanging back, I still need to work on my cardio fitness, I know that and its not going to come overnight but I was keeping up as best I could and doing the best job I could, which included me remembering to whack on the plow stop to avoid back blocking :D

All in all a very positive session, I've got to figure out why my foot went totally dead on me (first time its happened in the GT-50s), maybe the knee pads were too tight, who knows? Also going to look at maybe getting some smaller but nicely padded knee pads, recommendations welcome!

TTFN and thanks for reading

xx

Wednesday 27 April 2011

They who get where they are.....

had to begin where they were - fab sentiment eh? Spotted it on a tatt and thought it was a perfect way to start my blog. As my Ladybrother Jinx'em G reminds us "do what you always do then you'll get what you've always got!" - I could have done with this reminder yesterday. I was having a bad one, I'd managed to convince myself that since retiring from the burlesque scene that I was a big fat nothing and along with that came the self loathing that sees me not moving from the couch. After getting a few things off my chest my other half reminded me that although my self confidence was low at the moment I should be proud of what I've achieved, "you're a derby girl and I've seen you putting your all into it, because thats what you do - when you love something you don't go at it half heartedly you really go for it!" Admittedly I've got a few things to sort out with the doctors etc but with that comment he'd really lifted my spirits. Everyone's entitled to an off day right and I guess yesterday was mine :) Randomly took the Refs hand signal test and WTFDA rukes tests online too, 79/100 and 87/100 respectively which I was rather pleased with, things are sinking in!


So today was back to a fresh start, I wasn't expecting that fresh start to mean 2 hours at the gym instead of 1 but hey ho its all good. I took the opportunity to ask the staff to show me how to use the weights equipment and which would benefit me the most. I've now got a nice little routine to do next time I'm there (which will be a couple of days as my boys are home again). While I was there I clocked up 3.5 miles on the exercise bike and a nice 2 mile hill walk on the treadmill (as well as my 2 mile round trip to the gym and back!) A had a few giggles too, why is it I can relate everything back to The Simpsons?? Seriously, Everybody Dance Now came on and all I could think of was the steel mill


mix that up with Prodigy, South Park and other treats that I've randomly got and I must have looked like a goon! I also discovered its fun to practice crossover footwork on the treadmill lol. The wonderful She'za Pa'yne has also given me a routine to do so I've got no excuses now!

Anyways thats enough waffling from me now, I have a chicken casserole to cook!

TTFN

xx

Monday 25 April 2011

starts and stops

Hope you've all been having a lovely Easter (however you celebrate it) and enjoying the fab weather here in Wales. For a change I'm not too far behind but may forget a few bits due to a fab BBQ courtesy of my derby wife and her hubster.

So Saturday comes around again and despite having a bit of an 'iffy' tum the night before I know there's 3 sessions with no skating coming up so I'm determined I'm going. After an interesting bus ride into the city with Rhayfen we meet up with Jinx and RG to complete the journey to Eastern Leisure. Track went down, kit went on and warm ups ensued. As Rhayfen was taking the training session today we knew we'd be in for some fun and games (or evilness, depending on her mood) however we were shorter numbers this session as (I assume) people were making the most of the sun/holidays. One of the games she decided to start with was 'surprise' - basically everyone skated as a pack with the 2 jammers behind and when the whistle was blown the pack would single knee drop and stay there. The jammers then had to get through (fast feet) race each other back around the track and back through the pack, first through was winner. Fab fun and I didn't fall on my turn jamming - ok so I caught a wheel with my shin but I'm a klutz lol. After that she went on to do some pack games so I seized the opportunity to practice skating one footed and crossovers which are coming on rather nicely now.

Once we'd all re hydrated ourselves (it gets warm in that hall anyway so add heat and you're melting!) Rhay asked if there was anything we'd like to practise - silence....however when she then posed the question "so if I were to say right we're doing min skills now, you'd all pass?" ideas soon flowed. We separated off into groups depending on what we wanted to have a go at, I figured it's time to conquer those T Stops. Unfortunately Rhay couldn't demonstrate as she'd still got her outdoor wheels on and was sticking to the floor however she described more than adequately what we were aiming to achieve and set us all off one or two at a time so she or Drew could advise. First attempt saw me totally fluff it, undeterred I went straight in for a second try. Actually being able to get my foot behind me was a big achievement let alone planting it on the floor, but this time I managed to drag 2 wheels out of the 4 for a short distance. Drew advised me to bend at the knee more before starting the stop so off I went again, still dragging the two wheels but it was a start and as Rhay said it was a step up from what I was doing before :D Secretly I was soooo happy, it sounds kinda sad but it's defeated me for absolutely ages and now its starting to click!

More hydration and more games, this time 'Sausage'!! Basically whole hall tag with Rhay as 'it', you get tagged you lay down and become a sausage, you only become free when 2 other skaters lay either side of you to become your bun - hilarious to say the least!! It was pointed out that it was a fab communication exercise too as we had to shout out for buns! lmao!! A few other games later and a bit more practice on the T Stops and I actually managed to land a couple with all 4 wheels down - result!! Cool down, stretch and we were out!

Now on the way out of the centre the eagle eyed wifey notices an MP, "shall we go and hassle him?" my reply, "hell yeah" and so myself, Rhay, RG And Grazed all explain about how popular roller sports are becoming and how there is nowhere adequate for us in the Cardiff area, 10 Min's later and we're told someone will 'get back to you' - we shall see!

I won't bore you with the rest of my bank holiday weekend, as fun as it was for me, it probably wont be as interesting for you. I will however finish with the fact that I hit the gym again today and with the walking to and from clocked up 9 miles, not too shabby :)

Til next time and leaving you a very warm and happy roller girl in training

xx

Thursday 21 April 2011

All systems GO!

Well, well, well dear readers looks like something may have clicked into place - I'm not sure how or why but my attitude has changed. Not only am I approaching all things derby with an 'I can' attitude but I've also joined my local gym. This may not sound like a big thing to you but to someone who spent most of her academic life dodging exercise and who sometimes still have to force herself to walk into the village for mundane things, believe me, its a big thing.

Admittedly I still have to look at my diet, and remember to take my meds properly but its rung one on the ladder, right? I'm hoping to talk to a dietitian locally, I am terrible for not eating properly and this whole thyroid thing really doesn't help so I figured it'd be best to get some advice.

After completing last weeks induction I popped back today to do an hour on my own using the exercise bike, treadmill and rowing machine. All in all, including walking too and from my house I managed to clock up just over 8.5 miles which I'm rather pleased with. I've also had a chat with the trainer at the gym and he's going to go over a weights routine with me so I can alternate weights and cardio through the week. I have to admit, as hot and sweaty as I got and as much as I had to encourage myself today, I left there feeling damn good! Although I also left feeling damn hungry lol - still steak, peas and a jacket spud soon saw to that ;)

Hows THAT for PMA!

Ttfn

xx

Wednesday 20 April 2011

Birthday Bout Day


wow playing catch up again!! Here we go.....

Saturday 16th saw me attending the Tiger Bay Brawlers birthday bout. We'd been looking forward to this for a while as the last one sold out and its
good to watch local roller derby, besides my wife Rhayfen was skating with them as a guest skater as was CRoC/Bridgend Bombshell Dave This so I wasn't going to miss the chance to cheer my wife popping her public bout cherry! On this occasion the theme was pirates and princesses and although Rhayfen was a little upset at not being a pirate (if you've been following this blog you'd know we're both pirates at heart) that was majorly overshadowed by the excitement of playing :) The bout was also giving me the chance to get my nerd on and help out with the NSOing. On top of all this excitement I'd offered to make a birthday cake for the team as part of my new business set up (www.adorablelittleextras.org.uk) so I was reading up on my NSO handbook while mixing a few kilos of butter cream - do
I do things by halfs? lol

Anyways I digress, I can't give you a blow by blow account of the game as I was busy doing my job (outside whiteboard for you nosey types), it was good to try a different NSO job and the NSO team were fabulous! What I can tell you there was some awesome skating going on, both teams fought hard to win and it was a nailbiter with the final score Princesses 96 - Pirates 95!!

I was an immensely proud derby wife as Rhayfen only
clocked up 1 minor!! And so it was off to the after party to celebrate :) We couldn't stay for long as we have to get back to our valley and, well, we all know what a fabulous public transport system we have ;) It was good to see the girls partying as hard as they played and it was well deserved.

Congrats Tiger Bay Brawlers on a fab first year and may there be many more to come

ttfn

xx

ps for the nosier ones of you, the simple but big birthday cake lol

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


Sunday 10 April 2011

Anger - one letter short of Danger!

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!



Tuesday 15 March 2011

Hop, block and falls

Yesterday was a bit of an odd one for me, I decided I need to spend more time on my skates to make myself feel more at home on them so thought I know! I'll do the laundry on them! I can get a bit of turns practice in then too - it was, errrr......interesting. I managed to get a load of washing in the machine and get up and down the stairs (ok, I came down the stairs on my derrière but it was fun acting like I was 5 again) then, after watching a few YouTube videos thought I'd get going on the practice. WRONG! My wheels wanted to practically stick to the floor so I decided to practice my 'fast feet' instead. Now, you know when you get that little voice in your head that tells you to do something and 9/10 times its a bad idea? Well mine was telling me to jump. Its not a bad thing, its just if you know me you'd know I've been able to land about 1 jump in every 8 attempts!

"Whats the worst that can happen?" I figure so I get into the middle of my room and go for our 'fast feet' warm up drill, fast feet for 10 then squat and jump! It may only have been 1/2" off the floor but it was a jump and it was a start. 5 little hops later and I figure I can go a bit higher, so each time thats what I do but then I get over confident and try for a really good jump which sees me saying hi to my living room floor. Not to be deterred I grab a quick drink and go for it again, baby jumps getting bigger each time then "hi floor!" only on the second attempt my hands go down before my butt causing a bit of an awkward landing and a bit of a ping in my shoulder/neck. Time out! checking everything is OK I figure a quick check of my videos again to see if
I'm going wrong and off we go again, this CRoC is going to be part frog! I was rather pleased as I was now landing 6/8 jumps with each one getting a little higher and if nothing else it was stopping me being scared of jumping.

Between the school run and getting prepped for training I realize that my shoulder is getting a bit niggly and if I didn't treat it now then by the morning I wouldn't be able to turn my head - on with the deep head and down with the ibuprofen. I literally inhale my pasta, and as usual my eldest is late home (this seems to be getting to be a bit of a ritual) with Up Ya Jonsey arriving right behind. Rhayfen was busy getting a sugar boost in the back of the car and we had our usual giggles on the way.

And so to the hall, all padded and skates on and into the warm ups while yelling hello's. Jenoa Quake yells that Knuckle Sandwich Nancy is to take us for our stretches (much to her dismay) and Up Ya Jonsey shoots herself in the foot by giggling at her so guess who gets to do it next week lol. We were then split into our two groups and Rhayfen was taking ours on pace line work again. After we'd all had a run through it was decided we needed to work on our fast feet so we were set off in a line to do a lap of the hall doing just that. From there we were split into 3's to have a go at 'walling in the jammer' and my team was my awesome ladybrother Jinx'em G and Sharkbait (not Charlie's skate name but its what Rhay and I have affectionally called her til she gets one). We skated together as a mini pack and practiced moving into position. Then along came the jammer, Rhayfen herself, and I don't think we fared too badly - ok we didn't wall her in for long but we were quick at getting into position and it just needs honing. After a quick dr
ink we moved onto shoulder blocks, first of all practicing while stationary. I was paired up with the wall that is Hellcat Harri, I was literally just bouncing off her and she was giving me a good whack too! Things kinda went a bit awry when we switched sides (did you see this coming) and my should started saying 'no you can't play this time' so Harri went to bounce around with Rhayfen while I teamed up with Aoife so we could both practice both sides. We then moved on - literally, taking what we'd learned and putting it into practice while moving, harder than you imagine but for alot of us it was the first time we'd tried moving and blocking at the same time, fun nonetheless.

Speed trials to finish off and thats where my head goes "AGH! what are you doing! you'll be ok but yeah, eh whaaa?!" We were being timed for a minute and I managed 3.5 laps (if I hadn't got the nervous wobbles twice I think I may have made 4 but hey ho), I'm happy with that I just really have to stop over thinking things! After the entire group had each taken a turn we did a little backwards skating/cool down and stretching and we were done - but already talking about how awesome Saturday was going to be, Jam and JerusaSLAM - bring it on, but more on that in my next blog :) until then


TTFN and muchos derby love

xx

Sunday 13 March 2011

Inter-mediation

A lot has been going on over the last few days, but after some too-ing and fro-ing its all sorted and the CRoC intermediates have banded together to encourage and inspire each other :) I love the fact that CRoC works because as a team we can be open with each other

So, Saturdays session - after trying (and failing) to change my toe stops on the friday I asked RG if she could give me a hand, they wouldn't budge so after a little eyelash fluttering she got the man on the reception desk to do it remove them then fitted my gumball stops :D My theory was, yes I like the ones my skates came with BUT I didn't want to get too used to them before swapping them out so better to do it sooner than later. However she made the fatal mistake of telling me that I wouldn't fall on them - if you know me, you know I am best friends with the floor and 2 seconds after she says that *BAM* I'm down lol.

On to the warm ups and stretches and all was going well, we always get someone slip when it comes to the leg raises, this time it was Abadabadoo swiftly followed by me. First fall in the new crash pads so at least I know they're good now I guess :) However Genoa Quake pointed out that the 2 people to fall both have the same toe stops so it must have been them - suspicious or coincidence, I'll let you decide. For our last training session in Channel View it had been decided we would do fitness for the first hour, including what I think were called suicides (I may need correcting), push ups, kinda sit up things and other stuff - all I know is I'm aching today! From there we were split into the advanced and intermediate/beginner groups and set to work on pace lines. It was good to work on the same stuff the advanced skaters were doing just at a more toned down pace as it meant we could get used to skating in close proximity to each other and not worry so much about keeping up. From this we went on to weaving down the skating line - admittedly I had to pull out for 2 mins to stretch out my lower back which was really aching but I got back in as quickly as I could and had a go. To finish we had to sticky skate as a pack down low for 2 mins, not a huge amount of time but it gets you used to it and its good to get shouted at if you're popping up too high :)

After watching the advanced group finish their drills and grabbing some water we were told to pick a a mentor for the last part of the session - I was teamed off with my wife Rhayfen :D We then told the mentor what we wanted to work on or get checked and they helped us while practising what they wanted to do too. Personally I wanted my cross overs checked so we started with that, I knew I had the basics down in my head I just needed to hone them. Rhay pointed out (as Genoa has done in the past) that my stride was very small, the cross over itself was good but it was taking me 5 - 7 to complete a turn where I could be doing it in 3 or 4. We tried the skating in a circle following your outstretched hand but that just set me off balance so I decided laps may be better while Rhay perfected her tomahawk stops. A slight adjustment to my stance and putting my hand out to where I was comfortable and my stride got wider as well as getting my speed up. After that I brought up the balance issues I'd been having and was given a few tips and exercises to concentrate on. 15 mins before the end of the session we came together with each intermediate showing the group what we'd learned and, for a change I didn't spazz out when it came to my turn. All in all I came away from the session a lot more confident and in turn happier!

After gabbing in the car park with R G's carpool for a bit it was decided food was needed and once we'd been dropped back at the city centre (thanks RG) the ladybrothers went via Crumbs (food looked good but we wont put up with being looked down our noses at by staff who look like they're just out of school) to New York Deli where we introduced Jinx to bagel goodness. I had my usual bagel of death (wholegrain mustard, bacon, turkey, cheese, ham, cranberry and gherkins) and once we'd finished nomming there we headed to YooMoo - the BEST frozen yoghurt. After nomming and people watching we decended into our usual madness and tbh I don't think any of us have laughed so hard in a while! From there it was time to head home and back to 'real life'.......well at least until Monday ;)


Moo!!

xx

Go Roathmantics!

Long time no blog so this is a bit of a catch up. Monday saw our second intraleague bout - New Roathmantics vs Raiders of the Roath Park. New Roathmantics won the last bout and were determined to take this one too, Bridgend Bombshells were making up our numbers as the Roathmantics were down a few players and I'd offered to be scorekeeper and take the opportunity to learn by observing the game as well as honing my NSO skills.

We were a little late starting, Tiger Bay Brawlers NSOs and refs had kindly come along to help out and their head NSO Sarah may have just helped turn me into a stats geek! We were all given our forms etc, mysef and Jodie were introduced to the jammer refs and the teams were fired up ready to go. TBH I can't give you a blow by blow account of the game as I was concentrating on my job but both teams put up a good fight and the ref team called it as they saw it even if the skate
rs didn't like it lol. A few special mentions

R G Bar G (skater formerly known as T Licious) hell woman! You're an awesome blocker and jammer, isn't derby better than being a princess? :p

Rhayfen - Awesome skillz! You were barking orders left right and centre, even from the sin bin (surprise, Rhayfen in the sin bin lol) and as you said yourself you discovered you could make an awesome jammer - my score sheet proves it!

Dave This - should I make you your own cushi
on for the sin bin, you seem to like your seat there :p

Jinx'em G - crisis of confidence can get the better of anyone, you are awesome, you gave it a shot and will be back up there next time

Up Ya Jonsey - good on ya gal! For someone who's
had her confidence knocked you got in there and skated, as frustrated as you may be with yourself - keep it going! You'll be back at the level you were at in no time

I'm sure there are more people I could mention but the old memory aint what it used to be ;) Now for the important bit - nice try Raiders
but maybe next time eh

NEW ROATHMANTICS WIN! 136 - 62

Am looking forward to participating in the next game - PMA I WILL BE READY! Also looking forward to NSOing with Tiger Bay, nothing like unleashing your inner nerd eh!

TTFN

xx
Picture Copyright Dave Lewis Photography

Sunday 27 February 2011

congratulations on not totally panicking!

Saturday - woke up, head like an empty bucket, legs aching, alarm telling me its 7am and to shift my carcass. So I get up/washed/dressed and mooch downstairs looking at the weather and pondering on going back to bed - scrap that! Get a grip girl you need all the practice you can get! SO porridge eaten, coffee drank and off to meet the wife for travelling. Buses have decided to scrap their day ticket so that means its more expensive to get to Cardiff than before - bad times!


We arrive unscathed at Channel View and the only thing I notice is how cold it is and how much I'm yawning! Pads and skates on, warm up laps commence - I immediately notice and prefer how my wheels react to this floor! Some nice stretches and we were straight into practice for cross overs again. The right leg pushing I've got down, the left leg sweeping behind is going to take a lot more getting used to to actually get my leg to where it should be! After a few laps both ways of that, Mrs Baxter decides we're going to be set off in 3's to do 5 laps to put the practice into theory - apparently my crossovers aren't as bad as I thought, I just need to get my stride a little bigger and get lower into derby stance :) After we'd all taken a turn at that it was decided that the girls struggling more with their derby stance would be trolley dollied by those who were more able and forced into the correct stance for 5 laps. Good practice - I admit I was a little nervous to be paired with Abadabadoo but she put me straight at ease and into the correct positioning (which I promise to practise). Ok we got a little bit of a head start to get some space and it did surprise me how low you really had to be - although I certainly felt the difference both on my sjates and in my legs lol. We got to lap 4 and we started to pick up pace - turns out my lovely wifey Rhayfen decided to join in and push Abadabadoo to speed us up even further! I admit, I panicked! When you're not used to going that fast its a natural reaction and I guess its also because I didn't want to totally spaz out and let down the fab 2 working with me, what I do remember as we finished lap 5 is Mrs Baxter saying well done on not totally panicking lol.

From there we were split into 2 groups - the more and less able skaters. No prizes for guessing which group I was in lol - our task was to work on our weaving (as per min skills req.) and skating on one foot. After that I was asked to go through some falls drills with the newer girls which after some practise we incorporated into a game. To finish off we did a little passive blocking and skating shoulder to shoulder to get used to having people in that close a proximity.

Session finished, stretches and cool down completed and myself, Rhayfen and T Licious headed into the city centre - I wont bore you with details but we wreaked havoc in Pro Line and after T went on her way, the wife and I hit Spud U Like and You Moo (I need more MOO!!) before heading home.

Thats all for now, I think I'm getting a wee bit better, at least I hope so!

xxx


Wednesday 23 February 2011

Going for it and through it

A week of non skating is enough to drive anyone nuts, right? After the weekends fun I was looking forward to getting on my skates and trying out my new Fugi wheel set up on the Glan Hafren floor. As per usual my eldest was late home, leading to usual back and forth messages in the car on the way, one day that boy will learn to listen and tell the time!


Anyways, we'd been told we had the hall for 3 hours of skatey goodness instead of the usual two - whoop whoop! We'd also been told we'd be working on some pack work in preparation for our upcoming intra-leagues. Awesome! After seeing the bouts at the weekend I was looking forward to actually giving some stuff a go. After warm ups/stretches I separated off with the beginners and T-Licious to work on my skating technique and stopping, everything seems to be falling into place slowly except for the T stops which I am becoming increasingly frustrated at my own stupidity with. Moving on....the rest of the group was doing timed laps and once they were finished we were told to give it a shot, although we were a larger group so we'd have to be careful! Our aim was 5 laps in 1 minute, I admit I wasn't overly confident BUT manages to think on my feet when one of the girls fell in front of me and got 3 laps in 1 so not too bad :)

From there we were doing some passive blocking (if you had your gum-shields with you) and where I'd have usually stepped away to practise my skating, this time I grabbed my gum-shield and stayed put! We took turns at swapping in and out and trying different blocker positions - I much preferred being a B3 even if I have to work on my blocking and shouting in a gum shield, I am definitely not a B2! Watching some of the better girls was very inspiring and I didn't feel as much of a spare part this session.

The awesome Dave was there to get some test shots of the girls as we are going to be working on a project with him and he also grabbed some head-shots of myself, Rhayfen and T Licious which was a good giggle ( he was such a good sport!)

Time for some cool down laps skating in the opposite direction and after a few I could hear T Licious yelling from the side line 'soft knees, bigger strides, get it going girl!' so that's what I did and it was the quickest I'd skated all night (you know, when you can hear the air wooshing past your ears lol) We've figured out I've got a few 'mental issues' to get over (no comments please lol) - I am very hard on myself for not being able to transfer ice skating skills over to roller skating - saying that I could practise for hours on end daily on ice, where's the roller rink for the same thing in Wales people???? I think I may also have to take some more hits and meet the floor a little more often, being scared of looking stupid is really holding me back but I have to accept its gonna happen in order to improve!

Anyway, I think that's enough from me now, don't forget to check the link people

xxx

Monday 21 February 2011

Road Trip!

Last Saturday saw a group of CRoC's going to watch a double header of derby goodness in Birmingham. Our Small travel group consisted of the usual suspects that travel together on a Monday to training with the exception of my hubby who was coming along 'to see what this derby stuff was all about' - I wont bore you with the travel shenanigans, it was the usual banter with a bit of YouTube craziness thrown in.

After arriving at Cocks Moors Leisure Centre, we filed in, got our hand stamps and pootered off to get a good seat (right at the top was the decision!) at which point we met up with Mrs Baxter with her Pygmy CRoCs and Aoife. Having already clocked the merch stalls I sneaked off for some retail therapy, t-shirts are my thing at the moment so I had to add the CCRG and Dublin Rollergirls ones to my collection right? Sadly RWRG didn't bring any merch with them but there's always another event.


And so to bout 1 - Central City Slaybelles vs Dublin Roller Girls - this was Dublins debut bout and I believe also the first bout for CCR's Slaybells (correct me if I'm wrong please). The bout got off to a good start and although I may not be able to give a blow by blow of what happened I can tell you what I observed - there was alot of 'coasting' going on in the corners which confused me as I'd thought you'd put alot of effort into them and coast the straights, saying that there were a few times I'd noticed that crossovers seemed to be completely optional and that's where I think CCRG were getting the upper hand. Dublin were playing a very nippy game but CCRG seemed more technically proficient. The penalty box was nice and full at points lol and there seemed to be a bit of confusion when there were 2 jammers there at any one time in getting the other back out quickly. Team Zebra did their job extremely well and all in all it was a great debut bout. The only other thing I'd say, not just to the ladies that were playing but to any jammers out there is if you're gonna call off the jam make your signals nice and big so they get noticed quickly! Final score CCRG 106 - DRG 46

Half time hi jinx included getting a shout out to Cardiff City
Roller Girls (hahaha wrong!) and also Rhayfen getting her wonderful
homemade sign read out "I love my ladybrother Jinx'em G"
as well as hunting down snacks lol.

Bout 2 - Belles of Centrinnians vs Royal Windsor Roller Girls - as much
as we enjoyed the debut bout, we were looking forward to seeing this
one aswe knew it would be a faster paced game. I'd heard alot
about RWRG however CCRG seemed to dominate from the
beginning. The crowd seemed more 'into' this bout and RWRG's fan
section were even wearing gold crowns - team love at its finest!
The pack work and footwork of both teams was great to watch,
it was good to see what we'd been learning
about in our training sessions in practise with experienced teams!
Unfortunately, with the faster paced game came injury -
Loopy Lucy (14) of RWRG took a tumble backwards on to
the small of her back and you could see she was in serious pain!
The game stopped and after the medics assessed the situation she
was able to get up and back to the team bench with a huge round of
applause (even if the medic in my head
was grumbling about moving and back injuries!) Hope it
was nothing serious and you have a swift recovery Lucy!
Standout skaters in this bout for me have to be Viv La France,
Madame Flutterbye (my derby role model now!)
and Tragic Wrath for CCRG with Ann Dracula and Liddy Savage
being the 2 for RWRG that most caught my attention!
With a final score of CCRG 156 - RWRG 48 the
home teams were 2 for 2! It's amazing when you realise
how much you've actually learned about the sport just by sitting
and watching and I definitely came away much more inspired.

Thanks for a great day out to all teams concerned!

TTFN
xx