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!

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

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

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

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!

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

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