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

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

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

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

Party time!

and so to the Saturday evening event that was the CRoC launch party! After picking up the wife en route who was in full 17th century style dress we headed to the venue to get decorated/organised. Balancing cupcakes in boxes in a bag as well as having my dear OH lugging a bag full of random stuff, Rhayfen and myself being the classy ladies we are drinking cherry lambrini from the bottle we eventually arrived and headed upstairs to help. Blue satin, paper chains, balloons - we know how to rock it! Merch stall looking fab, raffle prizes a plenty and CRoC voting 'station' set up (read 5 pint glasses and some slips of paper) we were good to go - in case you're wondering, we had 5 categories to vote for : Most Improved, Best Blocker, Most Aggressive, Penalty Princess and Most Spectacular Fall.

People arrived, those who didn't heed the warning of 'wear a mask or get a fine' were made to cough up and the stall steadily picked up pace. It was great to see the girls having fun and fantastic that some of the Tiger Bay Brawlers were able to come help us celebrate our launch, much derby love ladies! Anyway the night progressed, bands played, the DJ span some tunes and then to the 'Awards' - hige congrats to the ladies who won, all very well deserved -

Best Blocker - Mrs Baxter
Most Aggressive - NiKilla
Penalty Princess - Rhayfen
Most Improved CRoC - Jinx'em G
Most Spectacular Fall - Jasmina Poison

Then came the special award for all round awesomeness as voted on by 'The Management' - The Golden Wheel went to Grazed Anatomy, again well deserved and she was so chuffed!

OK I'm gonna be honest with you, I can't remember everything, I remember the raffle as I won 2 prizes (woohoooo!) and discussing food and getting home with the OH and wife which actually ended up with us getting corn and chicken and rolling up at The Hollybush Inn - good times!

I'm sure memories will come flooding back when the pics start coming out of the woodwork, oh and the videos! Needless to say, CRoC Rocked!

xxx