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!

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

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 ;)

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!

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

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

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