Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Tuesday, so I *do* have practice. BIZARRO

I really think I might need to beg off one of these Quarry practices.  IT'S JUST LIKE THE REGULAR SEASON TIMEWISE.

I am writing my Ticket Queen proposal (did I mention I'm Ticket Queen for the season, and in charge of ticket sales and all that? yeah.  I DON'T KNOW WHEN TO SAY NO) and am getting goofy.  These are some of the phrases and words I've used:

"It's all very haphazard and higgledy-piggeldy"
"BIG POSTERBOARD SIZED THANG"
"I love, love, love, love, love, love this idea. (Did I mention I love it?)"
"CA$$$$$H"
"TOUGH DARTS, FARMER"

Monday, November 28, 2011

it's monday and I don't have practice? BIZARRO

still in the off season, though I've been skating Sundays and Tuesdays with our new and returning unrostered skaters, which we call the Quarry (Roc Quarry, get it?)  It's a lot of fun.  We had one drill that concentrates on track awareness and agility and getting around obstacles - skate in a pack, and everyone in the pack (except one person) falls randomly, or skates the wrong way, what have you - and it's the responsibility of the one skater to get out of their way.  Reaction time and all that.  I was in that drill as the hitter, and I was going at about 60% of my full force, and they were going OMG YOU HIT SO HARD!

Heh.

I've discovered that I'm a terrible teacher, though.  They ask me how to do crossovers and plow stops and I'm like "um....honestly, I just do them."  It's hard for me to break it down into steps.  But I try my best.


before and after

February 5, 2011
November 5, 2011

Monday, November 21, 2011

so, it's all over but the fresh meat training

My Facebook status from early Sunday morning:

"Sorry, but spending 23987 hours in a little box going 'OKAY, THAT'LL BE 12 DOLLARS, 8 DOLLARS IS YOUR CHANGE AND CAN YOU PUT YOUR HAND IN THE GOM JABBAR SO WE CAN STAMP IT' can make one tired. That and I couldn't find a parking space near [after party]. So I just went home. [skater], I have your cooler. Other people, I may or may not have your stuff."

(Okay, "23987 hours" was really more like "4 hours".  But still.  It was non-stop people.  We ran out of $1 bills, we ran out of $5 bills.  No one came to relieve me or the other chick working.  It was annoying, but our attendance was over 2000, so I can't complain too much.)

The bouts, from what I understand, were freak-out worthy.  Our team's bout came down to the last jam, and when it was over, the scoreboard read 120-119, or something like that, other team winning.  They started celebrating, the announcers congratulated them, but then it turned out there'd been a mistake somewhere, and the score was actually 119-119.  So then there was a sudden death overtime, which we won, 127-126, or something like that.  The other team and their fans were pissed, which I can really understand.  I talked to one of the referees afterwards and he was still trying to recover from it.

The second game, the A team won, something like 140-117.  From what I could see, the other team immediately left the track after the game (didn't bother with a lap of the track or anything), so I have no idea what went on there.

So then we had to clean up after 2000+ people (there were eleventy billion bottles and cans to recycle) and by the time I left, like I said above, I was tired and couldn't find a parking space and I went home.

Sunday morning there was Fresh Meat training, which went fine.  There were a few veterans who need to do their travel team assessment tomorrow, so I timed one of them on her ten minute endurance (we had to use the outside of the track, as the freshies were doing their 25 in 5).  I skated about 10 feet behind her the whole time, and at the end she collapsed into a heap and I was more "oh, did I just skate?  Okay."

I want to redo my assessment tomorrow, just for my own information, 'cause, like I said before, when I did it back in May I was about 20 pounds heavier and had crappy wheels and a crappy floor surface. We'll see if they let me.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

oh, so it's been a while

I wasn't rostered for the season finale.  It's only fair, I suppose, I've been rostered for every single other bout this season, but it's still annoying/frustrating.  I had a bunch of people who bought tickets to see me play and I had to be all "um, sorry, guys!  maybe next season?"  Fortunately, they understood.

Anyway, after the 19th we're on break until the first of the year.  I'll still be helping out with the Fresh Meat on Sundays, and starting in December we'll have Thursday night pick-up scrimmages (don't know if I'll be able to attend those, since I feel I've already asked my Dad a lot having him watch Maverick the last few months), so really things won't change that much.

I've picked up a position of authority for next season - I'll be in charge of tickets.  I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW.  But it's only for five bouts* SO IT'S OKAY.  They really needed someone to do it and I DON'T KNOW WHEN TO SAY "NO", so it's my own fault.

So, the derby year is winding down.  I have to say it was much, much, much better than last season, and not just because I DIDN'T HAVE ANY FAMILY MEMBERS DIE ON ME.  I got a break from the behind-the-scenes administrative stuff of the league, I got some confidence boosts, I lost 25 pounds, I learned a lot, I got closer to a lot of skaters on the league, I had fun.

So it's all good.

-----
Now that we're WFTDA, we need to adjust our schedule so that our A team plays in the first half of the year, so as to get rankings.  So we're running a "patch" season from January - June that's travel teams again, and the home teams will run from September - December.  Or something like that.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

okay! so!

We had a bout this past weekend, in London, Ontario.  I think if one of the people on your team is skating for Team Canada in the World Cup, and you've been skating together as a group for six years, you're not a B-team.

But even though we lost (144-76, I think), we had a great time and learned a LOT (we picked up a whole new strategy to try).

I was really annoyed, though, because the FIRST JAM I was in, I fell and hit my head.  (Someone said that it looked like I also took a skate to the head, but I'm not sure.)  I went in the next jam I was scheduled for, but I was completely useless and my head was killing me and EVERYTHING WAS REALLY REALLY LOUD so I took myself out for the rest of the half and sat in the bathroom and waited for everything to quiet down, which it did.

At practice last night, I discovered the the inside of my helmet had come unglued from the outer shell, so I was like UM OKAY I NEED ANOTHER HELMET, so I ordered one online.  Hopefully it'll come soon.

And then, completely out of nowhere, I got a bloody nose at the end of practice.  I didn't get hit or anything, it was just that the air in our practice space was SO DRY.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

ow

We didn't have practice on Halloween, so we practiced yesterday with the A-team.  At one point during scrimmaging I landed on my chest with my arm flung back, so now my shoulder is killing me.

One drill we did is called Three Corners, which is basically Four Corners without the skater from Turn 3 joining in.  Usually we only have dedicated jammers starting at Turn 4, but this time we all did.

Some highlights from my tenure as jammer:

1. I got a full-on, nothing-held-back hit from someone's shoulder right into my sternum, and I didn't wobble.  I think I heard some "wow"s from people.

2. The two blockers who were supposed to keep me back took each other out, so I was able to get by them easily.  I screamed "STEVEN BRADBURY!" as I went past.

I replaced all the truck hardware on my skates - new pivot cups, bolts, washers, what have you.  I FEEL ALL NEW AND POWERFUL NOW.