Monday, December 31, 2012

thus endeth 2012

so that brings the year to a close.  It was a pretty awesome year, if I do say so myself.  It didn't necessarily start that way (what with my knee and my ankle and all that other injury-ish type stuff) but ended pretty rad (what with another league championship and getting rostered as an alternate for the A team).

Ever since the rosters were announced, I've actually been exercising!  (I KNOW!)  One of my home teammates who's also an A team alternate and I have become accountability buddies - we text each other when we've done our daily output.  I've been concentrating on core work, at least ten minutes a day (sometimes 20, sometimes 30), and yesterday when I went to open skate with Maverick I definitely noticed a difference - when I'd go into a derby stance, it took absolutely no effort at all to stay there.  Yay!

(as an aside, Maverick is big enough that he can wear my first pair of derby skates.  That is SO SCARY, y'all.) 

I didn't get anything derby-related for Christmas, though I did go out to Turnaround Skates (we went to Buffalo to visit my dad) and bought new Gumball toestops.  My old ones were worn down to flat pancakes.  I also bought a new mouthguard because I lose them like nobody's business. 

The next six months are going to be crazy.  I'm going to have four practices a week (Sunday mornings, Monday night, Tuesday night and Thursday night) plus away bouts and home bouts.  I'll either die or become Superwoman.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!

I'M AN A TEAM ALTERNATE!

(This means that I am on the WFTDA charter for our team.  If I attend A team practices, there is the possibility that I will be rostered.  Just because I'm rostered doesn't mean I'll get any track time.  I am also a member of the B team; if there is a double header and I am rostered for the A team bout, it's up to the coaches' discretion if I am also rostered for the B team bout.)

EXCITED!


Wednesday, December 12, 2012

the waiting is the hardest part

so we're supposed to find out by the 19th.  Wheeeeeeeee......?

I'm not confident at all.  The final night - drills and scrimmage - went fair to miserably. 

Friday, December 7, 2012

reality comes crashing down

So last night was part 2 of the travel team tryouts - obstacle course and written test.

The obstacle course went like this:

- run on your toestops start
- plow stop between two sets of cones
- maneuver through a mishmash of tipped over cones and beanbags on your toestops
- jump a pair of mannequin legs
- weave through a set of cones on a turn in the track
- turn around and skate backwards around a turn in the track
- skate forward and do a hockey stop at the next cone
- do quick tomahawk turns on each edge of the track, stopping at a cone (four cones total; you have to turn in each direction at least once)
- skate backwards and stop on your toestops at each edge of the track twice.

And then you had to do that whole thing again,  as quickly as you could.

I went first (in the hopes of garnering some brownie points).  The first time through, I missed some of the weaving cones (I was going too fast and they were really close together) and the second time through I fell on the hockey stop (I'm not very good at them anyway - I always end up just doing a 360°).  I have no idea what my time was.  On the other hand, it seemed like a lot of people missed other things, but on the other hand, I SCREWED UP.

The written test was a combination of rules multiple choice/true or false, multiple choice strategy questions (any question that began with "you are the jammer", I added an answer "e. Cry Profusely" and a short essay question that I expanded to a full page with drawings.  I think I did well on that, as I've spent the last few days going over the rules with a fine-toothed comb (and e-mailing one of our referees for clarification on other things) and I've got the strategies down pretty well.

So we've got scrimmaging left and I'm not sure what else.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Travel Team Tryouts Part 1

Tonight was fitness and interview (next time, swimsuit and talent).

Anyway, I did soooo much better than I thought I would - here's how it broke down for me:

Wall Sit: 2 minutes
Plank: 2 minutes 46 seconds, and I only stopped because my legs were giving out from the wall sit
Air Squats: 67 in a minute
Sit Ups: 34 in a minute
30 second sprint: 3.25 laps
5 Laps with a 2 knee fall every 20 seconds: 56.5 seconds
15 Minute Endurance: 29 laps after 5 minutes, 58 laps after 10 minutes, 87 laps after 15 minutes

The interview went pretty well, too, if I do say so myself.  I said before that I got the impression that they're looking for good attitudes - one of the questions I got was "describe someone with a good attitude" and after I did, they said "okay, imagine that's a 10.  How do you see yourself?" and I said "8 or 9" and was told that was quite accurate.

So yeah, we'll see what happens now.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Yeah, that happened.

Final score: 321 to 170-something
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!