Tuesday, April 30, 2013

bout week WAHOO

ANOTHER BOUT YAY I LIKE BOUTS.

Over the weekend I went for an outdoor skate - yay!  I love skating outside.  I wore everything except elbow guards and my mouth guard, so of course I was convinced that I would fall and land on my jaw and my elbows.

Yesterday's practice went well; I jammed in a few spots but it was more of a blocker practice drill than anything, so I just kind of sailed through and whatnot.  

Friday, April 26, 2013

last night

there were only about five A team members at scrimmage, so I played on their team. (And then the jammers got switched [B team jammers played for the A team and vice veresa] so it was pretty much just like playing with my B team.)

Normally I'm Prepared Queenie and bring a plethora of scrimmage shirts, but last night I only brought white (on scrimmage nights, B team wears white and A team wears green), so when everything got all wonky weird, I had to borrow a friend's black shirt, so my number was different for the scrimmage.  That was amusing when at the end of one jam, I heard "Black, 691, low block!" and I thought THAAAAAAAAAAAT'S NOT MY NUMBER TONIIIIIIIIIIIGHT but then our Head Ref called me on the number I was wearing last night, and I did have to go to the box.

Then at one point my kneepad slipped (when does that ever happen? never) and I skinned my knee in two places.  Ow ow ow ow.

Oh - WE'VE GOT A CHALLENGE BOUT AT ECDX!  YAY!  It's one of the "half an hour exactly, time stops for no one and/or nothing" ones against the Philly Block Party.  Wheeeeeeee!

Thursday, April 25, 2013

bout weekend recap

so I left about 12:30 and drove out to my sister's house. I'd forgotten how twisty and turny and OMFG the roads are out near where she lives; nothing like getting up to the top of a very steep hill and looking out at the road ahead and literally yelling JESUS CHRIST at what is in front of you.  I yelled "ROUNDABOUT!* WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!**" at one point***.

So I had a nice evening with my sister and her family.  I don't get to see them that often and we always have a good time when we're together.  We went out to dinner and I hit up the liquor store for the after-after party.

I am very, very glad I went up on Friday, because having a simple hour drive at a reasonable hour is much nicer than a 6 hour slog starting at crazy early in the morning.  I stopped at a yarn store near the hotel, bought some sock yarn that I really didn't need, and then got to the hotel.

The hotel.

Oh dear Lord, the hotel.

 - someone found a pair of men's underpants in their room
- our ironing board may or may not have had bloodstains on it
- the shower in another room started backing up into ANOTHER person's shower

but we were only there for a little while, and it was off to the venue!

It was a pretty nice venue for the most part (our locker room was a 10' square tent).  The floor was QUICKSAND.  Verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry slow.

It took us a while to find our footing - the other team played up at the jammer line and we were like "what? um, okay?"  We got all sorts of stupid penalty calls, and they didn't get any (um, when you hit someone in the arm with your head as you're ducking down and trying to skate under two people's arms, that's usually considered BLOCKING WITH THE HEAD AND YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO GO TO THE BOX FOR THAT, but okay, fine, whatever) and we were a bit discombobulated and losing.

So our coach called a time out, and we took a deep breath, regrouped...

...and started to play OUR game of derby.

At half time we were leading by 50 points.


I've said it before and I'll say it again, our endurance is what makes us awesome.  We could see their players getting tired, slowing down, and we were like "oh, another jam? okay!" all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. 

At one point (and this was the best part of the bout for me), their jammer was *really* getting frustrated, and their coach yelled "SHUT UP AND SKATE" at her.  We'd gotten under their skin.  We were unnerving them.  Frustrated players are sloppy players.  (Plus, their coach yells at them to shut up?  Our coaches would NEVER do that.)

So we play, and play, and pull further away, and we win, 210-85.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY.

________
*I was referring to the traffic phenomenon, not the song by Yes.
**Although that is also an appropriate response to the song by Yes as well.
***Here is where I admit I was alone in the car and yelled this at no one.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand

Scrimmage tonight, away game this weekend.  Yay!  It'll be nice to have a bout but with no obligations other than to play and eat.

I'm heading out tomorrow early afternoon, and spending Friday night at my sister's (she lives about an hour away from the venue).  That way I don't have to drive for 6 hours and then immediately play. 

I have to remember to (a) sew my WFTDA patch on my white jersey and (b) switch back to my white Radar Diamonds.  Please remind me to do that.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

bout week wahoo

so my new plate works, yay!  no more cranked up to high heaven toe stops! 

last night's practice, I was using a friend's wheels (Radar Diamonds that were regrooved down to a narrower diameter), except they weren't regrooved down evenly, so it was a bit bumpy.  Between that and trying to loosen my trucks, I was a bit all over the place.

I did have one YAY ME moment, though, when we were scrimmaging.  I was jamming, and at the jammer line, everyone lined up so there happened to be a nice clear open lane for me on the outside.  Waiting for the whistle, I kept thinking "I can't screw this up, I can't screw this up, please don't let [blocker on the other side who's a really hard hitter] see me, I can't screw this up" and as soon as the whistle blew I just ran and got lead jammer.  Like I said, YAY ME.

Monday, April 15, 2013

so how's about those them thar minimum skill requirements, eh?

showing here.

My own personal concern is double knee slide without using my hands; my way to do it is to put my hands down, pop up on my toe stops and go.  That will take some getting used to doing differently.

And, of course, my nemesis, positional blocking.  Sigh.

 

BOUT WEEK WAHOO

My plate has been attached!  My plate has been attached!  Now all I have to do today is put my trucks and wheels and toe stop and new laces back on.


Friday, April 12, 2013

last night (insert the rest of the lyrics of that song by The Strokes here)

Roy's bowling season is over, so I get to stay for the full Thursday night practice now, wahoo! 

Scrimmage went ok.  At one point my left toe stop came off mid-jam.  I quickly grabbed it and kept skating, thinking DO NOT STOP WITH YOUR LEFT SKATE DO NOT STOP WITH YOUR LEFT SKATE.  (did I mention I do all my stopping with my left skate?)  Fortunately the jam ended soon enough and I was okay, although apparently I made a few NSOs nervous.

At another point, the A team was on a power jam, and I was just about to leave the penalty box.  Their strategy, of course, was to try and keep me behind their wall, once I got in.  I squeaked by on the outside by skating sideways, so my body was parallel to the track boundaries.  That got a lot of appreciative comments (including one from the A team coach).  So, yay.

I got DVDs of pretty much all the bouts from home season and started watching them (it's slow at work).  GOOD LORD I NEED TO SKATE FASTER AND FILL IN HOLES.  It's horrible. 

There's a bout tomorrow but it's the A team so I'm not playing.  Gonna be workin' front end.  Maverick is going to be helping out in Merch.  Can I just say how awesome my kid is?  He adores working in Merch.  Everyone comes up to me afterwards and tells me what a big help he is.  Makes me proud, that kid of mine. :)

Thursday, April 11, 2013

indeed

the plate arrived, yay!  I'll get it installed this weekend and I (hopefully) will be GOOD TO GO.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

well, that's interesting

I skated last night on my original pair of skates (Riedell 265 boots, standard nylon 10 degree plates).  It took a few laps to get used to them again....but then I felt like I was a lot better at juking.  Like, I could actually do it.  It's weird. The trucks were looser (I keep them cranked pretty stiff on my now skates) so maybe that had something to do with it.

At one point I was jamming in a drill, took a shoulder to my lower jaw and bit my tongue hard enough to make it bleed in two places.  Whee!  It wouldn't stop bleeding, either, so I kept having to spit out blood into my bandana.  (delicious!)  It's better now, but it stings like a mofo still.

Monday, April 8, 2013

hrm

Still plateless. :(  It'd better show up this week or I am in trouble. 

I had an epiphany yesterday - I have no trouble exercising/working out if it's secondary to what I'm actually doing.  Tell me to jog and do situps and pushups and burpees just because, and I will hate you.  Tell me to play roller derby, or to go orienteering, and I will be like OKAY I CAN DO THAT WHEE THIS IS FUN LET'S DO MORE.


Thursday, April 4, 2013

so

My new plate is on its way to me, yay!  If it shows up today or tomorrow I can give it to one of my teammates who's going to the Buffalo skate shop and ask her to reattach it.