Thursday Funday

Tonight's practice was fun. I always love Cal Q's practices because she likes to make up drills or alter existing drills. There's always interesting things. Like tonight she had the newbies hold onto yarn that she'd tied knots in to show them how far apart they should be in pacelines.

She also pulled a few of us to work on hitting with the newbies who are preparing for Day 2. I hadn't done any measured hitting in a while and it was good. I realized I'm a lot better at Johnny Crashes (Can-openers) than I thought I was, and should maybe employ them more often in scrimmages and whatnot. We also were doing this hitting on the track with newbies weaving nearby, so I'm impressed with our awareness of the paceline and our not crashing into them.

We did a lot of the Day 1 skills as well, since Day 1 is Sunday. I really like this approach. I felt like I didn't have much prep for Day 1 the first time I did it. In the practices leading up to, we did the usual sorts of drills rather than more of the assessment skills.

It's also good to get to know the newest newbies.

This was rather a shorter post than I anticipated, so here's out bout poster:

Please come see us kick ass on St. Patty's Day, both in the parade, and in our doubleheader season opener.

Tonight's B-Team Practice

Thank you to my loyal readers, first and foremost. Honestly. This self-reflection is good for me. And I was telling somebody earlier that I've never had much luck with journaling, but because I know I have a readership, I can't disappoint.

Since I'm thanking people, I'd like to thank my dear derby wife, Devlin Syder. I wasn't feeling all that great and didn't know if I could make it to practice, but I could hear Devlin's voice in my head telling me to go to practice.

So, in the spirit of being adventurous, I decided to try out my spare wheels. I have a set of mostly bald Speed Rays. The skates were sold to me with the wheels on 'em. I was told they are still great for sport court. I've skated on sport court now twice. Since we bout on it, but I've never skated on it, I thought I'd try these wheels out on our floor. I have 4 red and 4 blue. These are approximately 92a and 93a durometer. They're also wider (not drastically, but somewhat) and heavier (solid aluminum hubs).

It was an experiment, to be sure. I thought I might try them out at a Thursday practice, but then I thought that team practice is a good mixture of derby play and derby skills. And it was. I slipped all over the place. I still pushed myself and jammed and did everything I could. I wasn't able to dig in as deep with my sprints and crossovers, but I still tried.

I've been feeling that skating through mud sensation lately. But I still think I'd rather have to exert a little more effort if I have total grip in the turns.

So to my actual thoughts on practice...

I feel like the B-Dazzlers are clicking now more than ever. The most dedicated core is sticking together and working like one pack.

I also think everyone's getting better at the little things. We did banana peel in reverse derby direction, then turned around and did Sharkbait derby direction and we mostly did turning toe stops, without colliding with each other. Our hit timing could all still use work but I think even the best of the best say that. (Speaking of, did I tell you Elektra Q. Tion noticed my skating on Sunday? AAAAAAAH!)

It's really cool to work on something at practice and get the chance to put it into action. We're trying to go back to the basics, since B-Dazz is very much a new team these days. But it's tough to be reviewing the basic and still have to skate against people. When we get to employ these simple strategies, that's good. We are able to quickly see the result of our work.

My brain is no longer processing what's going on. I may update this post at a later time, but you know me, probably not.

Charleston

So I bet you've been looking forward to my debut, right? I certainly have. I skated with grace and poise in neon this past Saturday.

This multi-colored beast is Jammer-Rita!

We had a doubleheader down in Charleston. It was filled with all kinds of excitement (Bill Murray asked my boyfriend for directions). While, both Charlotte teams lost in points, the B-Dazzlers won the second half (scoring 80 points) and the All-Stars won the dancing portion of the evening.

I wasn't nervous. Oddly. I got nervous for like a second during some jam where I was blocking, but it passed. It was like skating at a scrimmage. It was like there was no crowd and no scoreboard. I skated hard. I jammed a few times, but mostly I hit people. Charleston people. I hit their jammers a lot.

Most of the bout is kind of a blur, but I remember bits of it. Mostly I remember encountering walls of pink. I tried to blend in with my pink tights, but they were not fooled.

It was not only my first bout, but it was my derby wife's (Devlin Syder) first bout back after her injury. We got to skate together occasionally.

Here we are on the pivot line!

I did get lead jammer at least once. Although when I tried to call it off, I received a penalty. I'm not so sure about that call. I think I was actually tripped, but que se ra se ra.

I can't think of any other highlights (sorry guys), and I've got to get ready for scrimmage. Thank you for reading!