Some Thoughts

A highlight of the was after a particularly exhausting jam, I collapsed on the floor in front of our bench and one of my teammates gave me the advice to dig in when I take big hits. She said I keep moving my feet sometimes. BUT this is huge progress because I've been working on moving my feet and not stopping skating when I hit the pack. So yay, I've managed to make my feet move, now I need to reign it in.

So I played some derby last Saturday. I was slightly more jittery for this bout but maybe that's due to my involvement. It was phenomenal to go to Charleston and not have to worry about whether or not there are tickets at willcall and whether people are trained in their various tasks. Not only did we have a bout, we skated in the St. Patty's Day Parade. It was a day full of derby.

The B*Dazzlers were playing the Triad's Camel City Thrashers. I enjoy the Thrashers. I recently skated in that co-ed Invitational with most of them. It was a lot of fun. They're a great bunch of ladies. And they skated their hearts out and were great sports about the score.

As a jammer, I was pretty useless. I was all over the floor. Seriously, in all the pictures, I am on the floor when I'm wearing the star. I took some good hits, but I was probably the least effective jammer. I'm much prouder of my blocking skills. I was often sitting on the jammer and holding her back. That's a good feeling. I worked with many of my teammates, and seldom was it the same ones. Alley Capone has a great sense of what speed to maintain when you're holding the jammer at the back of the pack to stay in play.

I had a really great time and I wore shiny pants. I apologize for being so late on this post. I started it Sunday, but it has been an open tab on my browser since then. So I also apologize for not having much to this post. Happy Friday!

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.

Invitational

The Invitational is today. I'm strangely not nervous. But I wasn't nervous before the bout last weekend either. I thought I'd try to have team spirit with my boutfit. BUT I don't own any red leggings or shorts. How crazy is that? Oh well.

More to come later.

Ok, so I was a Drunk (right, yeah, put the 20-year old on the Drunks, haha!). Oh wait, did I mention this was a CoEd bout? It was. I had three boys on my team. Celtic Crusher, Sweet Meat, and the Professor were Drunks. And they were all extremely valuable. Sweet Meat as a jammer, wow. You hit him, he turns around and skates backwards, hit him again, and he turns back around. The man is a beast. Crusher was an excellent blocker, holding down the back of the pack. And the Professor did a wonderful job skating anywhere needed. And little Patty Valentine needed very little help as a jammer once he got moving.

We first played the Crunks. I played against teammate Nita Beer (pitting husband against wife). I blocked in a variety of positions. We played pretty well together, though naturally we had trouble playing as a team. We came together well and managed to hold back one of the Crunks' strongest players, MistHer, who was jamming. I am most proud of that bit of recycling and blocking and team work.

During halftime, I noticed my coaches working on some lineup changes. I told them I would happily jam if need be, since I was relatively fresh. I brought it up again later and they put me in to great success. I had a great crew of blockers, including Boot Scootin' Bully of Blue Ridge Roller Girls, lead jammer status, and a soon-to-be powerjam. I got 4 grandslams, scoring a total of 20 points before calling it off as the other jammer came back onto the track.

I did have some trouble after that whilst jamming when I was struck about the face. HARD. And somehow none of the refs managed to see it. Boy did it suck. I cried a little. And we had to call a timeout to page the medic just so he could tell me he didn't have any ice. Luckily my teammate Sour Bash Kid had ice and a plastic bag to spare. Thanks Bash!

That helped Team Drunks get back on top of the score. I had lots of people tell me I skated well. I was pretty proud of that. And also happy to get my second (and third) bouts under my belt. Congrats to ref/my ride up there OhCeeDee on kicking so much ass. And thanks to Derby City Skates for being present for me to drool over and purchase some items.

Also my shoulder(s) feel great, thanks for asking, considerate reader. Now I'm gonna fall into a derby/baconator coma.