So. I don't get out much. Renfaire is the closest thing to exercise in my life. However, a few years ago I found out that there were a couple of different roller derby teams in the area. As a kid, roller derby seemed like the best career choice a person could make. I wanted to spend my days skating around in awesome clothing, getting into fights and being bad ass. My mom disagreed and rarely took me to the rink as a kid. She swore I was going to break a wrist. Then they demolished the rink when I was around 8 or so in order to build a new highway, so there went my roller derby dreams. When I found out about the two teams in the area, I knew I had to join. I kept an eye on their myspace pages, trying to figure out which one was actually active (which ended up being just the Tourist City Terrors, which I think broke into Sintral Florida Derby Demons and Orlando Psycho City Derby Girls? Maybe? I'm not all that updated on local derby drama.)
Anyways, now we have the Orlando Psycho City Derby Girls, Sintral Florida Derby Demons, Thunder City Derby Sirens, and Florida Derby League. OPCD and FDL are both OSDA leagues, whereas TCDS and SFDD are WFTDA leagues. Sintral Florida's a bit too far. Thunder City looked promising (and had the bonus of me already knowing someone on the team) but after doing a test drive this weekend to a bout, I don't think I can do it. The team was fantastic and people seemed really nice, but the drive is just too far for me. I used a quarter of a tank just getting there and back. Make that twice a week until fall when I can only go to practice once a week due to my school schedule? Yeah, sadly not going to happen. Florida Derby League is new and has the additional bonus of offering boot camps to help get people in shape, but it's co-ed which makes me feel nervous. I want to be bad ass, but at the same time I'm not prepared to be knocked over by 250lb muscular guys on a regular basis. (Yet, somehow getting knocked over by 250lb muscular women isn't an issue? I don't know why, but in my head, it's not.)
So OPCD it is. They have recruitment coming up, which I'm excited/nervous about. I love watching their games. This league was actually my first exposure to live derby matches, so they'll always hold a special place in my heart. They have awesome nerdy themed matches (last night was a RHPS match in which we were obnoxious spectators who did the Time Warp, called out call lines and corrected the mispronunciations of the team's names by the announcer.) They seem like a great group of people, and it's only about a 25 minute drive from my house. I also like that most of their bouts are home bouts as well. With work and school, it's so much easier for me if I just have local derby practices, bouts and promos (or whatever they call the extra work that goes into making derby happen. In faire, we call them promos.) without the joys of driving 3 hours down to Palm Beach or up to Jacksonville or whereever else once a month or so. They have recruitment on June 30th, so I'll go in and see how this goes.
I'm more than a little worried though. I'm not a strong skater. I really want this and am willing to work hard, but I'm very out of shape anymore. I used to be in decent shape thanks to softball as a kid and strenous faire activities and a semester of powderpuff football during my first attempt at going to college. I'm trying to get up to the rink to practice as much as possible, but I'm just not catching on as quickly as I feel I should. I also picked up some bad habits when I tried to teach myself to skate and now that I'm taking lessons at the rink, I have to try to erase all of those bad habits. I was really encouraged when I was able to stand up straight and move a little without touching the wall after just two lessons but now I feel like I'm not improving at as quick of a pace. I've stagnated in a major way. I don't feel like I'm strengthening my skills and my legs are killing me after just a couple of laps. My right leg is the worst. While my left leg points fairly straight, my right leg points a little to the right. I think it might actually be from all of the softball in my formulative years. My right leg was always pressed against a base, turned sideways to help maximize my push, or turned to help me run towards the left after a ball, as covering third base made it rare for the ball to go towards my right. So now it won't go straight without expending extra energy. My whole body tries to go towards the right. I don't know if it's normal or not, but it doesn't feel normal. My right leg is always killing me after skating, whereas my left leg feels like it could go on forever.
I'm worried that I'm not going to be in shape by recruitment. I'm worried that my skating skills will be so bad that I'm asked not to come back until the next recruitment, which might not necessarily work in with my school schedule. I'm worried that my natural shyness will hinder my progress. I'm worried that I'll get out there, take a fall and break my wrist or tailbone on my first day of recruitment. And most of all, I'm worried that I'll put in all of the work and never reach the level I need to. I'm scared that I'll do all of this and not even be drafted onto a team. How disappointing would that be? And how embarrassing? I'd hate to have to be like "Yeah, no, I didn't make it onto a team" when my non-derby friends ask me how derby is going. Hell, they're already asking me as if I'm on it, and all I'm doing at this point is taking the beginner classes at the skate rink that have absolutely nothing to do with derby.
We'll see. This week I'm watching what I'm eating, drinking more water, and attempting more exercise in order to prep for recruitment. About three weeks to go until Day 1!
No comments:
Post a Comment