Wheeee!

Today's practice was awesome. The day started off not-so-great with a slightly difficult move (as in helping a friend move, not a derby maneuver or something.) We grabbed chinese afterwards and simply did not feel like leaving the apartment, but we pushed ourselves to get out and go, even knowing we would not be successful at today's part of testing. We did most of the level one skills test on Thursday, but today we had to do stuff like one leg glides, pace lines (which none of the members of special mittens have done), sticky skate, etc. I still can't manage to sticky skate around corners, nor can I get my legs up. I know I did horribly on today's testing bits, but I feel like I did much better on Thursday, so hopefully it will all balance out.

After that, we started some of the basics of blocking, as well as hip whips and pulls (aka pull carts.) I freaking LOVE pull carts. They were much easier than I thought. I love the challenge of pulling along those extra people though. It gave my legs a great work out. We only did one lap, but I feel like I could have kept going. Hip whips I wasn't very comfortable on. It just felt odd to me to grab someone at the hips like that and pull them back. I was terrified of tripping up Itzel or pulling her back into me. I also think I might have been too far to the left in order to do it properly. I'll make sure to work on hip whips whenever we manage to make it to an extra skate session this week. And blocking? Love blocking! (Even if it does feel like everyone has bony shoulders when doing shoulder blocks.) Gauntlet was a lot of fun - frustrating because I'm not as fast of a skater as some of the others and I noticed some of the new girls kept moving further and further out so there was a lot space between people, but when I knocked up against the Psycho sisters, it felt great. It was just touches - not actual blocking - but I know blocking is likely going to be what I do most, if not all, of the time. It was great to get that small taste of it.

My roommate is doing derby as well, so I suspect that the house is about to become a giant blocking session. If you're coming to my place any time soon, I recommended you stay down in derby stance and watch out for anyone coming up behind you. You're about to be hip-checked.

So far behind...

I feel so far behind the others right now. Itzel, Nat and I are fairly even with each other but we're very far behind the rest of the skaters. I'm going to keep going just because I'm improving so much, but I can feel a second recruitment period coming on for me. It sucks, but at the same time I recognize that it's best that we not skate in a bout until our skills improve. I still suck at jumping, but our one-on-one instructor of the day assured me that she's never had to full-out jump over someone. Step over limbs? Yes. Jump over someone? No. Not that it's going to stop me from working on it. But tomorrow when I get home from work, I'm going to find a nice area of grass and just work on jumps off-skates. I jumped today and had a wicked fall on my tailbone. I'd prefer to never do that again.

We were able to skate with the rest of the girls for part of the day. I'm so conflicted when I'm skating with everyone else. Part of me is super excited because Hey, I'm doing this! Another part hates that, while I'm doing it, I'm much slower than most of the other girls. But I'm getting better. My endurance is improving, too. I mean, I still get winded before a lot of others, but I remember at the beginning of the year that I'd get winded just coming up the damned stairs. I mean, how ridiculous is that? No one should get to that point with their health. Hence me attempting derby.

Also, if you ever have sinus issues, skate hard on a hot day. I have a cold right now. I sniffled my entire way there, blew my nose a million times while putting on gear, but after getting warmed up, my sinuses basically cleared up. They're a mess again now that I've been home for a little while, but they're getting there.

SO. SORE.

Thursday night we had practice. Last night, a few of us skated over at someone's apartment complex in the racquetball court. Today we did free skate at the skating center. I AM SO SORE RIGHT NOW. I did better today at free skate than normal though. One of the other derby recruits recommended that I turn my shoulder more into my crossovers and it really helped. I still can't get my foot all the way over yet, but I'm still working on it. I'm getting better and much more comfortable on my skates. I'm not where I need to be, but I'm getting there.

Progress!

Team Special Mittens is making progress! (Special Mittens is what Itzel and I are calling our small little group of misfit skaters. The name was pulled from a derby blog that I read awhile ago but I can't for the life of me remember which one to credit it.) Itzel was a freaking master of t-stops by the end. It was awesome to see how well she was doing. I'll admit, I was a bit jealous!

I finally fell trying to do t-stops, which I really needed to do. I discovered that I'm getting pretty good at falling (proper falls, I mean. One knee slides, double knee falls, baseball slides, even superman falls.) Ellen Rage and Tiger Beatdown are freaking miracle workers. My t-stops are improving (they're nowhere near what they need to be, but still better than they were!) I'm so close to getting crossovers right now. I actually wanted to keep on going tonight until I mastered them! They also made sure to make the last part of practice fun for us to, which I really appreciated (perhaps more so than some of the other women, but meh. I've always been a fan of making an ass out of myself in public.) They had us do the Electric Slide (which HOLY SHIT I've not done this dance since probably 1995), the Cupid Shuffle, and the Cha-Cha Slide, all of which are always great ways to get more comfortable on the skates.

I'm not ready for the Level 1 test next week. But quite honestly? I've made so much progress at this point that I can't help but already feel victorious.

I should have some decent bruise pics soon. My leg has a lump that is very slowly turning colors.

"Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning." Ben Franklin

I'm frustrated with my current progress in skating. And by "progress", I mean, "lack of it." There are so many little things that I've been practicing for awhile that I'm just not getting a hang of. One leg glides are one of the big ones. I can't seem to manage control enough to stay up on one leg. I don't know why. I can stand on one leg for a freakishly long time when I'm not on skates.

In fact, I think that's one of the most frustrating things for me. While I wouldn't call myself particularly talented when it comes to sports, I've also never had that hard of a time with them. My endurance has always been complete shit, but I used to be amazingly quick at sprints. I can catch a line drive, intercept a pass in football, bowl a decent game, get some decent hits in during tennis matches, but I can't lift my fucking leg while roller skating. I feel like there's some big secret to doing it that's just completely eluding me.

I'm starting to get a little self-conscious about how horrible of a skater I am. We keep doing all of these exercises as a group and most of the other girls just fly through it with no problem. On the other hand, my arms are flailing everywhere as I try to regain balance after jumps (usually failing. My ass always hits the ground on jumps.) I started out Sunday making an attempt to do jumps over pool noodles but midway through I gave up and started just stepping over them. Why? Not because I was afraid of falling. I'll never learn if I don't try and fail. I just felt bad because the other girls behind me kept having to go around me. It's one thing if I suck and go slow. I don't want to be that person that pulls anyone else down with me.

I'm not going to make it.

When I first started training a week ago, I was average. There were a number of girls better than me, but a bunch of people worse than me as well. Now as people drop out, I'm at the bottom. I was pulled aside along with one of the other girls because we need additional help skating. I'm trying to tell myself that it's to be expected. I mean, I couldn't even get off the wall until just over a month ago, and took a couple of weeks out of skating classes due to vacation and visiting friends. And quite honestly, I recognize that I need additional help skating. If I can nail stopping, I think that would fix some of my issues. However, I'm ridiculously overweight and out of shape. Tonight really brought that to my attention as I'm gasping for breath.

I have a lot of work to do over the next two months.

Practice 2, in which I develop a hatred of concrete.

(from http://fuckyeahrollerderbyotter.tumblr.com/)

Sunday practices are outdoors on a concrete rink. This was my first time skating outdoors and I was absolutely terrified. I don't know if it's because I was using indoor wheels (96a GT Swirls that came with my skates) or what, but I was terrible. Grapevines were soooo hard. I just kept skating forward unless I turned my wheels extremely inside and bent my knees. I feel like it's the pressure of my knees pushed together that kept me from moving forward. The thing is - I just did grapevines on skates on Thursday to try to prep for crossovers and I didn't have as many problems. When I get paid on Friday, I HAVE to go back to the skate shop and get some outdoor wheels. At least then I'll know if I suck it's because I suck and not because my wheels blow.

My falls are definitely improving. I felt like I had a hang of the one knee slides and double knee falls but I still need a little work on baseball slides and superman falls. Baseball slides are the reason for the graphic at the top - I have a bit of a rash on my calf from the combination of shorts/short socks and baseball slides on concrete (yeah, I really didn't plan my outfit well.)

I still suck at sticky skating though. I think I just need to improve my thigh muscles. I'm ridiculously slower than anyone else though, even the other new skaters. I'm going to try to do a little more exercising off-skates this week to work on that until I can get some outdoor wheels or find a way to get the money for more skate sessions. The sticky skating and grapevines were pretty demoralizing though. I was just absolutely horrible on them. I even thought at one point "What am I doing? Why am I here? I can't do this!" as everyone skated by/around me.

I'll be happy when all of this practice finally kicks in and I don't suck.

First Practice!

We had our first practice on Thursday evening. I think I did okay. One knee slides were fun, but I have trouble with superman slides and baseball slides. Oh well, two months to work on it, right? I'm also reeeeeally slow at scissors. I need to work on those in skate class this morning (as much as I can anyways - I'm a fattie who rarely exercises so Thursdays practice has left me sore even now.)

I'm already worried about passing the minimum skills requirements. Skating isn't the easiest skill for me, so I have to work harder than some of the others just to master the basics. Sigh. Hopefully once my body gets used to the work, I'll catch up.

Recruitment Night

Thursday was recruitment night for our local league. Itzel and I sort of clung together and made jokes to get through the nervousness, which seemed helped us a lot. They had us fill out some basic paperwork and then went over the basics about playing in the league. I won't lie - the minimum skills test seems daunting right now, and the idea of attempting it in a month is more than a little terrifying. We have an attempt in one month, and then the real deal in two months. After that point, we skate with the league for two months before being assigned to a team.

Everyone was super nice though. They finished the informational night by doing a free skate and a bunch of people kept slowing down to check on us, offer pointers, etc. I didn't skate my best that night, but it was great to get out there and meet everyone. I can't wait to actually start training! (Even if I'll get my ass kicked.)

This past Saturday we had a new teacher for skate class. She's new to me, but not new to teaching skate classes. She's been doing it for 20 years, and I must admit that it's the best skate class I've had so far. She taught a lot of stuff that the other teachers haven't yet (basic stuff like bending your knees for stability) and taught us how to do some moves in different ways that helped me out a LOT. She got me to backwards skate for the first time! She also called me out on not taking as many risks as I should out of fear of falling, which I really needed. I don't realize how obvious it is, so it was nice that she pointed me out for it and gave me a goal to work on when I skate. We're going to an adult skate session tonight so I'll be making that something to work on tonight.