Practice 1

Seriously, I don't know what's wrong with me. I was doing crossovers at the rink in SC like I actually knew what I was doing, and on a rink I was unfamiliar with that was slicker than I'm comfortable with. Why couldn't I do them last night? We were doing warm-ups and every time we hit a curve, it was like my legs were magically glued to the ground. Itzel said she thought it was just a mental thing. It could have been. I was a little freaked out about it being the first practice and skating with OPCDG again. But not doing crossovers meant instant ankle pain from the weird way that I take turns when I don't man up and do what I need to, so halfway through warm-ups, I was ready to die. I was in pain, I was embarrassed that I couldn't skate after all this time, I hated that so many people were passing me and crossing over like they were born on skates... I'll be honest. As they blew the whistle and we headed over to the beginner's rink, I thought about not coming back on Wednesday. It sucks to work so hard to try to get something basic like that and still have issues.

Once we got back into the beginner's rink, I felt much better though. We did our normal stretching, they spent some time getting birthdays, putting names on helmets, etc. Afterwards, we worked on falls and stops. Falls came right back to me (well, excluding 180s, which I've always sucked at, and baseball slides on the leg I don't fall well on.) Stops were difficult to do because there were so many people in such a small space. I was afraid I was going to trip someone when doing plow stops, particularly since I have ridiculously long legs. I suppose it's great practice for stopping in a pack though, which I really need to work on. I worry so much about my suckiness affecting others (tripping them, or landing on them with all of my weight.) I'm slowly getting over it, but it's a process.

I feel like I'm more in the middle in this recruitment. There are more people my age, more people closer to my size, and more people with approximately my skill level skating. I feel like I actually have a chance this time.

Derby Goals for the week:
1. Do a crossover during warm-ups on Wednesday.
2. Scrounge up the money for an open-skate session.
3. Finish reading "Down and Derby".
4. Do ankle-strengthening exercises every day.
5. Drink at least 3 20 oz. cups of water per day.
6. Let myself fall during practice.