This has been a busy week for roller derby. For the first time since I have started, I have had 3 skate practices: an extra lesson on Tuesday, normal training on Thursday and bootcamp on Friday. Here are my day by day highlights:
Tuesday
Hooray for extra practices, especially after I mentioned that I felt like I was in need of some extra skate time. We went through all our level one skills again which was a great refresher. It's amazing how quickly you forget things when you are not doing them all the time (ahem, knee falls). I almost got my crossovers right tonight which makes my heart happy!! I have been practicing moving my one foot in front of the other and it looks like it's starting to pay off. I also nailed transition skating. This is where you skate forwards and, without stopping, turn yourself around until you are skating backwards. It's such a great feeling when you finally manage to get a more complex skill right. Needless to say, I headed home with a smile on my face.
Thursday
Every time I put on my skates, I am presently surprised to find my self just a little more stable, a little more capable and a little more confident. Before I used to put on my skates and feel like I had to relearn what we covered previously before I could even focus on anything else. Now, not so much!! Even skating the opposite direction around the track is easier than before!! Anyhoo, tonight we practiced pace lines and weaving. When I weave through a pace line I am okay but when I weave through cones, I lose all momentum and come to a grinding halt! We also did more working on whips and pushes. I must be honest, I am a little intimidated by these. I'm still trying to work out how much force to put behind my pushes and whips. Also, I have weakling arms that need a bit more muscle!!
Friday
Wow! It's Sunday today and I am still recovering from bootcamp. My legs are dead but honestly, I learnt so much that it's totally worth every ache and pain I accumulated. We started the evening with fitness which was nearly the end of me. I can't believe that there is such a big difference between skating around the track 5 times and jogging around it. Between the running and the lunging and the squatting and the burpees, I had to resurrect my asthma pump and inhale a bottle of water. Once we were back on our skates Pippa, aka Madame Gutterfly, took us through footwork. We practiced walking, backwards, forwards and sideways with skates on and then sideways and backwards. It's not easy that's for sure!
We also practiced jumping, pack work and stopping and got some excellent tips on our derby stance and general skating form. The biggest things for me though were the crossover tips (her tips totally changed my approach and I actually managed a crossover on a few occasions...yay) and the blocking. Up until Friday we hadn't even started blocking yet. I can remember the name of the movement she taught us first but she basically taught us blocking step by step which I found really useful. And she didn't just teach us how to block but also how to keep ourselves upright. I actually can't wait to put all this extra knowledge into practice!! There was also some exciting news that came out of bootcamp but I'll fill you guys in when it's all official:)
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