Wednesday 13 November 2013

Week 24: Falls, Thighs & Team Sexy

Ah, week one. My old friend. A nice easy week of falls, derby stance and skating stride. What was even better was that two of my derby wives had returned after almost a month of non-skating and the lovely lady who broke her wrist was also back on skates! It was like a family reunion!

We all commented about how tired we were and how it was good that is was week one as it usually isn't too strenuous. If I was a gambling kind of gal, though, I'd bet that we're all eating our words today. As six weeks goes by, I think we all forget how hard week one actually is and seem to gain rose tinted specs about what is actually involved. "Ahhh falls...no problem...we learnt them in the newbie area....Derby stance? Pah! Easy! I've been skating for a while now so that's not going to be an issue!" Good readers, do not end up like us: arrogant and forgetful!

The thing about derby is that you are always striving to improve. You might be signed off on a certain skill but that doesn't mean you're perfect at it, so you will continue to work at it so you get better and better. This means that what you once thought was difficult, became easy and then becomes difficult again.


So, take week one. For derby stance, you go lower than you've ever gone. For falls, you get up quicker than you ever have. Sticky feet - try and go faster. After all of these, my thighs were killing me. Not to mention our warm up was squats on the whistle.

We got through those pretty quickly, though, so we moved on to week two skills - stops and glides. Again, more thigh work. My t-stops are getting there (I did fall over, however, when I tried with the other foot) but plough stops are still getting nowhere and, by the end of the session, everyone else also knew that my plough stops were getting nowhere. I'd try to stop but then someone would stop in front of me so I'd then concentrate on going round them rather than stopping. I thought I'd see if I could stop behind someone who also couldn't stop yet, then I might be alright, but this turned out to be no one! So I attempted to plough anyway (my thighs were hurting, so I must've been doing something right, right?!) but ended up being the one who rolled past everyone else - "oops...'scuse me...coming though...I'll stop eventually!" there may have also been a few profanities here and there...


We ended on something new, though. We played some games! Admittedly they were drills, but with fun elements so I was overly excited! The first game involved falls. Our coach would call out a word and we would then have to perform a fall. For example, when she said "Jammer!" we had to do a single knee fall, etc. That was really good fun, if really tiring! Next, we had a race. We were split in to two teams (we were christened "Team Sexy") and then had to race up the track and perform skills at cones. So, at the first cone you would do a single knee fall, 2nd cone a 4-point fall, turn around, plough stop at the next cone and then t-stop at the end, then the next skater would go. We practiced it once and then each team had to race each other. Unfortunately, we didn't win. But, hey, we were Team Sexy, so we didn't need to win! Ha ha!

After all the fun and games, though, I ached by the time I got home and my knees are really creaky today. So, no, week one wasn't easy going. But I like to think I trained that much harder so that's why I ache today!

3 comments:

  1. You weren't the only non stopper! Stupid mythical ploughs!

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  2. Aww this is such a good blog - I wish I'd documented the beginning of my derby career a bit more. Good luck with your training :)

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    1. Awh, thank you. I'm glad you're enjoying it. :) I find it quite nice as it helps me see how far I've come. Especially when I start getting down about a skill I can't do, etc.
      Thank you!
      Derby love. <3 x

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