Week 6: Sign Offs

This week it was sign offs. This is where aspiring skaters get marked on basic derby skills, today was Level 1 & 2. These mainly include derby stance, falling, stepping, weaving, cross overs, etc. And they are every six weeks. Now, I've been every six weeks but I still didn't feel like I was confident enough to do these. It was around the track too and that was scary enough as I was still relying on the safety of the bar at either end - I can't stop otherwise!

My friends who I go with decided they were going to give it a try and the team members were encouraging everyone to try it but I still wasn't convinced so I decided to stay at the other end and just practice.

At the beginning of the session, there was another lady who hadn't been for a while and was a bit unsteady on her skates. I instantly sympathised as I knew exactly what she was going through so I decided to slowly skate up and down with her while she got her confidence back. I wasn't trying to be cocky and thinking "Oh yeah, I've been there but now I'm awesome", it was the fact that I knew exactly how she felt and I found it comforting when I had people skating with me. It makes you feel like you're not alone. So, after everyone went to go for sign offs, we spent the session skating up and down. We both gained confidence as the session went on and by the end we were having great fun! The lady's merby boyfriend also came over occasionally to have a chat and to help us practice, which was nice and there was always a team member on hand to give us tips and to help us perfect what we were practising,

Part of me was regretting not trying out for the sign offs but, when my friends returned they seemed a little disheartened and felt like they'd done really badly. I knew, of course, that they hadn't! I kept looking over and admiring how well they were doing. But everyone is always self critical. However, I was buzzing from my session. I'd got my falls down (no pun intended!) and was beginning to get the hang of stops. I felt like I could've pushed myself a bit more but I knew I could do that next week! I knew that by the next sign offs, I'd be ready to try them.