Week 47: Leap Of Faith

Pack work seems to be a very prominent part of Level 2, which is understandable as it's a very prominent part of Roller Derby. So this week, we had another practice at pack work. I'm going to flat out be honest, I don't remember much about this weeks pack work! It must have been the heat! I definitely know we did pack speed and pack avoidance and falling in a pack, like we did the last few weeks. We also did working through a pack. We were each given a number and our couch would then call out that number. We would have to take a knee and, once the pack had passed us, catch up and try to work our way through the front by finding a space. The other people in the pack were not allowed to physically block us, but they weren't allowed to move out of the way to let us through either. It was lots of fun, but also kind of scary! Picking your feet up in a pack is essential to get through it, but leads to a lot of wheel locks and the occasional kick! Fortunately, we had practised wheel locks before, and you soon get used to dealing with them.

We then decided to have another practice at whips as we didn't get a lot of time to practice them last week. We paired up and were, again, shown the proper technique for outside whips. We practised it really slowly to begin with, more in a step-by-step kind of way so we got used to where we were meant to look, where our feet were, when we offered the whip, what our stance should be like, etc. We then took it in turns to practice. I found that I tended to drift towards the middle after giving the whip. I think it's because, when the whipee pulls, I end up being pulled along with them, rather than keeping my spot. Apparently, this is quite a common problem and I was told even some of the all-stars used to have this issue, which made me feel better about it.

After some whip practice, we then moved on to side pushes. These are less used to gain speed and more used to get a person in front of the jammer. We were told to imagine that we were on one side of the track, and the jammer was coming up the other side. Rather than us trying to skate over to stop her, we were told to shout "Jammer!" and give the person next to us a helping push. Unlike whips, it is a lot easier to be the pusher than the pushee. As a pusher, you just have give them the warning, make sure you place your hands in the right place (shoulder and hip) so as to not throw off their balance, and you then give a firm push. Not too hard, but hard enough to get them to where they want to be. As a pushee, you have to make sure you're in derby stance, and then prepare yourself when you hear "Jammer!" and then kind of hop/quick step over to the side, while trying to keep your balance. It was a little odd travelling sideways to begin with. But it definitely shows you where you use your stepping or lateral hop skills!

It was certainly starting to get hot, but then our coach asked if we wanted to try our endurance laps. I was pretty excited, if sweating, as I hadn't tried speed skating on the new venue's floor yet and I was eager to see if my laps would go up. The unfortunate thing is that, even though I'm skating on hybrids - Sweet n Lows, I still found that at speed my wheels would slip. Furthermore, I hate doing crossovers at speed. I don't mind doing them to gather speed, but at speed I feel like my legs are going to get all tangled, and my balance goes all wrong, so I then go all wobbly. It's no fun, and this is a problem for 25 in 5 (it goes up to 25 in 5 for level 2) as crossovers are key for keeping your speed whilst using less energy. I gave it my all, though. It's been a while, I haven't worked out for a couple of months, it was a really hot day...and I'm just making excuses, but I did beat my record by a quarter of a lap! I got 23 & 3/4! Woohoo! And, very bizarrely, so did my derby wife, who also got exactly the same as me last time!

After collapsing on the floor, and then counting a fellow skater's laps, we moved to the end of the track. "I thought we would have a go at inside whips". This was met by lots of grumbling. We were hot, we'd just skated for 5 minutes straight, but inside whips are fun! So we paired up and started practicing. We were shown a really handy demonstration too, of how it's less to give speed, more to help your jammer through a gap. We were told to imagine we were getting through a really tight space, and to get more behind the whipper, so we really had to step over their leg. It was really fun actually and I felt like I was getting somewhere with them!

One of our coaches then appeared with a bright yellow metal bar, and placed it in front of us. "Jumping!" Jumping had always scared me. I'd tried it briefly once in Level 1 ages ago, but that was it. I had never jumped over anything. Just on the spot. Fortunately, we were told that the criteria for jumping had now changed. Phew! It was now known as "stepping over an object". This meant that rather than both feet having to leave at the same time, you could pick one foot up first and kind of hop over the bar. This made it sound much easier. But that bar looked terrifying. Most people went and hopped over the bar, no problem. I decided to hop over the line next to it. It was essentially like a forward lateral hop, but still kind of scary. I kept trying to build up my confidence to go over the bar but wimped out every time. Eventually, after every one had had a few goes, the bar was taken away. I felt a little disappointed in myself. I wanted to prove to myself that I could jump over it! I practiced transitions for a little while with every one else (my clockwise ones are getting much better!) but then another skater brought the bar back out. She had fought for a long time with her fear of jumping, yet she recently conquered it and I think she wanted to keep building up her confidence. After a while, I finally bit the bullet and decided to give it a go. I skated up to it, did a small left foot glide, swung my right foot over it...hop! "YEAHHHHH!" I heard from my friend. Maybe it wasn't so scary. I had another few goes and did it then too! Yay! I can do it!

Soon after, we were called over and told that sign offs would start from next week and would cover a couple of sessions. Has it really been 6 weeks already?!  Right-o.

Week 46: Whip It Good!

Yeah, it is a bit of a jump from Week 43! I had to miss a few sessions as I was moving house and I got a new job! All excellent, but it all happened in the space of 2 weeks so everything was a bit manic! Needless to say, I was so pleased to be back on skates! It was a little weird, but it was great. :)

Our first skill of the day was pushes. I have never actually done pushes but they covered them the week before, so I was in good hands. They are exactly as they sound. You skate up behind someone, get nice and close, and then give you them a good steady push which should result in them picking up speed, and you coming to a stop. The initial increase in speed took me by surprise, but I soon got used to it. Derby stance is definitely key, though, as occasionally I would lose my balance a little bit and wobble before skating out of the push. I also never knew if I was pushing enough. I came to a stop, and the person I was pushing built up speed, but it never felt like I was actually putting any kind of force into it. It was very frustrating but I was reassured that I was pushing.

Next we moved on to whips. These are probably the most famous "move" in derby, thanks to the film Whip It! and due to the fact that it looks super awesome when carried out well (especially leg whips! Although, they really are only for show!) First off, we started with outside whips. These are used when your jammer is looking pretty knackered, there is a nice gap, and you can give her that extra force to help get her through the pack. They're really effective but I found them so hard to do! Taking a whip is the easiest, most fun bit. Your partner sticks out her arm, offering to you, you grab hold with your right hand, pull on it and then use her force to pick up speed. And you pick up a lot of speed. It's great! However, giving is not as fun or easy. You need to hug that inside line, yet keep an eye out that you're not going to cut track. You then have to offer your right arm, keep a fist so as not to hold on to your skater (it's up to them to decide when to let go), then go into a lunge style stance so as to not trip up your partner, and then you use your force to whip them round (using all your core muscles, not just your arms), creating a small plough stop at the end that should bring you to a stop. My issue was the same with the pushes. I didn't feel like I was doing anything! I felt like I wasn't using any of my muscles, and my lunge stance was awful. I have really long legs, so I have to keep them in, but I couldn't manage it.

It turned out a lot of people had this issue, so we had a weird little paceline where we ended up practising the correct stance and doing slo-mo whips. It was really helpful but it must have looked so bizarre to an outsider! After doing this for a while and giving outside whips another go, we moved onto inside whips and were introduced to the "boob tray" or "boob shelf".

Inside whips are used when your on the inside line, your jammer needs to get through, and you're essentially saying "Here, take my spot" and giving them a helping hand. Essentially, to give an inside whip, you have to wrap your right arm across your body quite tightly. Kind of like making a tray or shelf for your boobs. If you're receiving, you skate up behind your partner, grab their arm, and then step over their leg and skate off. If you've giving, you offer your boob tray, keeping a fist, and then use your whole body to help them through. Unfortunately, when I was giving, I kept grabbing hold of my partner, rather than offering a fist, and, again, I still felt like I wasn't even helping! When I was receiving, I kept grabbing their hand, rather than their arm, so my wrist guard kept digging in. Whips may look awesome, but they're so hard!

After whips, we had a quick go at toe-stop runs. I am terrified of toestop runs. It makes absolutely no sense to put all your faith in a tiny bit of rubber. I'm also scared that I'll fall either flat on my face, or flat on my arse. I'm not gonna look at my feet while I'm running so I'm scared I'm going to over-shoot it, miss the toe stop completely and break my ankle, or I'm going to undershoot it, land on my wheels and fall backwards. There was a quick demo and then speed laps were done. I completely wimped out of that and pottered about in the middle of the track. I was told that you should lean more forward than back, so at least you can fall on your knees, and that the lower you get the easier it is. I tried it for a little bit, but I still found it scary.

It was then our turn to move off to track and make our way to the end. Here we started to work on duck runs. I remembered duck runs from Level 1 training ages ago, and remembered enjoying it. It makes more sense to keep all four wheels on the ground, to me, than relying on your toe stops. I also read an article about leagues in America that refuse to use toe stops and so the duck run is their choice of acceleration. It's also a common technique used by speed skaters who don't have toe stops to reduce their weight. Unfortunately, due to the goofy lookingness of them, they received a lot of mocking this session. You start with your feet in a V, almost like position one in ballet, and then push out, creating friction with your wheels and using this friction to push yourself forward. You're running, not skating. I love doing them and find them a lot more comfortable than toe stop runs, but there was a lot of laughing which made me feel a little bad for duck runs.

We then moved on to practice skills like transitions and stepping. I even got to demonstrate 180 degree knee slides, which I haven't done for ages. We learnt them really early on in Level 1 but I so wanted to see if I could still do them so I offered to demonstrate and totally nailed it! I was so chuffed! Maybe a little too cocky, though, because after a few more, I ended up pulling a muscle in my thigh. I tried to skate through it, but knee slides were out of the question, so I ended the session being taught derby stops (where you transition to backwards skating and then stop on your toe stops. It looks awesome. If only I was good at transitions...) and I had another little go at walking on my toe stops and then I called it a day and stretched.

I didn't have my usual derby high at the end of the session, though. I felt like I hadn't really achieved anything. I learnt some new stuff, but I wasn't that great at it, and I didn't really have a breakthrough with anything. Admittedly, this doesn't happen every week with derby and I should be happy that I got to skate, learnt new things, demonstrated an awesome 180 degree knee slide, and was back at derby after 2 week! Sometimes, though, it is hard to remind yourself of these things at the time.

Week 43: Two's Company, Eight's A Pack

An apology is most definitely in order! I have currently been in the process of moving house and starting a new job, and everything (including derby) had to take a backseat for a while! I've actually missed two weeks of derby, but this is the practice before everything happened!

This was my first official week of Level 2. It was once sign-offs had been fully finished, everyone who could be signed off, was, and after Sur5al. It was all very exciting and we were told we were going to be doing a lot of pack work, but first was an introduction to dynamic stretching.

Dynamic stretching is essentially stretching while moving around the track on your skates, and it's a lot easier than it looks! First were ankle stretches, which were fairly easy...I don't actually know what any of the stretches are called, so I think I'm going to save you the long amount of text that it would take me to describe them! There was lots of leg lifting, some weird hip rotation-y moves, some arm stretches (which are easy! Both feet on the ground!), and one where we had to hold up our foot to our bum, which was pretty scary! I did get a little confused at times, and every time we brought our leg down for one rep, I thought we could put it properly down and give a little push to keep us moving, but you actually have to keep your foot off the ground - whoops! I wondered why everyone else seemed to be lagging! My right foot glides also failed me. Or, should I say, my weak right leg. I can do right foot glides, but my leg has a hard time holding my weight, and throw in some dynamic moves and I was toast. More one legged squats, me thinks.

Next was pack work. We did a lot of this in Level 1, but more recently it didn't seem to get taught and was than taken out of Level 1 sign offs, so it really began with basic pack work - skating within close proximity of each other, getting used to touching people, recycling, keeping close together, communication, etc. We then moved on to more advanced pack work. Pack speed was one of the first things and it was actually quite fun. We would skate at 50% speed, and then our coach would call out either 100% or 10% and that would then involve us either speeding up as a pack or slowing down as a pack. This was quite interesting as you have to work as a whole, not at your own speed, so you have to adjust and work with everyone.

Next was pack avoidance. This was great fun! We would skate along in a pack, communicating, recycling, and then suddenly someone would appear on the track and we would have to avoid them and reform the pack as quick as possible. It was a lot to focus on but we were doing it like pros! You know those schools of fish that move in those huge groups? Well that was us. Or, in my mind anyway... We then had a go at falling in a pack. We were given a number and then when our coach called out our number, we would have to do a knee fall. The other skaters would then have to skate around and try not to trip over us. That also went really well. I actually kind of wanted to catch someone out, but we were all amazing. That meant that pack avoidance and pack falling were then thrown in together! So not only did we have to avoid people in our pack, but also people on the track! It was really fun though (have I said fun too much in this post?!) and I love skating with people. It gives you a real sense of camaraderie and reminds you what roller derby is all about.