Just saw my first live roller derby bout...!!

Flat track derby looks nothing like the derby I saw in the 70's on TV with Ann Calvello and Joanie Weston....6 words: Oh. Yes. I. Can. DO. THIS... (not sure why I thought I might not be able to...I thnk it seemed much more violent in my memory...)

Sacred City Derby Girls played Central Coast Derby Girls @ Sac....

Saw my co-skatermates Nikki Spitz and Girl Haggard there..

At the concession stand at the bout they served vodka and vodka jello shots..beer and wine... w00t!

Sacred whooped CCRDG...

Many thanks to the Sacred City Derby Girls for the for the guest tickets!!!

some of the crowd doing their uncon***** duty...the national anthem...

"Sisters of the way-side biding time in quiet peace await their place within the ring of calm, ah-ah"

Tonight was another excellent and fun practice...!!

Takes about 20 minutes or more I've noticed to get gear and skates on so at EXACTLY 8:30 I was at the gate waiting for the hockey team to exit the rink...Skated solid for 15 minutes until we went to stretch..only had to stop and adjust the skates twice...

Really getting used to the new skates now...I would say they are 70 percent ME at this point...Stretching was a bit of a surprise - a pleasant one at that - Prone to the ground and on my elbows I lifted up my body and didn't feel as much pressure on my back trying to keep my self up on my elbows and toe stops...it was so much easier tonight...love that!

The coach started calling us by our skater names tonight..I'm used to being called Alice..just not Sweet Alyce... ;)

A Roller Derby Logo - by McClintock Design

We did the weaving in and out of the line, 2 minute full-speed drills and this cool new thing where we skate in regulation formation and one skater came out and weaved though the pack while they tried to stay in formation...awesome fun!

In order to overcome my hesitation of plowing into someone on purpose, I asked one of my team mates...(very athletic woman)...if I could plow into her since she won the award at the Jubilee last year for staying on a rolling log...(whilst beating other women OFF said log)...I figured there's no chance of hurting her...She was into it...very cool... So when we do that drill next time...I will try my best....

Roller Derby Poster Sketch by =remdesigns

I let my new skates go to second base tonight...

[A painting of my 8 yrs old to 10 yrs old old roller skates..Montgomery Ward catalog if I remember correctly...]

Ok new skates, (if that's your real name), you made me less hesitant to be with you tonight. We didn't jump tonight, but we can trust you to hold us with one leg off the ground...Someday we can go all the way..but not yet...

5 regulation track laps in one minute and 20 laps in 5 minutes... this is our goal...

The 2 minute full-speed drills were a lot less exhausting tonight...I smell good progress.....

Tonight for our meeting we voted in the bylaws...glad that's over with...

This upcoming week we can skate from 6 am - 8 am on Mon - Thurs....

Last week I practiced waking up earlier..we'll see what I can do this week....I would hate to feel all grody during the work day from a morning work out...but I would really enjoy skating more too...

Yo no patinar esta noche

Here's a picture of some skates I had when I was in the 10-14 age range...

"Through the dark turns and noise...of this wicked little skate...

Today was our usual drills...We had three players from two other local teams visiting us which was excellent to see how a skater works after four years on a league....I feel like I know my Wicked skates a bit better this week, even enough to jump in them. I went and bought a second ankle support because one skate felt loose the whole time I skated no matter how I tied them...

Finally there was a collision in the snake/weave drill...nothing tragic thankfully...

*
Roller Derby Wheels Into Fashion

Women's Roller Derby 1950's Style

The two minute drills, at 100% pace, fucking rock! I love pushing myself that way...This week at home I will wear my skates or leg weights and will concentrate on visualizing my skating...possibly with the light and sound machine in order to try out the Peak Performance theories I learned from our friend Georgia so many years ago...we'll see how that works out..I think it will work..I've read too many studies of athletes visualizing perfect performances and how it plays out in physical reality compared to those not visualizing...

I would say I am 30% into feeling at one with my 'wicked little skates...'

Toe guards....el paino en el asso...

Cool! The new ankle guard actually works..no more sore left ankle bone in the new skates! The toe guards I bought tonight to protect the toe of my skates..they took forever to put on...Unfortunately I used a wrench to unscrew my toe stop before Coach Maria pointed out the allen wrench was required to undo the stopper...luckily nothing got fucked up on my skates...

Tonight I was still getting used to my new skates...the delay with the toe guard installation set me back 15 minutes to getting to the floor...But WOWIE WOW WOW..these skates are silent killas.....very smooth, very quiet...and much faster....

We did the same drills as last practice....the skating in a row and weaving in between each skater...but this time we closed in together to one arm length...it seems by far this is the drill we all like to do the most...

We did the 'cannonball combat'...we build up speed..go into a cannonball and try to knock each other over...
Then was some whipping....whipping the jammer position through the blockers....that takes arm strength...I wonder where I can buy some of that? ;) My legs are long and I have wide strides...strong legs....and my arms carry books all day...but maybe I will start lifting some weight...? I don't know..I didn't feel too strong in the arms..Also talking with another skater I realized the difference in floors...the toe stops do not HALT you..like they should...it's the floor we have I guess...all floor surfaces are different and she said that wood is more slippery....meaning I will have to cut the corners differently on different surfaces...

We also did three two minute skating drills....that was fun...and fast...how I like it...I still feel like I'm getting used to my skates so I think Gail and I will go skate during public skating tomorrow night...Some of the library kids go there on Friday nights....Speaking of..I saw one kid there tonight who is apparently on the hockey team on his way out...

I really want some 'alone time' with my skates before I try jumping in them...I felt very stable in my old skates...I need to learn to trust this pair over time....

I'll need to learn the rules of this game now....ugh...more reading...I hope it's more interesting than learning about cataloging library collections.. :)

Can you smell the NEW-eeness?

I decided to take the new skates with the blue wheels and will buy the extra pair of pink wheels....Pink wheels will be for special skating...Blue will be for the rest.....

The left foot skate is rubbing on my ankle bone and achilles... I skated a bit on them to get a feel...It's really a mental separation ceremony to change skates after having my old skates since I was 18. All the adjusting and unlacing and re-lacing...It does feel a bit like being naked on roller skates...

I left practice at 5:30 to go look for ankle protection. Went to Big 5 and got three different types, tape, an ace bandage made of spandex type thing for one ankle, and two large size ankle protectors. The latter are too thin, don't feel like padding, the tape I haven't tried yet, and so far the white spandex ace bandage for one ankle feels the best.

Tonight was the first knock over drill...cannonballs with a person knocking another person over...I want my toe stops first to protect my new skates and I want to feel normal in the new skates...It's like a new relationship...really takes building up trust between skater and skate...

Next week we're going to learn all the official names of all the parts of our skates...

Ok so here's my bruise from last practice's first fall...

Who owns ya, baby?....

Tonight was an hour and a half of a really odd discussion of who owns the team...feels like some of us don't know all the facts behind this near mutiny...I say put it all in writing and we all either agree or do not agree...viola...a voluntary association is born....What strikes me, now that this bit of business has been discussed, is that there are more rules to follow from the team committee than the board...

Especially annoying from tonight's agenda was the "Some girls just want to skate, and others want to be on a roller derby team"...Ummmm....? What? Some girls want to skate on a roller derby team and not be on any fucking committees raising money, sponsors, etc...

Luckily one of the Board members smokes...great time to not just smoke..but yack as well...Nice man. Good to know I can skate from 8-3 weekdays if I can get someone to come down and open the rink...


At 10:05 pm...my dear friend "Vintage Barbie" asks me if I want to skate until practice is over...and some ladies went to Zanes for a drinkfest (must have been the one's who want to 'be a roller derby team, as opposed to the one's who "just want to skate") ...[rolls eyes]. So I put on my skates, sans my protective equipment, grabbed my Zune and hit the floor...I knew my skates felt loose or something..but I thought they were just acting up, trying to separate from me now that they KNOW my NEW skates fit fine...Then

BLAM!

I look down, realize I'm going to fall and see my lace coming from under the wheels..They weren't tied enough...! Leaving me with 2 things, my first fall...(luckily in front of only the coach and a few teamates...) and a bruise my left knee....

Kinda cool... :) And no more fear of falling...

Rolling....onward...

Stardate March 1, Twenty O Nine....

We started with a vote tonight on the logo..I chose the one I thought was best of all the sucky logos...I'm just not into the logging thing, as I've stated before....Not me...

We also received our proposed bylaws - lotta rules and crap to do...but you know...it's a cooperative team run my the skaters...got to love that.

The coach was out tonight so practice went a bit different...some skating, some drills...and the FUN ASS FUN snake train drill..which I love!!

I added a bit of new music to my Zune for tonight and that was nice....

Didn't push myself in drills tonight, I think it's because of missing Thursday...I didn't try the jumping with two feet or the falling on two knees...just worked on the one knee stop and turn. My backwards skating is better but I didn't try the backwards crossover this time...kind of a slow practice until I speed skated for the last 15 minutes...which always exhilarates me...