First after-practice at the mysterious Steve's Bar....

Lotsa firsts at tonight's practice...Even though Gerle Haggard's car was in the lot I didn't think of knocking when I got to the arena and the doors were locked..So I sat outside in the heat and listened to Atmosphere at Outside Lands Live...I'm not sure if they did that song I like or not since they played past when I went inside...

The first first was my first time watching someone, (Stihl Queen) read this Sweet Alyce Blog... :)

The up and down on the knee drills with Sheeda tonight were a challenge...my legs started to hurt pretty quick..maybe I hadn't stretched out enough...got through that "wall" and then we did a few relay's back and forth which are always fun - going FULL-BLAST INTO the wall...(which I did only once even though I went on one knee to stop I was still going to fast so my skate hit the wall)...

Walking on my toes I realized helps be feel VERY much more stable in my skates. I suggested to Sheeda that we incorporate the on the tow jumping jacks into stretching and she asked if I would like to do the after practice stretching. I said yes...(scary...) But I did it and no biggie...except that it hurts today because I also did leg lifts with our gear on during the end-stretching period and that was hard...But I did really enjoy the jumping jacks on the toes.

A little out of order here, but towards the end we teamed up and did a couple jams...Good thing it caught me off guard when I saw my self lined up on the jam line with Kilaron...(*dun dun dunnnnn* that's supposed to be a sound effect)...anyway...I was scared for a sec...She did great and went right in front of me to the inside line...I think I usually been on the outside at the start in the past)...She went to lead jammer and then I'm not sure exactly what happened...it was kind of a blur...I had to pee right after that and next I saw her on the bench nursing her poor split open blister on her foot...

Here's a pic from that jam that Pinkie Lee took....I didn't know it was me when I first saw it...

After all was said and done, we had our after practice yack session out front and then Nikki, RevRa, Gerle and Sheeda and I all went to Steve's Bar...where the lovely and talented Sheeda bought me a couple beers which I will gladly repay her on our next night out...(thanks Sheeda!)...and the final first of the night was the bartender asking us to sign the back of the Sierra Mountain Times article about us from this past week. That was fun. It gave me the idea to get us all to sign one and put it up on the display case board at the arena..so I will have to remember to do that...

No extra pics tonight...gonna bask in the glory of my first cool action shot... and in B&W to boot..my favorite... :)

"The game is being played behind you...!"

That's what it says on the top of the second page of my notes from this past weekend's roller derby clinic held at High Country Sports Arena where we practice...(I don't write their name out so much so I thought I'd link it here...if you like hockey, or just roller skating or need a place to have a party give em a ringie.)...

Here's what I saw when I got there Saturday...These are the two ladies who so kindly gave up their time to teach us...Rowdy Piper and Hellbound Harlot of the OC Roller Girls. Hellbound was with the Derby Dolls prior, and Rowdy Piper will be with the Dallas Derby Devils after she moves there this week.

Somewhat menacing for a brief second as a novice to the sport. We'll see just how novice I am in certain ways by the end of this story...(STOP LAUGHING STIHL QUEEN!) ;)

Going through my notes here, I see that my first note came from talking with Nathan Rule. He came up with Rowdy and Hellbound. I was asking him about what my husband Pierce could do and he mentioned the skateless refs and scorekeepers, timers and what-not..so good there's something he can do if he ever wants to...He also mentioned that since MDG has no refs yet that there is such a thing as rent-a-ref. In combination with what Rowdy told us, a couple of times even, that the game is the ref's game. You can play by the rules or not, but it's basically the ref's game.

Nathan also told me about wearing weights like three weeks of practice prior to a bout and how much faster you can skate once you take them off....that kinda blew my mind...I used to wear those ankle weights a lot when I was a carhop...it helped me skate lighter then and so I'm glad I've been reminded of that now...Finally Nathan solved our first derby disagreement in the officer's meeting a few weeks ago, it was the compromise I suggested to us disagreeing about a practices attended minimum. He said they usually have no rules about minimum practices except prior to a bout or scrimmage and that is that the skater must attend 6 or 8 practices in a row prior to one of those events. Sounds fair to me...I didn't care for being the lone person who didn't want a practice minimum, it's never fun. But I am glad we all had that great discussion about it...it was important that we all felt heard and think we all felt we were heard. Plus it was our first test of getting over disagreements.

Rowdy and Hellbound taught us about that as well. How to have the HONEST discussions while were in our stretching circle together prior to practices and after warm-up skating. I think it's a great place to do it..Moral of all that was - LEAVE IT ON THE TRACK. Again, I cannot imagine being done wrong by a skater possibly in the future and then "leaving it on the track" but you know, I think men athletes do that all the time...so fuck it..yes we can too.

Let me write this again because it was a sorta AHA moment for me....

THE GAME IS ALWAYS BEING PLAYED BEHIND YOU!

Equipment-wise, besides the fact that Rowdy's mum is married to the owner of Reidell Skates, we learned about knee-gaskets and TSG Force-3 knee pads, they don't slip-on, they velcro all the way on and off. I suppose you could wear both the gasket and the better knee-pad at once too. But it sounded like the Force 3 was enough on its own.

TSG Force-3 Knee-Pad

Also, we learned about metal being better than nylon plates, ceramic bearings and different toe-stops. As far as bearings, she mentioned Reds and Mini Logo. I won a set of Reds in the raffle so I'm saving them for my pink Mojo wheels if I ever want to switch to pink wheels...Maybe I will if and when I ever bout.

Last on my Saturday notes I see that Rowdy said she liked skating on wood and using Blue Zodiac wheels.

As far as drills went...WOWIE were they awesome! I see I didn't write them down like I thought I did, but Coach has a list I hear..I'll get that from her. I remember doing the hitting drill with Hellbound Harlot, making her the first actual derby girl I've hit...not to be confused with my first hitting with my own team mate Nikki Spitts. So these two ladies are on my dreamboat memories list. Ya never forget your firsts....

Another drill that was very new for us was going around the track acting as if you'd been hit out of bounds and practicing spinning back fast and getting back in the pack formation behind the person who knocked you out to avoid a penalty.

I also learned a lot about the importance of guarding the line...Being able to skate AT IT...not on it, not over it, not away from it..but AT IT...Even though great skaters can legally walk over the air above the line and sneak past you...it's a very important position to be in.

We practiced rotating from 1, 2, 3 and 4 positions, always having one of the found AT THAT LINE. Doing the waterfall, which looks REALLY cool when used at a fast pace. She said that it's not an all the time thing to stay in this formation or do this move, but it's a way I guess she meant....staying in a diamond or vagina shape :).. I can't find an image of the hand formation Rowdy used, but put your index finger and thumbs together and make a diamond-like shape...

We skated and went up and down, almost like walking, but on our knees...falling and recovering on each knee, one after the other.

The great thing I wanted to learn about was the toe-start. I used to be SO MUCH MORE comfortable on my toe stops, trying to sneak around my house in my skates without my mother finding out...walking in my skates through gravel and grass and what not...Then with these new skates it's just different. But now I feel way more comfortable again. We did like jumping jacks on the toe stops.

That's all from my notes from the clinic. I am forever in debt to the the three of them for coming up and laying it all on us..we needed it...and I think all the ladies loved it.

This brings us to tonight's practice...Oy...let's start with the organic lasagna I wolfed down before I left...that'll bring us to driving down the hill to practice and throwing up in my own lap...*shakes head*..whatever...that was a new one...

I felt much better when I got there of course and so even though I was a bit late from the barfing and the slow truck in front of me. I hit the floor about 7:22 p.m. We did some of the drills from the weekend with Sheedabomb and I guess there were about 10 of us there tonight...She'll be doing the next two practices as well. At one point, when we went to do our "touch three" drill we call it now, Ammo pointed out that my elbow was above my elbow guard... *blush*..So I skated out of the pack and went to fix it, and there I learned about the LEFT and RIGHT tag on each of my elbow and knee-pads...WHO FUCKING KNEW?! Not me..not Red Hot Ta Molli, and not Mermad....So as I took off the elbow pads...Stihl Queen pointed out that my one knee-pad was also upside-down...What a goofy roller-girl I am...If I had a dollar for every wardrobe malfunction so far...Anyway...before I get to sleep tonight I will be marking each piece to make dressing easier...

After practice, Trixxy, Nikki, Gerle and I hung out under the nice slice of low moon and yacked it up...Looked at pictures and talked about how fucking scary it would be to play Demanda Riot, of the Bay Area Derby Girls...

And Nikki gave me a pack of Roller Derby brand bubble gum cigarettes from the new candy shop downtown...pretty cool...

Back to school blues.....

In very un-like me fashion, for some reason I thought yesterday was the day to register for my classes...turns out it was the first day of the class I need to take...Long story short...I practiced from 7-8...7:18 is actually when I got on the floor....My new friend at work is going to give derby a whirl...so we met before practice and left where we were about 10 til....It took me until 7:18 to get on the floor, as I said, and that was partly due to introducing my friend to another rookie, (don't care for that term), player...and, as usual, I messed up putting on my gear...I always forget to put on one or more knee guards before my skates... :)....Also, unlike my "normal" self, I went to change at the end of work and found I forgot my pants..or spanks...or stretchy pants..whatever they are called now, at home..so I rushed to buy a pair on the way to meet my friend and cool...got a pair and though they are terribly long and had to be pushed up my thighs to make the wrinkles of them go away, here's to them shrinking...

[Funnny..and clever...
Velma Revolver is my 3rd favorite roller girl]

Practice was led tonight by Sheedbomb. We began with giant 8's, I was late for stretching and pre-skating so I just skated up real quick and fast a couple times and then went to the big 8's with the others...Next we did the dreadfully painful squatting on command trick...but I do enjoy getting the really painful parts over with quick... Next we did a spread the track as quick as a lick drill..where we are attempting to get from one side of the track to the other asap.

We moved on into the chop-chop start and land on one knee in the middle and the end. The more times we did that, the more it was a challenge to get up without touching the floor. I'll get better at that.

Then it was (yeah, I know we did a lot in my short time there tonight!), two knees fall in the middle, and a baseball slide out...or rather, a full-body slide out...fuck baseball ;)... We then did some actual stopping on the line drills and for some reason my plow stop was not in as top a form as last time...

Into the pack formation we went and we did the lovely snake weave...(so sexy)...

Finally we whipped each other from behind and through the pack...criss-crossing usually...I see now that some ladies grab hands and not my forearm...we talked about that at the last practice and felt we should expect a grab on the arm and not fingers...some people maybe forgot or weren't here for that lesson...

Ok..some do..I'm not quite there yet... :)

Anywhoozle...it's 12:15 am on the 19th and if I had stayed for the whole practice like I wanted to, it would be 1:15 am now...so I have that going for me...it's like winning an hour of sleep!

xox

-Sweet Alyce

Sweet Alyce Techster....

Today was a general meeting day since we missed it earlier in the month. As soon as I arrived just before 3, Coach asked for some assistance with her new computer. That was fun! Got her all spruced up, and changed the printer software she installed from Spanish to English and all her updates are up-to-date and all that jazz...The meeting went a bit long which was good so I could finish up her pc and not be late to the floor...(well a couple minutes late actually)...

I have to stop waiting one day before I blog about the drills we did..I'll have to think backwards here...So we ended with a opposite-wise slow skate to cool down...then we jammed fur on four during the last half an hour...That was awesme! Gerle Haggard, even though she felt like shit had a kick-ass jam! That was cool! I jammed twice...I lost my balance and fell as I came out lead jammer around the first turn...That sucked...Still got through but not firstly...Later on I jammed again and again that "thing" clicked in my head like it used to when I would speed too fast down the 101 freeway...In and out and like I can see the path open up a split-uncountable second before it opens...It's like jamming from the immediate future..hard to explain..Anyway...got through first on that one and just barely ahead of the other jammer but was able to call it off and THAT ALWAYS RULES!!

(get this sticker at http://www.wickedskatewear.com)

Falling in front of each other was another drill...That is good to see just how small I can fall...Kind of odd getting used to thinking while falling...Like an emergency plan is always in my mind and I just hope I remember it when I'm in an actual emergency situation...

Hmm...now the first drills still aren't coming to mind....*tap tap tap*...what were they? I'll start writing them down so I don't forget..guess I'll end this here...

Tuuuuuuuuuesay Afternoooooooon.....

What a fun surprise on my way to relax before practice - out the door of the establishment comes Nikki Spitts! Inside was Gerle Haggard and Pinkie Lee and how fun we got to hang out for an hour or so before practice...Good, quality derby-gabbing fun! I fully admit that I suggested we blow it off and luckily my team mates talked me down from being a total fuckoff....

Coach Q wasn't in this evening so Sheedabomb directed the practice and I was personally happy we didn't do a hardcore endurance session...Sheeda gave me some good stretching lessons, as I seem to not get the concept...(I always get screwed up on which way to turn to stretch when one leg is over the other...)

Throughout the practice we did the following:

We all partnered up, and Trixxy and I did the drill...which oddly I cannot remember the details of now...(I really have to force myself to write these posts as soon as I get home...I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot of things I wanted to write about now)...

Another was three in front and one behind, with the point being for the the three to stay as a wall while knowing where the behind skater was and communicating that information between the three...I learned a lot about blocking doing that one.

We lined up at a far end and took off with a duckwalk and then with toe-starts, went down on one knee in the middle, got up and restarted, down on one knee at the other end and back up and same thing back to the start. Getting up again was not as easy as ususal...My B & C vitamins must have worn off... :)

Thankfully, Rachel Trouble had a bandaid in her purse for my ailing pinky toe... (Thanks Rach!)

Groovily we did the snake weaving drill which I love and that was awesome...I wonder why that one is so fun for me? Trixxy said she liked that one too...Maybe it's the zen-like flow of the line...it's almost like one of those desktop things with the balls that clank together in cadence....

Some of us hung out in front afterwards and then Nikki, Gerle and Shawna and I went to have a beer @ Steves. I hadn't been there before but it's the closest place to the arena. It was closed if you can believe that...So we went to the 'downtown' area (silly..check out that vid!)...The ladies didn't care for that vibe so we went across the street to the bowling alley...Another place I drive by and never have been inside of...Lo and behold when we went in, the WATCH program adults were there and I saw a whole bunch of people I know from work...patrons of the library...That was really cool to see them out having fun, they were doing Karaoke of all things! Very sweet. I purchased my beer and we went from the bar there to the alleys and sat at a table...Those always hungry twins snagged the guy working there and he was so nice he made us some popcorn and gave us some chips...(those taco chips! I love those!)....

I forgot to tip the guy because I thought we were going back in after we went out so I'm going to go by there later today and give him a tip...

And before I forget I wanted to say WELCOME BACK to MERMAD...! She had been back last practice but I wasn't so it's been a while since I've seen her...Got to Love the Mermad...

Quickie...

Well...truth be told I was home early from work today and so getting motivated was JUST about to be a no-go situation...But then...out of the corner of my interneteyeballs was another Whip It! trailer and hey...you cannot watch a derby movie trailer and not want to RUN to practice...I showered and took off and got there by 8....I thought for a sec. that Coach saw me bring P's basil sauce and bread into the locker room..but luckily I had a towel over it...

One of the first sounds I heard and I knew that there was a derby stampede happening...man the sound of everyone's wheels slamming onto the floor is so fucking hot! Then I heard the wall slamming at the other end...*sizzling*

I was able to get in about three drills ...once I got out there...Coach told me all about her trip to Peoria, which we will not blog about...Then at the digiclockgoddess clicked to 8:45, the Happy Birthday song started...Coach wanted to do one more drill and even though I would have been ok with that..and bucked up...When I hear quitting time, I'm all over it..So we went off and had a groovy time eating, the other thing, and being merry....Talking about how much we love 7 layer dip and all that juicy stuff...Then Pollyanna Pitchfork announced she'd written a poem for Coach's birthday...(It feels weird to have a coach all sudden in my life..tho at least she isn't a "life coach" then I'd really be a douche)...Anyway...Polly read her poem which was written with the assistance of her poet kids and it ruled...If I can get the poem I will post it...

We cleaned up, went outside for a little ritual and came home...for some reason I got a little self conscious about my eyebrows...maybe I should have a look at them tomorrow and see if they seem weird to me in light of the new information I gathered tonight...

Tomorrow we're meeting to go to a comedy show at the redone Lake Tulloch Resort...

Sheedabomb's practice.....14 Skaters...TONS OF FUN!

Great new drills to try this time! I enjoyed Ammo's practice too so this is not a comparison here...different doesn't mean better or worse, it simply means different...I heard that somewhere when I was a kid...Anyway we did this cool thing first with one skater pushing another with one hand, the front person lifts one leg behind them at a time and balances around the corners...

We did another solo one where we lifted one leg behind us and bent forward down the straightaways with our hands down towards the ground...but looking up forward...which is something I constantly have to remind myself to do...

While we were doing this one where we duck walk off the line and then go down on one knee at the middle line then a 180 on a knee at the far end, then back, Gerle Haggard went down too hard on her knees and ouch for her...I hope she feels ok soon.

We did a 14 skater weaving snake line and we did it a few times in a row - I fucking love that drill...not sure why..nice flow to it maybe and it feels so cool when we're going fast and are in synch so well...Major YAYS for Rachel for participating in a buncha stuff she was hesitant to try and she kicked butt and did great! Way to go Rachel!!


Roller Zillas by ~antigone1736


Finally the ass-kicker came along...and I didn't eat all damn day today for some reason so I was a bit worried. We skated three or for at a time on the track for 5 minutes...We'd done this once before but stopped at 20 laps, at that time, I had 50 seconds left of the 5 minutes. This time though we just skated for the whole five minutes. Natcho Hunny and I were in a group and think maybe our counters gots messed up somewhere possibly...she had 28 laps and I had 26 and yet we both agree that neither of us passed each other and should have had the same number..so I'm going to split the diff. and make it a 27 for myself...which is way better than I thought I would do with these "well-loved" lungs of mine...

Red Hot Ta Molli provided the extremely excellent, wompin' rowdy fun practice music this afternoon so thanks to her, and thanks to Sheedabomb for the killer killer practice!

Oh, and before I finish...with there being two people with my same first name on the team, (myself and Pollyanna Pitchfork) let's just get used to calling me Alyce...that name works for me..I can't answer to my real name anymore at practice...gotta get all Pavlovian with Alyce...


Marie Smashtoinette by ~Magzdilla

Concluded the evening with a smoke out in the burning sun with Trixy and Nicki Spitts...who by the way should be thanked for emptying the trash and cleaning up after those nasty hockey boys and teens from the weekend...

Special Smoochy thank you to my wonderful husbot "P" for hanging out during practice being all gentlemanly and not staring at us while we skated so as not to make anyone uncomfortable...what a nice guy... :)

Cool pic I stumbled on this afternoon...