1 Month Update

I wish I could say that things are going awesome. But the whole limbo status on jamming or blocking is really making me anxious. After our scrimmage on Monday I had a goals meeting with our captains and I was told to focus on both jamming and blocking. So, I could take it as a compliment and go with the idea that I am a versatile player, or most likely, the case would be that I just need work on all the things and lots of it. I'm pretty sure it's the latter.

So, as you can imagine, this does not leave me feeling great about myself right now.

Hurdle #1 
I lack experience. Everyone on my team has had at least 1 year of experience playing derby on a team. I have 0. In fact, I've played in less than 7 scrimmages/games in my whole derby career. I've been in the rec league for a long time, so I've been able to pick up skills pretty well, but when it comes to game play, I'm like a baby.

Solution #1: Watch more derby, specifically games that involve my team. I've been watching higher level derby and each team has very specific strategies that I can't implement right now because it's not what my team does. But I know it'll be helpful when I get more seasoned...just not right now.

Hurdle #2
I weigh 125 pounds. I know people in my league who could easily squat, bench press, or leg press double, triple, and even quadruple my weight. When it counts, I could easily be tossed across the track.

Solution #2
Even if I gained another 10-20 pounds, it would not give me a noticeable boost in performance. I really need to work on strength and agility and always getting lower to be more stable. I'm going to look into getting a workout to do on my own at the gym. It's not going to be as fun/interesting as zumba or body pump, but I think it'll give me the extra umph that I need on the track.

Hurdle #3
Our team already has a lot of jammers, but the thought of not being able to jam again crushes my soul.

Solution #3a
The team needs me as a blocker so I'll develop more as a blocker for now.

Solution #3b
I really try hard to develop both skills and mainly block but also jam occasionally (if that is OK with the team).

Solution #3c
Focus training as a jammer, and while I may not play in games much this year, I'll be ready next year.


I wish that when the derby sorting hat determined my home team, it would've revealed what position I would be best suited for as well. 

I have a lot more hurdles to get past, but currently, I think these are the big ones.  I'm glad to have solutions for each of my current hurdles. The last one will need some flushing out, but I now have options.

I have to remind myself not to compare myself to the skaters who have skated almost a decade. While they make it look so easy, I know that they all went through what I'm going through. One day it'll just click. I'm hoping that day comes soon.

Miso

First Week of Practice as a Heartbreaker in the Books!

It's probably only been 2-3 weeks since I last put on skates, but even when I was in Chicago visiting family, I was kicking myself about not packing my skates in the suitcase.

I am addicted.

So the first league practice was perfect. Peacewar and Anita Riot, both amazing veteran skaters, led practice. It was the perfect practice to help everyone ease back into the season,  but it also pushed us a bit to remind us that there's going to be hard work ahead of us. I left practice just beaming from ear to ear. It was soooo nice to be able to just skate and not worry about being constantly watched and assessed. 

Tonight we had our first official team practice. As we had our team meeting before practice Trigger announces that our jammer coach is going to be...

wait for it....

....

...

Hauss the Boss!

I'm just going to let this sink in just a little bit.

Hauss has been one of my derby idols ever since I learned about derby. Her intensity, agile footwork, and overall chill demeanor is why I admire her. Today, I decided to try out the hardest cushions just to get a feel for what it feels like, well, I completely hated it because I couldn't skate so I swapped them out during practice. Hauss came over and just helped me swap things out and then talked to me about my different jamming styles.

So, I think this changes everything. I am a firm believer of listening to signs from the universe, especially when I am unsure about a decision. 

So our team is going to have everyone try out different positions before an official assignment is made. I think by the middle of February, everyone will have a good idea of what they will be doing on the track. This is great, because this will give me a chance to see where my strengths and weaknesses are with my team. My team...I love it. During drills, I've been rotating to jammer positions about 20% of the time. I think I'm going to up that to at least 50% and see how that goes. And then at the end of this trial period, I'll let the captains/coaches decide where I would be the most beneficial to the team.
Anyways, just had to jot this exciting moment down, even though it is now 12:47 and one of my goals this year is to be in bed by 11 pm. Ha! 

First League Practice of 2020 Tomorrow!

It's been only 3 weeks since I've last skated, and I'm just itching to get back out on the court to play some derby. I think what I'm looking forward to is the crazy amount of growth that I hopefully will see this season. I often compare this to the process of learning to drive a car. Back in the days driver's Ed, I had to consciously think about turning, or say things like Ok, press down on the brakes, but sloowly. Right now, I think I'm kind of at that state. Many things are not quite auto pilot for me yet, but I'm looking forward to the day when things do and I can really focus more on strategy.

To compensate for my lack of game experience, I took the past 3 weeks to watch as much derby on youtube as possible, paying attention to starts and for some jams, I would follow players who are also smaller in stature like me. I've also been trying to read up on as many derby articles and blogs as possible.

I got new skates! Glitter at Medusa Skates got me set up with a shiny pair of Antik AR2 boots, with platinum Arius plates and I kept my super gumballs from my previous skates.

I have skated in them for 1 team practice, made some adjustments and I'm looking forward to getting to know "Artie" a little better in 2020. I'm thinking about painting the white part on the boots gold just to make it a bit fancier, but I like the pop of color from the new thicker laces that I bought. 

I think I mainly need to re-learn stopping. Plows are a bit tricky right now, but I think my leg just needs to learn how to stop with the new plates. I do feel way more agile and I can actually propel myself with one footed slaloms. I've been doing some toe-stop work the past few days and blisters are a thing of the past. I'm still figuring out what color cushions to use and currently I have the white ones. 

Well, I'm sure I'll make a post after practice this week. My name is officially on the website now as being a Honky Tonk Heartbreaker, so that's exciting!