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!