Wednesday, August 17, 2011

You gotta roll with it, you gotta take your time, you gotta say what you say, don't let anybody get in your way

I figured I'd open up with lyrics from Oasis' 'Roll with it' it actually summed up the past few weeks I've had with all things roller derby. Since I've summed it up, I'll see you next week :P In all seriousness personally I think it's been a great week and here's why...

Thanks to my dodgy ankle Cherry was cool with letting me go slowly in terms of training so that I don't injure my ankle further. I spent Friday's training session skating by myself on the other court. I stopped when it started getting sore and kept skating when it felt ok again and repeat. It also allowed me to learn how to skate again without the ankle guards. It's become a lot easier now and I no longer feel dependant on the ankle guards so it'll help strengthen my ankles even more which is a good thing. Towards the end of the night they had the 'queen of the rink' game, us freshies served as obstacles on the court and those that got knocked down or sent out of bounds joined us. No surprise that Cherry won both games. The second game had a twist us freshies were allowed to join in. To say I was excited would be the understatement of the year, I was as happy as my dog Bruno is when you ask him if he wants to go for a walk :D Needless to say due to my excitement all self control went out the window and boy did I pay. I didn't go for any fellow freshies instead I went for the more experienced skaters. I gave Lynda a little hit which got her attention so the next time I skated towards her she was ready for me. When we shoulder hit each other I went splat on the floor. I landed a bit heavy on my left side so my left shoulder and elbow felt a bit sore plus only I could do this but I somehow pulled a muscle in my right calf while I was falling down :D Despite all that I was ready to get up right away and engage in more hits and falls but the rules are once you hit the ground you're out of the game. While sitting on the track I had a massive grin on my face because I learnt a little something about myself - that I could take a hit and fall down but I would get back on my feet and keep carrying on. Also don't lose your head when you're engaging in hits because it won't take much to knock you down!

I went to Skatel on both Saturday morning and night so it ended up being a great workout. I'm getting better and dodging the little kids when they cut in front of you at the last second and I'm really enjoying skating now despite my ankle still not being right. It was the first time I'd ever been to Skatel on a Saturday night and the rumours are 100% true, it's bloody crazy on a Saturday night. The little kids are like kamikaze's, it's dark when they put the disco lights on. I did enjoy it though and put it down as helping prepare me for scrimmage practise. When there's no bouts on I'd like to go there more often. In other great news that night I finally got to catch up with Ivy and Jo who are some of my friend's from WSR and skate with them for the first time in many months which left a big smile on my dial. We're also heading up to Newcastle this Saturday to watch the intraleague bout between the Harbour Hellcats and Fort Smashleys. I'm regretting opening my big mouth because I told Ivy that I've never actually met Godjilla, I've only seen her bout so Ivy has taken it upon herself to get me to talk to Godjilla on Saturday night. The problem is when it comes to me meeting people that I admire or look up to I get incredibly shy, go red in the face, start stuttering, sound like an idiot, all of the above. There's still times when I get shy around Cherry and I still shake my head when I think about the time I finally met Neil Mellor. So yeah I may have to hide from both Godjilla and Ivy on Saturday night :P

Training on Sunday night ended up being my best one yet. I didn't do any skill work but I did do endurance. I joined the yellow and orange stars for 20 minute endurance skating. This time I was listening to my ipod and I reckon it made a big difference in getting me to complete the 20 mins. I smashed my result from the week before which was 51 laps, I got 65 laps this time around. Also the muscle above my right ankle started hurting midway through the endurance but listening to my ipod and trying to block out the pain got me through it. I was so focussed on beating my previous score that I didn't realise the pain in my leg stopped hurting. This time around I skated for the entire period. While I was getting ready for off skate training, Mick told us we were doing skating endurance so I had another 20 min skating to look forward to. I was on such a natural high after getting through that I was more than ready to attempt it again on the same night, and get through it I did. I got 55 laps on the second attempt but it was still better than the attempt from the previous week and I lasted the entire 20 mins. I did my usual time keeping duties when they had scrimmage practise and got the no pack move correct when the black team took a knee at the start of the jam, that got me a wink from Poz as she skated passed. I learnt that from the last SRDL bout I went to. I like the fact that even though I'm not scrimmaging yet I'm still learning the rules.

So I was pretty happy with how the last week panned out in terms of roller derby. I've had bit of a hard time with it for a while whether it was from injury, fear and frustration but it's a great feeling to come out of it on the other side stronger from the experience. I learnt I could take a hit and fall and get back up and go for it again despite feeling sore. I learnt I can hit the wall and my body wants to give up and I can smash through it with determination and a good playlist on my ipod :P I'm also a lot calmer now at derby now that my first love Liverpool are back in action because the new season has started. My emotions get a good workout watching them play :D

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