Blah, blah, derby, blah

I'm currently nursing some battle wounds from training over a week ago. I injured my right ankle and left shoulder in two stacks on different nights. My right ankle is feeling ok, I guess the true test will be to see how it pulls up at training on Friday night. My left shoulder seems to be getting worse in terms of pains and the restriction I'm getting in my arm. Being left handed I'm fairly reliant on it so that hasn't helped with the recovery. If there's any consolation it's that the stacks happened from pushing myself at training during various drills. Hopefully the stacks and injuries decrease in time the better I get on my skates.

Although I still feel like I'm stuck in a rut progress wise, I've been doing things behind the scenes to try and help me make the next step up. I started speed skating classes. Although all the stuff is coming from an inline skaters perspective I've disocovered that making even the slightest changes in technique could possibly make a big difference on the derby track so I'm excited about getting to as many classes as possible. My trainer Suzie has been pretty awesome in tailoring my sessions with her to mimic movements in derby and doing core work which has all been great for derby. I'm starting a non-derby fitness project which will HOPEFULLY come to fruition next year depending on whether everything works out. Put it this way I want this as badly as I want to play derby. The good thing is that the benefits from this project will help me out with derby too so it's a win-win situation. Lastly I'm extremely fortunate to be getting a lot of mentor type help from Cherry both on and off the track. She's been a great help so far and I'm really greatful for all her help so far.

I mentioned on Facebook a few weeks back that I wanted to do an experiment with skates and test the difference between traditional skating boots vs football boots in terms of agility, ankle support etc. I was initially going to go with the ones I used for indoor soccer but the sole is too flexible that it would require too much re-inforcing before putting it on a plate. My other option is to go with the ones I use for outdoor soccer because they have the hard plastic sole but it would mean having to grind down the studs before getting them on plates. Here's a pic of what I'm talking about, yep I'm old school when it comes to football boots, none of this synthetic, brightly coloured crap that some people wear nowadays :)

This boot dream of mine has been delayed for the time being, only because I'm trying to look after myself. They would be a lower cut then my current skates so I have to keep my into consideration my dodgy ankles. So I'll put this into plan when I pass my next level in derby which is Sargeant and it would mean I could bout intraleague. It would also mean that I would have been injury-free long enough to be able to progress so my ankles should be stronger by that stage too. I just need to find someone who could grind them down enough without stuffing up the boot and making sure the plate will fit square on the boot. I know a few skaters from WIRD have this set up so I might ask them.

I went to Roller derby heaven for the first time and bought some stuff. One of them being a proper skate bag. I got the Antik one but the funny thing is I don't even own a pair of Antik's. I do have Gumballs on my skates, does that count :P De-Bri (who also skates with NRDL and is in the kick arse Fort Smashleys) was really helpful and I'd highly recommend going there if you need derby gear. I ordered myself a set of arm bands which now serve as extra motivation to get my arse into gear so that I can get competant enough to scrimmage so that I can use these suckers.

The last couple of weeks have been an absolute roller coaster in terms of my bout write up's I do for RDAU. I got my first constructive criticism about my write up's at the WIRD vs VRDL bout by someone I know. They told me they thought my write up's were too detailed and long for them. I'm not going to lie I was slightly crushed when I got told that because up until then all the feedback I got was positive so I thought I was doing a good job. The reality is not everyone's got to like the things you do so I went away and thought about it. Yep I know my write's up are on the long side. I've got absolutely no background in journalism so I had no idea what I was doing when I started these write up's. I tell these write up's from my perspective so all the strategy and detailed info is stuff that I watch out for in bouts so it's heavily featured in my write up's. Plus I'm also trying to re-create the bout for people who couldn't make it or the skaters who can't remember because they're...well bouting of course. I've decided that yes I could probably make it a little less detailed but I'm not going to change my writing 'style', that's just the way I write. If enough people don't like it and mention it to RDAU then they could get someone else to do it and there would be no hard feelings from me, I did the best I could.

I must admit I am missing the experience of just going to a bout and watching it as a fan without being worried about making notes for a write up. I've got the NRDL bout on the 19th lined up as a definate write up but after that nothing set in stone. The last time I just watched a bout was in August last year so I'm thinking after this next Newy bout I'll go to a few bouts and just watch, starting with the WIRD bout on the 26th May. I plan on watching a Newy bout too whenever their next season starts. So I'm officially on temporary hiatus while I go back to just being a derby fan for a little while.

Lastly I was informed by Hans and Mini from CCRG last Sunday that the write up I did for their bout last month for RDAU was plagarised by a Central Coast publication. I got sent the link and low and behold apart from a few different sentences it was mostly a direct copy of my original write up with no credit to me. Here's my write up and here's Val's 'write up' . Spot the fuck all difference. I was fuming when I saw it. This hack journo gets paid to write but I don't and then my work gets knicked. These write up's take up a lot of my own personal time too only for someone to copy and paste it and call it their own. I'm in the process of writing a formal letter to them. If I don't get a satisfactory response I'm going to step it up just like I mentioned on my Facebook page so watch this space. I just want to clear up that in NO WAY do I hold CCRG responsible for this fuck up, it's got nothing to do with them. I'd happily cover one of their bouts again.

Not too much skating to talk about this post but I suppose there's more to derby than just skating.