Assessment Reflections: Impossible things

"Sometimes I believe as many as six impossible things before breakfast...  Six impossible things.  Count them, Alice.  One, there's a potion that can make you shrink.  Two, and a cake that can make you grow.  Three, animals can talk.  Four, cats can disappear.  Five, there's a place called Wonderland.  Six, I can slay the Jabberwocky."     ~Alice in Wonderland, 2010

The big night for our fresh meat skaters finally arrived last night!  The rink was full of nervous concentration as we performed techniques we know by heart, as well as some that might still stump us.  It took over two hours, and the hardest part for me was wondering how I was doing that whole time.  Seven of us tested and we didn't get the results until after practice.  It was a long ride home.  While I knew I had performed well in most areas, I wasn't sure I'd done every single thing well enough.  Finally I found out that I did pass, along with three of my teammates.  I am still re-reading the announcement to be sure it's true.

I've been at this eight months.  Eight.  Almost as long as it takes to have a baby, and for me, having a baby was probably easier.  (Not raising a baby; just having one.)  The journey so far has been fun but emotional, scary at times, and I've discovered a side of myself that I didn't know was there.  Now that I have reached this first summit, I'm ready to push harder.  I need to improve my long-known weak points of hitting, blocking, and understanding strategy.  I'm skating in our fresh meat invitational on March 30th, and from there I'll be preparing for my first real bout.  Onward and upward.

When I look back at where I started, I know more than ever that I needed derby.  We all need to believe impossible things about ourselves.  I never thought of myself as an athlete, and I wasn't "born with skates on" like several of the girls on our team, either.  I have always struggled with sports.  Dodgeball, softball, basketball, volleyball--you name it, I couldn't play it.  I was so terrified of high school gym class that I signed up for Junior ROTC just to escape it.  The feeling that I was confused and clumsy at sports sank deep into my bones and after high school, opportunities to disprove that feeling seemed to vanish.  

And then, finally, I found roller derby.  I was at best a mediocre, very occasional rink skater.  Me, weave through that pace line?  No way.  Hip checks?  Are you kidding?  That's a death-defying stunt.  Skate close together in a pack?  Do a 180 and pop up on my toe stops?  Skate 25 laps in five minutes when I've never moved that fast outside of a motor vehicle?  Let someone sling me, push me, hit me while zooming around with eight wheels strapped to my feet?  Impossible.  Never going to happen.

But somehow it did.  And if I have all of that in me, what else is in there that I don't know about?  There's this race called The Bear that I someday want to run.  You begin at the bottom of a mountain and finish at the top.  It's five miles completely uphill.  At first it was a far-off, far-fetched item on my bucket list.  So far, I've never run anything even close to that.  I wondered if I might do my best and still get picked up by the van that comes for stragglers.  Now I look at it and think, pshaw, if I train for it I know I can kick that race's butt.  And someday I will.

We are blind to so much of our own potential.  I'll be forever thankful that derby helped me uncover some of mine.  With all the skulls and crossbones, racy nicknames, and tiny shorts, it took me a while to recognize roller derby for the Godbreeze it is.  I think of all the wonderful women who have helped and encouraged me, and the new ladies fighting their way through and discovering new sides of themselves.  I see my daughters watching me do what I dream of and absorbing it into their hearts and I know I was meant to be part of this.  Without a shred of irony, thank God for roller derby.

P.S.  A photo from last weekend of all-star Columbia Quad Squad jammer Mel Anoma.  The grinning, excited little girl?  Her newest fan, R.L. Bustya, future jammer.  She is also my five-year-old daughter, Suzi.  Maybe she'll change her mind and take on a challenge other than skating, and that'll be fine with me.  Whatever she does, I want her to always know there's no end to her potential.  She is amazing and capable and she can reach out and claim her dreams, with force if necessary.  That's roller derby.

Intro

Chip:

I've been with the U.R.G.E. for over 3 years now. This is my 3rd season as Head Coach. I fell in love with derby while living in Jacksonville, Fl. After I saw my first bout I was hooked. When I moved back to SC I created a facebook account and saw that one of my old friends was on a team in the area. After missing several bouts I finally agreed to come out to a practice and help. I'm not going to lie, one thing I loved about derby was the tattooed, rock n' roll ladies. Any reason that I could hang out with them was all I needed. So for the first practices I showed up and hung out creepily in the corner trying to learn the game. They needed help with refs and I wasn't about to just jump in there and start making penalty calls. Over time I learned the game and started incorporating myself more into practices.

The team has gone through many changes and I've seen a lot of them. After losing the coach that was in place when I first started there was a period without a coach and we had skater run practices. When it came time to bout we borrowed a coach from the area. When he showed up he knew nothing about the girls. So, with my knowledge that I had about the team from being at every practice I helped him create a line-up. After creating the line-up the suggestion was made that I help pass out the helmet covers. The bout was a success and we beat Rogue in NC.

Showing competence in passing out the helmet covers and creating line-ups in the heat of the moment put me in the position to start doing it all by myself. There have been bouts where I've been the sole bench coach pulling double duty in the effort to win games. Sometimes we've been successful and sometimes we have not. Other times we've extended the invitation to experienced people in the derby community to come and help us out.

I have coach invitationals and helped with other derby teams in the area. I always enjoy the thrill of the bout and having a reason to get to yell at people. I get mad at situations and not people. I am passionate about the game, and yes I want to win while having fun doing it. I am very competitive and want to see my team win. I don't like blow-outs and I love to be a part of a close game. I enjoy derby!

I have seen my roster change a lot over the years and I am very excited about the group of skaters and volunteers I have this season. Just this week I was filled with a joy that made me glad to have stuck it out through all of the times that have frustrated me. Not everything you hear about me is true. If you want to form an opinion of me talk to me first. I am very transparent and I'll let you know how things happen. If I'm in the wrong I have no problem admitting it even if I don't like it, although it doesn't happen often.

I am blue through and through. I will go down fighting with this team. There is nothing more that I want to see than a winning season year after year. I will stand by every skater on my team, and I know that they have been underestimated for far too long. And yes, you can get better by skating for this team. I've seen it happen. I am pushing them and they are pushing back and before you know we'll be taking a victory lap around a rink near you soon.

Banana peels: Working on derby skills at home

I've mentioned several times my struggle with 180 toe stops, or switchbacks.  I could do them, but I could only do them to the right and only if I wasn't going too fast.  I was working on it, but it was coming along slowly--especially learning to do them in the other direction.  Then Monday at practice we spent a while on a "banana peel" drill.  In this drill, you skate in two lines side-by-side and when you get to the front, you do a 180 and jump in the back of the line again.  You can probably see how, done correctly, this drill would resemble a banana being peeled.  But for me, it was aptly named because I felt like a cartoon character slipping on a banana peel over and over again.  I kept falling, and by the time I got caught up, several people behind me in line had already gone and it was my turn again.  It was a huge mess!

I knew I needed to work on this, so Tuesday night after the kids were asleep I put on my skates and did 180 toe stops in the living room while we watched Doctor Who.  Had to sweep a bit first.

Our laminate floor is an easy and forgiving surface to skate on.  I was even able to figure out 180 toe stops to the left, which had stumped me completely at the rink!  More than an hour and hundreds of 180's later, I realized the mistakes I had been making, improved my technique, and made these turns a bit more automatic for me.

Because my floor at home is so easy to skate on, and because I can only get up so much speed between my couch and the sliding glass door, I went to practice early to try it at the rink.  There was definitely progress!  We did the banana peel drill again, and this time I wasn't a cartoon character slipping on banana peels!  Turns out it's a fun drill.

I still need to work on this, especially turning to the left, but working on it at home really helped me jump ahead from one practice to the next.  I'm already thinking of what I can work on at home next.  My freshmeat teammate Clip Her mentioned a roller derby workout DVD that I think looks fun!  I need to be better about doing squats, planks, and leg lifts with skates on a regular basis, and I can do those things while watching TV.  I already knew that just skating around while doing chores could improve balance, and I definitely need to spend some time reading rules and derby blogs and watching bout footage.  Other than that, the main thing I need to work on is blocking/hitting.

Hmm.  Jordan might have some bruises later.

Don't blink

The Doctor Who sticker I ordered for my helmet, designed by the-other-mike on Redbubble

My helmet is still naked!  I have one sticker already, sent to me by a Facebook friend, that I still need to put on there.  Other than that, I just hadn't found anything that resonated with me, and I haven't yet been in a bout to collect the sticker of another team.  There are many cute and funny derby girl stickers, but everyone has those and I wanted something sort of unique.  Today I found some "don't blink" stickers online.  It's a reference to one of my favorite Doctor Who episodes.  I ordered several different designs to choose from.  Can't wait to get them!

At Monday's practice, I finally skated my 25 in 5:00 again!  4:55 to be exact.  It was a happy, happy night for me.  I'm also learning to skate backwards, after all these months.  The other fresh meat girls and I are getting close to our first official assessments, so I'm doing my best to make every practice count!