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.