Friday 27 November 2015

Self-congratulatory Scrim!

A friend of mine pointed out that I've been writing and drawing lately out of a place of frustration... and I realised that he was right.  So this post is going to be entirely filled with self-congratulatory things about me!

I am scrimming!

Tonight I went down to Northamptonshire Roller Derby to scrim with some other recently-mins-passed skaters.  It was a completely different experience from scrimming with my own team (which I did for the first time last week) and actually I had a really great time and came away feeling really good about myself.  Because we were roughly around the same level, play was a bit slower paced than I'm used to, and it was easier to see where I'm at relative to other Mins-passed skaters.

1. I learned from my last scrim!

I made some mistakes in my first scrim (one of them rather large) that I felt really bad about.  But I went home, thought about what had gone wrong and why, and set myself some things to work on.  Today I implemented them!  When I was lapping the track while jamming I was looking ahead, thinking about my speed and trajectory as I came up to the pack, and slowing down a little in order to be more jukey, which isn't my natural forte.  It worked really well and I felt like I was playing smart and safe.

2. I communicated well!

I was always talking, sounding off where the jammer was, saying if I was reforming or bridging, calling my team mates to get together or get into a wall, or that the jammer was coming.  If we were together I'd often turn backwards, partly because I like to block that way but also so I could see where the jammer was and tell everyone else.  When I was jamming I even tried a few hand signals.

3) I am disciplined!

It was interesting to see the Pavlovian responses I've picked up from training with the Dollies.  When the jammer is coming I wall up, look for braces, and hunker down.  When the jammer is gone I look for a team mate to get with, ready to help our jammer or prepare for the next lap.

4) I'm smart and rules aware!

The officials team were great but a little short-handed, and I found myself internally calling no packs, narrating to myself if I or someone else got a penalty, even if it wasn't called by the refs.  If I got knocked out I knew where to re-enter the track.  When I fore-armsed someone but didn't knock them down I knew not to take advantage of the opening I'd made.

I also kept my head enough to think about how I was jamming.  I naturally want to barge through everyone, which I did get to do, but after a few jams of getting to know people I started to figure out different ways to tackle them.  One of them likes to face you and psyche you out: I got lower to keep my balance and started to fake and dodge away from her rather than going for the direct hit.  Two blockers liked to chase me out of the pack, but I realised I could dart about and put them out of play.  I remembered I could side-surf round people while using them as a support, I could rebound off them and pinball through the pack, I could dig in my edges and let a hit push me out the front of the pack.

5)  I am a good jammer!

After my first go at jamming in a scrim was a bit hit and miss, I was nervous to do it again, but by the end of it I was feeling really good about it.  A lot of the time I got lead jammer!  Playing against people of a similar level to myself, all the challenges felt like things I could tackle.  I watched the box and listened to my team mates for advice to see when it was a good time to call off the jam.

6) I don't give up!

It was a fairly casual scrim, but I was pleased with my fitness, stamina and attitude all the way through.  I'm a Badass Dolly!

Wednesday 18 November 2015

Skating Sundae

I’ve been skating for a year and nine months now.  In that whole time I’ve only cried three times at training.  Two of those times have been in the last fortnight.

Wednesday 19 August 2015

Playing with the Big Girls!

I really should have written about this a month or two ago, but life has been... interesting and there's not been much time for blogging.  But the news I should have written is good news.  I have moved from the newbie group up to the advanced group!

I am Fresh Meat no longer!

Wednesday 15 April 2015

When surviving is winning

Much as I'd love to be able to say that roller derby brings only good things into my life, this would be a lie.  It does bring good things: there are markable improvements in fitness, lots of new friends, passing milestones and feeling good about yourself.  Good things that happen in derby can carry over into the rest of your life.

Unfortunately this also means that what's going on in your life can carry over into derby.  And life, as we know, does not always go smoothly.



Monday 16 February 2015

Hourly Comics Day 2015

February 1st is Hourly Comic Day.  Across the world, people taking part in this have to draw at least one comic panel for every hour of the day they are awake, combining them all at the end to create thir comic.  They've been posted online in this clunky old forum since 2006, but have recently moved out onto Tumblr and social media, and we all see what everyone else has been doing and drawing.

This is my 4th time doing it, and since it happened to be on a training day, most of it was about roller derby!  Comic continues under the cut...

Tuesday 10 February 2015

Big Boss Flamingo: How To Be Head NSO


Sexy flamingo costume!  Yeah!


This won’t be a definitive post, because this only happened to me before Christmas.  Plus although I know all the positions and have experience in all but the Scoreboard, there weren’t really any other nominees for the job!   So just the basics, but very good basics nonetheless :)

As usual I found myself chucked in the deep end when DRR entered the 2015 British Championships, and also decided to have a two-game event made of a UKRDA sanctioned game against Bedfordshire Rebellion and then a crazy Hunger Games themed charity game where the audience paid to help or hinder a team (making them skate the jam backwards, having a race between the jammers to get extra points, freeing penalised skaters from the box early etc.)  It was a fantastic event and we raised £225 from the charity game.

And my first public event as HNSO? ...

Today I Am One!

I just had my derby birthday!  I joined the Dolly Rockit Rollers at the end of February 2014, barely able to stand on skates, but now it’s 365 days on and we just had a Minimum Skills test.

I’ve missed a few in the past due to my broken toe, then being on holiday, then an NSO fixture, and it didn’t really bother me because I knew I would never have passed everything anyway.  This time I was ready.  I was there, and I felt confident.

I passed everything

…except for two things.