Today's Recap:
We started out with some refresher skating around the track that involved plow stops, T-stops, and mohawk stops on the whistle. We also did knee tap falls and double knee falls, getting up as fast as possible to keep skating. We did some "Space Invaders" where I led a follow the leader type of drill so we would work on shuffling left and right, crossovers left and right, turns, toe stop walks, fast shuffling, and spinning. Then we moved into a new skill: Transitions. We went the short way across the rink practicing first the mohawk stop again, then switched over to a Transition, which is simply jumping to skate backwards. It's just like the mohawk, except you don't put your toe stops down and continue to skate backwards! We broke it down even further by standing still in one place and getting low, then springing up to jump into a 180 turn facing the other way. I reminded you to find a spot to look at and fixate on it, starting into the jump by leading with your hips. EYES UP!! When you look at the ground, you're telling your body to go to the ground. So stop that! haha...
After we did that back and forth a while, we moved it onto the derby track and tried Transitions on every whistle blow, SKATING BACKWARDS until the whistle was blown again. We worked on doing backwards skating "watermelons" and leading half circles with each heel to gain momentum as we skated backwards. Then we buddied up and had one girl skate forwards and one backwards, holding onto each other in a couples skate. It was very romantic :') That gave us a little more stability to try increasing our speed, getting low in our derby stance and letting our butt lead the way as we skated backwards. We tried to mirror what the "forward skater" was doing, be that "watermelons" or half-circles. Next we moved into a "push cart ladder drill" with our buddy again, skating 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 laps, alternating with our partner. We were supposed to then go back down by doing 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 laps, but I don't think I explained it well enough. Better luck next time!
After a water break, we did a test trial of the Assessment skill which was the "1 LAP TIME TRIAL." On the assessment, the "1 LAP TIME TRIAL" is in the WFTDA MIN SKILLS and is skill # 1.4.2, "Accelerates from a standstill to complete one lap within 13 seconds." The average speed of the Fresh meat was around 14-15 seconds, so we are going to do some work on power and form next time to get everyone's speed to increase. The other WFTDA MIN SKILL that will be on the assessment at the end of June is the 27 LAPS IN 5 MINUTES.
Please do your best to get out and skate outside of Saturdays!! We need you to all take personal responsibility for increasing your endurance. There are street skates organized throughout the week and several spots around the island that Freshies are gathering to get in some skate time. Do it!! The last thing we did at practice was a two line paceline around the track, staying an arm's length from the person in front and behind. The two at the back of the line sprinted to the front of the line on the whistle, then snow plowed to slow down and maintain the pace speed. We had to stay low in our derby stance and talk up our buddies (because even mindless chatter makes us conscious of what we're doing and where we are in relation to our teammate). We then practiced "Lateral Movement" by shuffling to the inside of the track or the outside, respectively, on the whistle. This was tricky because we were in close proximity to other skaters. We had to keep our eyes up and be aware of our surroundings.
Love you all! See you next week. Thank you for working SO HARD and inspiring me to invest in your derby futures! ♥
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