Week 4: Skating Backwards, Crossovers, the Magic Circle

This week the off-skates portion by White Dynamite started promptly at 9am and was only a quick 20min workout. We will continue this system to leave more time for on-skates work as more of you get your gear in and we start to build up skating skills. Please continue to do extra off-skates workouts throughout the week! Take responsibility for your fitness and you will see the results as your skating skills improve. You owe it to yourself to succeed!

After the off-skates, we laced up and began with a standstill crossover to get the feel of how getting lower increases our ability to effectively cross our right leg over our left. We then hopped on the track and practiced them, concentrating on getting low, keeping our eyes looking towards the center of the track around the corners, and turning our shoulders in towards the center. We went to the hockey circles on the rink in three groups and practiced our continuous crossovers on a smaller radius to understand the rhythm of continuous crossovers, then did it the opposite way just for kicks. It's good to practice in both directions because it helps with your agility and balance. We did a small review of T-stops and Snow plows, just to be consistent.

We went back on the big track and practiced keeping our left leg planted on the ground and just using our right leg to push straight out to the side to gain power and speed, then we added in the crossover (still with our left leg planted). This is half of your power, and is super important to get the most out of each push. We watched a demo of the "Magic Circle" by Weewah, who showed us how to turn the oval of the track into a circle by cutting to the inside on the corners and the outside on the straightaways. This shaves a lot of time off of your laps and makes you get back to the pack as fast as possible in gameplay. Whenever we do time trials/laps, you should be using this magic circle trick. We practiced it a bit, then launched into the 60/100/squat drill where we skated at 60% of our speed for 30 secs, 100% (sprint) for 30 secs, then squatted in a sticky skate for 30 secs. We did this for 5 minutes. Good for endurance and technique, as you were working on your crossovers during the sprint laps.

We then lined up the short way in the rink, got in derby stance and marched in place, slowly began to lift our heels and roll backwards. We learned to keep our eyes up and fix on a spot in front of us. After getting the hang of it on the short distance, we went the length of the rink and added in putting our right hand on our butt to look behind us as we sticky skated backwards (so we could see where we were going). It's important to lead with your butt and look UNDER your shoulder, not over. This keeps you in a low stance that is more stable and efficient. Your elbow should be straight up in the air so you can see behind you, or if you would rather, you can tuck your arm behind your back like a figure skater. Whatever works. The point is to look behind you and skate low. Backwards. We will build on this next week and add in backwards crossovers, which actually sound a lot trickier than they actually are :)

We did some cone work next, starting with jumping over low cones. We stayed low in our derby stance and used our core to stay forward on the landing, concentrating more on bringing our knees up to our chest instead of elongating our bodies upwards. This skill is a lot about core and a lot less about height. Maintaining good balance and being able to jump over obstacles like hands, feet and bodies on the track is critical. Next we staggered the cones and practiced leading with each foot in a zigzag pattern. We learned to point at our next target, leading with our left skate around the right-sided cones and our right skate around the left-sided cones. The point of this skill is to eventually bridge you into learning how to hockey stop. We will get there in time, but for now it is great agility practice.

We  stretched out as a group and had some discussion about helping out at the bout that evening, and we also talked about other Hawaii derby leagues a little bit. Someone voiced up that ACR has fresh meat practice 3x a week, which I'm actually glad they brought up. Since there are three leagues on-island, it is important to be able to know the difference between the three leagues. Some leagues are more interested in recreational-style derby where there is less competition, some leagues pay their trainers to train them, some leagues have very few policies and rules. Different leagues appeal to different skaters. Our island league is the only WFTDA-sanctioned league that competes nationally at competitive WFTDA tournaments. Our Fresh Meat program puts a concentration on building up your derby skills from the very beginning in a fun and safe atmosphere that will decrease your chances of potential injuries, and the money you pay goes towards your first month's dues, not my pocket. I cannot vouch for the structure of other leagues and how they train their new skaters, but I personally believe that slowly building up your skills while still allowing you time for your own rookie bonding and training outside of Saturdays is critical to making you a safe and dynamic skater, and a team player.

We must all determine what is best for ourselves and our personal fitness goals. PRD follows a star system program that graduates fresh meat skaters into White Stars, which are skaters deemed safe enough to attend regular PRD practices at a minimal contact level. After 3 months of fresh meat skating, we believe most of you will be able to assess and become White Stars. After several more months of being White Stars at league practices, we assess you again to determine if you can become an Orange Star, which is a skater eligible for drafting to one of three home teams that bout locally (Sirens, Thunder, and Dolls), the B-Team, or "Biznass" that bouts against neighbor island leagues, and makes you eligible to scrimmage at all PRD practices. After Orange Star comes Green Star, which is the level you must achieve to be eligible for our travel team Hulagans roster. Hulagans travel to play neighbor island and mainland tournaments at a WFTDA sanctioned level, a very structured and competitive level of gameplay. All of this is important to help you progress safely and to help you achieve derby greatness in a non-threatening structure that is achievable and effective. If you feel you would rather skate with a Rec league, I will not discourage you. Competitive derby is not for everyone, but those of us that like the challenge of competitive derby appreciate having it as a viable option. You must earn your way in PRD, but if you work your ass off, you will get on our teams!! Personally, I would love to skate with all of you and hope you continue to train with us.

I hope this clears up any questions or misconceptions about Hawaii derby. I have friends on all leagues and teams all over the islands (and the world), and don't think it's good sportswomanship to ever bash another league for what they are trying to achieve. I hope you agree. We all love derby!

Hearts,

Calamity

Week 3: More falls and stops, Swoops, Transitions

Hi girls! I hear you had sore butts from Saturday. It's working! Your derby butts are on their way!

Peku drafted up her lesson plan so that you can see what topics were covered. Thanks, Peku!! This next coming Saturday, expect an immediate 9am start time for off-skates. If you are late to practice, you will do additional lunges and planks at the end of the practice. Hopefully this will get you all there on time...we have noticed a lot of tardiness, so let's change that, shall we? 

Other things that will be different moving forward: less of a concentration on stops and falls. You will need to continue practicing these on your own when you get your gear, but we will not be spending as much time on them on Saturdays in order to move forward into other skill areas. I hope you are all coordinating for ordering your gear. When your stuff comes, please make sure to tell a PRD girl your skates are new so we can adjust your tight trucks. So exciting!

If you have not yet brought your $45 fresh meat fee, please do so this weekend. Checks are preferred, made out to Pacific Roller Derby. See you Saturday :)

Saturday 21 September 2013

Fresh Meat 9 -11

Peku, assisted by Pebblz & Weewah

Off-skates 9:10 – 9:45 by White Dynamite

Started skating at 9:52 (20 lunge penalty for taking longer than 5 minutes to gear-up)

Skill review: Practiced	New Skill: Demo, taught, practiced	Future skill: Only demonstrated
STOPS
t-stop: reminder to make a T-shape with feet, 90 degrees
Snow plows: Reminder to really push out with heels. Lead to>	Single-footed snow plows Single-footed studders	Hockey stops
FALLS
Single knee fall: practiced standing still in a circle with a focus on being low, fast recovery back into a very low stance (LUNGE)
Double knee fall: practiced standing still in a circle with a focus on being low, fast recovery back into a very low stance (LUNGE) Lead to>	4-point fall “superman-fall”: we practiced this in the circle again, without skating: Down to single knee Double knee Elbows/wrists Spread out long Caterpillar back up to being small very fast Up to knee/s and stand in very low stance again RECOVER IN 3 seconds or less! Make fists with hands to prevent finger injuries. If you get wiped out and fall big, quickly caterpillar up and get small. Try to eventually get up like a burpie: from a push up to both feel in one move.	Baseball-slide Rolling out of a fall
SWOOPS
Swooping with quality: we demonstrated splitting the legs, leaning towards the direction of the front foot, committing to the lean. We also showed a poor swoop: keeping feet parallel.	Hip checks: demonstrated that a successful hip check is just a swoop through another skaters leg.
TRANSITIONS to BACKWARD ROLL
	On the wall we practiced stepping from one direction to another, then we practiced transitions while rolling slowly against the wall. Those who were confident then practiced it on the track with a short backward “roll”.

Week 2: Breakdown of Basics

You need a strong foundation in derby to become an awesome skater! This starts with drinking your water throughout the week and extra water the day before. By Saturday morning, your pee should be odorless and colorless. We stress this in derby because when we practice in extreme heat in the very intense sun, our bodies go, "OH HELLLL NO!" and they give us heat stroke, make us puke, give us migraines, and suck our energy up like a sponge just to survive the workout. Chugging water the day before will greatly improve your survival rate. Don't like water so much? Jazz it up! Just make it happen. Also, water on practice days is more effective if you add a bit of sea salt, some lemon/lime, and a little bit of honey. The idea is to restore your depleting electrolytes.

Practice Recap:

Today I brought my awesome boom box that totally ran out of batteries until it was a whisper. To be fair, I used it at a previous practice, so it gave me a few hours total of play time. If anyone wants to contribute to my D battery stockpile, I will continue to bring it to your practices! I think it helped you get through the off-skates portion :) White Dynamite did some core work with you today and also had you do some shuffling movements that we will eventually do on skates. Lateral movement is critical to having quick and effective response on the track. Do this stuff at home throughout the week to increase your agility on skates! He ended with wall sits, and I could see shaking knees. I gentle reminder to do your best with these core workouts and do them outside of Saturdays... they won't suck so bad if you do them more often. We are trying to build up your derby muscles.

On skates, we started on the track skating in derby direction (counter-clockwise) to practice WATERMELONS. Watermelons are a continual movement of letting your legs drift out wiiiiiide and dropping your butt lowwww, then pushing your heels out and pointing your toes in to complete the movement. It is basically a breakdown of the snow plow stop, but can be done over and over to work on building up your inner thigh muscles and your butt. Get used to the mechanics and snow plow stops will be a breeze!

We then went into T-stops, and I adjusted to have you go the long way on the rink to practice those with help from PRD skaters. First we started from a stationary position on the white line and just went through the motion of lifting up our dominant foot and placing it in an L behind our standing leg. We did this over and over to get the feeling of the balance shift. We went to the rink boards and grabbed fence, and practiced kicking our prominent leg behind us, then scraping it towards our standing leg until we formed an "L" again. There are multiple ways to describe or show this motion, so I'm going to keep finding other ways to explain it in hopes that one of the explanations resonate with you :) Another way to think of it is that the standing leg (which is bent, by the way) has all of your weight on it, and as your other leg comes in to meet it with your skate approaching to make that L, your weight is transferred to that leg. The stop comes from the weight transfer. All four wheels should be on the ground as you drag.

We went back in to both snow plows and T-stops with greater urgency by having three cones set up on the track to "stop" by. This helped to understand that the whole point is to have control over the stop and be able to make it happen by a target. We practiced that, then did a relay to increase the speed and intensity.

Next were single knee taps and double-knee falls. We saw a demonstration of both as well as a demonstration of the 4-point fall, which involves falling as small as possible to avoid taking other skaters out with you. We will practice that one next week. With the single knee taps, think of it more like a balance check. Control the fall, and pop right back up into the action. On a double knee fall, one knee hits the ground and then the other to break the intensity of the impact. Lean back towards your skates just a bit as you land so that you have control over yourself and can get back up again quickly. We aren't going to spend very much time on falls other than learning how to do them correctly because one goal in derby game play is to NOT fall, but please practice these so that you can do them with efficiency and in a controlled manner. We finished falling drills with another relay to again work on speed, as well as fast recovery.

We did some cone weaving today, which was a new addition. When we weave around obstacles, we have to sit low in our derby chairs and use our knees to guide our feet in the direction we want to travel. Our eyes are up and fixed on a target ahead of us, not down. We practiced them a few times through, then went up against the boards again to grab fence and try from a stationary position. Sitting in derby stance while holding the fence, we moved our knees to the left and to the right, our feet following suit. When you translate that into the motion of maneuvering on the track with your feet firmly planted on the ground, you are letting your knees dictate the direction you want to go. You may stagger your feet a little bit and let one foot guide you. We will build on this next week.

At the end of practice today, we stretched out (like we should've done last week) and went through some derby business. I talked about the $45 fee that will be due next Saturday. Checks made out to Pacific Roller Derby. This fee is to be applied to your first month of dues when you become a White Star after you pass assessments. If you do not pass, the fee will roll over with you to the next Fresh Meat Intake. I do not get any of your money-it all goes to the league :) We talked about injuries some, about strengthening exercises, resources and using the facebook page to get advice, and then about equipment. Some had questions about wheels and others about knee pads. I think it's important to spend more money on your safety gear than on fancy wheels/skates at this time.

GOOD (and rated to receive small impacts and one major impact)

BEST for repeat, violent impacts (like our sport)

BAD IDEA. Don't even go there. So dangerous!

While you are newer to the sport and still learning, injuries are more common. Protect your head with a good helmet. Read up on my helmet post here for more info. Upgrade to better knee pads. Again, any questions, ask on the forum and some PRD girls will give you their opinion. We've gone through a lot of equipment!

I stressed the importance of getting to know your derby sisters in Fresh Meat with you, and encouraged you to get together after practices or throughout the week to have a meal, talk shop, and work out. These are your girls, yo. Love each other and you will all excel together!

Have a safe week, see you next Saturday!

Week 1: Fresh Meat Fun Day, Fall Intake!

Aloha Freshies!

Today was the first day on skates for many of you, and for others it was review so that you can be a stronger skater by December! No matter where you are on the skill spectrum, basics can ALWAYS be improved.

Throughout the Fresh Meat intake period (Sept - Dec) you may see unfamiliar faces with pretty good technique. These are Pacific Roller Derby league skaters that are joining in on the practice to work on basics and get a good workout in. Don't be afraid of them, they are a helpful group of ladies and can give you great pointers!

I will give a caveat here, though, and say that not all well-intended PRD skaters that want to help you, bless their hearts, have extensive background in derby. Like you, they started at the beginning and had to learn. They want you to succeed, but might need more time on their own skates to figure out mechanics. It's great to have cheerleaders, though! Just know that some girls helping are new themselves, and take any advice with a grain of salt as you go. If it feels bad or dangerous, stop!  Absolutely do not attempt a skill we haven't learned yet if you are uncertain! This mostly applies to anything involving full contact (hits, pushes, whips, advanced agility). We will get to that crazy stuff in due time, so don't rush it. Safe skaters skate long careers. Hazardous skaters, not so much. Duh, right? You can roll your eyes, it's okay! I am dubbed the "Safety Queen," but I don't mind that title. It was earned through 7 years of skating and some super intense derby injuries. I think some risks in life are good risks (going out of your comfort zone and playing a contact sport, trying new things, learning new skills). Bad risks, however, are absolutely unnecessary (skating without safety gear, skating in locations with obvious hazards like posts/close fences, gravel, heavy traffic flow, etc). Wear your helmet on skates at all times. It only takes one fall, and you may fall just standing still. I've done it plenty. If you need to cool down, sit down and remove your helmet. If you are worried about looking cool, put some stickers on that bad boy, but remember... no helmet could mean scrambled brains. Is that worth looking "cool?" Heck no!

On to the practice recap:

Today we had 30 min of dryland training led by White Dynamite. He is your off-skates fitness instructor and will be helping you develop the hard derby bodies that you've been dreaming about! Please attempt to stick out all of the difficult workouts he throws at you... they will make you a better skater. Dynamite led you on a warm-up run, followed by core and leg work. You did some circuit training, and then I led you in some wall sit intervals. 30 secs sitting, 30 secs rest, 45 secs sitting, 45 secs rest, 1 min sitting and dunzo. If you do this at home, you can increase the length and rest times accordingly. For added legburning, work back down to 15 secs after you've increased to 2-3 min sits. Good times! Do it watching Celebrity Housewives or Hoarders, or during your next Orange is the New Black Marathon.

We got geared up in loaner gear, and only ONE SKATER forgot her mouthguard!! Omg, small miracle! I was so proud of all of you for being excellent listeners. I hope everyone found gear that fit them. If something wasn't working for you, make sure to speak up and talk to a PRD girl to get fitted correctly next Saturday. You will need to rely on PRD skaters less and less, and we will need to increase the speed in which we gear up. By next month, I will be timing you to completely gear up in less than 5 minutes, so work on it!

On skates, we checked to make sure you had everything on properly and then you started rolling around the track. We learned "SNOW PLOW STOPS" and "SINGLE KNEE FALLS," then we learned "DOUBLE KNEE FALLS." The trick with snow plows is to allow your legs to go super wide and stick your butt out, then curve your toes towards your center to brake. Please practice these if you have your own equipment. With falls, we stress to fall gently on your knees. It is more of a balance check than a hard "plop." We also worked on our STRIDE, which is how we push off from one skate to the next. Basic stride requires that you push off to the sides, not behind you. This will maximize your power in each push. Derby stance was mentioned: "get low and forward" sitting in your invisible chair. If you ever feel unstable like you might fall, sit lower in your "chair" and lean forward. This easy method will save you from a hard fall (now you see why core strength is so important!) I mentioned to "protect your boobs." This means to keep your elbows locked in to your chest. Yes, it really does protect your chest a bit, but more importantly, it helps your form... you learn not to rely on your arms for balance. Your legs are the real action in derby, which is why Tyrannosaurus Rexes would've made excellent derby skaters.

After a water break, we broke these basics down just a little bit more by doing them in a straight path across the rink, allowing PRD volunteers to give individual feedback on form. Then we learned about "T-STOPS." These are tricky, but super helpful in crowded skating situations. You can practice T-stops at home like Peku mentioned, by holding onto a wall, squatting, and after kicking one leg behind you, slowly dragging that leg in towards your standing leg, flat on the ground. Your feet will actually form an "L" shape, not so much a "T." Just sayin.

We did one of my favorite drills, "Space Invaders." This involves standing in derby stance and basically doing what I do. From a stand-still, we stepped to the right and stepped to the left, did right and left crossovers (basically a grapevine), stepped in circles, stood on our tippy toes, jumped in the air, touched the ground, and did ballerina twirls. All of this is great agility work. You can do the grapevines off-skates to improve your crossovers on skates. Try it out at home! The lower you get, the easier it is to perform the crossover.

Next we did a relay. It was exciting! We formed lines of 4 and sprinted to the halfway mark to do a double knee fall, got up, sprinted to the end and did a snow plow, turned around to sprint back, tagged our next buddy in line and did a rock star double knee fall! We increased the skills on the second relay by making it a single knee, alternate single knee fall and then an optional T-stop at the far end. I think ya'll did fabulous for your first day!

We went on the track again and did an introductory drill to learn about "PACE LINES." This involved "STICKY SKATING" and arm's length from a person in front and in back of you in a line, going DERBY DIRECTION (counter-clockwise) on the track. There were four pace lines. After a few laps around the track, I had the person leading each line drop to the back so that the next girl in line could lead. This drill should have allowed you some real-speed practice on how to do a snow plow or use a T-stop to slow down, as well as how to pace yourself with other skaters in your pack, or line.

We got water and took gear off, then watched a brief demo of a live-action scenario where we had PRD skaters demonstrate a "LINE" for a "JAM." One line from each team has 4 BLOCKERS and 1 JAMMER. In a jam, a full "PACK" consists of 4 blockers from each team and 1 jammer from each team. The jammers wear a STAR HELMET PANTY and the PIVOT blocker wears a STRIPE HELMET PANTY. A jam is started by the refs with one whistle. A jam lasts for 2 full minutes, unless one of the two jammers establishes LEAD JAMMER. Lead jammer status is achieved by successfully passing all blockers from both teams legally and in bounds before the opposing jammer. The jammer, once clearing the pack on her INITIAL PASS, must sprint around the track. When she enters the pack on her second pass, she begins to score points for each blocker (and sometimes jammer) on the opposing team. All she has to do is pass the opposing blocker's hips legally to get her point. A jammer may accrue 1 point for each blocker/jammer on each pass, so a good pass will earn that jammer 4-5 points, depending. There are plenty of things that can go wrong and earn a blocker/jammer a trip to the PENALTY BOX. You will learn about penalties along the way in your derby adventure, so I'm going to stop there before your head explodes!

We talked a bit about expectations at the end of today. Missing one or two practices is okay, but always let me know so I can jot it down. If you miss more than three or know you are going to miss some for whatever reason, get with me so that I can talk to you about that and develop a plan. It doesn't mean you're doomed or shouldn't skate in fresh meat, but you will be missing a lot of material. 

Every Saturday we will incorporate new skills. When you learn new skills, you can continue to practice them outside of Saturdays, but if you do NOT attend that Saturday when a new skill is taught, you are at serious risk for injury if you attempt it without a knowledgeable vet helping you to learn the skill correctly. There are some excellent skaters in PRD that can give you great tips to improve skills, so do reach out and ask questions on the facebook group. Seek out a derby mentor to help you with skills that are tricky for you. Be accountable for your own development as a skater by learning about the sport, looking up bout footage on www.wftda.com or www.derbynewsnetwork.com, and volunteer as an NSO at PRD bouts. Be accountable for building yourself up into a lean, mean, derby machine! I can't make you show up, and I can't make you work out during the week. You have to do it for yourself. I know you can!!

 I mentioned that this is the beginning of a journey with your fellow freshies, and that right now, you ARE NOT COMPETITORS. That comes later. Right now, you are each other's support system! Get to know each other. Arrange workouts together, especially off-skates workouts as you get ready to order your gear. Speaking of gear, order it! Put in a group order for your gear to save money on shipping. Questions? Ask on the Fresh Meat page on facebook... there are a lot of PRD girls on there that have background in this and have been in your position. Remember, we all start somewhere! Don't be discouraged. Some days it will feel like you are climbing a mountain, while other days you'll have a huge breakthrough...a true "ahAAA!" moment. Be there for each other for all of it, and be supportive. Pacific Roller Derby is lucky to have you, and I am extremely excited to help you as we start at the beginning. Welcome to roller derby, ladies!

xox, Calamity