Aloha!
We have basically completed all of the technical elements that accompany minimum skills at this point outside of full contact hits. Most of the skills still need quite a bit of refinement, and we will continue to practice them with vigor for the next month leading up to your White Star assessment. It will take a lot of your attention and dedication outside of Saturdays to nail these skills at a level that feels comfortable and fluid. I am seeing more and more "aHa!" moments at practices now, as skills suddenly click in your brains and make sense. Please use your derby mentors to bounce ideas off of, and seek support from them. I hope you can start to organize study groups soon, as well, because the written WFTDA test is thorough! There is a sample test on the WFTDA site that you can use to study.
Whips and Pushes are helpful assists that we give and receive by our teammates. There is a time and a place for a whip or push, and when it happens and is successful, it's amazing. We practiced good form, which as the "Whipper" means you are in derby stance (low), sometimes with your left leg slightly extended out in front of you, opening up your body to the outside line and extending your right arm all the way backwards with your thumb up. The "Whippee" grabs for your hand with her right hand and places her left hand (palm down) on the Whipper's forearm. With one swift jerk in a fluid motion, the Whipper whips the Whippee forwards into her pathway. The Whipper has a lot of control over the release point and should be careful not to whip the Whippee into another blocker or the bleachers! Pay attention to where on the track you are administering the whip. Best spots to give whips are on straightaways or coming out of a corner (not going into one). Momentum is everything. The Whipper should be transferring ALL of her momentum to the Whippee, coming to a complete stop (and requiring her to have to sprint to catch up to the pack). The Whippee isn't getting a free ride; when she receives the whip, she is grabbing the Whipper's forearm and thrusting it towards her pelvis, then sprinting out of the release. NO FREE RIDES.
Pushes are similar in that the Pusher is transferring all of her momentum to the Pushee. Pushers must approach the Pushee from behind, grab firmly onto her love handles, draw her body in close, tell the Pushee "PUSH," and then swiftly push her forwards. We discussed not putting hands on backs or legs, and pushing straight out, not down. We also discussed that the Pushee must engage her core and get low, and not stand up. She must skate out of the push to maximize the extra speed boost. Again, NO FREE RIDES.
Inside Whips are a combination of whips and pushes. The Whipper (generally done near the inside track boundary) will reach across her own body with her right hand and "guide" the Whipper through the special little hole that the Whipper has saved for her. The Whipper then pushes the Whippee forward on her right butt cheek to transfer her momentum. This is an effective and sneaky maneuver that works well for jammers that want that inside line. As blockers, we can assist our jammers in the pack and help them quickly squeak out of the pack with a successful whip.
We did pacelines and line weaves, and got used to skating in close proximity to other blockers. We talked about wheel locks and lifting our skate up to "unlock" with another skater's wheel, and how sticky skating and small carves in the pack are the best way to avoid tripping each other. Practice skating super close to your buddies when you get together to work on skills. A tight pack should allow skaters to be able to touch at least two girls at all times.
We had two packs on opposite sides of the track skate in a close formation while also trying to remain perfectly in sync with the pack on the opposite side. As speeds were adjusted, we had to slow down or speed up, and practice T-Stops within the pack as well as snow plows. We then got together into one giant pack and ran the Pack Molestation drill, where skaters switched positions when I said switch, or touched a body part of another teammate behind them and quickly resumed skating. Super fun, gets the message across that we need to skate low, tight, and have good pack awareness to know where our girls are at.
We did a drill called Red Light, Green Light where we practiced a double paceline and worked next to a buddy "opening" and "closing" the door on a jammer who was approaching. I think that was a fun one worth repeating!
Some work was done to learn backwards crossovers, which are a little tricky to explain. The most I've been able to use as an analogy is that while you are backwards skating, you are "scooping" up ground with your right leg and pulling it behind your standing left leg. We worked on this while holding on to the fence, while at a stand still, on a straightaway, and around a tighter circle on the hockey rink. Then we brought it to the track and practiced. It's going to take some patience and time, so keep working on it. The key is to use that pulling motion to gain momentum, so this should be a skill that helps you speed up instead of causing you to slow down. Some find it helpful to watch youtube footage of figure skaters skating backwards to pick up speed. I personally LOVE watching figure skating because they do some really amazing footwork. Here is a great video of Sochi 2014 Olympic prodigy Yulia Lipnitskaya performing her final long program. At 3:47 she does a perfect few strokes of a backward crossovers with her right leg. You can see her doing lots of them on her left side, as well. You may have to watch this video several times because she's sort of a mesmerizing performer.
Practice ran a little late as we had discussed earlier in the week to allow girls extra feedback on crossovers, working with resistance bands to increase power and improve form. I demonstrated how to also use the resistance band on skates with a buddy but warned that it's a little tricky with the coordination and may be more effective for you at this point to do it off-skates. Peku mentioned that you can also climb stairs sideways to understand the mechanics of the crossover and work on extending that underpush leg.
As seen here on the infamous Rat City video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFFu1kY_h0E
Next week we will be learning this.
If you're feeling iffy about cross overs at speed try skating normal on the straightaways and rolling on one foot around the corners. This will help you with control. Once you're feeling good with that, try what Peku mentioned and see how few crossovers/strides you can use to get aroun the track. She mentioned she uses 4, one for each corner. By slowing crossovers down and trying for less, you really focus on pushing and balance.
We have basically completed all of the technical elements that accompany minimum skills at this point outside of full contact hits. Most of the skills still need quite a bit of refinement, and we will continue to practice them with vigor for the next month leading up to your White Star assessment. It will take a lot of your attention and dedication outside of Saturdays to nail these skills at a level that feels comfortable and fluid. I am seeing more and more "aHa!" moments at practices now, as skills suddenly click in your brains and make sense. Please use your derby mentors to bounce ideas off of, and seek support from them. I hope you can start to organize study groups soon, as well, because the written WFTDA test is thorough! There is a sample test on the WFTDA site that you can use to study.
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| I'm just going to put this right here. |
Whips and Pushes are helpful assists that we give and receive by our teammates. There is a time and a place for a whip or push, and when it happens and is successful, it's amazing. We practiced good form, which as the "Whipper" means you are in derby stance (low), sometimes with your left leg slightly extended out in front of you, opening up your body to the outside line and extending your right arm all the way backwards with your thumb up. The "Whippee" grabs for your hand with her right hand and places her left hand (palm down) on the Whipper's forearm. With one swift jerk in a fluid motion, the Whipper whips the Whippee forwards into her pathway. The Whipper has a lot of control over the release point and should be careful not to whip the Whippee into another blocker or the bleachers! Pay attention to where on the track you are administering the whip. Best spots to give whips are on straightaways or coming out of a corner (not going into one). Momentum is everything. The Whipper should be transferring ALL of her momentum to the Whippee, coming to a complete stop (and requiring her to have to sprint to catch up to the pack). The Whippee isn't getting a free ride; when she receives the whip, she is grabbing the Whipper's forearm and thrusting it towards her pelvis, then sprinting out of the release. NO FREE RIDES.
Pushes are similar in that the Pusher is transferring all of her momentum to the Pushee. Pushers must approach the Pushee from behind, grab firmly onto her love handles, draw her body in close, tell the Pushee "PUSH," and then swiftly push her forwards. We discussed not putting hands on backs or legs, and pushing straight out, not down. We also discussed that the Pushee must engage her core and get low, and not stand up. She must skate out of the push to maximize the extra speed boost. Again, NO FREE RIDES.
Inside Whips are a combination of whips and pushes. The Whipper (generally done near the inside track boundary) will reach across her own body with her right hand and "guide" the Whipper through the special little hole that the Whipper has saved for her. The Whipper then pushes the Whippee forward on her right butt cheek to transfer her momentum. This is an effective and sneaky maneuver that works well for jammers that want that inside line. As blockers, we can assist our jammers in the pack and help them quickly squeak out of the pack with a successful whip.
We did pacelines and line weaves, and got used to skating in close proximity to other blockers. We talked about wheel locks and lifting our skate up to "unlock" with another skater's wheel, and how sticky skating and small carves in the pack are the best way to avoid tripping each other. Practice skating super close to your buddies when you get together to work on skills. A tight pack should allow skaters to be able to touch at least two girls at all times.
We had two packs on opposite sides of the track skate in a close formation while also trying to remain perfectly in sync with the pack on the opposite side. As speeds were adjusted, we had to slow down or speed up, and practice T-Stops within the pack as well as snow plows. We then got together into one giant pack and ran the Pack Molestation drill, where skaters switched positions when I said switch, or touched a body part of another teammate behind them and quickly resumed skating. Super fun, gets the message across that we need to skate low, tight, and have good pack awareness to know where our girls are at.
We did a drill called Red Light, Green Light where we practiced a double paceline and worked next to a buddy "opening" and "closing" the door on a jammer who was approaching. I think that was a fun one worth repeating!
Some work was done to learn backwards crossovers, which are a little tricky to explain. The most I've been able to use as an analogy is that while you are backwards skating, you are "scooping" up ground with your right leg and pulling it behind your standing left leg. We worked on this while holding on to the fence, while at a stand still, on a straightaway, and around a tighter circle on the hockey rink. Then we brought it to the track and practiced. It's going to take some patience and time, so keep working on it. The key is to use that pulling motion to gain momentum, so this should be a skill that helps you speed up instead of causing you to slow down. Some find it helpful to watch youtube footage of figure skaters skating backwards to pick up speed. I personally LOVE watching figure skating because they do some really amazing footwork. Here is a great video of Sochi 2014 Olympic prodigy Yulia Lipnitskaya performing her final long program. At 3:47 she does a perfect few strokes of a backward crossovers with her right leg. You can see her doing lots of them on her left side, as well. You may have to watch this video several times because she's sort of a mesmerizing performer.
As seen here on the infamous Rat City video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFFu1kY_h0E
Next week we will be learning this.
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| Just kidding! Don't try this until you're a Green Star ;) |
