Aloha Freshies!
We started a new intake on Saturday, March 28th and began our journey to derby greatness by covering the history of roller derby throughout the world as well as on the islands. We then got suited up in freshly cleaned loaner gear and borrowed skates and helmets from PRD skaters so that we could learn some of the most fundamental of skills.
Derby Stance
Sitting in your invisible chair, legs should be shoulder width apart. You should be in a semi seated position with your chest "headlights" pointed straight ahead, your eyes also looking straight ahead. Whenever you feel off-balance in derby, you should return to this stance, or recover from a wobble by hunching your back like a cat and bending your knees to exaggerate derby stance. You will often hear me repeating to get "low and forward." This is what I am referring to. Activate your core and find your strong, solid core muscles for maximum stability.
Stride
Staying low in your derby stance, you can push off each skate straight off to the side, keeping your wheels of your skate on the ground as long as possible until finally letting it come off of the ground. This exaggerated exercise is a way of practicing a powerful stride, the very basic "push" that will help you build speed as you skate. Do not bob up and down. Stay low in your form the whole time. It will burn your quads to do so, but this is all part of building up muscle strength.
Stops
T-Stop - more like an L, this stop is used mostly for a speed adjustment in pack situations and is good for a quick slow down in tight quarters. Some skaters prefer both knees to be bent, while other skaters stand straighter when they perform this stop. Since we are learning basics, I prefer skaters to perform this stop with knees bent, engaging their core.
Working up to this stop, we grabbed the fence with both hands in a stationary position and practiced keeping all four wheels on the ground as we dragged our braking foot towards our standing leg. Our braking foot outside wheels are the wheels we are mostly concentrating on keeping on the ground, to prevent wheel chatter (a wild T-Stop that has only the front two wheels of that braking foot on the ground makes a loud wheel chatter and gives the potential for a broken ankle, so this is a very important exercise to practice and get down).
Snow Plow Stop - this stop is used for abrupt stops that need to happen when the pack has come to a halt in front of you or behind you. It is also effective when containing a jammer. An effective snow plow stop has unlimited potential for stalling opponents. In your derby stance, guide your wheels to roll out wider than your shoulders, then turn your knees and toes to face each other, activating the inside edges of both skates. The trick to this stop is entirely on the power of your edges.
Working up to this stop, we did "watermelons," where we rolled our wheels out wider than our shoulders then turned our knees and toes to face each other until they came back together, then faced them back outwards without activating our edges to apply a brake.
Some skaters prefer to use a stagger, having one leg in front as they stop.
Examples of effective snow plow stop techniques can be seen in thisYoutube video by the San Diego Derby Dolls.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjHh7fI6OeU
California Stop - We made the term up, but the stop is a really super useful, commonly used stop for packwork when we are attempting to hold a jammer and keep her from pushing us forward. This stop is basically a snow plow stop engaging your edges, but instead of rolling to a stop, you are lifting up your feet alternately to brake at a rapid pace. Edges are super important with this, and a skater looks almost knock-kneed while performing this. Along with the arched-back cat I referred to earlier engaging your core muscles, it is very hard for anyone to move a blocker who is performing this. I will demonstrate this for you this coming Saturday.
Falls
Single Knee, Double Knee, 4-Point falls - we covered how to fall forward lightly without too much weight on our knees. A single knee fall is really a "tap," a simple balance check before popping right back up and getting back into the game. Double knee, same thing, only it's a one-two fall, so both knees should rarely, if ever, hit the ground at the same time. When performing a double knee fall, lean back towards your heels with your body weight to take the weight off of your knees so you do not damage your kneecaps and ligaments. We wear pads, but over time this is a big derby injury.
Let's try to prevent injuries early by learning correctly.
With 4-point falls, perform the double knee fall, then drop both arms (wrists and elbows simultaneously), tucking in your fingers and turning your head to the side. You should try to become as small as possible. If you have to fall, FALL SMALL. Then get up as fast as possible and rejoin your pack. Derby isn't about falling. Get back in the game and help your jammer. No drama queens.
Crossovers
We begun the process of learning crossovers. Crossovers are extremely important to gain speed and increase momentum around the corners of the track. A proper crossover gains momentum on both the "overpush" and the "underpush." We will be talking about the difference in depth this Saturday. Last week we talked about a few things related to these, but I would like to cover these in a different blog post. They can be tricky.
Transitions
We begun learning transitions last week, which is how to turn from forwards to backwards, and back again. We will be continuing this skill this Saturday and this will be covered in the next blog in depth.
Skating Backwards
Because we learned how to turn around, we also had to begin learning how to skate backwards. We will be learning more about this skill this Saturday and the next blog will cover this in depth.
Injury Prevention
We discussed some ways to strengthen common areas prone to injury, such as ankles, knees, and lower back. If you have questions about any of the exercises we did for these areas or an area that is troubling you, please talk to me or any of the PRD girls and we will find you resources. It is better to figure it out early than wait until a sore area becomes a torn something-or-another or a broken bone. Our goal is to train you correctly so that only freak accidents occur.. not preventable ones. Most if not all of our skaters do a ton of core work and off-skates conditioning to get their bodies into shape and build up muscles that are necessary to play effective derby. If you are not cross-training, now is the time to start. We will also be doing a dynamic warm-up before every on-skates practice and a dynamic cool-down stretching after the workout, to make sure that your bodies are being properly conditioned for this demanding sport. It is a lot of work, but that is why we love it.
And now, your reward for reading this blog! A link to watch Team USA scrimmage each other. OMG!! The best derby evar. You're welcome :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVoZEbldPJg
xox,
Calamity
We started a new intake on Saturday, March 28th and began our journey to derby greatness by covering the history of roller derby throughout the world as well as on the islands. We then got suited up in freshly cleaned loaner gear and borrowed skates and helmets from PRD skaters so that we could learn some of the most fundamental of skills.
Derby Stance
Sitting in your invisible chair, legs should be shoulder width apart. You should be in a semi seated position with your chest "headlights" pointed straight ahead, your eyes also looking straight ahead. Whenever you feel off-balance in derby, you should return to this stance, or recover from a wobble by hunching your back like a cat and bending your knees to exaggerate derby stance. You will often hear me repeating to get "low and forward." This is what I am referring to. Activate your core and find your strong, solid core muscles for maximum stability.
Stride
Staying low in your derby stance, you can push off each skate straight off to the side, keeping your wheels of your skate on the ground as long as possible until finally letting it come off of the ground. This exaggerated exercise is a way of practicing a powerful stride, the very basic "push" that will help you build speed as you skate. Do not bob up and down. Stay low in your form the whole time. It will burn your quads to do so, but this is all part of building up muscle strength.
Stops
T-Stop - more like an L, this stop is used mostly for a speed adjustment in pack situations and is good for a quick slow down in tight quarters. Some skaters prefer both knees to be bent, while other skaters stand straighter when they perform this stop. Since we are learning basics, I prefer skaters to perform this stop with knees bent, engaging their core.
Working up to this stop, we grabbed the fence with both hands in a stationary position and practiced keeping all four wheels on the ground as we dragged our braking foot towards our standing leg. Our braking foot outside wheels are the wheels we are mostly concentrating on keeping on the ground, to prevent wheel chatter (a wild T-Stop that has only the front two wheels of that braking foot on the ground makes a loud wheel chatter and gives the potential for a broken ankle, so this is a very important exercise to practice and get down).
Snow Plow Stop - this stop is used for abrupt stops that need to happen when the pack has come to a halt in front of you or behind you. It is also effective when containing a jammer. An effective snow plow stop has unlimited potential for stalling opponents. In your derby stance, guide your wheels to roll out wider than your shoulders, then turn your knees and toes to face each other, activating the inside edges of both skates. The trick to this stop is entirely on the power of your edges.
Working up to this stop, we did "watermelons," where we rolled our wheels out wider than our shoulders then turned our knees and toes to face each other until they came back together, then faced them back outwards without activating our edges to apply a brake.
Some skaters prefer to use a stagger, having one leg in front as they stop.
Examples of effective snow plow stop techniques can be seen in thisYoutube video by the San Diego Derby Dolls.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjHh7fI6OeU
California Stop - We made the term up, but the stop is a really super useful, commonly used stop for packwork when we are attempting to hold a jammer and keep her from pushing us forward. This stop is basically a snow plow stop engaging your edges, but instead of rolling to a stop, you are lifting up your feet alternately to brake at a rapid pace. Edges are super important with this, and a skater looks almost knock-kneed while performing this. Along with the arched-back cat I referred to earlier engaging your core muscles, it is very hard for anyone to move a blocker who is performing this. I will demonstrate this for you this coming Saturday.
Falls
Single Knee, Double Knee, 4-Point falls - we covered how to fall forward lightly without too much weight on our knees. A single knee fall is really a "tap," a simple balance check before popping right back up and getting back into the game. Double knee, same thing, only it's a one-two fall, so both knees should rarely, if ever, hit the ground at the same time. When performing a double knee fall, lean back towards your heels with your body weight to take the weight off of your knees so you do not damage your kneecaps and ligaments. We wear pads, but over time this is a big derby injury.
Let's try to prevent injuries early by learning correctly.
With 4-point falls, perform the double knee fall, then drop both arms (wrists and elbows simultaneously), tucking in your fingers and turning your head to the side. You should try to become as small as possible. If you have to fall, FALL SMALL. Then get up as fast as possible and rejoin your pack. Derby isn't about falling. Get back in the game and help your jammer. No drama queens.
Crossovers
We begun the process of learning crossovers. Crossovers are extremely important to gain speed and increase momentum around the corners of the track. A proper crossover gains momentum on both the "overpush" and the "underpush." We will be talking about the difference in depth this Saturday. Last week we talked about a few things related to these, but I would like to cover these in a different blog post. They can be tricky.
Transitions
We begun learning transitions last week, which is how to turn from forwards to backwards, and back again. We will be continuing this skill this Saturday and this will be covered in the next blog in depth.
Skating Backwards
Because we learned how to turn around, we also had to begin learning how to skate backwards. We will be learning more about this skill this Saturday and the next blog will cover this in depth.
Injury Prevention
We discussed some ways to strengthen common areas prone to injury, such as ankles, knees, and lower back. If you have questions about any of the exercises we did for these areas or an area that is troubling you, please talk to me or any of the PRD girls and we will find you resources. It is better to figure it out early than wait until a sore area becomes a torn something-or-another or a broken bone. Our goal is to train you correctly so that only freak accidents occur.. not preventable ones. Most if not all of our skaters do a ton of core work and off-skates conditioning to get their bodies into shape and build up muscles that are necessary to play effective derby. If you are not cross-training, now is the time to start. We will also be doing a dynamic warm-up before every on-skates practice and a dynamic cool-down stretching after the workout, to make sure that your bodies are being properly conditioned for this demanding sport. It is a lot of work, but that is why we love it.
 |
| this derby chick has great planking form and her ass is down. Yes! |
And now, your reward for reading this blog! A link to watch Team USA scrimmage each other. OMG!! The best derby evar. You're welcome :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVoZEbldPJg
xox,
Calamity
