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.
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| GOOD (and rated to receive small impacts and one major impact) |
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| BEST for repeat, violent impacts (like our sport) |
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| 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!
