Derby Middle School: Week 5

This final DMS practice completes the 5 week DMS course to catch new White Stars up on basic strategy. They tested for Orange Star today, and I'm happy to report that 8 out of 9 passed!! Woohoo, they're scrimmage ready! 

This last practice in the circuit was led by LT SlamHer, a transfer skater who has been playing derby for years at NoCoast Derby in Nebraska. She's a no-b.s. woman who keeps her head down, works her ass off, and takes feedback like a humble newbie despite her lengthy derby history! This is a chick to admire.

Week Five	Saturday July 5	Instructor(s):		Location:	Hawaii Kai	9am-11am
Continue practical application of skill sets, and Scrimmage

Derby Middle School, Week 5:

Fast feet work, inside outside type of stuff. 
We did a single & double pace line having the front 2 people race around the track coming up to the back of the pack using plow or T stops to slow down. 
We worked on form & magic circle for the 27/5. 
We did positional blocking with 2 blockers 1 jammer. 
We did same drill only with 3 blockers 1 O & 1 jammer. 
We did fanning out on straight aways & collapsing on corners. 
We did suicides working on tomahawk stop turning around.

Derby Middle School: Week 4

Practice was again led by Gidget.

Week Four	Saturday June 28	Instructor(s): Gidget		Location:	Hawaii Kai	9am-11am
Jammer-Pack cohesion and incorporation of weeks 1-3

Derby Middle School, Week 4:

Warm Up: Cassetes, Fig 8s, 15 Laps Magic circle, dynamic stretch

Endurance portion:

Groups of two, sprint pyramids with a fall every lap.

Start on jam line on belly, on whistle sprint laps with a fall on every finished lap. Pyramid of 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2

Drill 1 Focus: Proper hitting and swiping

-Against the wall work on swooping down and up using your whole body to hit.

-Pair up on the track take turns hitting each other

-Skating up from behind, timing your hit properly

-Sweeping a group 1 on 2

-Adding in jammer

Drill 2 Focus: Proper spacing on Bridging

-Bridging forward from a stop using the jam line as the anchor

-adding in a pushy jammer

- turning in to rapid fire, endless power jam for 2 min

Drill 3 Focus: Proper spacing and timing to bridge back

-Using the jam line as an anchor, bridge back to recycle jammer

-Add in jammer

Drill 4 Focus: Partner blocking

-Booty Block alley 2 on 1

-3 on 1

Fun Drill: Pace line whipping 

Stretch and Pau!

Derby Middle School: Week 3

This practice was led by Gidget, a woman new to derby but NOT to sports. A beast on the track, this girl is a double threat who blocks and jams like she's been playing for a decade. When we need someone to bulldoze their way through and score a quick 10 points, Gidget is our girl.

Week Three	Saturday June 21	Instructor(s): Gidget		Location:	Hawaii Kai	9am-11am
More pack work and practical game scenarios

Derby Middle School, Week 3:

Warm up:

15 laps magic circle

Dynamic Stretching

Drill1 Focus- fast transitions using toe stops to run out with urgency

- On the whistle transition from forward to backward skating not using your toe stops to balance.

- Fast transitions to mohawk stop skating opposite direction using your toe stops to run out of the stop.

- Group of 2 to 3 Sprinting forward two cones as a group mohawk stop staying in a wall sprinting back one cone mohawk as a group and staying in a wall.

Drill 2 Focus- Learning to avoid hits by changing levels ie. getting low to get in front and getting high to go behind.

- Groups of two scissoring, one skater on inside one skater on outside, skaters are cutting in front of and behind their partner getting as close as possible without touching, skater who goes in front squats low and skater that goes behind gets high.

- Groups of three repeat as above.

Drill 4 Focus- Using your hips and shoulders to squeeze through blockers by turning your body sideways.

- Double pace line 2 feet apart, skater runs up the center of the line turning their body sideways keeping their feet moving and looking up.

- Double pace line every three seconds the skaters will open and close a whole so the "jammer" has to focus on running and slowing to get through still turning their body sideways to get through.

- Take it to groups of three 2 blockers, 1 jammer, jammer is focused on going through the middle of the blockers turning sideways and runing through the blockers.

Drill 5 Focus- Refilling blocker positions when the jammer happens to get around blockers.

- groups of three blockers on the whistle switch positions with your team mates grabing pushing and pulling to stay in a tight wall.

- adding in a jammer 

Drill 6 Focus- Offensive blocking from the front of back by sweeping a wall.

- Groups of 2 sweeping your partner from inside to out or utside to in.

- 3 D blockers 1 O blockers working on sweeping walls from front or back.

Drill 7 Focus- Pack Definition how to make a long pack by bridging.

- Using the Jam line as an anchor make a daisy chain to bridge out to 50 feet.

- Add in a pushy jammer 

Cool down PAU!

Derby Middle School: Week 2

Miss a week, miss a lot!! Make sure to get to as many Middle Schools as possible to prepare yourself for the Orange Star assessment on July 6th.

Trainer this week was Bricks HitHouse, one of PRD's biggest menaces on the flat track. Her strength and agility completely destroys opposing teams. DMS girls were lucky to get a practice in before she leaves us next month for New York!

Week Two	Saturday June 14	Instructor(s): Bricks		Location:	Hawaii Kai	9am-11am
Pack work and Jammer basics.

Derby Middle School, Week 2:

1. warm up and dynamic stretch.

2. demonstration of a wall and different wall variations.
-A.paired up in twos and practiced making a wall and staggered plows together on the whistle.
-B. did the same moving into 3 and 4 man walls until they were able to plow all together in a 4 man wall.

3. gave brief demonstration of blocker lanes and how far each blocker should be covering in a wall.
-A. in a 4 man wall while skating pack speed gave the commands of “inside”,”outside” or “middle”. on the commands the two blockers closest to that area would then close their hips together without leaving their lanes.
-B. sent a dummy jammer through to apply light pressure.


4. demonstration of  a swipe and plow movement to gain position, demonstration of a sweep movement to clear a lane and gain position and demonstration of an effective hip check.
-A. paired them up in twos and had them swipe and plow in front of partner from the outside to inside line and then practiced it from inside to out.
-B.paired them up and had them sweep their partner form the outside to inside line and then practiced it from inside to outside line.
C. had the pairs sweep and then deliver a hip check to the outside line.

5. gave a demonstration of effective pushing and pulling of your partner and why and where it would be useful. demonstrated the correct place to push on your partners hips to make her go in the other direction. talked about communication while moving your partner.
-A.  paired them up and had them push each other from the outside to the inside line and then switched from the inside to the outside.
-B. had them line up in 3 lines. the pusher, the rag doll  and the enemy.  on the whistle the enemy around the track to try to gain position on the pair, the pusher’s job is to use the rag doll to prevent the enemy from getting by so that the pusher can deliver the hit/sweep to the inside or outside.
C. talked about multiplayer blocks and how to avoid them.


6.talked about the magic circle and the sweet spots on the track. why they are important to blockers as well as jammers. Gave a demonstration of how to “skate at somebody” meaning- how to approach a wall and where to attack the wall to break it up or gain position. talked about going into a wall “pointy” with your shoulders and legal blocking zones to break up a wall. talked about how to approach a wall if you are coming in hot. coming in at an angle.
-A. formed a line and let the skaters practice breaking up a two man wall of cookie and I by attacking the crack and using their shoulders
-B talked about Jam line starts and what you need to be doing as a blocker when you hear the 5 second call.
—a. practiced jam line starts with a 4 man wall. allowed each jammer to break though the wall and approach the pack from the rear coming in hot.

7. stretch

Beyond Fresh Meat: Derby Middle School, Week 1

Once our Fresh Meat cycle of 3 months ends, we begin a 2-hr, 1x a week, 5 week program called "Derby Middle School." This is Pacific Roller Derby's way of transitioning our newest skaters into regular league practices without thrusting them into situations before they are prepared to do them. Each of the five days has a core curriculum that has been determined ahead of time by our Athletics Committee to cover all aspects of beginning strategy and intermediate skills and is echoed into lesson plans of regular league practices throughout each week. The new "White Stars" can now attend regular league practices, but must refrain from any full contact drills. All contact elements are taught within the Middle School, beginning strategy topics are broken down, and minimum skills are refined. By the end of the 5-week period, the White Stars are ready to test for "Orange Star," which allows them to be drafted to a home team and begin to participate in full contact scrimmages. This not only cuts down on our league injuries and helps existing league skaters, but helps with skater retention... as it is much easier to learn over a longer period of time than to learn in a trial-by-fire situation. Long gone are the days of being thrown into a scrimmage against all of the vets, being told to "just get in there!" We have learned over the years that that really doesn't help anyone.

This first session was led by one of our league's best skaters, Phoenix Bunz, and her husband and referee extraordinaire, Great Scott. They just transferred here from Ohio Rollergirls and are casually integrating into the instructional element of our Athletics Committee. PRD is extremely grateful for their contributions. Here is the core curriculum of day 1 along with Bunz' lesson plan.

Week One	Saturday June 7	Instructor(s): Bunz and Great Scott		Location:	Hawaii Kai	9am-11am
Personal skills assessment and strategy basics.

Derby Middle School, Week 1:

Dynamic Warm-up/Stretching-Everything you do on tennis shoes, we do on skates

Squat Cirlce

Merry Go Round (transitions)

Hold your underpush-emphasize the power

Pace-line weaving, weaving tight, partner weave, front to back

Pace-line Speed Changes-Adjust your speed, match the feet of the person in front of your

Line Racing-Utilize the Jammer Line

Pack Skating-Getting Comfortable in tight Spaces

Pack Commands-Moving around the pack, falling small

Pack Indian Runs

Gotham Knee Drags-Endurance, build up your core, Get up quick

Gotham Pushes-Endurance

Covered basic hitting techniques-hip check, shoulder/body check, sheriff, backwards blocking, positional blocking/booty blocking, side-ways blocking

Practiced hitting trainers, slow speeds, stationary target

Push-up Circle-work on strength and core

Weeks 10 and 11: Hiking a mountain, continued skills, packwork

Week 10 was the sort-of surprise hike up Kokohead. By now the rumors of past initiation hikes are starting to spread to the next intake, so it's hard to keep it under wraps. Girls that attended practice were kidnapped, covered in glitter and face paint, and ordered to climb the close by Kokohead Crater. No girl was left behind, and fun was had! Pics were ahhhmazing. This hike helps with overall fitness but more importantly, it helps the freshies bond and learn to be there for each other as teammates.

 

This past Saturday, we started off with some new tricks I learned from a visiting Kiwi, Mr. Justin Lopes,  Physiotherapist, who showed us injury prevention exercises we can do to strengthen important derby muscle groups so that we don't blow out our knees. If you would like more information about the exercises he taught us and that I showed you, you can check out his facebook page where he gives examples. Go ahead and friend him on fb. If you have specific recurring injuries or questions, he is very helpful.

We started out on skates with review of basic agility and lateral movement, then launched into pace lines, double pacelines, single weaves and partner weaves. We even went backwards! We did red light/green light to work on positional blocking with a buddy and ended with the 27/5 trial. Some passed, some made it to 5 minutes, and some figured out that their skates needed more break-in time. Ouch! Hopefully all will be worked out by May 31.

Positional Blocking: if you're doing it right, this is all a jammer sees while she's jamming.

Here is some more helpful info for all of you working on your 27/5 that have not yet been able to conquer it. I hope it helps... I found this to be a thorough blog post and can't say it any better ;)

http://rollerderbytraining.co.uk/2014/05/19/hiit-27-laps-hard-roller-derby-workout-video/

Are you studying for the written rules test???????????????????????????????????????????

Weeks 8 and 9: Whips, Pushes, Intro to Pack Work, Backwards X-overs

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.

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke0iusvydl8

Yulia Lipnitskaya, age 15

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.

Just kidding! Don't try this until you're a Green Star ;)

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.