I'm back!

I haven't been posting recently. Not because I haven't been skating, but I guess because I haven't felt like I've had a lot to say. I've been attending practice each week, but while recovering from a tendon injury in my knee that I incurred over two months ago, I haven't been able to push myself as much as I would have liked. Add to that the fact that I was on a pretty strict diet for the last two weeks and kept feeling light-headed, and you might start to see why I haven't felt particularly enthusiastic about my blogging.

Whinge over.

My knee is now much better, and my diet has moved onto the next phase, meaning that I can have vegetables on Fridays alongside the protein that I have been subsisting on so far, and tonight's practice was triumphant.

The scrimmages that form the last section of most of our practices have changed format slightly now, in that the scrimmaging teams alternate between the top group (ie those who don't mind getting bashed around and are approaching passing Basic Skills) and everyone else. Watching the newbies' and intermediates' jams is really interesting and impressive, really, because those girls are fearless where we can sometimes be over-cautious, and are beginning to skate in really tight packs.

In the top group we have been working on strategy a lot more recently, learning basic formations and using the time when the other girls are doing their jams to organise ourselves, reflect on our last jam and prepare for our next, testing our strategies and seeing what works when (and what doesn't). This has made a huge difference to us and it really feels like we're making a lot of progress now. We are even preparing to take part in our first ever bout - looking likely to be a closed door affair with my personal second favourite team (after the Cows, of course), the Norfolk Brawds, who have been going about the same amount of time as we have, and have a similar level of skill and the same kind of attitude that we do. While this was a terrifying proposition for a long time, I'm starting to feel like we can handle it now, and am actually pretty damn excited.

Now, to one of the most immediate reasons that I have regained so much enthusiasm for blogging this week: I wanted to boast because tonight I jammed and it was AWESOME. For my team's third jam of the night, I took jammer against the formidable Diamond D'Ville, and through a combination of pure luck and the support of my amazing team (tonight, my derby wife Dutch, Joni Joking, Brodie Gnarl, Angel, Bedfordshire Roller Girls' Sweet-Petite and new girl Holly), I got through the pack quite cleanly every time, using fake-out tactics and whips to slip past the blues and score points. On my last pass through I realised time was running out so really pushed myself to get through one last time and call off the jam before Diamond could get her last four points. The blues' defence was strong though, and they left very little space to get through, so I took the outside line, where there was less than a foot of track, and just as Rik 'n' Roll went to blow his whistle to call me for being out of bounds (- I'm really proud of this bit -) I lifted my right skate and glided through the slim gap on one leg before calling off the jam as planned. AND THE CROWD WENT WILD!

Ok, no crowd, but I was absolutely loving it anyway and am now brimming with renewed enthusiasm to improve and keep getting that feeling of surpassing my previous standards. Back to the roller disco this Sunday after a month or so off, and Monday I'll be heading to Bedford with Dutch to get some more practice in with some different skaters, and on a different surface. Add to that our upcoming (16th October) Fundraiser and things are looking pretty damn exciting on the derby front!

CF x

Two weeks' worth of post!

I've been slacking, there are no two ways about it. This post, then, will have to cover a couple of weeks of practices and our AGM. I don't want to write these out chronologically, because that would be really boring, so here are the main things that have happened:

I scored my first points as jammer!:
During the practice before last, when it was my turn to don the starred helmet panty, I finally broke through the pack, and then managed to score 3 points against the other team. The jam ended before I could get past the last blocker and the other jammer had scored more points, but I'm off the mark!

I hurt my knee!:
During that same practice, I was involved in a pileup with my knee scrunched underneath me. So when I continue to whinge about my knee, you know what caused it.

I WON A JAM!:
Last week, for the first time I got through the pack first, becoming lead jammer, then managed to score 4 points against a jammer from another league, who was kept at bay by my team's blockers. Calling off the jam was such a great feeling, like a real rollergirl or something. Add to that the fact that we had one of our refs-in-training (Rick 'n' Roll) running our scrimmage, and it all seems to be coming together now.

We had a night out!:
At the end of July, 11 of us met up for a lovely tapas meal at Ortega in Central Milton Keynes, before moving on for drinks and dancing at Pink Punters. It was a really good evening and we had such a great time. Hopefully we're going to make these nights a regular thing, maybe every other month, so watch out for us around the town!

I... er... caused a pileup:
Not proud of this one. A failed T-stop at the end of mine and Diamond d'Ville's relay lap send me crashing into the girls at the back of the line, and they went flying, with one girl (one of our Emmas), falling backwards to land on the wheels of another fallen skater. I felt - and still feel - awful about that, and the fall I caused by convincing Cerebrawl Vortex to try and jump cones at the disco. I need to be more careful, perfect my stopping skills, and stop causing injuries. Oh, and note to self: "Go on, it'll be fine!" is only useful and motivational if it does, ultimately, end up being fine, If it doesn't, then MAJOR GUILT will happen. Self, you have been warned.

We had photos taken!:
We were lucky enough to have a photographer come and document our last practice, and hopefully I'll be able to put a few of them up on here soon. Keep your eyes peeled! Until then, there is a little taster in my new profile picture...

I became a director!:
Yeah, you read that right. I, Claudia Faceoff, have been entrusted, along with 5 others, as directors of our baby league. The AGM was a huge success, with TWENTY of our girls in attendance, which is ridiculously awesome. Most of the content of the meeting was necessary legal paperwork, but we did get some feedback on the alternate logo designs and choose our directors, so that team is now:
The Duchess - Chair
Red Button - Vice Chair
Beltane Wytch - Secretary
Bibi Dahl - Finance Director
Tracy - Director
and me.
How exciting! Watch out, derby world: the Cows are on our way...

I'm going to leave it there for now, and promise to try and update this more regularly from now on.

C.F.

A busy week of skating...

So I haven't posteed for a little while, and I'm going to pretend that's because I wanted to write a bumper post, summarising the skating activities of this week. Because that's what you're getting now.

First of all, last week I asked for anyone from Bel's group to comment explaining what they had been doing at practice. Kitten Squeal went one better, and started her own blog, which you can find here, and also in the links sidebar, er... over there ->

Secondly, I promised you Mr X Stitch's photos from the practice he photographed for us. Rather than posting them all here, which will take up far too much space, I will point you to this gallery on our Facebook fan page, of which I know you are all already fans. Right? Good. Since this is my blog, I must point you to my flexibility in photo 2, and my arm whip to Dutch in photo 36. Please also ignore my "concentration face" in photo 40.


This Wednesday, a few of us joined Bedfordshire Roller Girls for their practice. Having not eaten much that day, I took part until I started seeing stars, then sat out for a bit before joining back in. Stupid mistake that will not be made again. The floor at Bedford is much more grippy that what we Cows are used to, and the skiting-in-treacle senseation really made things tough. So much respect for the leg muscles of the BRG girls, and those Cows that managed to keep it up for the entire 2-hour practice. Seriously, kudos.

Incidentally, the surface at BRG compounded a problem that Bibi and I have been having, which is characterised by sharp pain from the outside of the ankle running up the outside of the leg. A couple of people have suggested shin splints, although a bit of research suggests this is usually on the inside of the shin, rather than the outside. Any suggestions on a postcard plese (or in the comments, whatever you prefer).

Anyway, back to Bedford. We were lucky enough to get some coaching from Rainy City ref, Karl Lager-filled, who taught us some excellent whips and moves, including The Waitress and The Rocket. Some of these were beyond my skill level, but all of them were fun to have a go at.

After completely wearing myself out on Wednesday, I found myself laid up in bed for 2 days, presumably with whatever had afflicted Cer' during Wednesday's practice, along with a sore neck. Which sucked, and by Friday night I was concerned that I wouldn't be up to skating for the whole hour and a half. However, thanks to some accidental osteopathy from Cer' (she landed on my head and cracked my neck) I felt much better and really felt like I got a lot out of the blocking activities that Bel' organised for us. Definitely need to be pushing myself for top group now though - I think my general fitness level is letting me down, along with my lack of confidence in t-stops. More practice!


New skills executed successfully this week (if not mastered):

- T-stops - FINALLY! After weeks of watching my feet thinking "What am I doing wrong?", it turns out the thing I was doing wrong was... watching my feet. Just need to be able to use them at speed now

- Plough stops - realised I was putting my feet too far apart. With legs this short, plough stops are easier when I'm not halfway into the splits

- That 180 degree turn thing (derby stop without the stopper stop - not quite there yet) managed to get them going in both directions at Sunday's disco, thanks to Bibi and Sandra.

- JUMPING! in the final minutes of the disco yesterday, I managed to jump over a row of cones. Not the little 1-2 skips I had done before, but actual, both-feet-leaping-and-landing-at-the-same-time-jumping. ACE.


Things I can tick off last week's to-do list:

- "Get a new mouthguard that doesn't make me want to hurl" DONE. Got an OPRO Bronze mouthguard in white. It's really good, if anyone needs a recommendation, and you can get them online for about £3 inc. postage.

- "Get a practice session in between Sunday's roller disco and Friday's training" DONE. BRG.

- "Learn how to actually stop on a surface other than my kitchen tiles, or no-one will believe me." DONE.

To add:

- Learn to stop reliably, at speed.


Other exciting MK Cows news this week:

- COW SOCKS ARE HERE!

- Nef, Red and Betty were on the radio!

- Dutch is putting together a fanzine! (Any ideas for articles in the comments please!)


Right, that's quite enough for now. If you made it this far, well done. Don't think this entry was particularly entertaining, so I will try harder next time. Promise.

C.F.

x

Uh oh, injuries!

Special derby love going out this week to Emma and Joni, who have had some nasty accidents (off the track, I hasten to add).

Emma was knocked down at her son's skating party and dislocated her fingers, and Joni came off her bike in a nasty way and from what I hear is heavily bruised but walking wounded. Now I don't believe in healing energies or any of that stuff, but hurry up and get better girls, for both unselfish and selfish reasons. We miss you!

C.F.

Team photo

(Most of) the Concrete Cows

Here's the first of Mr X Stitch's photos from last night - a team photo of everyone present at last night's practice (notable absentees were Red Button and Joni Joking). More to come this evening; can't wait to see them!

C.F.

Oooooh mama!

After 6 hour-long practices, tonight we had our first hour-and-a-half. And boy, am I feeling it! It was brilliant though, and I definitely feel like I got a chance to challenge myself at things I hadn't tried before (some more successfully than others). The number of status updates from the team proclaiming love for derby tonight (with many an exclamation mark) suggests I am not alone.

In Mong's group, we did our first ever mini-jams, taking it in turn to be jammer, and learning how to block. You know how it looks tough? It's even tougher than that. As final jammer, I didn't even get through the pack once, but I did get up each time I was taken down, which I'm going to hold as a mini-victory over, well... just staying there and having a sit-down, which believe me, was super-tempting.

We also did some speed trials, timing ourselves doing one lap around the track. I was pleased with my time - 14.34 seconds, which ranked seventh (yes, I'm incredibly competitive. I'm working on it) - but above all it was interesting to see the styles of those with the quickest times: the quickest leg movements (ARGH! QUICK INTERLUDE TO GET A MASSIVE SPIDER OFF MY SHIRT) didn't equate to the quickest times; in fact the smoother and longer the strides, the quicker the lap. Something to work on, particularly as I don't exactly have leg-length on my side. Special congrats to the six girls who beat me: The Valkyrie, Bibi Dahl, Stef and Emma (get some skate names!)Squirrel Nut U and The Duchess, all of whom were exemplary skaters (and who blatantly cheated. Honestly, I'm working on it)!

Wish I could update you on Bel's group as well, but I was a bit busy having my arse handed to me on a plate to look over too often. If anyone wants to give us a run-down of what you worked on tonight in the comments, that'd be ace, as I know there's some awesome progress being made.

We were also lucky enough to have tonight's practice documented by Mr X Stitch, whose photos should up soon - when I have them, you'll have them (minus the hideous ones of me that I will understandably censor from your delicate eyes). Thanks to him, to Brodie Gnarl, who rescued Ninja Myrtle and I after Ninja's car failed its MOT, and also to Cer', who gave me a lift to the pub after practice, followed by an impeccably English lift home after the pub, adrenaline-free. :P

Next up, Sunday's roller disco, with the potential of how-many-laps-can-you-do-in-5-minutes practice as well. Two-and-a-half-hours of skatey goodness. Gold.


To do list:

- Get a new mouthguard that doesn't make me want to hurl
- Work on having a longer stride - beat my personal best lap time (and a couple of the other girls', obviously :P)
- Get a practice session in between Sunday's roller disco and Friday's training
- Learn how to actually stop on a surface other than my kitchen tiles, or no-one will believe me.
- Be less competitive/channel competitiveness into self-improvement (probably more achievable!)


Signing off!

Claudia Faceoff

(Rawr! -for Cer')

Happy birthday Betty Knox!

I stole this photo from your Facebook. :)

Today is Betty Knox's 23rd birthday! Gonna see her at practice in approximately 4 hours anyway, but since we'll probably be trying to knock each other over at that point, here's a great big Happy Birthday to the derby girl who just won't stay down! xx