Days of Hands

Last night, Rococo’s Restaurant hosted a pre-season Meet & Greet sponsored by Jagermeister.  We had a good crowd of fans, friends, and of course rollergirls!  There was live music followed by our DJ, so there was plenty of dancing.  The Jager Girls were there handing out free swag and I brought home a couple shirts and a thong emblazoned with the Jager logo. 

We all had a blast…  most of the new girls were there and everyone was in fine form.  I can’t wait to see the photos!  Even the incriminating ones.  Especially the incriminating ones.  We’re a very touchy-feely group *wink*.

Last Sunday, my intermediate new girl group started blocking.  This has to have been the best practice yet as far as I’m concerned.  We paired up and worked on hitting each other in a basic bump, then we learned surging where you simply use your weight to lean on someone until they are pushed out of bounds.  Mount Crushmore took Collision Cami and I through the techniques and gave us lots of suggestions and things to work on.  I am proud to say that Mount wasn’t able to push me out of bounds the first time she tried because she wasn’t expecting em to resist!  It surprised her and she sounded impressed. 

Once we had the hang of it more or less, the six of us made a pack and the three experienced skaters acted as jammers trying to get past us.  That was amazing.  What a rush!  It was my first real taste of derby, and I’m more addicted that ever.  Mariza said the same; we couldn’t stop gushing about HOW GREAT IT WAS!  The head ref called penalties and said we all needed to watch our elbows.  I need to definitely work on skating with others close by and get comfortable with using pushes, pulls, and othe assists.  After practice, Mariza, Mo, and I went to lunch and nursed our bruises over Chipotle burritos.

Monday night, Cami and I worked with Lucy Lockjaw on turn-around toe stops and I think I finally figured out the basic motion!  I can do it half the time now at slow speeds, which is WAY more than ever before.  We ran through all the falls, stops, and starts, as well as learning a few extra things Lucy could pass along.  We’re expecting a severe ice storm tomorrow, and I’m just miserable thinking that I may not be able to get to the rink.  I think I’m going to clear the floor in my garage and see how much practice space that gives me.  Yay for a heated two-car garage!  I can at least work on those turn-around toe stops.

Our first bout is exactly one month away, and stats and scrimmage practice is getting intense.  Mo has officially been named Head NSO, and has been organinzing and teaching all of us the jobs we will be performing.  I’ve taken on the task of new girl wrangling, for lack of a better term.  Retention?  Liason?  Basically, the coach is too busy to keep everyone updated and check in with them, so I have been given the task.  I’d already been doing it, emailing and texting reminders, organizing open skate nights for extra practices, and answering any questions that the newbies had.  I hope to make this my focus, because I personally had to fight to get any help or info for the first couple months, and I believe that many of the girls that try it out and then never come back could be retained if someone would just reach out.  I can do that!