Roller Derby: Fresh Meat,Week 6

I’m back!

Last week I was forced to take a break from Roller Derby (and just about everything else) because of an injury. It was a rough week, I’m generally a very active person and I had a hard time at the sudden stillness. I was bracing for a few more weeks of this.

I went in for my follow up appointment with a surgeon on Tuesday morning expecting the worst. I had decided after a very wine filled Sunday night (it was a great time, don’t get me wrong but I was suffering a bit on Monday) that I was through feeling sorry for myself and that I needed to find a more productive way to deal with the fact that my entire arm would be completely immobile forever and I would eventually have to live a life of complete inactivity. I was in a pretty dark place mentally, as I’m sure you can tell.

I was so happy leaving my appointment with only my 2 fingers wrapped together! I was a little surprised that my hand wasn’t x-rayed or anything but whatever the cast was off!

I do have to be careful with my finger, though. I had to alter my gym time because I can’t lift weights for a few weeks but thats ok. I put together a 30 minute HIIT training workout focusing on balance and derby skills. Im really happy with it.

My HIIT Training with the BOSUball:

• 1 minute running in place
• 1 minute side lunges: starting in the bosu then stepping off to one side and into a deep squat, then both feet back on the bosu and then on the other side.
• 1 minute: jumping on the bosu: stand on the bosu and jump as high as you can and then land balancing on the bosu
• 1 minute:of situps while laying on the bosu
• 1 minute: jumping forward and landing on one foot on the bosu
• 1 minute laying on my side with the bosu at my waist raising my upper body. Like a situp for the side
• 1 minute: of the same on the other side
• 1 minute of the standing jumps (the 3rd one) again
• 1 minute: laying on my tummy with the ball under my mid section with my arms straight out and raising my arms and head to one side and then the other
• 1 minute: same position and raising my right arm and left leg then my left arm and right leg
• 5 minutes: stand on the ball and hold “derby pose” pretty much squat position
• Then I did the whole thing again.

I put this together after watching different videos and reading some Derby training programs. My legs were shaking after this 30 minutes! There was no way I was going to hold that last “derby pose”for the full 5 minutes. I felt like it was pretty well rounded and focused on a lot of the important things in Derby like balance and stamina.

Please keep in mind that I am not a personal trainer and although I really recommend giving the baseball a try you can find a lot of professional training plans on pinterest.

 

Practice:

So great. I had to be careful and I sucked at a few things because of my finger but I really loved it. We are starting to feel more like a team now. The more experienced skaters are giving me tips and I am struggling with the other “freshies”. I have never really been part of a team before and I am loving the experience (even though we aren’t really a team yet, just in training).

We learned some things about actual Derby tonight. We have been focused on skating and thats really important but I was happy to actually practice something that would be used during actually game play. As you are skating, you grab a person in front of you by the hips and pull them backward at your side. Thus moving them from your path and stopping their momentum. We spent a lot of time doing drills to practice this. I had a problem because of my finger. When I tried to hold on to someone my finger really started to hurt. I just explained that I was having trouble to the trainer and I pulled back a bit. For now I felt it was important to practice the movement of it so I just touched the other persons hips without trying to pull. Very unsatisfying but it worked out well.

We practiced standard skating stuff like stopping and going from skating forwards to skating backwards in one fluid motion. We also played “Simon Says” (Simon says touch the ground, simon says touch you left knee to the ground, etc…) That was super fun. I really enjoy the games we play at practice.

At the end we did a trial run of the “27 in 5”. I had read about this on Pinterest (man, how I love Pinterest) so I was familiar with the concept. As part of our “Fresh Meat” final exam we have to skate 27 laps in 5 minutes. On our trial run tonight I managed 18 laps. I was so proud of myself! I felt like lightening! I was told by one of the trainers that on the straight bits I stand up and loose my speed. Great tip and something for me to work on. I was nervous going in but I loved it. Just skating at full speed, feeling the wind on your head through the little gaps in the helmet. It was AWESOME! And the crossovers. Oh, the crossovers. I need all the practice I can get on those things!

And I found out that the super cool Derby folk go to the local skate perk on Thursday nights. The trainer said that he would post the details on out fb group page so us “Freshies” could come skate. So awesome! I’m wicked excited about some extra skating practice.

Post Derby smiles and roses cheeks !

 

Oh, and notice anything different? I got my nose pierced on Friday. I’m really loving it so far. Hurts like a bitch but thats normal.

OK.

See you next week for more super exciting Derby Adventure!

Roller Derby: Fresh Meat, Week 5

Roller Derby: Fresh Meat, Week 3

Roller Derby: Fresh Meat, week 2

Roller Derby: New Year New Challenges. Fresh Meat. Week 1