Well, I'm three weeks into my official standing as a farm teamer with the Windy City Rollers. We have a new team name--The Haymarket Rioters--and we have had three practices so far. Each one has left me less tired than the one before.
Tomorrow we will have the first boot camp since I joined. This is "dry land" strength and agility training--no skates. I'm giving up a riding lesson to do this. From all reports, I can expect to get my behind hammered. Woo hoo!
Today a couple of us went over to a quiet rink and practiced dropping to one knee and getting back up without stopping forward roll; also slaloms, swizzles, and "whistle turns," which means you sort of jump around and end up skating backward, then jump around and end up skating forward. Also, I may have had a breakthrough with the baseball slide, but maybe I'm kidding myself.
Very soon, we will scrimmage! Real derby girls (our coaches) will try to knock us down! It will be fun!
I scare myself. I wake up in the middle of the night sometimes and I think, "What the frack am I doing? I'm too old for this shart! Somebody's gonna knock me into next week and I'll break something and kill myself!" At which point I say, "Jennifer, it's the middle of the night. No one is asking you to skate right now."
By the time I have geared up and warmed up and rolled out on the track, however, I'm high on adrenaline. And endorphins carry me farther through the sore-muscles stage after every practice.
Holy HOW MUCH? That's AWESOME! I bet you gots pipes!!
I'm hoping for boot camp to build my upper body up. Also abs. Without abs we cannot do baseball slides, or much of anything really. I had some last summer but I've let the situps slip, and now it's time to pay.
Really, what boot camp will do is teach me a lot of exercises I must then go home and do every day on my own. And then the once-a-week boot camp is a way of testing whether I've been doing 'em.
My friends had been following my progress for almost a year on my journal, and I could NOT get a good picture. And 100 lbs.? I was sufficiently disbelieving that I had actually done it that I shot the video clip, yeah.
Hell's donkeys, if I could press 100 I'd shoot video of it too. For that matter, if I am fortunate and good enough ever to get onto a regular team, I will be wooting all over the internet and getting my spouse to shoot video so I can give it away as Xmas presents to my hapless acquaintance.
I don't post much about the skating but I just wanted to stop in to say I continue to be impressed, and it's fun to see you so enthused and obviously enjoying it. Go Haymarket Rioters!
Thanks, Moon. I'm enthused this morning, too, even tho I did BOOT CAMP for the first time yesterday morning and afterward I didn't hurt at all! Just a little tired!
This morning, I couldn't roll over in bed without agony in a million places.
I recommend everyone to find an athletic pursuit that you love so much, you don't mind sucking at it in front of everybody. Because between enthusiasm and embarrassment, you try harder to get good, and then the endorphins come.
This summer I got my first skates and went to a bunch of the skating clinics the Boston Derby Dames ran. I couldn't commit the time to tryout for the league this year, my graduate seminar this fall had way too big a workload. But if I get a lot of pre-thesis research done this spring and summer, I can think about trying out next fall.
I have no idea if I'll be able to hack the contact sport part of this. My spirit is willing, but we'll see what the flesh has to say when it happens. I've been told I'm "intimidating" on skates. Big joke! For a five-foot-high woman? C'mon! We'll see if that translates when I actually have to give and take the hits. But the contact part is one of the big draws, for me.
Oh yeah, contact sports are great. Way back in my undergrad years, I used to do SCA fighting -- dressing up in medieval armour and whacking people over the head with rattan swords. There were some 5' women fighters who were very good! But one friend just couldn't bring herself to hit somebody at all, that didn't work so well for her.
I'm sure you can be intimidating -- it just takes the right attitude! One of our local skaters, I'm not sure if she's much if any over 5', is a great scrapper -- Prof. Coco A Go-Go. When she takes a good hit, she does go flying for a good distance out of the track, but she dives right back in and gives as many hits as she takes. And as a jammer, her size helps her dash through some tight spots. I always root for her: http://bostonderbydames.com/index.cfm?cdid=10344
I'm at the other end of the scale at 6' tall. I won't have to worry about getting knocked as far as Coco. But I do have to get down really low to drop my center of balance while I'm skating so I'm not so easy to knock over. I've been doing daily squatting exercises.
I'm doing my Masters in Classical Studies on Ancient Greek Religions. Classwork is all wrapped up, just down to the thesis now. That will take steady and solid researching, translating, and writing. I'm pretty good at juggling multiple 'lives' without getting sucked entirely into one of them ^-^
Yeah, squats are important. I can get soo looow, I know it'll help keep me on my skates when the hits start coming. We do horrible dry-land squatting exercises, usually coupled with jumps, in our Saturday Boot Camps.
So what's to translate from Classical? Isn't it all translated already? Sheesh!
I'm starting to mull over ideas for a derby name, but is it bad juju to pick a name before you make it onto a team? But I do have my sights on the number '59
btw -- love the Haymarket Rioters name, yay!
I just got a new pair of skates (Suregrip Rebels from SinCitySkates.com) that arrived on the 23rd. Sadly, I had twisted my back pretty well shovelling snow on the 20th :p I've been working steadily on stretching it back into working order -- takes a bit of work to isolate and stretch the psoas muscle. But today I was feeling limber enough to finally try on the skates and roll around the dining room frightening the cats away but getting brave and curious bunnies coming up to sniff the wheels :}
Yes, there is a fair amount of Classical material that's not translated, including most of what I want to write my thesis on. And they keep digging up more. I'm studying small group religious practices of the Greeks -- small congregations that would meet in people's houses, or rent some time in or build their own shrine if they had money. We have lots of samples of their bylaws and other information inscribed on stones.
It is not bad juju to pick a name. But you don't get to register it until you are on a WFTDA team/league.
Think about water therapy for the back. I swim every day, without fail, and it mends a lot of bustedness. Plus hot tub!
You write, "I'm studying small group religious practices of the Greeks -- small congregations that would meet in people's houses, or rent some time in or build their own shrine if they had money."
This sounds REALLY INTERESTING! I've always been interested in goddess worship and polytheism.
OK, this might be easier to keep track of conversations if I break down and create an account for this sort of thing...
Water therapy, eek! I'm a sinker not a swimmer. If I take a big lungful of air and dont' move, I sink to the bottom. It takes way too much energy to stay on top of the water to ever swim more than 1 lap.
Fortunately, I was a Dance major for my undergrad. With the dance training and the Anatomy & Kinesiology class that I had, I'm really good at being able to isolate muscles, identify exactly where problems are, and then work on stretching them out. One by one, I relaxed and stretched each muscle until there was only one left that was the culprit causing my problems -- the leftside psoas. Working on isolating and stretching that muscle a few times each day has got it back in working trim pretty quickly.
I am a polytheist (haven't met a deity yet I don't believe in :) and dedicated to Aphrodite. Which led me down the slippery slope of teaching myself ancient Greek and then going on to a Master's degreee -- be careful!
For potential derby names, I'm mulling over things that would be cat related and/or tie in with Aphrodite. I just completed a major tattoo piece as a dedication to Aphrodite Mistress of the Animals (an epithet she shares with Artemis) -- about 5-1/2 linear feet of leopard spots that wrap around my torso ^-^
If you're a sinker it just means you're muscular. Revel. Gloat, even!
Whoa, I've never gone to the lengths of learning ancient Greek to pursue my religion. I just, like, pray frantically when in skid mode. Weirdly, this is my 3rd religious conversation in 2 days. Whut up, the moon in Share or something? My "contacts" are Ganesh, Kali Durga (when under extreme duress), Isis (but only when driving or parking), and crows.
5.5 feet of leopard spots sounds COOL. All derby girls need ink. I myself need ink. Don't have an image for it yet.
Derby names are traditionally sexy, violent, and if at all possible have puns in them. But ymmv. Mine lacks the violence because I coudln't think of anything except Flash Hottie the day they sent my tee-shirt in to be printed.
Is your graduate workload likely to weigh on you? My derby group seems to be a Way Of Life for many members, not just something to do three days a week. What's your grad work in?
Ruth, you were AWESOME. In fact everyone yesterday was awesome except for me. I felt humble and lame, and woke in the night thinking "I'll never get anywhere good enough!" and other glumnesses.
However, the spouse reminded me in the morning that I thought that the first month of Derby Lite, and within four months I was Ho-humming, wanting more challenge. Let's hope I can get up to speed faster this time.
But crap, grrl, y'all are good. You personally are FAST. Yow!
you know that strange phenomenon where, if you surround yourself by those more advanced than you, you make exponential improvement? this is true in any environment, and certainly in roller derby. i think you're going to surprise yourself with your improvements.
Certainly my speed has taken a huge leap since I've been taking speed class. And there's room for improvement as time passes. I'm tempted to start coming to speed at the space now that I qualify for league speed practice. It's two hours closer to me than Romeoville and the testosterone levels have to be lower. (...I mean don't they? )
Thanks! Now that I've been doing steady squats, I've really been able to get low and stay low. I was doing a handful a day til I counted to 12 one day. Then I kept adding one each day. Today was 23. Last time I was out skating I was able to keep a super low-profile for laps and laps.
kick ass! if you want more exercises/drills for that, i can give them to ya! last night we did a drill where i was reminded how weak my right leg is compared to the left, just because of our typical skating direction. i don't even recall - are you local? to chicago, that is?
Ruth, I'd love more exercises/drills! No, I'm not local to you folks -- I'm in Boston. Bumped into Jennifer in Central Park last spring. I didn't have the time to tryout for the Boston Derby Dames this season, but am doing serious personal training to try out next fall. -Mo
I just came from Fleetwood, where I am always reminded how freakin' weak I am compared to everybody else there, including the coach's little old mother, and all the rug rats on the Fleetwood team, who smoke me.
Actually, I think I started adding 1 a day around 8 or so (it's been a long busy month wrapping up my seminar). Adding 1 a day is a feasible goal. The last 3-4 are always the killers :p --Mo
