Odds and ends
March 11th, 2008
Hello!
So far the outcome of the water debacle is Purse = Fine, Camera = unsure still, but not holding out hope. I’m going to put my spare battery in and try to charge it tomorrow and hope for the best. If not, I have just enough credit card points left to get me a new one from the evil blue and yellow store… I believe Mir refers to it as “Excellent Purchase”? The more I try and boycott them, the more they suck me back in. Bastards.
On the derby front… I have been “track cleared” but not “all skate cleared.” What this means is that when the track is free, I can, with another person for safety, go and skate on it. I cannot participate in the league-wide all skates. While I’m not a danger to myself or others, the trainer I talked to is pretty sure I will get my ass handed to me and wants me to get “a little more confident.” I’m not arguing with her. All skate scares the ever-loving hell out of me, and while I want to participate to get over my fear… you know… sometimes the fear is there for a reason.
I’m at that weird point in activities where I start to plateau and get bored. I really don’t want that to happen with derby. When I started I had so few expectations of what I was going to be able to do that when I started succeeding it felt great. The successes are harder to come by now, which means I need to push that much harder to get them. Hopefully I can get my sad-sack self motivated to get to the track on non-fresh-meat days and actually make myself do the hard things. Oh, transitions! I hate you and your friend “skating backwards”! But I will CRUSH you.
Entry Filed under: grr, roller derby
3 Comments Add your own
1. Ellen | March 11th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Can I just tell you how awesome it is that you’re giving derby a go? I have been trying to talk myself into trying out for our local league, but suspect I need to be in far better shape than I am currently.
2. Jessica | March 11th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
That’s the thing! You don’t at first… Derby really kicks your ass into shape quickly. The way my league works is that anyone is invited (as long as you’re 21+ and have health insurance) to come to the Fresh Meat practices and they’ll lend you gear and teach you to skate. From there, you progress to being “cleared” for allskate, then try out for the sub pool and eventually get placed on a team. It’s all a gradual process filled with lots of super awesome ladies who want to help you out as long as you put in the effort. It looks like Rat City Rollers want you to have some minimum skating under your belt—decent stride, stops, cross-overs and some maneuvering.
My best advice is to go to a local skate rink and get some practice. Remember to bend your knees and not stiffen up when you have the skates on. Watch speed skating videos on youtube to see their form through the turns… those are cross-overs.
Oh! And apparently you can join their “potential new girl” message board: http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/PFMPracticeSquad/
Dooooooo it
3. Ellen | March 11th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
The way your league works sounds much more encouraging than the way the RCRG website led me to believe things might work–the PFM practice squad certainly sounds less scary.
We’ll have to see how I do on a pair of skates again–it’s been a long time since all my middle school Friday night skating days, but I think I do need to jump in and try it anyhow. I think I shall drop them an email once I get back to Seattle. Hmm.
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