Almost famous!

So about a week and a half ago Rubi, Boudica and I got interviewed by a local magazine about roller derby and our impending roller disco fundraiser. I have a suspicion that the reporter was secretly interested in doing derby herself, and that's why she got that project.

But yeah, the interview was fun, and getting to gear up and talk about derby and then also pose for a bunch of photos while we were all in our derby gear and looking badass and everything was kind of awesome. It's my first interview in regards to being an athlete! Hahaha. I should have flexed my (beefy T-rex) arms for the camera more.

You can read all about it here.

Haha, I come off as being so administrative in the interview. She did ask me a lot about the numbers of members and stuff, and it was weird and nerdy that I could just rattle those off from memory. Heh.

The first rule of derby is...

Don't be a douchebag.

Nobody likes these things. Nobody.

No, really. I know this sounds obvious, but it's actually hard to stick to this rule sometimes. I guess with all the big personalities that it takes to actually do derby, plus the fact that it's an aggressive and dramatic sport, things can sometimes spill over or people will read things into offhand comments or actions when there was no bad intention there in the first place. There are little things that might be mildly irritating, but you push through them because that's what you need to do to actually do derby. But then those things escalate. And then, before you know it, you have a full blown league crisis on your hands. And nobody wants to have to deal with that.

Why does it happen? The douchebaggery phenomenon (as I'll call it) is partially sociological: A lot of talking goes on in derby (notwithstanding any stereotypes about its inevitability, given we are having large groups of women hanging out together). There will be communication problems: things get misconstrued and misinterpreted. Given the large number of people who do derby, it's also inevitable that you will have subgroups or cliques form. You will end up being better friends with some people than others. Hell, teams are an obvious instance of subgroups within a league, not to mention all the informal socialising-y groups that also will spring up.

Sheep can be bitches. (Photo: Martyn Peck)

However, I think part of it is also symbolic. Derby is all about inclusion, or at least it prides itself on being so. So maybe when someone feels like they are excluded or isolated from the rest of the group, then it becomes more hurtful than in situations where inclusiveness isn't such a big deal. Everything else being equal, it might be worse to be excluded from a group in roller derby because it's not just about not getting to skate, it's the fact that you're not getting to skate with a particular group of people. And so if it's more hurtful to do that, a natural response might be to resent the fact that this is happening.

Anyway, I'm not a sociologist or psychologist or anything like that, but this is all well documented. Interestingly it seems to happen to EVERY league that I have come across, to some extent or another. Bonnie D. Stroir blogged about it here, and Bunnie's got some nice offerings for how to deal with it here. And these are just the tip of the iceberg. Skatelog has a whole bunch of entries about different aspects of how to address conflicts within a league, and that sort of thing. I'm not sure how much I can really offer on this perspective, but here are a couple of ways of breaking down the "Don't be a douchebag" rule into some nice, tasty and easily-digestible chunks:

There is no "I" in "team", or "league" for that matter

Notice it says "we're", not "I'm".

I often wish that you weren't allowed to have the number 1 for your derby number. For symbolic reasons, I don't think that any one individual should get to be "Number One", as it were. Of course, if your entire team wins something and then you are all collectively Numero Uno, then that's awesome, and good for you. But nobody should be in a position where they are more important than anyone else in the team. The whole point of being in a team is that you have an aggregation of individuals, where the interests of the team are supposed to be paramount (or else you just have a bunch of individuals skating around, not an actual team skating).

Everyone is a moral equal
This is often a hard one to remember. I think it's almost the converse of the previous point. Whities and freshies are just as important and valuable to the team as someone who's scrimmaging or on a travel team or is a captain or holds a committee position or anything like that. They are just as much a part of the league as anyone else, and should be treated that way.

But note: when I say that everyone is a moral equal, it doesn't mean that you have to treat everyone exactly the same. That would be stupid: it would mean throwing freshies into the deep end, or having sessions where scrimmaging skaters aren't learning anything. What I mean here is that everyone deserves equal respect for their skating ability and their capacity to learn and grow as a skater. The weakest skater in your pace line isn't dead weight; she just needs more of your support, not more of your yelling. If you can do backwards crossovers that's great, but realise that not everyone can, so have the time to give newer skaters pointers. The whities and freshies deserve just as much praise and encouragement for something they have achieved as someone who is drafted onto a team, even if that thing is a T-stop. What we sometimes need to do is just step back and see the skater as a person, not just as a particular rank or skill level. In short: equal respect, and equal consideration. 

The only round things in derby should be wheels.

Shit happens
Sometimes you just have a bad day. Deal with it, but realise that you are having a bad day and don't take it out on other people. Not everyone is psychic. They will not will know that you are having a bad day or what your problem is unless you tell them. (I'm guilty of this myself sometimes, but I'm trying to get better.) The fact that you tell them that it's only temporary will be something that alleviates the tension as well; you won't be seen as a mega-bitch who is constantly PMS-ing and people will actually be sympathetic if you talk about it. And maybe sometimes all you do need is to rant and get it all out. There are people who will, believe it or not, listen to what you have to say. Keeping things to yourself and letting them stew is an excellent way to lose perspective.

Remember your roots
As people become more advanced, they sometimes forget where they came from. Sometimes we don't understand why someone can't plow stop, or why they are complaining that their back hurts from being in derby stance for five seconds. But that's just because those things are second nature to us now. I think it'd actually be interesting for people who are of bouting level to watch some freshies train. (By "interesting" I mean "humbling" here.) We all came from the same place. Everyone had to learn how to skate at some point. For some people, that was twenty years ago. For others, it's last week. Remember that. Be patient.


Know when to shut up

Not part of team uniform.

There are a lot of people in a league. You won't be friends with everyone. By all means, talk to everyone and try to be friends with everyone, but you will inevitably gravitate towards some people more than others. Not a problem in itself. The problem is when you start bitching about people for something they did. If you have the balls to do it, say it to their face. Otherwise, don't say it at all.

This also goes more generally for having grievances about your league. If you have a problem, sort it out internally. Interleague issues are by definition just things to sort out within a league. Deal with them within your league then, obviously. But remember that you should keep an united front for the public to see. Dirty laundry doesn't help anyone, and if anything it might scare off newbies from joining if all they see is a giant shitstorm of drama in their faces.

Interpret charitably

Holy shit. I actually want this; it's a couch/punching bag combo.

A lot of comments get made. Some are nice, some are not. Some can be nice or not nice, depending on how you decide to take it. People can be passive-aggressive. But why not give them the benefit of the doubt?

For all you know, that facebook status update that says "I am having the worst day ever, everything sucks" isn't in relation to a poorly-made ref call or some altercation they had with you on the track. Maybe the person just found out they lost their job, or a loved one, or something else. Believe it or not, not everything is about derby.

Unless they say something like "OMG I hate [some particular person] because they did [some particular thing] at [some particular place] and [some particular time]", you can't be absolutely certain that their rant is directed at you. So don't think that all the ranty comments on facebook or whatever are about you or derby or the league, because they're not.

Finally, STFU & SK8
The best way to not be a douchebag is to just avoid the drama llama in the first place. If you see it brewing, take action to nip it in the bud before it blooms into a giant clusterfuck. If you're pissed at someone, talk to them about it. Then, if that doesn't work, skate out your rage. But complaining about shit doesn't help anyone. If you all realise that you are in it together for the love of roller derby, then keeping that shared goal in mind will help you overcome your obstacles.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Not my biceps (yet).

I’ve been skating for about 4-5 months now. At first it was just once a week (an hour on Sundays), but now I have a regime of two on-skates training sessions and one off-skates fitness session per week. The two on-skate ones are two hours each, plus one has a half-hour of light off-skate fitness. The actual off-skate fitness session is an hour of strength and core work, agility and endurance drills. We do box jumps (hilarious because I am the shortest person in the league and I have to jump boxes that are up to my thighs, and those same boxes are mid-shin for some people), kettlebell workouts (two-handed swings, weird Turkish getup things), ladder runs and a shit load of squats. Pretty much it’s 10 reps of each, in a circuit. Then, there are sit ups, front/side/back planks, push ups, lunges, sprints and god knows what else. Oh, and then on Friday I deadlifted my own body weight. Fuck yeah. And my arms aren't hurting anymore now, either.

One thing that I have noticed is that my body is changing. Not in the pubescent “I’m growing boobs” sense but in the sense that I am actually developing muscles. Or rather, I am getting back the muscles I used to have from serious-hockey-playing days. That’s a welcome return. My thighs are pretty fucking beefy, relative to the rest of my body. My ass is less flabby and bony, and more firm, according to unspecified sources (woohoo, derby booty). I still have stupid T-Rex arms, but doing more weights and push ups will fix that. I think I’m currently the heaviest I’ve ever been (barring poor eating habits at the end of high school due to exam stress), but I’m okay with that because it’s mostly muscle.

And today I saw that I have lines on my back. Like, tone lines, fuck yeah. I would like to get some of those on my front so I don’t have a beer gut. I often measure the amount of fat I have on my stomach by scrunching the fat and skin around my belly button and seeing how big of a butt shape I can make it go in. I know that’s gross, but I was inspired when I saw it once on an episode of Jerry Springer years ago, so go figure. (By the way, I really fucking miss that show.) Happily, the gut-butt I can make now is substantially smaller than it was six months ago. Fuck yeah.

Welcome to Team Pie, where there are at least 1.3 pies per person.

My metabolism is also going kind of crazy. After I skate I am a fucking eating machine. I can inhale a burger and fries like nobody’s business, and after our weeknight skate sessions we sometimes have Team Pie night, which is a bunch of us hanging out in McDonalds and devouring a fuck ton of pies and burgers and attracting the attention and ire of weirdos. Last week at Team Pie I ate three burgers, two things of medium fries, two things of medium Fanta (I hate coke) and half a pie. Fuck. That’s actually kind of disgusting. Plus if Team Pie is a weekly event (which it has been the past month), it’ll soon become Team Bowel Cancer. This week I skipped Team Pie for a slightly healthier option (oven bake fish, oven bake fries, panfried asparagus, chocolate milk). I think it’s about the same volume of food, but I actually feel better the next day about it (both in terms of diminished sluggishness and guilt). If I can eat well and continue working out as much and as hard as I am now, I’m kind of excited to see what my body will look like in another 6 months.

Quodpot Update

On Saturday we had that quodpot game (that I mentioned in this entry) against the Uni Dragons. The game itself wasn’t really that important (and that’s not because we lost 3-1), but holy shit can we really live up to the derby girl stereotype.

Not a sweatshop.

But let’s start a bit before that. So, despite the fact that quodpot was a 5-minute game, I think we’ve put in a total of at least 10 hours of effort into things like procuring warpaint, shopping for boutfits, planning and strategy, painting shirts, making team pie and general awesomeness. On the Tuesday before, a couple of us scoured factory outlets and sex shops for appropriate things to make boutfits out of. I don’t know when things from sex shops would ever be “appropriate” in non-sexual contexts, but here you go. Fishnets, frilly knickers, tutus and plaid miniskirts and hotpants were on the agenda (I don’t think we actually found any hotpants in the sex stores, wtf). Then on Thursday, I had to submit the names of the team to the HPC people, and they thought what we had come up with was pretty hilarious. Yay. Then on Friday, after fitness training, I had the quodpot ladies come over and we painted our shirts and ate pie and generally had a fantastic time.

Fuck yeah, homemade strawberry pie.

And then Saturday we basically rocked up two hours early to get our boutfits and warpaint on. Most people did the football-style black/red stripes across their cheekbones, but I opted for a big fat black vertical streak over one eye. In retrospect it just looked like I had hair over my face like an emo kid, so maybe next time I’ll try it in red. Junky brought her kid and we warpainted him too. And then walking out onto the field was seriously awesome. The reaction we got was fantastic, from both the HPC and other random people like parents and announcers and the reporters from the uni newspaper. The only exception was at one point when a little boy saw my shirt and asked his mum what a “golden snatch” was. Titter.

Fuck yeah, Smashkaban. (Photo: Rachel White)

We had our own rollout too! I gave the announcer person our HP Derby names and she read them out as we ran onto the field. She stumbled over “Whore Crux”. Actually, what’s with so many HP things that can be punnified into including the word “whore”? Like, really. Uni Dragons had something lame like “Player 1, Player 2, etc.” kind of thing. So, before we played quodpot, we totally won on awesomeness points there. And we looked a fucking lot better than they did.

The match itself was kind of tough. We had a good strategy I think, but I just couldn’t hipcheck this beefy dragon boating boy who was marking me. I tried and I would just bounce off him. He was seriously about twice my size. Juking worked really well, however, and I managed to get a quodpot (is that what the water balloon thing is called?) into the bucket by just twisting around him and then running like hell. Haha. My only regret was not smashing more water balloons onto the Uni Dragon guys when it became clear that we weren’t going to win. That would have been much more derby girl-esque to do methinks.

Oh noes, I am being chased by a beefy guy. (Photo: Rachel White)

But it was a good day. We got heaps of great publicity for the league, and we’ve had people contact us and want to join on account of our presence on Saturday. And we got to strengthen our ties with other university clubs, so maybe we’ll get to do more inter-club things like that. We also invited the HP people to skate with us too. I suppose quidditch on wheels is pretty close to roller hockey.

Oh yeah and then Hufflepuff won. Fuck yeah.

Here's an awesome photo montage video thing that Eleri did. I can't embed it because I don't know how to, and blogger only gives me the option to use YouTube. Boo.

This girl will self-destruct in 10… 9…

Derby girls (and boys) are often described as being somewhat crazy and hardcore to do roller derby in the first place. I don’t know if the claim is true or not, and I don’t want to really get into that whole side of it. But training with the yellow stars (while they’re doing their orange star tests) is definitely a step up from the whities. As much as I think it’s important to make early derby training as accessible and friendly as possible for people learning how to skate, there comes a point when you really just want to be able to do get into the tough and aggressive smashy side of things.

We did pace lines with (non contact) weaving, whips, booty blocking, pushes and the like. But my favourite drill by far is the obstacle avoidance one. Basically, one person skates around the track while a pack of 4 other skaters spontaneously fall in front of them. The pack skaters can fall however they like; they don’t have to fall small or in any of the ways that you’re actually taught. The person skating has to avoid crashing into or tripping over the fallen skaters, and can do this by stepping around them or falling and then getting up, or (my favourite) jumping over them.

This is what you are trying to avoid doing (with skates on)

Boudica and I didn’t get tested on this tonight, because we’re pretty much the newest yellows and we aren’t getting tested to the same degree for our orange stars as everyone else. But we got to be part of the packs that fell in front of people. Sometimes strategy was needed to try and fuck it up for the person who is avoiding obstacles; sometimes it was just a matter of getting in front of them and getting all in their grill (or legs, as it were). But yeah, I certainly didn’t think that throwing myself under the wheels of oncoming skaters would be as fantastic as it was. I ended up doing a lot of really big sprawls; maybe it’s because I’m pretty little anyway so I wanted to spread out more to increase the potential for fuck-uppery. A lot of what I did was a cross between a superman dive and a starfish. I did slide a lot as well, which was cool. And once the person had avoided you, you basically skate as fast as you can to get in front of them and try again. Bahaha. I did manage to trip Ravish, and after a moment of satisfaction doing that (because she’s an awesome skater), then it was right back up to throw myself under her wheels again.

This is how I sprawl.

It was stupidly fun. Given that you’re pretty much not padded where your vital organs are, I’m surprised that nobody ruptured a kidney or got some wheels in their spleen. I did get some skates VERY close to my head, and I’ve been thinking a lot about whether or not skate helmets are really that good at preventing concussions. But I wasn’t kicked in the head or anything which was good. Hooray for not getting brain damage. And apart from a bruise on my sidebum(??) from constantly throwing my self on the ground in the same way, I didn’t get any real injuries.

I can’t wait until I get to do it again. And maybe this time, maybe I’ll get to avoid them so I can jump over people too. Yeah, maybe I do have a bit of a self-destructive streak.

Oh, and then after we got kicked out of the gym we decided to get our orange star fitness shit out of the way. This meant that a bunch of us did pushups and situps (5x10 of each) and planks (60 forward, 60 for each side) on either a hard concrete basketball court or a duck shit-covered wet patch of grass. Well, we are crazy and hardcore like that.

"Dealing with" fresh meat

I've been posting on Skatelog, because it is an awesome resource for contacting other leagues and finding out how other leagues do things.

One of the discussions we are having there is about how leagues are "dealing with fresh meat". Now, I don't really like the term "dealing with"; it sounds like they're a problem or something. They're certainly not. But I found out that some other leagues seem to have a "tear them down" attitude where new skaters get yelled at if they can't keep up with the vets. Some leagues say that derby is tough, and so only the people who are sufficiently tough mentally (to withstand getting yelled at and so on) will make it in the game. Maybe a baptism of fire will work for some, but I don't think that is the right way to go, generally speaking.

I'd like to think that I was a T-bone. Or maybe a sirloin.

New skaters are important for leagues because they breathe new life into them. I mean, our league is pretty new as it is, but I think it's important to be dynamic in the league's personality and the direction that we want it to go in. I think that's important to nurture freshies because they are, whether we like it or not, necessary for the future of derby as a sport. You can't have roller derby being so popular if nobody does or supports it. That just seems to be obvious.

What people tend to forget is that fresh meat are simply people who are interested enough in wanting to do derby that they will go to a training session. If they are interested, then why treat them like shit and make them lose heart in something that we (as skaters) find to be one of the most awesome things that a human can possibly do? How would you feel if you were shit at something because you're new at it, and people were a dick to you for that? If anything, being nice to freshies is really a lesson in humility. We were all once shit skaters, and I'm pretty sure that the reason we stuck with it was because we were, whether we care to acknowledge it or not, encouraged by people who were better than we were. When you've got minimal skills, any acknowledgement of improvement is valuable.

I think it's important to give freshies the help that they need to develop into good skaters. We used to throw people in the deep end, and some of them would find it so difficult they'd be scared to come back. Nurturing them (without babying them, of course) lets them develop the skills and confidence that they need in their own time. In addition, including the freshies in off-skate bonding helps them stick with it too. I guess people who are freshies aspire to work harder to be whities and then yellows, because you can see people in your cohort move up, and you've already developed bonds with them and you'd want to move up too.


I really like my league because of how it treats the freshies. We seem to be friendlier than a lot of other leagues, and more supportive of our new members. I think the reason the league is expanding so quickly is simply because, besides training a whole heap every week, we have an open-door policy where people can just come and check out what we do whenever. Hell, I would know: I have to do the paperwork for new members, and we get about 1-2 new faces at each training session. And then there's the community. You might come for the derby, but you stay for the people who are there.

Boys, you have been adequately warned.

So about a month ago I met a guy and we went on a date. He seemed okay. He said he had been to another bout earlier in the year, and he knew some of the CRDL girls, so yeah. And he seemed to be sufficiently interested in derby (and other things we had in common, like nerdery and comic books and gaming and whatnot) to warrant going on a a second date.

I think I mentioned that there was a bout the week after or something. Obviously I'd be there, so he also bought a ticket so that we could hang out there. So, our second date was at a roller derby bout.

We sat in the suicide section with the other peeps from my league, and of course a lot of what we (as in me and the other people in the league, not me and him) were doing was analysing what was going on in each jam, how the packs were formed, where the holes were, strategy and whatnot. I think I also made some effort to explain what was going on to him as well, but it's hard to do that and also watch the jams, you know? Or something would happen and I'd react and he would be like "what just happened" kind of thing.

Anyway, after that there is a post-bout party, so we went to that. And of course there was a lot of derby talk, and watching derby videos on people's phones and random hipchecking. That was also when Sarge told me and Boudica that we were going for our white star reassessments. I wanted to stay and talk to the people in the league, but I was pretty sure he was getting antsy so we made our excuses and left. Plus, I had my reassessment the next day, right? I was also giving one of the ladies in my league a ride home, so (probably sadly for him) there wasn't any at-the-car-makeout-session or whatever, if that was what he was after.

I got a message from him the next day saying something like "I had fun at the bout. Usually I'm okay to hold my own among strangers, but whe 90% of the discussion is "derby derby derby" I find it hard to keep up. Next time I will be ready for it."

Next time?

I don't think so.

The moral of the story is this: derby will come first. You fuck with that at your own peril.

FUCK YEAH YELLOW STAR

So Boudica and I were supposed to go for our yellow stars on Sunday, with Pitts and possibly Jaxhammer as well. After training on Sunday, I booked the gym hall for an hour today so we could have a skate around and run through the test as a practice. I told Sarge about it on Tuesday, and he was like "oh cool I'm not doing anything on Thursday so I can come down and have a look and give you some pointers" which was super cool of him.

Check out my helmet. Also note WFTDA rules test on the floor.

Anyway, so we show up there and set up the track. And then we started going through the test. We did our 5-in-1 first, which is basically doing 5 laps in a minute to pass. I fucking stupidly played soccer yesterday and corked my left thigh and had a mega bruise on my right (just where the kneepad sat). So putting weight on my left leg was kind of shitballs. And of course there's a lot of that when you're crossing and it's your inside leg. But I managed to get the 5 in 1 done in 59 seconds. :P Boudica did it in 57! I am sure I could go faster but I was doing dumb shit like not counting my laps (and I thought I was done after 3... really?!?) and that sort of thing. I didn't feel like I was really in the groove for it, but oh well.

Oh, and one-leg slaloms. FUCKING CHRIST. Seriously, I did these okay last Sunday when I was casually practicing, and for some reason I think my nerves got the better of me. It seriously took me like TWENTY goes before Sarge suggested that I go into the slalom on the left side of the cone, so I go to the right between the first and second cones. And that totally makes sense because on my left leg I tend to drift to the right. Why the fuck didn't I think of that before?!?! Duh. But after he suggested it I got it in ONE go. Seriously I don't think I'm the right kind of smart for derby sometimes...

Then we had to do a coast and squat for one straight and a corner, and then a lap of squat and sticky skate. And some falls (baseball, 4-pointer, 180 degree one-knees).And OMG 60 second plank. Normally when we do it off skates I'm fine with it and can hold it for more than 60 seconds, but for some reason today on skates I felt like I was dying! But that worked out okay. As did the 40 sit ups and 40 pushups (which I managed to do properly, even on my munted rotator cuff).

But fuck yeah. I passed, and so did Boudica. It was awesome. I just felt really good about getting it, even if at some points I just squeaked through. I'm sure I could do the 5-in-1 better if I had another go, and also the one-leg slaloms.We aren't saying anything about it yet until Sarge officially announces it on Sunday, but yeah. Awesomesauce.

Of course, right after that, we were onto some orange star stuff! Hahaha like for serious. I really like the 5 jumps in a row, and we also practiced the 2m plow stop. God that shit is hard. But I can't wait to start doing it! And whips! And hits and all that stuff! Scrimmage time here we come!

Thanks, interwebs!

So, I have been a long-time stalker, and maybe third-time poster over at Skatelog. I really like it; it's a great forum for all kinds of people who do all kinds of skating to just talk about skatey stuff like gear and tips for doing things like backwards crossovers and whatever.

Anyway, I got a message on there from someone from another league in Australia! And mind you that I'm not super active or anything on this site at all, so this was exciting:

Heya MadMouse,

I've got a friend in Canberra who's about to get a freshie pack and start skating, I'm coming to visit her on CRDL finals weekend and we're gonna have a skate together. She lives in [SOME PLACE], do you know of anywhere around there thats a nice surface to skate on? Though really, we'd travel as far as we needed too

Oh and I see you're a member of the Varsity league! How is it going for you all? I've loved seeing your league build through FB I'm in a new league in N/E Victoria (NERD) so I know how fun / frustrating and exciting it can all be!!

Thanks in advance,
[AWESOME PERSON]. 

Yay, that made me feel awesome. People follow our league on the interwebs! And they've seen it grow and everything! Haha. Anyway I emailed her and said that she was welcome to skate with us any time she wanted, and of course her friend was too. I gave her some tips for places to skate at around here, and she will come and check out our training sessions when she is in town. It's way easier to be all like "yeah come hang out with me" when you do derby than in some other weird situation like internet dating or something like that. Although I guess in the derby context if the other peson was a creeper you could just hipcheck the shit out of them.

Did you know that October is National Roller Skating Month?

 Well, apparently it is.

Check it out here.

Ronald Reagan wasn't my president so technically it's not National Roller Skating Month in Australia, but whatever! :)

Sock Derby

At training Sarge got us to take our skates off and do sock derby. Pretty much sock derby is like regular derby but just off-skates. The same rules still apply, only because you're not rolling things get slowed down a bit and you can think a bit more about what you're doing. Because we're just working on strategy and getting the jammer through at the moment, we didn't do full jams, and the jam ended when a jammer got through and we had a lead jammer. Then there was still the 30 second switchover, and then another jam.

These socks are pretty fucking awesome.

It was awesome. I had been kind of pestering Sarge to do sock derby for a while, haha. It's good because you throw everyone into the mix and even people who can't skate can do it to get a taste of derby without having to worry about falling over (as much anyway; some people still hit REALLY hard). Plus because it's slower, you really have to work on strategy and it's easier to look for spaces to get your jammer through and that sort of thing.

First of all, 30 seconds is not much time at all to get a full team on the track! Most of that time after a jam was just wandering around in the middle of the track (where everyone not doing that jam was sitting) and holding out helmet panties and bibs and saying things like "does anyone want to go next? Anyone?" kind of thing. But getting everyone out there, figuring out the right strategy (have a fast pack so that the other jammer will have more runninng to do, boxing people in or opening lines for your jammer, etc.) took pretty much the entire 30 seconds. Plus using different combinations of people meant that you had to talk a lot more about what you wanted to do each time, to play to their strengths.

Slowing it down was super useful for various reasons. You can be more aware of your understanding of the rules; the first time I jammed I forearmed the shit out of everyone because I just wasn't thinking enough. Then I figured that if I kept my arms behind my back, that wouldn't happen. You can also take the extra time to set up boxes to trap jammers, and because it's slower pivots have to really keep track of what their team is doing. It also gave more time for people to talk it up more (which we should be doing anyway), like yelling at your jammer if there are spaces open for them to go into, telling your pack to tighten up, and that sort of thing. Plus there are some skills you can do on socks that you can't do on skates yet, so that's something to notice and work on too. (For example, I can do all these juke moves on socks, but doing them while you are rolling is a completely different story.)

But once it comes together, you can see how it would work on-skates. And it also gives you something to work towards-- if you think you can do it off-skates, then you really want to do it on-skates too! I jammed a bunch of times and there was one jam where the inside line just opened up and I pretty much flew straight off the jammer line and around the inside and came out of the pack in a few seconds. The feeling of getting through so quick was super awesome! Now I just have to be able to do that on 8 wheels...

New wheels! New wheels!

A few weeks ago, Boudica and I put in an order for some new wheels. I think this is my first attempt at a product review, so we’ll see how that goes. I got some new indoor wheels for my Diablos; I had been skating on the stock Radar Evos that came with them and those things are hard as fuck. I guess they’re a good starter wheel because they’re hard and will get you rolling, but I found myself skidding out of control a bunch of times trying to corner. I mean, I couldn’t really go as fast as I really wanted because I’d be worried that I would just slide out of bounds (and/or fall on my ass). We’re skating on a pretty dusty gym floor, so there’s really not much for the Evos to grip onto.

Anyway, the talk of the town for a while now has been Atom Poisons. They’re hybrids so they’re quite grippy for indoor wheels, but squishy enough to roll over random derbris outside. Most of the ladies in our league got them as their first upgrade. Not being one that likes to go with what’s tried and tested, I had been looking on the Atom site and happily for me a whole new bunch of wheels were coming out at the time I was looking for them; for some reason I really go stuck on the Super-Gs. They’re harder than the Poisons (which might be good because I’m lighter than most people in the league, so I don’t have as much push in my legs), but not crazy hard like the Evos. Plus they’re marketed as one of the lightest wheels out there; what with some fancy core or something. They come in two hardnesses: 91A (red core) and 88A (blue core). For reference, my Evos are a 95A and my outdoor Kryptos are a 78A. 

I’ve got the 88A Blue Core ones. I’ve just put them on my skates (with new Bones bearings too! Whoo!!) and had a little bit of a roll around in my kitchen (which is probably the biggest non-carpeted part of my house). One thing I noticed immediately is that they are smaller than my Evos and my Kryptos, being 58mm diameter, while my other wheels are 62mm. This means that I’m actually closer to the ground (by 4mm really, but the thing is that it actually feels noticeable). And they are pretty fucking light. Picking up my feet is way easier than it was in my old wheels. I really hope this helps with my shin splints.

I often wear skates around the privacy of my own home.

A couple of things though: I rolled around in the kitchen for maybe 15 minutes, and already some of the paint is coming off the wheels. Basically I don’t care THAT much about it, but that’s a bit annoying considering they’re brand new wheels. Also, the bearings stick out a bit of the wheels, on the outside. Like, maybe because the core is smaller or whatever, the inside bearing (that is flush with the back of the wheel) is flat, but the outside one pokes out a teeny bit. Because they were new bearings, I thought at first I was just doing a crap job pushing them in, and so I was using my skate tool to help but they wouldn’t budge. Even after I did up the nuts they still poked out a bit. It doesn’t really seem to be a problem for the wheels, but I did find that a bit unexpected.

UPDATE: I did a bigger skate yesterday on them at training and wow, you can really feel the difference. They're might grippier for cornering, so I'm more confident that I won't just go sliding out of control, and because they're lighter I felt like I could pick up my feet more (and I didn't get shin splints). In fact, I think at some points I could actually sprint properly on my wheels, like I was running. Transitions were smoother with them as well I think. So yeah. I'm liking these new wheels so far, and I'm glad I went for the grippier ones instead of the 91s. So hopefully they'll get my through my yellow star test next week! Eep!!