Goodbye 2011

Being back at my parents for Christmas was brilliant. I had a fantastic collection of presents, that suited me to a T, but it was whilst washing decades of dirt off the old Lego on Christmas Day, I thought I'd look back and reflect on my 2011.

If you had asked for my opinion on 2011 six months ago, I would have told you that it was my worst year ever. At the bottom of a big pit of doom and gloom I didnt think my year would get any better, and thought that nothing else worse would have any effect on me. I'd become used to having a rubbish time, what difference would another ounce of crap have on me.

Ask me now what 2011 means to me, and I'll confidently tell you that it was the year that I found out who I really was, and it's probably the best year I've ever had. That sounds quite morbid, but I mean that its been the best year for making decisions and learning lessons. Its been difficult but extremely valuable.

May 2011 saw the messy end of a 7 year relationship. I made the difficult decision to hand in my notice and begin the process of moving up to Sheffield.

June 2011 saw me packing those 7 years into the back of a transit van. Saying goodbye to my job, my friends, the family I had been accepted into, and my cat; I cant say anything was worse than that. Driving away from my life I had created was punishment that I didnt deserve. But being typically British, and with my Land Girl spirit, I kept calm and carried on.

July 2011 saw me getting a new job and making new friends. Unfortunately my old life continued to return to haunt me, prolonging the grieving process.

August through to October was really just a blur, all sorts of nonsense bouncing around, trying to settle into a new way of life, trying to get to grips with reality and make sense of everything. On the flip side, I was taken under the wing of so many wonderful people, and made to feel extremely welcome and appreciated, and accepted for being myself. I started to feel a sense of purpose, and finally I had the chance to be me again.

October 2011 I found a lifeline. Something to keep me busy, to give me focus, and that has opened doors to a whole new chapter in my life . . . Roller Derby. Sunday 9th October 2011 was the the final home bout of the year for Sheffield Steel Rollergirls and it was the turning point in my life when I decided I needed make a difference. It was at that point I made the executive decision to stop trying to fill the 'relationship' gap, and do something productive instead.

Despite being told there weren't any spaces available to join SSRG, the following week I took my skates to the local skate rink and, as they say, the rest is history. No, seriously, you can read all about it in my previous blogs :-) The past 3 months have gone by in a whirl of wheels, disco lights, pasta,  Chesterfield Twisted Roller Vixens, progression, and making new friends every week. With the help of my family, friends and new team mates, the end of 2011 has taken a sweet turn, and has provided me a taster for what 2012 has to offer.

Today is the final day of 2011, and I have decided that 2012 is going to be MY year. I, like so many others, have dreams and ambitions . . . the difference is that I intend on making mine reality. Despite wanting to do and learn other things, my one main aim for 2012 is to pass my Minimum Skills for roller derby, anything beyond that I will see as a bonus. This year I have learnt just how important it is to be in control of your own life and happiness. If I hadn't been brave and made the life changing decisions I made this year, I would definitely not be in a happy place right now.

So now I'm going to sad tata 2011, what a rollercoaster! Oh and 2012, you'd better watch out, because the real Becky Kirby is back in the game. Time to enjoy the balls off the next 365 days!

Work hard, Hit harder

Tonights CTRV practice was a very quiet and intimate session, with only 6 attendees. Holly was coaching, Tom sat out with a cold, that left me and Claire, regular attendees, and our two guest skaters, Nina (Nina's Flytrap) and Paul (Bollock Obama). 

After a quick skate round and stretch for warm up, we looked into practicing proper derby stance. Man I need to practice my squats, they sting! 

Speed Skating stance

We practiced this, with crossovers for a while, then moved onto 'lateral turns'. Im not even going to try explain this, but in basic terms, pretend you're holding a tea tray, turn your torso to 'serve some customers' and your feet will follow. It's an important skill to learn as it allows you to cut across the track, cut across another players path, and essentially push them off the track. I think its called lateral blocking, but dont quote me, although I have heard another name for it. For those with tender ears and eyes I'll call it 'the C-word-Block'. Ultimately the best block to learn as it totally disables the other players actions.

After learning the lateral turns, through cones, and any direction around the hall, we then had the short discussion of to contact or not to contact. By unanimous decision we voted CONTACT!!! I wasnt expecting to have it thrust upon me until after christmas, so this was an early christmas present. Holly paired me with Claire, and Nina with Paul. At first, and in fact the whole way through the drill we looked like this . . . except with smaller boobs, haha! 

Claire's aim was to 'lean' into me, in effort to push me off the track. My job was to resist, so I did. And I did an effing grand job of it. Such a good job in fact, we only stopped once we got to the corner and spun out, with the most spectacular of falls I have achieved so far, ending up with us both looking like this . . . 

Yes, and we even had the smiles on our faces!

After we played with shoulder checking, we then moved onto some light shoulder hits. Paul, being big, was our hittee, and Claire, Nina and I were the hitters, biaaaatch! Catching up with Paul I did fear for my life, he's like 7ft tall with his skates on. But, lucky for me, he saw me coming, crouched down to my height and sat back and took my tiny nudge. Hmm, piece of cake, not as scary as I thought it'd be, so the next time I went in harder. We did about 4 rounds of hits, and I put more force behind each one, and by my last one I even managed to make Paul say 'ow'. WOOOP! I like to think we would have looked something like this (imagine I'm the lady in red- no, not Chris de Burghs one, that one in the picture) 

After our little battering sesh, we then moved onto one footed glides. Paul, Claire and Nina worked on slaloming, while Holly talked me through some techniques to stop my left foot veering inwards. I told her I was quite the professh on my right foot but when it came to being on the left, I did struggle. After a little tinkering with my balanced stance, we managed to get me going in a straight (ish) controlled line on my left foot. Once I get that foot mastered I'll be away. 

So, at tomorrows play night I'll be practicing left footed glides, lateral turns and stance.

Music to give you goosbumps

I was woken this morning, as like every other morning, by my radio turning itself on. Depending on how good a night sleep I've had dictates how fast i wake up and turn the volume down (the longer I leave it the louder it gets!). 

Its set to radio 1, and usually I'm woken by some shitty boyband, or Adele talking about some 'rumour', at that point I usually jump up and switch the f*cker off. But this morning was different.

I'd had a great night sleep, but as and the song started to play louder and louder, I got a tingle up the back of my neck and left it playing. I couldnt work out why, until I realised it was the song that was playing the first time I skated fast, with immaculate crossovers. It brought back some great feelings, of success, of achievement, that 'yessss' feeling. 

And funnily enough the song is actually called 'Good Feeling'

It was a lovely start to my day :oD

Congratulations to me

Tonight was my 2 month anniversary since starting roller skating. 4 weeks ago I started up with the new Chesterfield team, so I'm now skating twice a week. It's all going incredibly well; I have my skater name on my team tshirt and I finally managed to get off at the right stop by myself this week.

In 8 shorts weeks I have managed to learn lots of important skills which is vital if I want to play roller derby. So, lets take a look at what I can do . . . 

Staying upright :-)

Cornering (always a bonus) :-)

Stance & Stride :-)

Bending the knees :-)

Crossovers :-)

One Knee Slides :-)

One Knee 180 Slides :-)

2 Knee Slides :-)

4 Point Slides :-)

NOT using my hands to get back up after falling :-)

Bending the knees :-)

Sticky Skates :-)

T-Stops :-)

Did I mention bending the knees? It is quite important! :-)

Skating in a pace line :-)

Weaving :-)

Weaving in a paceline :-D

Recognising my gumguard was shit and replacing it with a better fitting one :-)

1 footed balancing on the straightaways (only the right foot- the left foot needs more work and the left trucks needs realigning) :-)

1 footed balancing (right again) round the turns :-)

Cannonballs (aka, shoot-the-duck) :-D 

Synchro Cannonballs with Bridget Von Jammersmack (we'll be the first RD synchro pairing, you watch this space!) :-D

Knowing that pasta is the dish of the day on skate days! :-)

Accepting that it doesnt do anyone any harm to walk rather than catch the bus, its the perfect warm-up :-)

I'm pretty sure there will be more thing's I've learnt that I've forgotten about here, but you can get the general idea that I've picked up loads in the small amount of time I've been skating.

So I may be boring people to death with talking about skating 24/7, but I'm actually glad I have something that I can pour my heart and soul into, something I can focus on. Not only am I keeping fit again (I've not been in such good shape since I was at school), but I have made new friends and am getting out at least twice a week rather than sitting and loafing in my room. I'm starting to get a social life again and I'm happy, pretty much all the time.

Last week's skate session will be cherished forever. Laura was inspiring, and she pushed me and encouraged me to go outside my comfort zone. Having someone push you, and shout words of compliment at you at the same time is a great feeling, and it's an even better feeling when the effort pays off. At the beginning of the session I was asked about a certain trick (cannonballs) and how cool it was. I remember saying 'ooh,they look amazing, but i can't do that just yet, it looks well hard'. Well, after a little push from Miss Jammersmack, and a few bums scuffed on the floor, we both had it nailed. And the best feeling was finding out that not even some of the hardened players can do it. Some people thought it might be beginners luck, but after we tried it again tonight, I think it's safe to say that I've got this one in the bag. I can confidently say that skating makes me feel like this . . . . . . 

Next week I'll be trying out something new . . . not yet decided what, but I'm thinking along the lines of transitions and toe stops?