Bellyflopping is not a WFTDA approved fall

Ahhhh, skate day returns. However, it didn't run as smoothly as I had hoped.

Before practice last week I was told to get there for 2.30, which I did, just, no thanks to the football traffic! This week I was under the impression that training would be the same time. Luckily I had decided to 'get there early' for 2pm to catch up with folks before training began at '2.30'. To my utter horror I arrived at 1.55 to find everyone getting ready and skating around. F*********CK!! Turns out Sunday training is 2-4, not 2.30- 4 as I had once been told :-/

I don't think I've ever got ready for training so fast in my life. Luckily I didn't miss any of the warm up, phew! We did some good warm up stuff, sticky skating, derby stance and squats. We then went into our 25 laps (25 and a half for me this week!) We then paired off and practiced stops; my plow stops still mightily suck (but got better by the end of the session), t-stops still a bit weak, but my transition stops are coming along very nicely :-D We then went into practicing laterals, hopping infront of each other then plow stopping. This all went swimmingly.

We then got into some pack work. The back three skaters had to do a knee dip, get back up then work their way through the pack until breaking free at the front. I made a good few attempts at getting through, but kept tripping up. The final attempt at getting through was pretty impressive (in my head). I saw a gap, made the leap, got through, got hit, got my feet tangled, and did a pretty hefty bellyflop.

Miss D shouted (in jest!) whilst laughing 'BECKY KIRBY, BELLY FLOPPING IS NOT A WFTDA APPROVED FALL'. Totally my bad, sprawled out like a tiger skin rug, I felt like a total tit for not falling properly. I was very angry at myself. Anyway, despite this, I was punished for not falling properly. I had an immediate burn and welt on my hip, and I was winded, big time. I got up and skated into the middle for some time out.

Mmm, Rink Rash . . but this photo doesn't do it justice :-(

Once feeling back to normal we got into pacelines, and double pacelines. That was great fun, apart from I kept getting grabbed on my ouchy hip :-(  We weaved from the back to the front, then front to back. All very enjoyable. I do love a good pace line!

After all this we worked on some blocking and hitting, but seeing as though I have only done about 5 (very basic!) minutes of this I had to sit it out :-(  In the end I pootled around the outside, and practiced my jumps and transitions. I was gutted at having to miss out, but hopefully I can get some help and then next time I can join in. 

At the end we played a bit of endless jammer, and I got to be the Jammer, woop! I was jamming for Team Orange, and I pulled that star panty onto my helmet with pride! The aim; my girls had to aid me through the pack, whether pushing or whipping, I wasn't allowed to do a thing. I was a bit miffed at not being able to do a lap after breaking through though, I quite wanted to try and score some points! 

After all that, we were pretty much done. I'm not sure if I made any progress today, but I learnt a bunch of stuff. I also incurred two Track Cut majors . . . oops! But in my defence, I had no idea what I'd done wrong. 

Things learnt today:

Belly flopping is NOT a WFTDA approved fall

When you fall think small

When knocked out of bounds, come back in BEHIND the person that knocked you out (I always knew this, but didn't realise I'd done the opposite, hence getting the majors)

I'm looking forward to Tuesday practice now, I wonder what's in store!? I'm looking forward to getting up to speed with hitting etc, I felt kind of left behind not being able to join in with that today. Hopefully I can work on that soon, and then I can really get into it all.

NSO's FTW!

Yesterday was my second and third time NSOing for SSRG :-)

Whenever I get the message telling me the jobs Im expected to do I have that moment of panic 'what if I cock up!?' Luckily my role for the day would involve a whiteboard and a marker pen, how tasking could it be really?

I caught the tram to where I needed to be and once I got inside I hung around for a while until more folks turned up. SSRG were having a practice, and I didn't fancy gatecrashing unless I had someone else there to do so with :-) So I loitered, a lot, quite possibly looking like an obvious spare part. Luckily people started turning up and when Glam arrived and I grabbed her just to run over what I was meant to be doing. I'd be operating the penalty whiteboards for the first bout, and doing penalty timing in the second.

AAARGH, stopwatches!!! I was not expecting this, but it would explain why I'd been sent the manual for this role aswell (pay attention Becky!)

Yes, so the first bout got underway, and my job was to write down any penalties, minor or major, on the whiteboards in the middle of the track. 1 Major Penalty equates a minute in the penalty box, as does 4 Minor Penalties. There's lots of different ways a penalty can be given, it seemed yesterday people were favouring Track Cutting, Back Blocking and Forearms. It was actually really good fun in the middle, and a lot less scary/lot more exciting than I thought it would be.

Time for Bout 2 and I was sent with two others to the penalty box. I was in charge of Blocker timing :-) While I was happy to do this, I was a little concerned that the only space I had for standing was right behind the penalty seats, and I was told that the boys skate in with some gusto- I did NOT want to be squashed! It was all fine though. I remembered to start/stop the watch at all the right times, and once I got stuck in I realised it was actually a lot easier than it had first sounded. I remembered everything I needed to say, when I had to say it and even managed to have some sneaky little chats with the skaters coming in :-)

Anyway, for now I love being an NSO, but I am looking forward to when it's my turn out on the track.  The only downside to being an NSO, that I'm not so keen on, is the 'being impartial' bit. I'd love to be cheering along with everyone else, but unfortunately I'm not allowed. So for now I'm supporting Team Grey, NSO's FTW!!!

(PS- Team Orange and Team Black, of course you are both awesome, I'm just not allowed to say so during bout time!)