My seat on the SSRG Rollercoaster

In the past 24 hours I've literally had my life turned around, in a flippin marvellous way!

On my way to the cinema last night I had a message from Miss D, the SSRG Captain, to ask if I was planning on going out later on. As I was on my way to the cinema I thought I'd be honest and tell her so, but said that I would be up for meeting up afterwards if other folks were going out too. After not getting a response I realised it wasn't a question but more a 'you will come out tonight' statement. I found out later what her motives were . . . 

Anyway, once the cinema finished, I made a quick walk up to the bars and found everyone in the Bowery. After a few drinks, and fun chats, and nearly pissing my pants on the walk between bars, I ended up getting stuck into a conversation on where my skating was heading. I've picked a name, I've picked a number, I'm apparently 'dedicated to the team without being creepy', but no-one could understand why I was skating with Chesterfield when I lived in Sheffield. I explained about the whole 'No room at the SSRG Inn' thing, and in a very whirlwind-like way it was stated that there needed to be something done about this. Miss D invited me to come along to practice today, and on me saying 'yes, yes I definitely do want to come to practice' she quietened everyone down and made the announcement in front of the others that SSRG had a new member :D

I was in shock, but a happy kind of shock, the kind of shock I imagine you get from being proposed to. It felt amazing!

After not being able to get to sleep last night for all the excitement, I managed to get about 5 hours before the nerves kicked in. You see, not only was today going to be my first training session with SSRG, we were also having our Minimum Skills tested!!! 

I got to training in fine time, got changed and headed out to start skating. The next two hours went by in a blur. There were some things I knew I just sucked at, but that means room for improvement. By the end of the session I was pooped, but, I had managed to tick off some of my minimum skills! woohoo! I've passed on:

• Pacing
• Receiving inside and outside whips
• Giving inside whips
• Sticky skating
• Speed and endurance
• Crossovers 
• Skating posture
• AND MY 25 LAPS IN 5 MINUTES!!!

I haven't been that knackered in years, and I definitely didn't take enough to drink, so next practice I need to remember the liquids! Anyway, to document this momentous occasion, here's a shot of me after practice, avec player number and happy happy face!

Got loads more to work on at practices now, and on Thursdays at Skate Central. For now, I think it's fair to say, I need a good hot bath, some soup and sarnies, and sleep. 

Here's starts my SSRG Adventure . . . and I can't friggin wait to get stuck in!

Whipping good fun!

I'll keep tonight's Practice blog short and sweet.

Now that we start a little later, it means it's not such a mad rush to get out of work, get home and leave again. Needless to say, we still rocked up at the same time as every other week.

Skates on, (laced up nicely now that I've put longer laces in) padded up, gumguard in and off we went. After a wee skate around, we got into stretches, some exercises, some tai bo moves, along with stepping to some music. Unfortunately it wasn't MC Hammer, so we couldn't practice our 'Hammer Slides'.

After our little warm up we practiced plow stops (look forward, LOOK FORWARD), and then got into some lateral turns. Thankfully my larking around at Skate Central is beginning to pay off, because I seemed to be a lot better at these tonight than I was before christmas. We practiced with just one or two down each side of the gym, then cranked it up to 2-3 with the cones a bit closer together. I can't say that they were perfect every time, but I got some real belters in that made a pretty impressive barking sound. So cool in fact that I made the 'ooohff, did you HEAR that!?!' face.

After these we practiced WHIPS!!! Ahh, so much fun. I was giving whips first time round and once I got my stance sorted (after I nearly decked it on the first whip) I was not too shoddy. Then it was my turn to be whipped . . . WOW!!! So much fun! Paul gave the best whips by far, and even snuck in a little waitress style whip too when no-one was watching :-D

After all the excitement we played stuck in the mud, and did a few clockwise laps for good measure. My clockwise crossovers are coming along nicely, and with a little more practice they'll be just as good as my anti's.

Roll on 5pm tomorrow when Skate Central opens their doors and I can get some more practice in :-)