Practice, exercise, and research

I want to practice. I look forward to it. I can't wait to skate and get this excited bundle of nerves feeling every week cause I know I get to skate that day. I love it! Even if I am using rental skates and I do kind of suck compared to some of the others. I'm not terrible, but I do have major endurance issues and I already feel like using the rental skates is holding me back. But I show up every week and bust my ass, (even if I do argue with our coaches!) and I will improve and be as good as Cannonball and the others who have been doing this longer than I have. It's simply not in my nature to give up or quit.

It is in my nature to get whiny and/or pissy on a regular basis, particularly when I'm working on something difficult or frustrating or simply annoyingly boring. Two of those things are things we've been working on in practice: skating backwards and jumping.
I never learned to go backwards and I'm having a hell of a time doing it now. I've seen others do it. I understand how they're doing it. I can''t get my feet to do it. They won't even move like they're supposed to so I can turn from front to back. It sucks and I'm debating spending some quality time @ the ice rink because I can always apply skills from ice to wheels and it will help me stay in shape and it's fun. LOL
Jumping I can do. Landing the jump? Not so much. But that part is mostly in my head because I did manage to land a jump at last practice only to fall the next time I tried it and the mental block on that one snapped up so fast it made my head (metaphorically) hurt. I think as my skating skills improve that block will naturally fall, but until then it is going to drive me bonkers. Also, wearing pads will help, although I generally have decent form when I do fall. I know all about falling cause I'm a klutz! And I'm ready for practice again!!!

Exercising has never been my thing. Which means that after I quit playing sports as a teenager I quit exercising. I'm in pretty lousy shape. Derby is motivating me to change that and I'm smart enough to start out kinda slow rather than just throw myself into running miles at a time. The added bonus to getting in shape is that my husband will walk with me when we are both free and that means extra time spent with him. We have silly conversations about what we'd do if we had an infinite amount of money. Even though I'm not pushing super hard I've already started to notice an improvement in my endurance during skating and it can only get better with time. Maybe for variety I can throw in some weight training here and there, even if it does bore me to death. It might help with my jumps. LOL Any other good exercise suggestions would be welcome also.

While I'm not at practice on my rentals and exercising to get myself in better derby shape I'm researching things like gear and skates and reading up on rules and doing as much as I can to prepare myself for when we actually start playing bouts and whatnot. I think I've found my skates, have definite ideas about knee, elbow, and wrist pads, and know about helmets and a mouth guard is easy. Now I need to move on to really learning the rules. I know how the game is played, of course, and I have a basic grasp of the rules, but don't necessarily know enough about penalties or other aspects of the game. Also, I will be checking out strategy for all positions and training for all positions. I will probably focus on being a blocker for a while, but eventually would like to be skilled enough that I can jam if need be.

Roller derby is taking over my life!

Dixie D.