Roller Derby Geek Syndrome
Trash 'N Smash, a teammate of mine (and co-captain) and Georgia (my team captain) and I have been having a conversation lately, because unlike these two rollergirl extraordinaires, I am not an all-star player yet. So I said, hey, so how is it you guys are popping out with new moves in practices that we haven't practiced together? Where are you practicing outside of our league and team practice time? Roller Rink free skates, or what?
And the response from Trash 'N Smash was cute, she helped me out alot with some advice, but then said, since I suffer, like her and Georgia, from the Roller Derby Geek Syndrome, I can always get back to reading and watching roller derby training info, and try what I read about, and "play" with my body to teach it how to do new things.
She's right, I was in a rut. I didn't take a break in our off season and I skated every week outside to train endurance and speed. I have improved my endurance, but I was in a rut of doing the same practice days/times, same drills, same way with the same people so much, that only a kick in the ass from my team captains got me to wake up and see that there is still more derby to learn... I think seasoned roller girls can still learn new stuff from everywhere, so my focus is going to change a bit.
To start off, I'm going to be checking out how the TXRD ladies do it by watching their WebCasted bout this Saturday. I heard about it from Eric who does their blog, and the information is on the TXRD blog. It'll put you back $10 as a pay per view event, but come on, live webcasts of the TXRD? I am going to be doing that, I think.
Roller Derby Geek Syndrome sufferers are often researching roller derby online when they aren't skating, right?
So if you've been playing a while and realize that the leaps and bounds of new moves you learned in your first season have slowed and you're just going through the motions, make sure you realize that you can still do more, keep trying new things!
And the response from Trash 'N Smash was cute, she helped me out alot with some advice, but then said, since I suffer, like her and Georgia, from the Roller Derby Geek Syndrome, I can always get back to reading and watching roller derby training info, and try what I read about, and "play" with my body to teach it how to do new things.
She's right, I was in a rut. I didn't take a break in our off season and I skated every week outside to train endurance and speed. I have improved my endurance, but I was in a rut of doing the same practice days/times, same drills, same way with the same people so much, that only a kick in the ass from my team captains got me to wake up and see that there is still more derby to learn... I think seasoned roller girls can still learn new stuff from everywhere, so my focus is going to change a bit.
To start off, I'm going to be checking out how the TXRD ladies do it by watching their WebCasted bout this Saturday. I heard about it from Eric who does their blog, and the information is on the TXRD blog. It'll put you back $10 as a pay per view event, but come on, live webcasts of the TXRD? I am going to be doing that, I think.
Roller Derby Geek Syndrome sufferers are often researching roller derby online when they aren't skating, right?
So if you've been playing a while and realize that the leaps and bounds of new moves you learned in your first season have slowed and you're just going through the motions, make sure you realize that you can still do more, keep trying new things!
Labels: training
posted by Nia Capps at
1:07 PM
1 Comments:
In my experience, the "plateau" is a universal derby girl phenomenon (probably true for all sports, actually). You'll hit points where you feel like no matter how hard you work, you're not getting any better... but then a few weeks or months later, you'll have another growth spurt in your skills.
Your observation on shaking it up and trying new things definitely jibes with this, too. This is another area where a road trip to visit another league's practice can pay big dividends.
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