Now that I am recovered from the derby weekend, with rest and hydration, I can more adequately tell you about it.

The Highlights:
A large turnout fit into the space GMDD had setup for the event nicely. GMDD hosted the event very well with easy registration and insurance USARS event coverage available at entrance, and lunches included with the registration fee. Good job and judos to GMDD for putting on the clinic and allowing us Canadians to come join in the fun.

Bonnie D Stroir and Bully Julie are experienced skaters, and experienced trainers, with a great breakdown of moves like a Slay Ride, ( you know the one! ), The Waitress (backwards whip resulting in block/whip combo) to get a jammer out from behind a wall, and backwards blocking to drop back in a pack. There were jamming drills too, and Bonnie demonstrated how a jammer can use patience, transitions, backwards skating, jumps and hops to not only mixup the blockers in the pack, but make her way through a wall, and please the crowd at the same time. A note here, as a jammer agility drill commenced where a pace line of jammers forms behind a pack of blockers and has each skater take a turn jamming through the pack of passive blocking while never letting her feet glide/stop - run, jump, hop, transition, run run run - Montreal jammers reeived the most cheers from onlookers. Seems Montreal has been working on that drill already and knew how to do it.

And one other thing, work with the rules. Ok, so sometimes a new rule release comes out and we look a new rule and go, HUH? That's lame! Why can't I do that? Instead of reacting like it's something you can't do, devise strategies to make that rule work FOR you.
Examples:
You can block anything on a person except their back. You can use your back, your torso, your hips to do that. So block your ass into their crotch, their thighs, your back into their "shelf" (yeah, their golden tickets) to off-balance them. Stop blocking where people are strongest, and go for the weaker points. Bashing into each other, shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip, is just butting heads and not getting anything done.

Jammer Example:
The Jammer can't get lead jammer if she goes out of bounds or gets a penalty on first pass, so if you're a jammer, be a blocker for 5 seconds and block the jammer you are racing out of bounds within 20 feet of the pack, and you just did double-duty and help yourself get lead jammer.



3 other notes:
You can hold your jammers hand and not do a whip if the placement is not right (wait for the corner), but be aware of the blockers. If you hold hands with your player for more than 3 seconds, making a wall a blocker or another jammer from opposing team cannot get through, it's multi-player blocking penalty. So be aware of where you are, and be sneaky to avoid a peanalty.

It's great to try to fit in the crowd-pleasing slay rides, waitress whips, and show-off stunts, but if you have to do it lame and boring with a booty block, or a regular whalop that isn't that low to the ground, and it's not pretty, or you fall? Who cares?!?! You get the job done, you do what you have to, and once in a while, on a good jam, you'll get to do something WOW. But it's going to be rare.

Don't give up.
If you have to work harder than other players in your league to get a new move, a hockey stop, to become more agile, then make yourself take time to work on it. At home, on the street, at the gym, at the rink, in your house, in the garage, or ask your trainers/coaches/captains for a little time in a practice to work on the thing you can't do on your own if you need to. But get the basics down 100% before adding the WOW moves. You'll never get to fancy moves that are in control, and effective, until you can stay up, stay stable, and time it right.

Take heart. Once you master the basic, you can get more creative and become the girl that makes the crowd go.. "Hey! Did you see that girl? That was awesome!"

WIth that, I'll be posting the pictures up on my facebook over the next day or so, if you want to take a look. Thanks to Bonnie and Bully Julie, GMDD, Burlington/Essex Junction VT and to the Adirondack Ferry operators that didn't laugh at me for being excited about my first ever ferry ride crossing from VT to NY on the trip home. And special thanks to Big Tickets of HCRG for sharing her truck, TomTom, and the room with me even when I got tired, hungry, cranky and bitchy.

Labels: GMDD, San Diego Derby Dolls, training, Travel, wrapup

Day 1 of the skills clinic GMDD did a great job with the location. The Champlain Valley Exposition center had enough skating space on a nice smooth concrete floor and a large open area for bags, stuff, and lunch tables. After a waffle breakfast at our Days Inn, we arrived right on time, but since there were so many people (close to 100 I'd say, maybe 80ish) lined up to register and sign in and stuff, it started late Of course, don't all derby things start a little behind schedule?

Bonnie D Stroir and Bully Julie are both really good all around skaters, with some great skills advice and training. I'll do a better write up when I am less sweaty and tired, but I learned a lot of new drills, and after months off-skate, I learned it will take me a few more times doing derby to get my toughness back. I can take hits fine, but I was a little rough at giving them. I won't beat myself up too much though, I was skating with a swollen knee and made it until about 4 o'Clock before I had to pack in the skates and get an ice pack. I'll get the results of my Thursday Morning Ultrasound Monday or Tuesday.

All in all, it was a sweaty, tiring, dehydrating, painful day. But it was also fun, a great learning experience and a networking experience. Of course, there are those that want to talk to you that you don't care for, and your closer friends you gravitate to, but you still can hang with new people

I liked it and I am glad I came. It's very crowded though, and smaller training skills camps might be better in future. Note to self: Practice Practice Practice

Here is a little photo tour of the day, but remember, I can't very well take pictures WHILE I am training! :) I would like to send GET WELL wishes to GMDD's player (Puma) that broke her jaw and split her chin after performing a very good hockey stop demo, ran into a steel pillar and face planted into the floor. Stitches and jaw wiring suck, and I hope she recovers quickly.

Hey Derby Luvvers! If you not one of those of us 70-80 or more rollergirls that have invaded Colchester/Essex Junction/Burlington VT for the Green Mountain Derby Dames hosted skills clinic with Bonnie D Stroir and Bully Julie of the San Diego Derby Dolls this weekend, then hopefully you are supporting your local roller derby by attending a game, a fundraiser, or an event they are telling you about, right derby luvvers?

For the rest of us that ARE cool and committed enough, we are at VT and ready to do some derby training! Of course today was just the road trip to get here. 10 hours and my highlights are as follows:

1) Making Miss Big Tickets wait outside while I grabbed my PC and snacks and maling sure my derby widow could finish baking the bread I was making (I didn't know Tickets would be there so early, so we had no fresh sandwiches to snack on, booooo)


2) Getting stuck in traffice in the Toronto area, and threatening a tailgater with a "back the f off skate to the head"

3) Count them: 2 illegal U turns when we missed the GPS turn, or it, or I, was wrong haha

4) Discussing a stripper named Bambi Mixes-a-lot and her habits while waiting for her "limo driver" to take her home, her grooming habits and her claims to fame.

5) Thinking the border guy was asking a trick question when he looked at the two of us in a truck and said "Are you travelling with anyone else?" after we had already confirmed it was just us Turns out, he was asking did we know of other people going to the clinic, and I was all, "Yeah! Montreal, Londond, Kitchener, lots of others" and found we were 10 minutes behind 2 other car loads (unknown who it was)

6) Counting the number of food and beverage items to land on Big Tickets' Tickets. I am up to I think 5 things so far.

7) This is the best, and will be our catch phrase of the weekend:

We get to our hotel and Anita Martini shouts a greeting from a balcony above, we are at the desk checking in when the clerk gets a call. It's an elderly couple in room 314 complaining about noise, and she says, "Aw it's sounds like they're just whores playing" (I think technically she said horseplaying, but I asked if she said Whores playing and she said yes..)

It gets better, so first we knock on the door of those FCDG and Kitchener girls and we say, "Stop playing around, whores!" and tell them the story...... yeah, you had to be there, and it's alot funnier after a 10 hour drive LOL

Here's a photo or 2 from the drive, from a bathroom stop that turned into a blackberry / facebook / texting delay...








And yes, nerdy glasses ARE cool and yes I was tired and cold so shut up and Good Night! ;)
Til tomorrow, derbyluvvers,.....

Labels: GMDD, Travel

I have been so ridiculously busy, I have not had time to post anything lately.

Driving to Sacramento tonight to play in a mixed scrimmage - will take pictures and post.

Promise to post updates soon and get the Rollergirl of the week back in action : )

Hugs n' Bruises,

Raven VK

If you are like me and you were unable to travel to the NorthWest Knockdown, and maybe your internet was down or you were so down-trodden you couldn' t bear to watch the scores roll out online, or you were playing in one of the other games or at yoour own league's event this past weekend and you just woke up....

Well, if you are one of these people, you had to wait for the results like I did!


From: Sour Cherry of Oil City (OCDG)

I have to say it the best weekend I have had thus far for veiwing some incredible Women's Flat Track Derby action.

Here's the breakdown in the scores:
First Round:
Game 1 Texas Rollergirls ( 125) vs Carolina Rollergirls (61)
Game 2 Duke City (25) vs Gotham Girls (180)
Game 3 Rat City (63) vs Windy City (157)
Game 4 Bay Area Derby (103) vs Philly Rollergirls (107)3

Second Round:
Game 5 Texas Rollergirls (97) vs Windy City (110)
Game 6 Philly Rollergirls (52) vs Gotham Girls (189)
Grudge Match - Texas Rollergirls (95) vs Philly Rollergirls (114)
Championship Game Windy City (66) vs Gotham Girls (134)

MVP Bonnie Thunders (Gotham Girls)
MVZ Endless Justin (Gotham Girls)
On a side note; a special congrats go out to one of you favorite stats geek and his new fiancee: Hurt Reynolds proposed to Mercyless in a heart felt and loving fashion the only way Hurty could. Down on one knee he professed his love and asked her to marry him. It was absolutely beautiful.

BTW: She said yes and a huge cheer came from their biggest family of roller derby girls and boys from around the world.
DAMN, I've been to 2 derby proposals and 2 derby weddings. I [heart] the roller derby familes and the tight knit community it has become.

I'd also like to thank Viagrra Falls from Rose City who put's up with me every time I come to Portland. She rocks!It was so great to see old friends and new ones here this past weekend and those of you went here...I sure missed seeing you again. I look forward to hopefully getting to Nationals next year in Philly and if not there is always Regionals next September.
See you at RollerCon 09
xoxo Sour Cherry

Congratulations to the Gotham City Roller Girls on their 2008 National Champiionship Win!
and a special heart of Congratulations to Hurt Reynolds and Mercyless!

Labels: championships, Gotham Girls, OCDG, WFTDA

There are 6 more sleeps until the kick-off of the Green Mountain Derby Dames (GMDD) New England Regional Skills Clinic with Bonnie D. Stroir and Bully Julie of the San Diego Derby Dolls on Nov 22-23 in Burlington, Vermont. (actually the local is in Essex Junction, VT). You can still register for the inexpensive event ($55 registration includes a box lunch both days, and USARS insurance will be available for Canadian and newbie skaters.)

And about the Canadian Roller Derby skaters, there will be a full-fledged invasion of Canada into this event. There are MTLRD (Montreal) , HCRG (Hamilton, ON) and FCDG (London, ON) attendees I know of personally, and I believe there may be some others. I am excited to be heading out Friday for the two day event!!

So get your gear, book your hotel, and get your butt to Vermont next weekend! If you can't make it, just stop by here, Friday for the pre-trip, Saturday night for a day 1 write up, and Monday for full updates from the party, Day 2, and my road trip experiences.

Labels: FCDG, GMDD, HCRG, MTLRD, training, Travel

Photograph by : Gord Waldner, The StarPhoenix
Mirage (pink helmet), the jammer for the Saskatoon Roller Derby League team, tries to avoid being bumped out by a couple of Edmonton Oil City Derby Girls Saturday night at Prairieland Park

My favorite quote from this write up?

"It's kind of like watching NASCAR, but every lap someone crashes," said Graham Jacobson, whose girlfriend skates for the SRDL.

Now that's a good description of roller derby for all the racing fans out there. So, what's the difference between a Nascar driver and a rollergirl?..... Well, the rollergirl will probably not catch on fire when she crashes. ;)

Labels: bouts. OCDG, SRDL

In my usual early week review of all things roller derby, I heard about the Central New York Roller Derby league that has split. Now we have the CNYRD and the Utica Roller Girls.

So let's look at the Pros and Cons of starting a new league, or splitting your league:

Pros:
-You can correct mistakes and use your past experiences to build a better organization
-You can direct your new league to be more go or more show (concentrate on development of athletics, or development of crowd-pleasing as you see fit)
-You can have control over where your dues are going and can use a communication style that fits you better.
-You can make your own rules and not go by the original league rules.
-If starting a new league, you get the automatic gratitude of your future new recruits when they fall in love with roller derby.
- You'll have more networking opportunities. Let's face it, be honest, we all want to be popular.
-You may have a higher position than you had before, so you may have more access to training and information than a basic skater.

Cons:
-If you are splitting: You dilute the talent pool if there is a league in your city already. Depending on your numbers of new recruits each year, you'll now have competition for those new skaters that could be super stars.
-You will have to compete for media coverage, promotion, sponsors and fans. With the economy being in a recession, people do not have as much money to spend on a family of 4 at $15 ticket prices with snacks and merch as often.
-You may have a lot of drama and gossip and fighting amongst the former league members, and the ones that come with you. Now, if you're into that kind of drama, more power to you. This also depends on the amicability of the split and the size of your city.
-You undermine roller derby to the fans and the original league to other roller derby leagues, which can hurt fan sales, fundarising, and future bout contractual agreeements.

-If it's a new league in a new city, it will be a LOT of work. Be prepared for it! And be aware that you will not make everyone happy all the time.
-If you're a new league: Getting sponsorship is hard.
- You will have to devote twice as much time to roller derby, because now you're a skater, as well as part of the business that has to run the business.
- You will need partners and other board members to help you. And you will have to trust each other.
- Leaders have to lead. So you will need to work harder, try harder, practice more, and inspire others with your greatness, or at least your commitment to greatness.

I am sure there are other issues, I couldn't list them all. And every city is different. But if you're thinking of splitting, or of creating your own league in a own with or without roller derby, it's important to do what's best for roller derby in your town. Roller Derby is bigger than a single skater.

Everyone can't be happy all the time, but if some people can be happy most of the time, and most people can be happy some of the time, and a few people are unhappy only some of the time, then that's probably as good as it's going to get.

Ok, I am talking about this because I miss roller derby and if starting a new league would fix my time issues and allow me to go back to full-time training and practice tomorrow, part of me would say, YEAH! do it! But the logical, derby luvver part of me says, no. There's already a lot of roller derby and some awesome leagues in my part of Ontario (ToRD, GTA, Hammer City, Tri-City, London (Forest City)) and it would be bad for roller derby. So I'll be patient for '09.

In the meantime, I have the GMDD skills clinic with Bonnie D Stroir and Bully Julie of San Diego in two weeks, and I am trying to arrange a practice with the Blue Ridge Rollergirls in NC for my annual US Thanksgiving trip home, and I am also waiting for a final trip approval for a business trip that will allow me to catch a practice with the Rocky Mountain Roller Girls in Denver in early December.

Keep your elbows down and skate hard!
Later,
Nia

PS - 47th day of no smoking - I'm making it! Over halfway through my 90 day challenge. And I am a non-smoker!

Labels: GTA Rollergirls, Hammer City, HCRG, practice space, rollergirls, team building, training, Travel

The top 8 teams in the US are battling for the #1 position after clawing their way into Nationals from the East and West Coast Regional Tournaments in early October. (Battle Royale and Derby in Dairyland Regionals events)

Will the champion be a top-seeded team, or will we see another upset?2008 has been greatly a surprising year, so anyone could take this year's nationals!
West Coast
Seed 1 = Texas Rollergirls
Seed 2 = B. ay A. rea D. erby Girls
Seed 3 = Rat City Rollergirls
Seed 4 = Duke City Derby

East Coast
Seed 1 = Gotham Girls
Seed 2 = Windy City Rollers
Seed 3 = Philly Rollergirls
Seed 4 = Carolina Rollergirls

Official WFTDA rankings
TicketsGuaranteed bleacher seating - $100
General admission - $75

You can find more info on the NW Knockdown official website.
As a NC girl that is now in Canada, in lieu of no Canadian entries, I have to say I'm hopeful the Carolina Rollergirls can take this, but my feeling is we are looking at a bang up year for Gotham, and Texas is the team to beat. Course, the top 4 East and West are so good, I can't call this one at all.

Are you going to be there? Wanna put your two cents into the event, what happened, how it turns out, and share with others the low-down on the 2008 WFTDA Nationals? Contact me at info @ derbyluv.com and you can blog it on Derby Luv.



Rollergirl.ca and Derby Luv Stop Smoking Challenge Update:
Nia Capps has made it 41 days into her 90 day challenge and had not smoked. After parties, a death in the family, a chain-smoking sister... nothing compares to the draw of roller derby and roller skating on these new Kryptonic Route 65 wheels when it's nice out.....

Raven Von Kaos was inspired and is on her own stop smoking journey. If she makes it, she gets some gifts from Derby Luv. If she fails, she owes us money. Hey, if you are a rollergirl and want a stop smoking challenge, contact info @ derbyluv.com

Later derby luvvers!

Labels: bouts, championships, WFTDA