Well, derby luvvers, I apologize. After the GMDD clinic, I worked for two days, and stared at my arm bruises from Bully Julie's Blocking Drills (Did you see San Diego Derby Dolls in this article?) , then I was off to my hometown in North Carolina for US Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving to all my US rollergirls, and derby luvvers! I was evacuated from the local Wal-Mart (in Marion, NC) due to a bomb threat, and was flabbergasted of news about the Wal-Mart greeter trampled to death in NY, and the person shot at a Toys-R-US on Black Friday. I think from now on, I'm sticking to Canadian Boxing Day and Black Monday E-Commerce shopping.

Labels: Blackberry and PC WallPaper, blood and thunder, Derby Luv, GMDD, Rollercon 2009, San Diego Derby Dolls, training, Twitter

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

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

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