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

Herro?

Wow, I am ex-haus-ted! Sorry I have not been writing about my shananigans these days, but I have been sooo freakin' tired, on the go, and spare time challenged. With all of my other commitments, I have not been able to find the energy to write in here.

So I guess that brings me to my first thing to write about. Please, any of you who are involved with roller derby on any level, learn the art of delegation. For instance, I am currently the founder of Montreal Roller Derby aka interleague schmoozer. To add to that, I am the league president, part of the travel team, captain for my league team, training committee, and promotion committee. Please, do not attempt all of this at the same time, for the sake of you and your loved one's sanity.

However, during this time of never ending emails, drama, and questions, I have had the chance to travel. And boy, have I ever travelled! June was my main traveling month that began with a trip to good ol' California to play the San Diego Derby Dolls. If I've ever come across great hosts, those ladies are at the top of my list. Not only did we win our game against SDDD's Hard Corps, but we also won the after party!

Of course, this trip turned into somewhat of a vacation for our team that game all the way from the frosty North. And here my friends, is where my league invented the intense steamrolling derby competition.

I assume that you are all familiar with the game steam roller where you roll over your friends preferably on a bed-like environment. Well folks, we first made it into a competition. First we pushed the two beds together in the hotel, and let the games begin! One person starts face down and arms at the side on each side of the bed, someone yells, go, and whomever rolls over the other player legally is the champion. Being the competitive natured girls that we are, we decided to make this game a tournament. And to further advance the sport of steam rolling, we turned the game into doubles. One jammer, and one blocker on each team. So both teams start at their respective sides of the bed, and on the "GO" the blocker attempts to block the other jammer and blocker, while getting their jammer over. And yes, launching is perfectly legal. We passed this game onto our sister league Hammercity RG's at our afterparty, who passed it along to Toronto Roller Derby. Word on the street is that HCRG's Dicey ended up with a black eye during one of the bouts. Here is a little preview of the amazing game of steamrolling, Screw roller derby, steam roller is the future!!! PJ's optional.




I also had the chance to check out Philly's East Coast Extravaganza! Which was freakin' AMAZING! First of all, it was organized sooo well. I got to skate in the Veggies vs Steak N Eggs challenge, in which the veggies rightfully won. The skill level from the teams and skaters was fantastic. The two most exciting games I watched were the Gotham Girls vs TXRG game, and Carolina vs Windy City. I think Beyonslay's Slayride was the greatest moment of my life, and the fact that Rice Rocket got up the moment she hit the ground upside down was the second greatest moment of my life. Another proud moment of the weekend was when I got to be the Tea Bag mascot for the Boston B Party! We were honored to host them and Charm City back in the end of May. We showed 'em a good time!
The last rad moment I will mention was when Charles the shuttle bus driver allowed us to pack 24 people in his van. We chanted awesome things the whole ride there, including "Charles in charge!"


Finally, my month of June ended with taking a trip a bit West and stopping in Winnipeg, Manitoba to train the new roller derby league there. It is so fun to see a group of people at that stage again. Although I am still glad that we are finally wayyy passed that point. So much work ahead of them, but they're going to be awesome!

So that's it for now, June was great and hopefully July will be even better! VEGAS BABY!!!!!!

Cheers for never ending beers,

Georgia W Tush

p.s. I have given up on wearing real pants, and haven't worn jeans in over a month!!!

Labels: Boston Derby Dames, Charm City, ECE, MTLRD, San Diego Derby Dolls, steamroller, Winnipeg

I found the missing blog....



Boy, am I ever exhausted!

I just got back from San Diego on Monday, and I am still trying to get back to my normal self. Derby overload! Derby overload!!!

Alright, so it all started Tuesday, Feb 19th on Jess Bandit, Ashley Thudd, and my trek to California, while sadly leaving a snowstorm behind. hah! We travelled the whole day an eventually reached San Diego that night. We were greeted by ACDG's Diesel and Estro Jen, where they were nice enough to drive us all the way to Long Beach to crash at Estro's place. Thanks again ladies, you're great!

Wednesday involved some touristy goodness involving Jess Bandit and myself checking out the wax museum, Chuck Norris' star, and getting stranded in Beverly Hills. I even managed to spill some Vitamin Water on some dude's fancy shoes in BV, and thank goodness he was a good sport about it. Luckily, Diesel and Estro came to our rescue and brought the getaway vehicle outta BH, heading to their practice.

ACDG let us tag along at their practice. I enjoyed how the importance or reason why we were doing the exercise was explained to us throughout their practice. That is always important, and should be done all of them time. The gals were great, and the night ended with the art of drinking PBR's at a cute little bar in LA. Thanks ladies! So for a good time, call ACDG.

SAN DIEGO!!

After an early evening of drinking a beer or two, we still had to trek over to San Diego bright an early for the Blood and Thunder Training Camp at the San Diego Derby Dolls' Dollhouse. But that's what derby stamina is all about my friends.

First, I'd like to acknowledge what a great space SDDD has found. They have room for a stretching space, banked track, flat track, and office space. So jealous!

I am too lazy to go into detail about all of the workshop details, but I certainly learned a lot from trainers like AZRD's Coach Pauly, Tampa's Shirley Insane, SDDD's Bonnie D.Stroir, TXRD's Cherry Chainsaw, LADD's Tara Armov, B&T's Black Dahlia, Renegade's Mayhemily, and SDDD's Bully Julie. The first day I overdid myself, and did amost every workshop from 10am to 10pm, including B&T allstar team tryouts at night. By early evening I was exhausted, and if my feet could talk, they'd be screaming bloody murder. I forgot about the fact that I was still breaking in my new skaters, so my feet were blister-tastic. Putting my health aside, attending all of the workshops was such a great learning experience, and helped me realize that there is still SO much I need to learn in a sport that is constantly changing and evolving. ..And there were still three more days!

Thursday night ended with allstar team tryouts, when everyone was exhausted from a long-filled derby day. The skaters came from rookie backgrounds, to some of the most experienced gals around. It was fun to skate with everybody, and see all of the different levels working together.

Chosen by Coach Pauly, the Allstar team was:

Miss Fortune
Georgia W. Tush
Miss Mel Mangles
Demanda Riot
Miss E Vil
Muffin
Viagra Falls
Goodie Two Skates
So Sue Mi
Crazy Train
Ivanna Spankin
Trish the Dish
Switchblade Siouxie
Killbox
Jane Ire
Juju

Estro Jen, Diesel, Lulu Cthulu, and Chrissy Cruiser were also chosen to play on the SDDD team.

Ya! I made the team! It was exciting to be on a team with so much talent, experience, and such great ladies. Although at this point, not only did I realize that I had to participate in all of the workshops and bring back the information to my league. But also, focus and prepare to play a bout the Saturday night. Ahhh!

The next day, I was done. Everything was sore, and I was exhausted. I took the day much easier by participating in fewer workshops, and trying to re-cap everything I had learned the day before. One of the only camp issues also began Friday (maybe the day before as well, I just didn't notice), was that some workshops were getting canceled, or changed. However, I think B&T did a great job replacing workshops, and filling up the gaps. That night, I had an all-star practice and it was a lot of fun preparing a team to play against a team that works well together, and that has been playing together for a long time. One point that was really stressed, was the fact that a good derby player should be able to play with anyone at anytime. So very true!

Saturday was a write off for me. At this point during the camp, I was so tired and I don't think my brain could take anymore workshop info. I mostly chilled, and prepared for the big game. The classes shrunk a lot by the end of the day, and most people were resting or heading over to the game.

[I just found this blog..and I'm going to end it short and sweet, because I'm lazy]

I was nervous, because I didn't want to feel like the dud of the team. I also hadn't been in a bout in front of so many people since last summer! My body felt like crud, but we did a warm up with Mayhemily that made me feel like a million bucks. San Diego's Hard Corps and Diego Rollers started off the double head with DR coming out victorious after a close game.

You want to know what is amazing? Having the most stacked team EVER! That my friends, is amazing. The bout began, and the San Diego Allstars started off with a strong fight. Team Blood and Thunder did win the game, but SD did certainly not make it easy for the BT's. I can't remember the final score, i feel like it was 80 somethin to 130ish?

The next day, my gals and I had to leave early because of a crummy flight change. We got to the airport, and our flight was overbooked by 16 people. What the shit? How does that even happen? Nonetheless, being the opportunist that I am, I went to go find out what kind of deals they were offering. Jess Bandit and I agreed to fly out the next morning and in return we received a free round trip plane ticket, that night's hotel and meals paid for, and FIRST CLASS seats the next morning. A let me tell you, once you fly first class, it is hard to go back. They offered us drinks before we even lifted, omelettes with fruit and croissants, and a hot towel. We were stuck in Burlington overnight waiting for the bus back to Montreal, but it was all for the greater good.

In the end, B&T was a blast. The first year is always a trial and error run, but overall I took home some much from the trainers and other skaters. It was nice to have so much information in a small environment and small numbers in the classes, compared to all the vices and distractions in Fabulous Las Vegas. I would highly recommend the Blood and Thunder Training camp if they decide to run it next year. Props go out to Blood and Thunder and the San Diego Derby Dolls for organizing and hosting such a great event!

Next stop, Las Vegas!

Georgia W Tush

p.s. i refused to spell check and grammar check this extremely long entry.

Labels: ACDG, blood and thunder, San Diego Derby Dolls, training