Scrimmage till you want to die!

Practice today (6/6/2010) was a shitload of fun. After another installment of the 25-in-5 assessment, we got to do more hit drills focusing on drawing cut penalties from our opponents, pace-line drills where we consistently annoyed Anarchy with our interpretation 'pace', and finally scrimmaged the shit out of each other.

Things started off with some warm-up laps before Anarchy blew the whistle for the 25-in-5. I was determined to improve on my weaksauce 19 laps from last week and managed to hammer out 23 before time ran out, improving by 4 laps. Some of our fastest skaters were in the 30 lap range. Everyone showed improvement, ranging from 2 to 5 more laps, and the concept seemed much less daunting in general. As this is to be a regular occurrence at practice, I am confident that the team will all meet the minimum within a couple months at most.

Everyone's hits showed improvement, varying from cleaner contact and improved stability to increased application of force while staying in control. I was able to bounce a couple blockers while on the defensive and put my mark over the line with respectable reliability. El Guapo, previously our newest skater before the arrival of Captain Obvious today, showed huge improvement and potential. Once he gets the endurance and stability going for him he is going to be a menace. Unfortunately, Bubba Fett took a hard fall to his back and was out for the rest of the practice.

Next came paceline drills. For whatever reason, we had issues with this today. Our pace varied depending on the point in the line quickly leading to bunching and stringing out. We did standard forward and backward weaves, self assists moving forward, and finally blocking assists where you treated the individuals in the paceline like weapons. All sorts of fun despite our hiccups.

Finally, scrimmage! Not just a simple 20 minutes of scrimmages though, 45 minutes worth. With only 8 skaters on the floor this meant that we were given nearly a full time out rest between each jam. Balanced teams were decided by Anarchy and then she and Warden eyeballed our performance while calling out majors/minors. Unlike last practice, we actually worked as semi-cohesive units during some of the jams. I managed to give Speed Bump a useful assist while he jammed to help him escape the wrath of Demon, and even caused an opponent to draw a cutting penalty as well. My team (blue pennys) also managed to speed up the pack when we lost our jammer to a major and also made attempts to pull a goat when the other team lost theirs. Penalties were much less frequent than I feared they would be, and afterwards Warden commented that we played cleaner than he thought we would. Speed Bump's big toe got kingpin-stomped during a jam and he was out for the rest of practice which let team blue with Bees (yellow lightning), Kill (also faster than me), and I for the final few jams. As we all fatigued and started losing focus, the penalties became a bit more common. In the final jam, Anarchy had us run it as though it were overtime and with my team having 2 ghosts in the box to the other's 1, that mean we were outnumbered and easy prey if we didn't work together. Kill and I lined up as blockers and Bees donned the star. By this point we were all pretty exhausted, but were determined to make the best of it. Kill and I worked to restrain the opposing jammer as best we could while helping Bees when possible. In the end, we came out 2 points ahead and managed to seal the deal... in one jam... in a scrimmage. Tiny victory!

Great practice, it was really nice to see everyone improving so much as a whole.

Goal for the week: hit up Oaks as soon as finals are over to pound on endurance during the week. I want those 25 laps next practice...

Till the sweat runs off my...

So I wrote this almost a week ago... I probably should post it before writing about the most recent practice.

Practice (5/30/2010) once again and General Anarchy kicked the crap out of us, but was more or less agreed by many as the best so far. I seemed to be getting sick again (outbreak monkey), but wasn't going to let that stop me from plodding around on wheels for 2 hours.

We started out (after warming up and stretching of course) with the dreaded 25 laps in 5 minutes assessment. Unsurprisingly, I failed (19 laps...), but we did have 2 skaters pass and another 2 within spitting distance. This is to become a regular thing at practice, so I guess I better get moving faster. Our newest skater, El Guapo, picked a rough day to start, but toughed it out and had a great time.

We got to practice some hit drills, knocking your opponent out of bounds and then stopping/backing up to try and force them to draw a cutting penalty. My hits are progressing from completely unthreatening to mildly useful. Very mild though. I desperately need to work on my turn-around control, it really limits how well I can force another player to cut the track

Finally, we got to do some 4-on-4 scrimmages. It is so rewarding to see those drills actually start coming together. We staggered around and made a good attempt at things, but being our first time with both teams having a jammer, it was still quite new to us. It was interesting to see how much an actual jam leveled the playing field. Sure, some people were playing to a higher level, but everyone in the pack was able to serve some purpose. Sometimes that purpose is meatshield...

derby derby derby...

Another derby filled weekend has come and gone. Friday I got to attend Friday open skate from 1-5pm before I saw the Wheels of Justice play Denver's 5280 Fight Club. While the first half started out promising for WoJ, Denver came out strong in the second half and simply would not be beaten. It was a VERY technical game with both teams putting up huge efforts. On Saturday I drove to Salem to watch the High Rollers play the Cherry City Derby Girls. I expected to see HR do well and was not disappointed. Honey Hellfire, Sully Skullkicker, Madame Bumps-a-lot, and White Flight were all but untouchable much of the bout, landing several 10-15+ point jams and playing solid defense as blockers. Also out for HR, Minnie van Mayhem, Intensive Scare, Hurricane Skatrina, Devaskating Diva, Crusher, and others I can't remember were in fine form, helping bring about the 199 points for their team. Lots of fun, and great medicine after being so frustrated with the outcome of the WoJ bout the night before.

Sunday practice was only an hour due to a Rosebuds double-header immediately afterwards. General Anarchy started us off with some drills to get us warmed up followed by a variation on crossovers where we actively block the inside line in the curves while doing crossovers, scary right now... maybe less so later. The horse stance exercises appear to be paying off, Anarchy spent less time than before telling me to get low. Eventually we broke into groups of three and one person had to get by the other two. I ended up with Demon and Next of Ken, Next got the first shot at jammer, and due to my exquisite ineptitude at that exact moment in time, got through in relatively short time. I got the next rotation and spent the rest of the drill show how shitty I was as a jammer, never getting by Demon & Next. On the bright side I did manage to get in plenty of practice getting back up, a very useful skill right now. After Anarchy got tired of watching me pick myself up off the court we went 3 on 3 with one side's skater being designated as a jammer. Once again, everyone got to be jammer, though some were noticeably better than others. Some bumps and knockdowns throughout the drill, but not as bad as the first time we did pack drills. Bees proved to be every bit the wheeled ninja I thought him to be; I really want to see him go head to head against Speed Bump. Sadly, there was no Speed at practice yesterday. Demon took an entirely different approach to jamming, flooring much of the pack with an impressive block from the inside line before cruising through at his leisure. Awesome to watch, somewhat less awesome to be on the receiving end of. Just before practice ended I managed to get my hand skated over in a big pileup, which sucked every bit as much as I was told it would. Fists at all times, even when dialing the phone...

After a painfully fun hour of practice, the RCR Rosebuds A and B teams played, the Kitsap Derby Brats. Both Rosebuds teams played with a skill and intensity that made me jealous, but they are a great team to watch. Somehow I don't remember not getting tired when I was their age... I'll leave you with a picture of me in my new profession: Derby Janitor

Goal for the week: work on side-to-side mobility and awareness.

HITS HITS HITS!

Second 2-hour practice today. General Anarchy (aka, The Whip) was in a fairly good mood, sprawls were limitied to only 6, and whistle drills weren't overly soul-crushing this week. Best of all, HIT DRILLS. She (Anarchy) paired us off in lines on the inside and outside of the track, designated which side was dealing the hit, and sent us on our merry way. A couple things quickly became apparent. First off, despite his waifish 180lb physique, Speed Bump can hit plenty hard, regularly flooring his opponents or at least sending them out of bounds. Second, staying in an actual low derby stance is vital, it is the difference between getting knocked over and being inconvenienced when someone plows into you. Demon regularly street-sweepered anyone unfortunate enough to be paired against him with relative ease, though Speed Bump did manage to put him down a couple times when he landed a strong hit on his terms. I got to be a trauma sponge, falling about as often as not when presented with a decent hit, and tried to deal out some hits of my own in the process. Unfortunately, I still think my hits are about as threatening as a pack of wild pugs, but that will improve with time. I really gotta focus on blasting through my target and commiting to the hit when I make my cut.

After hit drills we did some jammer drills where one lucky individuals had the task of getting through 5 blockers unaided. A couple of the faster/better players actually pulled it off a couple times, but Anarchy expressed her surprise at our mediocre competency... but not before making us do push-ups for letting a single jammer through the first time. Everyone got a turn at being the victim/jammer, no exceptions. When my turn to suck floor finally rolled around I was surprised to find that I could actually make a decent stab at things, nearly getting through on one of my better tries. Of course, this only leads me to worry at how well a 'good' jammer will ninja their way through the pack, especially when he has 4 friends wrecking shop to help him through.

After a few rounds of squish the jammer, Anarchy upped the ante and gave the jammer penny to Speed Bump and also gave him a friend to help him get through. The blocker from his team had the job of getting into the pack and just blazing holes in their lines or causing havoc to let Speed through. Turns out that adding just one blocker makes a noticable difference, but by then we had made decent headway in working together, so it wasn't a complete slaughter.

Practice ended with some of the team going to skate the Springwater trail. Since my legs had long since turned to mush by then and my left skate was trying to forcefully divide like a single celled organism, I was not amongst them. Gonna be sore tomorrow, but I am happy as a clam with the team progress.

Goal for the next two weeks (no practice next weekend):Skate lower, apparently I need to be dragging my sack to avoid being yelled at...

Pack Skate FTW!

So after missing last week's practice to go to CA to compete in the HPVC contest (PSU team took second, best in college history to date) I spent a week hacking and coughing up chunks of lung. When Sunday rolled around I felt more or less like I was ready to skate again, so naturally this would be our first 2-hour practice.

The Whip was late arriving after attending an RCR board meeting just before practice, so Faux Paul took whistle duty and had us doing combinations of pyramid sprints and other general warm-up drills. After about 20 minutes of thinking I might not die The Whip showed up and any foolish hopes of survival were dashed against the rocky coast of her merciless rule.

Apparently in the practice I missed they did more pack drills and I was sorely jealous. This was wasted jealousy. We were handed pennys, and practiced 4 vs 4 for what to do when one side's jammer was in the box. Initially this meant a messy free for all of those who could hit trouncing those who could not. While I still don't feel great hitting, it turns out I can soak up a decent hit without too much effort (thx gravity!), so I really enjoyed this. If your team's jammer was called out in the box your side had to get out front and speed the pack up, and the other team tried to catch one and slow things down. After a couple pile-ups Susan had us just use positional and booty blocking rather than laying each other out. Good times...

Another new drill was what I dubbed the conga line. first we were spaced out at arms length and the rearmost person weaves to the front. After a couple cycles the rear person did self-assists off each person. Then we finally got to do whips. Alternating inside and outside we slung our teammates ahead of us until it was our turn. While I'm a bit heavy to properly get a significant boost from most of my teammates, it works great in reverse. Even The Whip said I was good at giving whips, which I considered a huge success for the day.

Goal for next week: Skate lower so I'm not constantly being told to stay low all practice.

Derby Weekend

I got to enjoy a nice weekend of derby the last few days. On Friday I watched the broadcast of the Wheels of Justice vs Charm City, then Saturday went to cheer on the High Rollers as they took on the Break Neck Betties, and finally on Sunday I got to realize how far I have to go during men's practice and seeing the Rosebuds play the I-5 rollergirls. On the bright side, all the teams I was pulling for won their game!

The Whip, or General Anarchy as she seems to prefer, was at the helm once again this weekend. More fall drills (which are becoming more automatic), laps, and sprints this week while constantly looking around/behind you incase the rumors about the boogeyman not being real are suddenly disproved. I enjoy her coaching style and hope that she runs the team for a while. She coaches the Rosebuds and seems to do a good job there, and I think the non-PG13 environment of adult men's derby suits her motivation style well. After seeing her run the rosebuds team in the close bout with I-5 she certainly has good strategy and understands what she can expect her players to do under pressure.

Two big new drills this week, one incredibly fun and the other something I think The Whip borrowed from a DIY Gitmo instruction manual. First up, sprawl drills. Imagine doing a jumping jack with rollerskates except that the moment your wheels hit the ground you drop to knees, elbows, wrists, and then chest. Now do that 5 times in a row and then sprint 3 laps. Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot... Easily my new least favorite drill, but I can certainly see the multiple benefits of doing them. Getting up faster, the overall aerobic and muscle workout, and training to take the worst fall possible in a controlled manner. Seeing these benefits does nothing for how much the drill sucks though. I'll ask to do more next practice.

The big winner of the day though was that Speed Bump was there once again and we got to do actual pack skating with a jammer on the track. Lots of nervousness and worries as we tottered about the track while Speed Bump ninja'd his way past everyone without showing any signs of real effort. Only Carpe Demon & Kill Nye were able to put up much of a showing of actual defense, using some positional & booty blocking as well as Demon forcing him outside the line with a light shoulder block. I really enjoyed that the drill more closely resembled actual derby, and that despite some hiccups we were able to skate packed up and moving together. Gotta work on that side-to-side mobility to get in those little jammers' way faster. Slippery buggers...

Floorburn FTW!

Went to Open Skate for general skating and working on endurance. Things went well for the most part, got to practice plow stops, some light backwards skating, some of the weakest attempts at a tomahawk this century. I felt good and warmed up and worked on whatever fundamentals occurred to me with my friend and was having a good time getting in a decent workout.

Later in the session (Wednesday afternoons are the best time to go btw, very few people there) people cleared out so I figured it was time to speed things up a bit. I had sprinted a few laps throughout the day whenever I had the room to safely do so, but hadn't done any back-to-back so I decided this was the time. Laps 1 & 2 felt good, crossovers were smooth and I was holding good speed through the turns leading to faster straights every lap. Had lap 3 continued like the first two I would have been content to call it good there, but obviously, it didn't. The second turn a crossover became a cross-up and I stumbled. Having been working on and discussing proper falls recently I had the perfect opportunity to put the theory to the test rather than fight the fall and end up going down like a felled tree. So I took a knee, which, given I was at the apex of the turn and had some serious radial forces going on, went very well. No bruises, and only floorburn on my thumb where it was exposed just past my wristguard. Floorburn so deep I might not have a thumbprint there again...

Good workout though.

Practice: Round 3!

So this week Demon's significant other ran the show for today and Speed Bump was there. She is from NJ, has played and currently coaches derby, and is awesome. Also, she will be referred to as 'The Whip' in future practices, or at least will be by me... Drills were more aggressive with a strong emphases on looking around you, staying in 'derby stance', and pushing yourself at all times. More one-knee falls, but The Whip added 5 sprinting strides after getting up to the mix and required constant looking around to maintain awareness, at one point requiring we say how many fingers she was holding up at various times. This was to become a theme for the day. Some one foot drills whistle change-up drills followed, also with requirements of paying attention to your surroundings. Finally, today introduced pushes and self assists or 'hip-whips', partnering up and leapfrogging around the track, alternating between pusher and pushee. At one point I was paired with Demon which meant every other time I was hurled forwards at speeds approaching the sound-barrier and then the other times possibly bored him to tears with a comparatively feeble push. We changed partners after a while and proceeded to the hip-whips which really made me nervous when towing another skater to steal momentum. The Whip gave lots of constant encouragement and constructive criticism which I think was well received by all. Definitely the most physically demanding practice to date, but I would be happy to see her there again in the future.

On to the 8-wheeled wonder that is Speed Bump. So my friend that got me interested in the first place told me that the first practice he attended, Speed Bump showed up complaining of a hangover and proceeded to go bouncing across the floor like an olympian. Seeing him in motion was inspiring. Tons of energy, very fast, and making it look easy the whole time. He offered advice and suggestions before/after/during drills that was always relevant and useful and was a nice guy. Hoping to see him again in the future, his being there also added something to the practice and made it a more valuable experience.

I definitely need to step up the fitness and skate time outside of practice, but am continuing to have a great time learning the basics and getting to know the team.

You know you want to...

Are you a guy in Portland, over 21 years old, kept up late at night wondering "Could I play men's roller derby?"

The answer is yes. Yes, you can.

Go to the Portland Men's Roller Derby website to find out information about practices, skill and equipment requirements, and more.

Second Practice

Second practice this week, only 5 of us skating, but also attended the board meeting to be better informed/involved. Learned a lot about our relationship with RCR and got to voice my opinion (despite it's newness in the group) on open questions of interest and goals.

Today Demon asked if we had any special requests for the day and I wanted to do some basic hit drills. Though before we did that I asked about practicing falls and doing squats since they're generally related. So after squats and falls (which I am happy to say I have gotten MUCH better about getting up into motion using my toe-stop from a knee after a single knee fall) we paired up and did basic contact drills. Since many of us had never put a hit on anyone we started with just making legal contact. Not bad, but doing so with any coordination is harder than it looks for sure. A person on the outside was designated the hitter and their partner, conveniently gliding along in the 'derby' position, the one taking the hit. Once we all had a few runs through barely bumping into each other Demon changed it up so the hitter would continuously push their opposite until they were forced out of bounds to the inside, changing up to do it again in opposite roles on the next straight away.

Taking the hit, no problem, sit there and be a trauma sponge until you're forced across the line. Dealing the hit was a real challenge for me. First, I don't feel terribly confident on my skates in close proximity to others just yet so I was quite cautions about accidentally clipping someone's wheel during the line-up and approach. Second, these were my teammates and that always makes me a bit nervous when potentially causing injury. Long story short, I liked the contact drills, but thought my hits/contact was crap. Perhaps this week along the Springwater trail I'll farm a jogger or two for practice... probably not.

Overall, feeling better about the skating, but really need the weather to clear up so I can add outdoor skating to the weekly routine and start building some endurance to prep for the 2-hour practices we hope to move to. I have a nice section of the trail picked out that is a 6-mile round trip from the apartment which should start to really help build up those oddball skating muscles and give me more general skate time.