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...

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...