Skater Freak

(sorry this is a little long)

In the past few months I have gotten several private lessons from some amazing skaters. I got a few private lessons/small group lessons with White Flight, Mel Mangles, Blood Clotia, Mercy, and Smack Ya Sideways. 

Each had similar things to teach yet all in different ways. The best part about Roller Derby is that every body type and style bring something amazing to the sport. Each of these people were wonderful teachers, perhaps without realizing it. Each gave me a new insight on how to try different moves and how to use my body. If you are in a large league ask your star players if they do lessons. It never hurts to ask and they can show you so much. 

My first lessons were from Mel Mangles. Who was one of the first players I thought was amazing on our league. I was also horribly nervous to take lessons from not only a team player but one of our Travel Team skaters. There were only a few of us so we got very personalized attention. I was still pretty crappy at most things and I can easily say she helped me move up at least 2 levels. She showed me how to change my cross overs so that they were more effective. 

She told me to really over exaggerate my moves. Really lift the right leg over the left knee when crossing over. It was incredibly ocword at first, threw my balance and was a little odd. After practicing that for a day it got better and made more sense. She told me that by lifting your right leg in this way it 1. helps you in a tight pace line, especially when the person in front of you tends to kick back. 2. It gives you more reach with your right foot which leads to more power. 

The other part of cross overs she helped me with was the under push. Really pushing out with your left foot. Most of your power is coming from that under push. The further out you can push it the more power you can get. 

Mel taught us how to do a beautiful pace line. Stay low and try to match your stride with the person in front. Count your strides and try to keep them the same when doing your laps. This keeps you going the same speed which helps you not get worn out. We also did laps in the reverse direction! Yes do your laps in the reverse direction regardless of how much it sucks. 

She also taught me a better way to do my T-stops. Instead of putting your foot behind you using all 4 wheels you keep it under you and can use just the front 2 wheels. It was more stable for me and I was able to stop quicker. It also helped in packs and kept me from tripping anyone with a clumsy T-Stop. 

I then took lessons with White Flight. She set up a series with a few of us three times a week. Mondays and Fridays we would have a on skates practice. Wednesday we had an hour to discuss strategy. This to me was an incredible experience and probably one of the best things I’ve done in derby. 

Our lessons were great and I again feel these helped me move up in skill. My first lesson with Whitey ended up being a private lesson due to miscommunication on start date. That first lesson was a bit free form as she wasn’t prepared to have a lesson for just 1 person. We worked on my form doing laps. Worked on my stops. Best of all we worked on my toe starts! I think I did a good half hour of just toe starts, at least it felt like it.  At first she just had me run on my toe stops off the line. Each time asking me to do 1 more step then the time before or to try and reach the pivot line. Once I could get several steps in we worked on going into the cross over from the start at the apex. I never thought about where to go off the jam line. The goal should be to get around as fast as possible, the best way to do that is to head for that apex. 

Once I mostly got this down she then stood at the apex and held her arm out fairly low. I was to get to her and keep low the entire time. She also began to time it. My goal was to cut the time to 4 seconds then 3. I got 3 maybe 2 times. I did stay low and though it was hard and I thought I’d fall over I kept doing it and loved every  bit of it. It was one of the best lessons. 

From then on we worked as a small group. We worked on form, stops, tight turns, timing and hitting. For the several weeks we got together we built on what we had already learned. The tight turns is something that i have been fighting with but learned a lot from Whitey on how to improve. Its about weight distribution and form. I got it in my head but not fully in my body at the time. 

Our hitting drills were really great and one of the first places we were told to go all out. One of the key things I got from these lessons where that when going in for a hit you will be more successful if you are in front. Step into them or quickly turn in front of them. The transfer of weight from the back leg to the side you are going to hit with makes a huge difference. At the end of these lessons we would place “last woman standing” and each get 3 lives. I find that I can actually pull off a hit when I’m not thinking about it. Playing that game removes all thought of how to do it and just makes me do it.  

Once we got better with hits we started working on timing of our hits. When is the best time to go in for a hit. What part of the track is more advantageous to pull of a hit on a jammer or a blocker. This of course leads into strategy. 

One of my favorite things was getting together to talk about strategy. I  could listen and talk about strategy for hours. I think in fact I’ll leave this subject for a different post. 

Smackya was the other person, not surprisingly, who helped me with my hits. I had one class with her all on hitting. Again its about form and distribution and transfer of weight. I found that the lower I get the more umf my hits have. One of the great tips she gave was when going for say a sternum buster on the right, take your right arm and reach down to your left skate like you’re trying to grab it. Then pop up back to the right. It gives you way more power and control. I’m still working on my hits but she helped a few things click in my body. 

Blood Clotia put on a boot camp for some of us wanting to get onto Fresh Meat. It was 3 times a week and kicked our butts. She worked us while making it really fun. We did a lot of off skate work which I think many people don’t emphasize. She also had us work on endurance. We were working outside on a decent basketball court that had a slope in it and a largish crack we had to avoid. We worked on our laps and endurance every practice. We would start off with 9 laps in 9 minutes. Then 8 in 8 until we got down to 6 laps in 6 minutes. Then we would work back up to 9. When we first started not all of us could do them all. By the last practice we were all in. It was great. It made the 50 lap killer at tryouts seem like nothing. 

Each one of these Skaters gave me a piece to work on, helped something click. But the key thing that all of them would say is that YOU are the driving force in your training. YOU have to go to the people who can help you. YOU have to skate the extra mile sort to speak. 

There are some people who seem to get made that a practice isn’t as hard as they need it to be. But it is YOU who makes the lessons harder. If it’s easy make it harder, increase your intensity, find a way to learn something new. 

Take control of what and where you want your derby career to be.

Today I had another lesson with Mel. I told her what I was told regarding needing to build my endurance. She suggested I ride my bike a lot. Lucky for me I have just recently started riding my bike to work again. I got my Fixie set up for my commute as I think it will be a better work out then my road bike. So I will ride to work 3 days of the week. The other 2 I have to drive to practice right after work. 

I’m also going to work out every day for at least an hour on core strength. Planks, wall sits, squats, things like that to build up strenght. 

At our lesson today we worked on our cross overs and focusing on our inside leg. This is always useful and I have been trying to focus on this a lot. 

We then worked on hitting. This was great for me as I feel it is my weakest point. Mel set up the 2 score and put a PCV pipe over them. She then held the hitting bag to the side of them. We were to skate forward and then step under the pole and then do a sternum buster on the bag. This helped us work on the “check mark” type movement. It was really useful to feel how by really stepping down and to the side and then raising up into the bag had more of an impact. I also noticed I was more effective if I aimed to step just beyond the bag. This helped me make contact with more power. 

After working on this for awhile we moved to hitting one another. There was 3 of us and we skated at pack pace with the middle person to the inside and the last person towards the outside. The person in front would do a plow stop close to the person behind them. The plow movement gets you into the low point of the “check mark” then would come up and hit the person. Then do the same thing to the last person in line. 

This brought in the timing aspect of hitting. It was really good to see how if you miss the timing just by a little the hit wasn’t as effective. Also if you didn’t do the plow correctly you would through yourself off balance. I can’t say I fully pulled this off. I was getting there though. I know that hitting is something I lack in and would love to improve. 

I know need to find a way to practice this on my own. I found that skating forward and then taking a good step forward and to the side was a good way to practice at least the movement. For me I find stepping forward is difficult in my skates. I want to get over this so this could be a good exercise to practice. 

So much work to do in the next couple of months. I’m sore today but feeling great!

Skate on my friends!

So I have been skating a LOT. I Have Wreckers practice Friday and Saturday. Then I skate Tuesday, Thursday, and Sundays. I also have Mel Mangel lessons on Monday’s. The Mel lessons are amazing and have been the most helpful thing since I started. I think this is because there is just a few of us and we can really focus on what we’re working on. 

So far with Mel I have improved my toe starts, cross overs, stops, and turn a rounds. I can run on my to stops just about 10 feet. I feel confident taking off on the jammer line and feel that with more balance I can do a pretty good job at it.

My cross overs are now more tight and effective. I actually feel like I get a good push/speed out of my inside leg as it moves under my body. I can do cross overs all the way around the track. I feel now that I’m doing more of a cross under and it feels amazing! Instead of focusing on my outside leg crossing over m outside leg I focus on the inside. I really pay attention to my inside leg and feel it slide under my body and push off the track. I have notice the change in my speed and LOVE it. I still get a little freaked out going to fast around the corners though.

My stops are getting there as well. My T-stops have changed to remain more under my center rather than behind my other skate. This was at the recommendation of Mel as well. With the T stop being more under you, you are less likely to trip someone and get a low block. My snow plows are getting stronger and I can stop in less space then before. I can now do a hockey stop and it’s becoming one of my favorites. Especially when I get pushed out of bounds on the outside.

My turn around toe stops still need work. The part I struggle with is turning around. I find that picking a spot on the wall to stare at helps me turn around. It’s like I pay more attention to that spot then what my feet are doing.

I was in a second open scrimmage and was more comfortable in it. I have started to focus on pack work and strategy. Communication is a key in the pack! Learning how to keep walls and how to destroy walls is slowly coming.

When you first start derby I think you don’t realize how much is truly involved. Perhaps this is how any sport is? I have never been into a sport like I’m into derby. Maybe they all seem rather simple in form but when you start to learn the rules and strategies you see how complex they really are.

I will try to be better about documenting my experiences here. I love having a place to put my thoughts down and share with others. I hope it’s helpful or at least somewhat entertaining.

Till next time keep skating! 

On Monday I had a small group lesson with Miss Mel Mangles. It was great! It was just me and one other girl. We worked on starts and it was very helpful for me. We started off by just getting our stance right, staying low and focusing on a point out in front of us. This way when we leave the jammer line with our focus on that spot it helps prevent standing up to run. This keeps us low and our momentum stays going forward rather than up.

We also focused on going as far as we could on our toe stops. At first I could only do about 2 -3 steps on my toe stops before going into my duck walk. By the end of the lesson I could go about 15 feet nearly 20. This was a HUGE improvement for me. She then wanted to make sure that we did our crossovers through the whole turn rather than gliding around the apex.

The next bit was harder but makes sense. After doing your toe run your first duck step should be with the inside foot (aka your left foot). Imagining that your left foot is  making an attempt to pull yourself towards the inside of the track. This was a difficult thing to do but makes sense as far as switching into the crossovers. I think it was hard because I’m right sided and take my first steps with my right foot. This is something I’ll continue to work on for sure. The one time I pulled it off it made my transition into the corner much easier and smoother.

We then worked on the mind games that happen at the jammer line. Anyone who has watched a game as seen the jammers nearly on top of one another. She went over some strategies and how to overcome them. We worked on starting right on top of the other jammer at either side of the track and how to get them out of bounds. This was totally new for me but really informative.

We also worked on watching the packs wheels in order to anticipate when the jammer whistle will blow. (for those who may not know, the jammer whistle doesn’t blow until the all blockers have passed the pivot line. So you watch the blockers wheels for when they pass that line) This was harder for me as I think I’m better at reacting to sound then sight. Mel acted as the pack and had the whistle and the two of us were racing to pass her first. We added in trying to get each other out of bounds as well. We were doing pretty good until the other girl knocked me down. I feel in 4 point fall and she tripped over my out stretched leg. This would have been fine but she fell on an old injury. We stopped for a bit while she recovered.

After that we worked on a pace line. I’m a bit slower then both of them but was able to get some tips on how to continue doing a cross over all the way around the track. I feel pretty good about my crossovers  but know I need a lot of work. I still get nervous when I pick up to much speed. I also have an issue in the pace line where the person in front of me slows down I feel I can’t do my crossover. I’m afraid of kicking them or tripping them and myself. Mel noticed that my right leg goes out and kind of swings around the front of my left leg. She suggested instead to do more of a lateral step over my left leg. This decreases the space in front of me that I use.

This was hard to do at first but is getting more natural. I think of it more like a cross under with my left then a crossover with my right. I’m eager for practiced to try this out in a larger pace line.