#gettingawesome

So I was lucky enough to attend another Smarty Pants training session with the amazing Steel City Roller Derby! It was an amazing opportunity that Im glad I got to experience!!

I  was lucky enough to be able to train with her last week in a private session in Austin and then SCRD reached out to us to see if any of us would like to join in on this session. One Smarty already blew my mind in the things we went over last week so a second chance? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? YESSSSSSSSS.

So driving up I was really nervous. This again mimicked the nerves going into my own private session. One being able to have this amazing knowledge from smarty shared with me and two skating with a lot of SCRD skaters is kind of intimidating but in a good "push yourself further" way.

When we started the session I was really happy that she remembered me and told me that she hoped that I remembered everything that we worked on. But honestly how could I forget it! SO AMAZING. Her approach to everything and unlocking your inner power and strength to use that power and your body to be the most successful is just mind blowing. 

The private session I had really was a good pre cursor to this session we worked on a lot of the same concepts but using them in different ways. We started off talking about muscle control and firing muscles because hey thats where all of your power comes from. We then worked on clenching our bodies piece by piece and holding strong, Muscle engagement and having those muscles ready to perform is so important. Our optimum goal in derby to be strong and hold our ground and hold those jammers behind us no matter what. We then worked on skating with this stature and using that power and pushing off the ground to move forward. A simple thought she brought up was our game is played in two ways lateral and forward and how to use that power to be the best lateral and forward. Pushing should be strong fluid movements not wasting energy up but using that forward, keeping your hips in line and engaging those glute and leg muscles to work.

The next big thing that we did that was mind blowing for me was the new lateral movements. I had seen a drill about this footwork a while ago but never really put much thought into it with getting across the track. While the lateral movement that has been drilled into my head and forced upon me with lateral suicide after lateral suicide is the stepping across the track method. BUT!MIND BLOWING REALITY! HEY LOOK I HAVE WHEELS!!! Why would I step across slowly and wasting energy when i can roll. So that my friends is what we worked on rolling across the track laterally! Going from inside to out we made a T with our feet left foot vertical and right foot horizontal. We then pushed off with the inside foot glided to the outside transitioned and then stomped with the outside foot for a strong stop. Another important thing for using this as a blocker is contact with that jammer or other blocker know where your enemy is if theyre behind you and you FEEL them you can follow and mimic their movement easily with this move

(Heres a video http://derbytastic.tumblr.com/post/82563859344/tearobite-i-know-it-has-been-awhile-since-i-did )

We then did a drill with jamming and blocking using this skill and using as less energy as possible to get across the track as well as working with juking and faking out to then step in front of that blocker because the goal is to get past her hips. So why not step in front? No lie by the end of this drill and all the muscle engaging and being strong and powerful the whole time my legs were freaking jello! I was paired with Hissyfit from SCRD and im pretty sure i apologized the whole time because my legs felt like they were going to fall out from under me. Def have a lot to work on with honing this skill and own it. It will come in handy for jamming and blocking and in general being a badass

The last thing that we worked on was making that mental click from defense to offense and the choices that you make on the track and how little time that you have to make those choices of chasing after a jammer for those few seconds or racing back to help your jammer! In this drill I was the example jammer. Im sure im a little slower than better jammers but it took me 16 seconds to get around the track and lap the pack. That is 16 seconds from stopping to play defense to help your jammer before you have to play defense again. 16 MOTHER EFFIN SECONDS WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO. So really thinking of whats effective with staying together and actively helping then resetting. When you think about derby as complicated and nutty as our rules are its a basic game. Block the other jammer. help your jammer. Score points. Win. So its just switching back and forth and being effective.

Another mind blowing thing for me that I feel our team struggles with is the getting to the top and protecting your points and that choice of defense. I completely understand the protecting your points but at the same time it separates you so much in the short amount of time that when the jammer comes around its so easy to get by one then another and another. So why not hold back strong and be that bad ass 4 wall or waterfall rotation that is so magical. I do understand protecting your points but to me holding that nice wall seems more effective. Another point that smarty brought up is if you race further up front and your jammer is still trying to push and you are also now more focused on defense  you have just made her push harder and further trying to get out versus staying behind and holding that wall and giving her a better chance of getting out. Also if a no pack is called you are still skating forward from the back to reform the pack as well as holding your position in front of the jammer.

I know this is a lot of thoughts and rambling from me but it was an amazing session with a lot of small concepts that lead to bigger thinking and playing smarter not harder. Because why waste more energy? why not be as strong as you can be? Why not be a badass and own your sport? So stay strong and learn all the things.

Also I lost 3 lbs from this clinic. Im sure that was all sweat. I sweat like  a 400lb man when i derby.

Derby love

PART 2 THE LESSON

So now that Im there and im warmed up. She told me she was just going to watch me skate for a few minutes to try to figure me out. So I skated around for a bit till she started skating with me and told me what she had found by just watching me. She told me that one my stride wasnt getting the most energy I could and I wasnt using all of my power in the right place with my stride. When I skate I dont push out with power I kind of push back which doesnt propel me forward with the most efficiency. She said this happens a lot with new skaters. So we did a drill that made me "heavy on my feet" to feel that power. She said anytime that you skate you shouldnt feel like its easy to skate or push. You should feel like your skating through mud to have that power and control on your feet. She had me crouch down and tuck my elbows in and with all the weight and power coming from my legs i learned to push out using my legs and not using my upper body at all. She also said that my foot seemed to move around in my boot a little bit which could make it harder for me to get that push. She said it would be like running in sand when you go for that push off and then you have to counter balance and then re push. If that makes sense? We also did a drill picture above, to work on that push and being heavy on your skates always. Again that doesn't mean being slow and heavy but always being able to be muscles engaged and ready to use that energy to push of the ground and get to where you need to be. She had me push against the wall keeping my feet flat in my skates and feel that heavy push and then took one foot off and used one foot to push against the wall. Again seems silly but really learning to get that push to help push yourself to where you need to go or to push someone where you want them to go can be really effective.

Another thing that I wanted to work on was using my body correctly and being most effective with my blocking zones to target zones. This part of the lesson was the most embarrassing to start out with. She wanted to see where I was at with hitting/blocking so she told me to hit her. I KNOW I SUCK AT THIS. SO MUCH. And now I have to sadly and pathetically horribly hit smarty pants. I know she wanted to see my skill level but this was just embarrassing and sad. I think we both knew that haha. So after my sad performance she hit and blocked me and then made me explain why it was effective and it was because I couldnt go anywhere when she used her whole body to hit and block me, I was trapped and it was super effective. So we did a drill she called stamping it was a broken down slow motion hit. She said to imagine that I had been dipped in an ink pad and was trying to stamp her with as much of that as possible ( using my arm side hip and bum) So we worked on timing and getting the feel of what a successful hit/block feels like. Because honestly thats not something Ive felt before. Ive understood concepts and what to do but I cant say that ive ever actually done it. So we worked on how that felt and bumped it up to actually chasing and stamping and holding. We then worked on how to keep holding when theyre trying to get out of your block/hit. Another thing that I loved too was we worked on plow stopping. We changed my wheels to harder wheels and worked on simple plow stopping. She said that although this seems so dumb and elementary when she started working on her plow stop a bunch her game changed so much. Being able to plow successfully 100 percent can hold back that jammer can help you find that edge to stop yourself or whoever you want to hold back. And its sad but true if you cant stop on a dime you're probably not stopping anyone else very successfully.

The other part that I absolutely loved was working with her backwards blocking. I told her that I wanted to be better at backwards blocking. She then told me that herself as a skater was trying to stop backwards blocking so much. I asked why and she explained about how vulnerable you are backwards which is understandable, she continued then to explain how backwards is effective in a certain manner. that just skating backwards wasn't very effective but learning to be backwards and sideways and frontwards and backwards again to continuously hold was more effective than just being backwards. Which completely made sense. I was really proud of this part of our lesson. One because I had already gotten better at hitting and blocking and actually using my body as well as this is something that I have been trying to work on with flipping around then flipping back around. I know she wasnt going 100 percent with me but she still gave me some good shoves and maneuvers helping me learn this skill a little more.