Doin' it, and doin' it, and doin' it well

I made my grand return to derby practice Monday night. My lungs are still a problem, and I spent a disproportionate amount of time on the sidelines coughing. In our tin can practice space, that's pretty disruptive. And my puffer only helped so much. It was annoying.

On the positive side, I'm skating much better. My time off made me really hungry, and when my lungs weren't aching I gave my all. My cross-overs are getting much better. It's frustrating, because cross-overs are a really essential and basic skill and it's taking me longer than I'd like to get good at them. Without good cross-overs, you lose most of your momentum on the curves and it's impossible to keep up with the pack. It's also really vital to your strategic lateral movement and adaptability. In derby, you have to be ready for anything. I got some really excellent advice from somebody about moving my torso more and using my shoulders. It feels funny at first to move so much, and I notice not all the girls do. I'm practicing shunting my shoulders back and forth like a hockey player (it's amazing how much the Canadian cultural references to hockey images are helping me, even though I'm not a hockey fan. I can immediately translate these movements through that sport). It helps on the curves to really move my shoulders, in a way I would have felt was ridiculous before, but now see as essential. I notice some of the more zippy skaters on my team really do this, so it's productive to imitate.

Another thing that helps are my new wheels. I've finally been able to really see how they function. I can feel the drag of the softer wheel, which will increase as the temperature of our skate space does. But the grip means I can lean on them, push off them and keep up speed on the curves much more effectively. I think they make me faster over all. I would highly recommend the Flat Outs as a great overall wheel that can handle multiple surfaces. They worked really well at the North London Optimist Club's wood floor too. Being able to trust that my wheels aren't going to slide out from under me gives me confidence. I didn't realize how worn out my old wheels were until I got these ones.

It felt great to be back. I was put out by the dissolution of the Thrashers for the season. It was like someone took my long term goal away, and for a while I felt lost, like why was I doing all this if I couldn't be a Thrasher? But then I got some perspective back. The Fatales are a great team, really skilled players, and I'd be honoured to skate with them. This season we are skating as one group, and we have to stay united and work together. I'm excited about skating my first bout sometime this year, and I'm using that to propel myself forward. Plus, now I get to finally buy stuff in a team colour and start putting together an outfit for bouts.

I feel terrified but irresistibly drawn to competition.

Cheers,

Vansterdamn XXX