What goes up must come down....

Another night of training, tonight it was fresh meat training, and there were a bunch of awesome new girls, that did GREAT! Oh and I cannot forget, a great new boy!! We have a new Ref training with us, which is awesome cause we really need refs...

I made my best friend come with me today to fresh meat practice, so she could experience my enthusiasm for herself. She did so good and had fun. She won't be the next derby girl on our league. But hey, guess it's not for all of us, and she'll definitely be a cheerleader when will start playing bouts!

So there are so many good things about a fresh meat practice. First of all, there are new girls which is great, we need to get as many girls to fall in love with this amazing sport as we can. But also going back to the basics is really good, especially with our upcoming skills test. Practicing your falls and stops again, it had been a while. And having someone there really checking what you are doing and giving you pointers makes you focus on how you are doing it, instead of just doing it.
I am very happy to announce I am officially doing a proper T-stop. This makes me very happy! :) It has been one of the hardest to master. In the last months I have finally gotten the hang of it. And that makes me very happy. There is at least that I can do right...

We had two of our trainers kicking us around the track today. But there is one I really need to address here, and that is Dirty Knickers..... Well that's her skate name anyways...
Cause I think we should call her Sergeant Sick Fuck!! :p
First and foremost, because she was sick and still training us. And second, because she is one of those people that will ask you if you're tired and when you say yes, she'll make you work another 15 or so minutes, doing some 'light' pack skating.... No seriously, Knickers you deserve a trainer name that does you justice. Cause you do push us hard, and that is exactly what we need too. You know I like the way you train! Just being a whiny bitch. :p
Just for all those people who don't know me to well, I actually like our trainers. Michelle, Mayatollah, Cherry Poppins and Dirty Knickers are all great trainers. And I cannot wait till the time were we can be teammates too!

So tonight was not one of my best practices. I guess at some point training three nights a week (next to stupid necessities like work..) will get to you. And it got to me tonight. I did not have the energy I normally have and my ankles were playing up again, which sucks, because that hasn't happened for a while now. I was over thinking my moves, which doens't make things easier and I was falling down.
Just in general things didn't go easy today. Which makes me frustrated in allot of ways and makes me feel weak... But I know that the road to play is full of ups and downs. I can have practices were everything just goes so well and then days like today...
Those 'up' days can make you cocky and think you can do it all, and then days like these just make you more realistic and remember that the road to being a Roller Derby Girl is long and hard, but with enough practice I will get there!! AND I WILL!!! Just wait and see....


-Furrrocious

The Roller Derby virus is taking over Holland...

A little over a year ago, a bunch of rad ladies in Amsterdam started a Roller Derby League. Starting out to learn how to Roller Skate...Now one year later there are no less then FIVE leagues in the Netherlands!! And this is really something. None of us is playing bouts yet, but they are all training very hard, so next year we can hopefully organize our first Dutch Roller Derby Championship! Wouldn't that be a blast?!

So let me introduce them to you:

Of course I will start with the Amsterdam Derby Dames

You can find us online at:
Website Facebook Hyves Myspace



East Side Rock 'n Rollers (Enschede)


You can find these ladies online at:
Facebook
Website



Rock City Rollers (Eindhoven)

You can find these ladies online at:
Hyves



Dom City Dolls (Utrecht)


You can find these ladies online at:
Facebook



And then our latest Dutch edition to Roller Derby Holland:
Rotterdam Death row Honeys (Rotterdam and The Hague)


They do not have their own logo yet, but you've got to cut them some slack, they started a week ago! :)

You can find these brand new Derby Ladies (or should I say Honeys..) online at:
Facebook



I think it is amazing how fast the Roller Derby Virus is spreading around in the Netherlands.
And there will be more and more girls getting infected in the coming months, years, until there is Roller Derby everywhere!! :)

So on Wednesday nights I train with the Dom City Dolls. I have been living in Utrecht for the past 8 years, but when I was looking for Roller Derby in the Netherlands, it was just the Amsterdam Derby Dames that started. So I joined them. And after all these months of training with them, I couldn't leave if I wanted to. (Just for my league mates, I don't want to!!)
But when I heard there where girls starting up in Utrecht, I saw an opportunity to train more and to meet more Derby girls. When I first met these girls this summer, they were still getting the hang on being on skates. Seeing how I had been training with the ADD for over a half year, I was all of a sudden an expert!! You should have seen me, it was crazy, always being one of the worst at ADD and then being the best at DCD. It was just funny to me!
So I started helping out with their trainings. And it has been so much fun. Teaching them to fall and stop and basic skills like that.

Now a couple of months into their training, it's not just me anymore helping out, but also two other ADD team mates. And they are making great progress.
Today we practiced whips. It was so much fun, training the basic skills of whipping, just makes you want to play more. Seeing their tired but satisfied faces at the end of practice just makes my day.

And this is the really cool thing about Roller Derby, this is a DIY sport. We have to set everything up, train ourselves, organize ourselves, promote ourselves, etc, etc. There aren't any leagues or anything you can just join. Not like soccer or hockey.
I guess this is also what makes Roller Derby girls so uniquely connected...

Well before I get to philosophical, I'll go and hit the shower...cause you know, Roller Derby girls smell.......GOOD!!! :)


-Furrrocious

Sergeant PMS at your service...

"If you do not skate in derby stance you will drop down and do push ups!!"

Before we were even stretching the sweat was running down my back (head and all those other places on your body you didn't know you could sweat from...). This was going to be one of those practices....

While we were stretching our trainer Mayatolla explained she was having 'that time of the month' so she might be kind of harsh...
Didn't believe that at first cause she made my day when she said we weren't doing the endurance laps like normal. Seeing how I think endurance laps are equal to hell I was the happiest skater ever.
So instead of doing that we did an relay, which was awesome!! Running, speeding up, falling, sit ups, speeding up again, jumping, we did it all and had great fun doing it! At the end my legs were shaking but I had so much fun trying to beat the other team, that I really didn't care.
After a couple more exercises in which we were pushed to the limit, I knew Mayatolla wasn't kidding about her being 'a bit harsh'....
She was doing it army style, then it came to me. Mayatolla should be her skater name and when she is the trainer her name should be Sergeant PMS!!

We did some pack skating exercises, which are always so much fun! There is so much you need to think of while skating in a pack. Who is around you, what's going on, if one of your teammates is behind get her back in the pack, whipping and if someone falls you need to make sure you don't fall too. I love it! When we do exercises like these I just feel closer and closer to the game, to playing actual roller derby!!

All around it was a great practice. I might bitch and moan but I secretly love it when we are pushed to the limit. Just feels good when the next day you can feel you've trained the night before. But don't tell the sergeant that! ;)

I would also like to make a special shout out to our guest last night from the Arch Rival Roller Girls, Mindy van Rietschote!! Was great having you at practice. And I really love your skates... ;)

- Furrrocious

Practice makes perrrfect...

So last nights practice whipped me right into this blog. I got so enthusiastic again (every time I think I cannot get any more enthusiastic...), I just really want to play roller derby!
As I explained in my first blog, we are a brand new league, haven't played any bouts yet and are still training.

When I came and joined this amazing group of women, I was able to stand on skates.... and that was about it! I had no kind of skills, no confidence on skates, and definetly lacked endurance and strength....yeah I know, nice place to start if you wanna play roller derby...

In the beginning, I had to take breaks during practice, because my body just couldn't take all the hard work. With in a couple of months I had a back injury, because I lacked the upper body strength to keep up with skating in derby stance.
I had lots and lots of moments where I just broke down and cried out all my frustrations. It sucked not being able to keep up!! But instead of quiting, like I did with things like going to the gym, I kept going! This was partly because of the will power and dream of playing derby. But it was also because for the first time in my life I experienced the power of team sports.
The girls in our league are just awesome!! Being pushed and supported, is what keeps me going during those practices that suck.

One night I came home, and told my roommate, that if I wanted to do this, I really needed to step it up... cause I wasn't going to get there if I just attended one practice a week.
So I did. I started training more, and the past few months I have been training 3 times a week. And it works! :)
I feel confident on my skates, my skills are better, I don't have to take breaks during practice and the strength in my body amazes me every day!! :D

So I am getting there, slowly but surely, with the help and support of my team!!

Last nights practice was another one of those 'nights of firsts'.
I little while ago I was finally able to do one single push up. I know this sounds like nothing to most, but let me tell you. When you weigh around 220 lbs and have not done a whole lot of working out, my body was just not ready to push all this weight of the ground!
So last night, for the first time ever, I was able to do 20!! With my girls cheering me on for the last two, I made it! And I felt good! If we all had a bunch of awesome derby girls cheering us on when you are trying to work out at home, we would all do so much better!!

But back to the story... So feeling good making those push ups, we started endurance....or as I like to call it: HELL!! We need to be able to leap the official sized track 25 times in 5 min. I am not the only one who hasn't been able to do this yet. But I am definitely one of the worst...
Well it didn't go very well, I couldn't find the right pace to skate in and my form was just crap. But I did it, and didn't make enough rounds, but did improve myself. I did more laps then last time, even though this time sucked. So I felt good about myself anyways! :)

Then we had to do some weaving exercises....something I can do, with 8 wheels on the track... Seeing my teammates weave between those cones on one leg for months, I was getting very frustrated with this part of the skills...
But, another first happened!! :) For the first time I was able to do it!! On one leg and without crashing into any cones.
I think the whole neighborhood was able to hear my screams of excitement! :D

It was a good night all around. Another great night of firsts!

So yeah, just a couple more weeks before we are taking our WFTDA test. Which is, for those who don't know, a minimum skills test. (Check it out here)
I am excited about it, I want to make it and start scrimmaging! But I am not sure I will make it. We'll see though, and if I don't make it this time, I will just have to push myself harder and harder until I do get there! Cause I am on my way to play!!


- Furrrocious

Why o why I am starting this Blog...

Ever since I started training for Roller Derby I have been excited and enthusiastic. Constantly bothering everybody around me with my talk about this amazing sport called Roller Derby.

But now I have reached a level of enthusiasm for the game, that I thought it might be nice to give people the option of actually hearing about it! Or in this case, reading about it.

I have started training with the Amsterdam Derby Dames (first RD league in the Netherlands, there are 5 now! YEAH!) in January of this year. Starting out training just once a week. Not really being able to skate and not doing any kind of sport for a long time. It took me a while to get to where I am today. And still not where I want to be. Cause I want to PLAY!!!

In this Blog I will keep track of my thoughts, experiences and progress.

- Furrrocious