What a crazy week it's been...

Saturday we had a scrimmage training with Damage Dahl and 'snot rocket science from Steel City. It was awesome!! I have learned so much and had a great time.
Unfortunately my ankles were really acting up again, and hurting like hell...So it was hard not being able to skate constantly, when we had a training with these amazing ladies. But I was able to scrimmage, had to be smart and listen to my body and sit out more Jams then I wanted to, but well I just learned in Derby that listing to your body and trusting that what you're feeling cannot be ignored.
I cannot explain how freaking awesome it is to be in a scrimmage with girls that you just saw on DNN a week earlier... I was on the white team with Damage Dahl, and actually tried Jamming with 'snot rocket science as the opposing jammer....it was scary to say the least! :p 

It ended up being a great training for all. The girls learning more blocking/jamming and scrimmage skills and our Refs getting a chance to do some actual reffing!! Blauwe Bil (Rotterdam Death Row Honeys) and Stan-Lee (Dom City Dolls) joined the ADD Zebra's and they all blew their whistles at us! :)

Steel City in ADD disguise! :)

Me and Blauwe Bil! See Rotterdam and Amsterdam are perfect together!!

 

Monday night we had another practice with Damage Dahl and 'snot rocket science. And I just feel like we are freaking lucky to have such talented people visiting us. As I have said before it really has his upsides to be 'Amsterdam'.

Wednesday I unfortunately had miss practice by our brand-new-very-own Hurricane Hayles, cause of work. Had a meeting so couldn't go to practice. 

During the day Hunter S. Toss 'em arrived in Amsterdam, and we spend some time talking on the phone catching up. 

 

Thursday after work me and Hunter met up and went to practice. Was great having Hunter back with ADD. We went through a lot of things that are pretty much 'need to know' before our scrimmage with OLRD. It was super useful to go through all that and great to have him back on the track with us!

Today was a super long and hard day for me, working the sixth day in a row... but it ended just perfect, hanging out with my wifey, cleaning our skates and watching some more Anarchy in the UK footage (whilst drinking lots of water and icing my ankles). 

And now it's almost Sunday (or it actually all ready is sunday, after midnight, I should really get to bed...), and we are getting ready to play our (and Hollands) first international scrimmage against Antwerp One Love Roller Dolls. It's going to be a FUN learning experience for all of us. And I cannot wait!! It's going to be the closest thing we have gotten to a bout. There will be a full NSO and Ref team (with Hunter S. Toss 'em and Major Madness being two of them!)

I am super nervous and excited all at the same time, and if I wasn't so tired from working all week, I would probably run around in circles in this very room, because of it! 

So more info on Dutch Roller Derby history after tomorrow! :) 

Now, I am off to bed...

 

- Furrrocious

It's great being the "AMSTERDAM" Derby Dames

There are lots of 'up sides' to being the Amsterdam Derby Dames. We get a lot of visiting skaters and refs that are traveling through Europe. Just to get into some tacky name dropping: Hunter S. Toss 'em (Rat City), Tara Armov (LA Derby Dolls)..... We are, of course, eternally grateful that these amazing skaters and refs visit us, and teach us bunches! It's simply amazing.
Tomorrow we have a scrimmage training/bootcamp with some of Steel City's finest: 'snot rocket science and Damage Dahl.

This is them. 'snot as Pivot on the left. And Damage with the pink helmet on the right. 

When you are a Rookie League, like we are, it's pretty intimidating to see a track record like theirs...
Co-captain, a crazy amount of skating experience, lots of bouts played, and even awards for their Roller Derby play.....
I guess it would feel pretty much the same as when a major football, basket ball or soccer star comes to train witha little league team.
So yeah, it makes you a bit nervous and insecure. But especially it makes us honored and enthusiastic! How awesome that Amsterdam is a great city that everyone likes to visit?! :p


A lot of stuff has happened to our league since the last time I wrote anything (yeah I know, I havent been writing to much, crazy busy...).
We were lucky enough to have had a bootcamp as well as a training session with ChefX and Major Madness from the Devil Dolls Essen.They have thought us and our refs so much, we absolutely love ourselves some Devil Dolls!

We also had our second run of WFTDA Minimum Skills testing last saturday, with some of the 'old' girls that didn't pass last time in october (like me...) and almost all of our FM that started end of last year.
And to all our surprise, EVERYBODY that did the test passed! It was an amazing feeling. Just an overwhelming feeling of oooowwwwhhhhhaaaaahhhhhh!! I literally got goosebumps when I heard. I know it's crazy. But when you see everybody work so hard, it's just the best feeling ever to see everybody pass.
And so all those girls get to join in on the training with 'snot rocket and Damage tomorrow. Which is just great!

Group picture taken after the great result of the test! 

And next week we will be playing our first official international Scrimmage against the One Love Roller Dolls from Antwerp.
Super excited about that!! And nervous of course.... All our girls have come a long way from being the wobbling bambies on ice... but are we ready to do this?! I guess we will just have to wait and see. At least we will learn a shit ton and have a bunch of fun doing it!! Cause yeah, we also love ourselves some OLRD :p


We also have a brand new member of the Amsterdam Derby Dames: Hurricane Hayles!!
Hayles who is originally from the UK, played with the Montreal Roller Derby League for the past two years. Now she is here with us in little 'ol Amsterdam! She and here derby widower are expecting a baby, so she is going to show us the robes from the middle of the track, off skates unfortunately, luckily that doenst mean she cannot crack the whip on us! And she will be Bench coaching us at scrimmages and hopefully at our first bout in August. It's great to have you here Hurricane!

A BIG ADD WELCOME TO YOU!!!

Hurricane Hayles        

It is bizarre how much can happen in such a short period of time. Only months have gone by, and ADD has grown, I have grown (in muscles as well as in 'hart' for our girls) and Roller Derby Holland keeps growing, its just all amazing.

I am happy to say, I am so very proud of our League. And if you are interested in supporting us, or wondering where I am (cause you never see me anymore). We will be having a Friends and Family day on may 7th! And you are all welcome to come!!

Derby love,
-Furrrocious

A minor setback....

The past week the Amsterdam Derby Dames have taken their minimum skills requirement WFTDA test.

We started on Thursday with all the parts of the test except endurance.
Almost everybody was so nervous...it was pretty crazy...
We had our test in the small gym that we have been training in for the past 10 months.
Hunter S. Toss 'em, a ref from the Rat City Rollergirls, came out to help us out, which was awesome!! Thanks again so much Hunter.
So only two girls went into the hall at a time, and their where our 4 trainers and Hunter marking our performances. Two people grading one girl at all times.

We went by Derby name, so I was second in line together with Eliza Do-damage. It was so weird going in to the hall, that we have all gone into soooooo many times, but it was different this time, knowing you have to preform, even the things I was absolutely confident about, where just harder. And it showed... I felt like my overall performance sucked more then normal. At the beginning it was just stops and falls. But as soon as we got to part I was feeling most excited about, hitting and whipping, I got frustrated. This is normally that part of the skills I am pretty good at (at least for a newbie), and it did not go very well... It was weird doing hits and whips with someone I normally don't practice them with. Eliza Do-Damage is quite a bit shorter then me and I have been just practicing this for the past weeks with Lola Rock 'n' Rolla, who is almost the same length as me. So it felt weird, cause you only have that 'one moment' to show what you can do, and no time to get used to a new training partner. Of course in Roller Derby you need to be able to do this with everybody, girls in all shapes and sizes. But with this test, this was the part I felt really confident about, and it didn't go the way I thought it would, which made me so frustrated and mad. Mad at myself for not showing what I could do. All that frustration combined with my body again failing to keep up, was just to much, so I had my first WFTDA test nervous breakdown. And it sucked. I cried and screamed a little and then tried to calm down. Luckily Roller Derby is a team sport, and I have the best team mates a Derby girl could ask for! So I went for a smoke, calmed down and listened to some music, before I had to get back in there for the next part of the test.

During the test we had allot of waiting to do. And in the dressing room where we sat waiting our turns, we shared our nerves, experiences, and without being too gooey, I just cannot imagine how I would have done this without all of you rad ladies!

Me and Armorkillo doing our thing... :p


After our first part of the test, I was really bummed out, to say the least...
We all went for a beer together, and I had a great talk with Dirty Knickers (one of our trainers). Even though I still felt horrible afterwards, I was happy to have someone that has also been through this, and really understands, to talk too.
Up until friday night I was still really bummed out. I was glad to have band practice and put all my frustrations into the bass guitar and just have fun with my with my friends. The next morning though it was the second part of the WFTDA test. The thing I dreaded the most of all...endurance....
I all ready knew it was going to suck. But I was determined to make the best of it.
For those of you who don't know what this part of the test is about, I will explain. You have to make it around the official Roller Derby track 5 times in the first minute, and after that make another 20 rounds in the next 4 minutes. Which for most experienced skaters is not to much of a big deal, but for those starting out it's hard... All of the girls did amazing, even though all lot of them had a hard time too in the last couple of rounds, we all cheered them on and they kept going. It's was great. And then it was my turn.... I made it through the first minute making the 5 rounds. But that first minute was the only part of the test that I did well... My body would work with me, and after only a couple of minutes tears where streaming down my face... the frustration of not being able to do this, and my ankles and back hurting, was just to much. Of course I kept going the best I could while being as upset as I was. It must have been like a freaking movie scene. Me, trying to keep skating, while tears where running down my face.... I must have looked like an idiot...
But yeah I guess I just cannot really deal with the frustrations of not being able to do what I want to do most of all.
After having a couple of my best derby friends calmed me down I got dressed and went outside to smoke a cigarette (yeah I know, after failing my endurance test, I should know better then smoke...). The rest of team came out, and we heard we the trainers where counting all the scores, so we wouldn't have to wait for the results another day.
So except for 5 of us, the rest of the team past. I didn't, which I expected, but of course it still really sucked! The trainers told me I almost passed, so if I will work on a couple of things I will make it next time for sure. So I have got my work cut out for me the next 6 weeks or so. Train harder then ever, and have to get my ankles and hips checked out by a physical therapist, so I can make sure my body can keep up with the training. Cause I will get there, this is just a minor setback on my way to play Roller Derby!

Congratulations again to all my team mates that did make the test. And to those that didn't, we will get there next time and we will kick ass when we do!!

- Furrrocious