The joys of being on my way to play Roller Derby

Roller Derby has a tendency of taking over your life. All of us, who are either on our way to play or all ready playing, know this, but for all of you who haven't experienced this, it might be hard to understand. It is just like I have said before, Roller Derby is a sport that we need to organize ourselves, and that takes hard work!

But to all the hard work (and frustrations) it takes to get to play Roller Derby and to start and run a Roller Derby league, there are luckily enough also a lot of joys!

Me and Hunter S. Toss 'em

First of all, we have had so many great visiting skaters and refs, that have all in one way or another thought us valuable lessons, they taught us new skills and drills, but also that Roller Derby leagues all over the world deal with issues just like ours. Which is great to hear, because Roller Derby being a new sport in Holland and all, it sometimes feels like we are figuring out everything by ourselves. You know not having to inventing the wheel again and such. But luckily the struggles we have are not just unique to our league, all leagues have struggles and issues, and that is great to hear and learn from.



Roller Derby as a sport is growing like crazy in Europe. Which means that lucky for us, there are more and more events and such that we can go to. Like actual live bouts, parties, scrimmages, friends and family days and more.
We have been to a few exciting things over the past months. And the joy of derby I experience at those events makes all the hard work worth it.
A little over a month ago we had our very first international scrimmage against the One Love Roller Dolls. It was super exciting and playing with a couple of our girls that just passed their WFTDA test. But we didn't care about winning or losing. We wanted to learn as much as we possibly could and we did!!

Group pic by Robin Minter

 Oh my, we learned so much. OLRD showed us some great team work and strategy which we took home with us.
I personally took a lot from that scrimmage for my own progression and that of our league. I found that I really liking the role of Pivot, but I didn't really know what to do all the time.
As for our league, we had our brand new member Hurricane Hayles bench coaching us, which was amazing. It just really felt like we all grew closer together that day!




Not just playing gives us joy, but also making money for our league gives us lot's of JOY! And when you life in Holland, there is no better time to raise money then Queens day!
And so we did, a bunch of our girls got together and started baking and cleaning out there attics and garages to find stuff to sell on queens day, all in order to make us some money.

 

Pic by Mad Gent

One of the other joys I had this past month, was being able to share my joy for Roller Derby with my friends and family. We had our own ADD Friends and Family day.
With miniature scrimmages, of course more cup cakes and some beers :)
It was a great day. My biggest fan even came out to see me, and had a surprise for me.... With t-shirts saying "go Furrrocious go" and an awesome banner, it was the best to see my little sis standing on the side line, supporting me!

8 wheels, 2 skates, 1 bad attitude! Love that banner!!

It was a weird day, great, but weird. Cause we were so busy with the organizational part of things (pr and stuff like that), I didn't actually have to much time to talk to the friends and family that came to support me. But that was the one real downside of the day.

The Furrrocious fan club! :p

Because except for that, we had a great time! I even had to to a dance of shame, cause I ended up in the penalty box :p
Just for those who haven't seen a Roller Derby bout or scrimmage before, normally there is no "dance of shame". But we did it for the fun of it! ;)

We also got some great publicity from this F&F day. We had a big article in a Dutch (well read) new paper, and a film crew from a national Dutch television came by.
You can see the video here. It is in Dutch, but you'll get the idea. :)
It was so much fun to finally be able to share this (now very) important part of my life with all the friends and family that came out. I hope we as a league will do this more often.

Officials team Block 'n' Roll - pic by Val Killer

As happy as we are with all our visiting skaters and refs, we also love to go places for Roller Derby! Especially me and my wifey Lola Rock 'n' Rolla. We sure love us some road trippin'!!
This past saturday we went to Essen, where the Devil Dolls where having their first home bout against Barock city. Block 'n' Roll!!
It was great seeing all our German friends again, Major Madness, ChefX, Gina Gasolina, DI Die, Psycho Annie, Big Red, and so many more that I can possibly name all at the same time. :)

My wifey Lola was announcing the bout together with Johnny Bash and I bet they did a great job... I say I bet, because I don't understand a word of German! LOL
She made sure of one thing though, that you did not need to know any language for: she looked smashing!!

I was an NSO. Penalty box Jammer timer. It was lot's of fun, screaming at girls when to stand and when they were done. There where enough penalties to keep us busy too....
You learn so much as a player when you NSO. As it was my first time working the penalty box I learned a lot about that part of the game. First of all, stay out of the penalty box, it's a waste of time to be in there! And more importantly, get there as fast as possible and sit down right away! The clock doesn't start ticking until your butt is on that chair!

Two of my favorite Germans on this planet!! 

Our Essen friends made sure all 7 (6 working and one awesome visiting ref that we took with us - Rave N Busther from San Diego) of us had a place to crash, for the next day we were off to Antwerp for the OLRD friends and family day scrimmage.
Because we were able to sleep over, we were also able to hang out with our friends at the after party! And we ADD girls sure like our after party! :)
Wise as I was I of course didn't drink at the after party and went home early..........oh no, that wasn't me! I stayed way to late and drank a little to much and had an AMAZING time!!! And I would do it over again and again (even though skating with only 4 hours of sleep isn't exactly ideal either.... :p)

It's a strange sensation, the 'family' feeling Derby brings with it. You make great friends all over the world because of Derby. Without even having to know people very long. We have one and the same passion that we share and it's a brother/sisterhood you are immediately a part of. And you know what? I love it! Every minute of it. 


Before I could get even more fuzzy and huggy with all our German friends we packed up and went to Antwerp the next day. Making sure we took one of our favorites, Major Madness, with us, so he could ref the scrimmages the next day!
The One Love Roller Dolls organized their Friends and Family day in a very special way. They invited all the Dutch leagues to come and scrimmage. And so they did! Not just ADD was present, but 6 out of the 7 Dutch Leagues were there. Eastside Rock n Rollers (Enschede), Rock city Rollers (Eindhoven), Dom City Dolls (Utrecht), Deathrow Honeys (Rotterdam) and the Fallen Angles (Arnhem).

Belgium and Holland group picture - pic by Ian Rwb

And the coolest thing was, we were all playing together!! For the first time.
There was a beginner/intermediate scrimmage between two Dutch teams, made up out of all 6 leagues, they played each other. And as my wifey and other league mates were in both teams, I literally screamed my longs out... the roller derby hooligan showed her self... :)
It was amazing seeing so many of Holland and Belgium's players on one single track in one day!!



I was in the 'advanced' scrimmage later that afternoon. 5 of the dutch leagues came to together to form one team and played against the OLRD team. It was a great scrimmage.

'Bloody oranges' waiting on the Bench -pic by Ian Rwb

I don't even know where to start.... I wasn't really nervous before we began, that might have been because of serious lack of sleep... But when we had our teams intro song, and my name was called, and I heard applause and people screaming my name, my adrenaline started running, and basically didn't stop until a couple of hours AFTER the scrimmage! :)
The reason I had the best time ever, was mainly because I have made a huge leap in my own development. I understood what was going on (most of the time), I tried new strategies and was able to test them and repeat them, and I had NO PAIN in my ankles! Which was awesome!!
It felt so good to be on the track an actually playing! I know it's a scrimmage and not an official bout, but this is the closest I got to playing 'for real'. And it was the absolute best feeling in the world. I fell in love with Roller Derby AGAIN during the scrimmage. I was all ready absolutely in love with this sport, and I didn't think my love for it could grow any bigger, but this last Sunday it did!! :)

After the scrimmage I looked around at our girls and could do nothing but smile! I am so incredibly proud of where we are right now in our league. We are getting there, slowly but surely, and it makes all our sweat, blood and tears worth it!!


- Furrrocious

New year, more Derby?!

2011 has just started, and has all ready been overflowing with Roller Derby!
The last day of 2010, I was lucky enough to buy my ticket to RollerCon. And I partied with two of my favorite European Derby girls, my wifey Lola Rock 'n' Rolla and the Devil Doll Gina Gasolina.



After the two week break at practice I was more then happy to go to practice on Monday. It was great to be on skates again. I missed it like crazy. But I noticed soon enough that the two weeks we couldn't practice (because we couldn't use our practice space), was exactly what I needed. For the first time in months my ankles didn't hurt!! Without the help of braces or tape I was able to skate with no pain!
And let me tell you, it was a great feeling.
Because of my ankles I had not been to practice on Monday for two months (!!), so I felt like I missed out on so much...
With the girls that were there we practiced jumping over obstacles (see Lola jumping in the picture). Something I had not done before. I had only jumped over lines on the floor, so this was completely new. And it was fun! I fell hard a couple of times, but I was able to jump higher and further then I expected.



On Wednesday it was time for fresh meat practice. The newbies also had two weeks off, and I was curious to see how many would come. But I guess they were all just as excited as me to be back on skates, cause they came in great numbers. :)
And you might be starting to get sick and tired of me saying this, but they have improved so much! It's just crazy how fast they all grow in the skating abilities.
They started weaving through cones on one leg and even learned how to jump. Warm and fuzzy is all I have to say about it.
Dirty Knickers did a good job on training us. It was fun, but also though. I felt every muscles in my body when I left practice!


The next day I was busy with a whole different side of Roller Derby. I had been working on a present for my derby wife Lola Rock 'n' Rolla, for a while and thursday I finally got it finished!
I gave her (and myself) a necklace with a bearing, and got her name engraved on the side of the bearing.



I wanted to give it to her on Friday. But because there was another team practice that night I was able to give it to her that night. And she loved it!! :)

I normally don't practice on Thursday nights team practice, because I have not yet passed my WFTDA test. But this night was special, Harper Lethal from the Atlanta Rollergirls came out to train (with) us! So I couldn't miss that.
So another night of practice....
Let me tell you...it was hard. Especially at the beginning. My body (especially my legs..) were still aching from last nights practice. But still no pain in my ankles so I kept going. And had a great time. We learned so much from Harper, which was great. We did some positional blocking exercises. Which was really hard on my legs, but my spirit won from the achy legs, and I kept going. It was so much fun to really practice these moves and not just with somebody who would let it happen either. Cherry Poppins gave me a run for my money. She resisted and moved quickly to dodge my blocks. It was great, I learned so much!!




Last but certainly not least, we ended 2010 with 6 roller derby leagues in the Netherlands, and started this week with SEVEN!!
Welcome to the first league in the north of holland:
Northern Lightning Rollergirls from Groningen. They are looking for new members right now, so if you are interested or just want to give them a warm derby welcome, you can find them on Facebook.

Well I am off to have another Derby related night, only this times it will envolve drinking and singing at a karaoke bar with the girls from the Rotterdam Deathrow honeys.


- Furrrocious

Sprechen sie Derby??

The best part of Roller Derby Is of course the bout it self.
Seeing how the Amsterdam Derby Dames haven't played yet, and no other leagues in holland are ready to play a bout, we have to travel if we want to see a live bout. You could say, that this is really annoying. And of course it is in some way, but I happen to love road trips!! And lucky me, cause so does my Derby wife Lola Rock 'n' Rolla.
Earlier this week we decided it would be cool to go to Stuttgart and see the bout between SVRG Rookies and GGGRG.
I contacted the Gent girls, and heard the pre-sale tickets were sold out.... Which of course is great, but not if you don't have tickets yet.
So I contacted Riff Reff, Stuttgart's own Head Ref. Asking him if there were still tickets left and if he might know a cheap place to stay. Luckily there were still some tickets left, to be sold at the door, and he could make sure we could get two. But he also suggested i would NSO. Seeing how I will be NSO'ing in Berlin in a couple of weeks and have no experience in doing that. It would be a good chance to practice. I was so excited, I immediately said yes!
He also arranged for us to crash at one of the SVRG girls, Valerie. Which was just perfect!






After packing up my 'official' gear, we left Saturday morning at 9 for our 5.30 hour drive to Stuttgart.





Now let me tell you there are a lot of good things about driving to Germany with a German driving the car. Lola is first of all used to driving for a long time and actually enjoys it. Also the right hand lane, is not her favorite lane. And her car will go faster then a 120km/h. :)






I also love driving through Germany, because it is so pretty. Mountains, forest, trees. Its so pretty.







Around 2.30 we arrived at Valerie's house. We made a really good time. Only stopping for the necessary bathroom brakes, and not hitting any traffic jams.






At Valerie's house we quickly changed and left again. For Valerie had to be there at 4, and me too for an officials meeting.
We took the subway to the venue which is just outside of stuttgart.

My first 'officials meeting' before a bout was really informative. I got to see how this part of roller derby is organized.
The officials team (Ref's and NSO) is so important. As a part of starting league I think its so important to see how this works too. It's not just the players you need.

At 6 the bout started. The hall was filled with supporters. From both sides! A bus load of people from Belgium showed up, which was very cool, to have so much support on a 'away bout'.
The Ref's and NSO's came in first and we all stood in the middle of the track. After that the girls of both teams skated around and were introduced one by one. I think this was actually the most nerve wrecking. Standing there in the middle in front of all these people! I will probably puke the first time I get on the track to play...







Finally it was time to actually start the bout! All the girls were ready to play.
And I, was ready to NSO! :) Standing next to the track at the corner armed with a whiteboard, a marker and a cloth, I was ready to communicate those penalties to the penalty trackers on the inside.

The bout itself was exciting. The teams were true opponents, as the scores were pretty close together most of the bout. Half time started and both teams had exactly the same amount of points! And they stayed close for a long time, except for one moment where GGGRG had double the amount of points as SVRG had. But the bout was undecided till the absolute last jam. In which the SVRG Rookies (who had been behind a couple of points before that jam started) scored enough points to win!






For me experiencing the bout as an NSO was a lot different from watching it from the stands. I couldn't scream, cheer or clap or anything like that. Because first of all, you are busy and focussed on your job, and secondly, because NSO's and Ref's have to be impartial. So you can't cheer for a team even if you had the time too.
I would have had the time, there were enough penalties, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't crazy busy with writing every jam.
The most annoying thing about doing the NSO job of outside whiteboard, is that refs are in a hurry, so you don't always understand what they are saying so quickly, and that penalty trackers don't pay attention to you sometimes, which leaves you standing there next to the track bouncing up and down with your whiteboard! Of course it's understandable, because on the inside of the track it's crazy busy. So it's not that they are ignoring you and purpose. But it's also not like you scream to them 'hey look at me'. Cause for those who haven't been to a RD bout, it's one hell of a loud sport!






In the end it was a great bout. And I am so happy I got the chance to experience NSO'ing. And to see the bout a little more from an organizational side of things, instead of being a spectator.

Luckily, a bout isn't a roller derby bout, unless it has an after party! :p And Stuttgart knows how to throw one.
They continued the 80's theme at the after party. And even though I am not that much into 80's music I had a great time. And was dancing and singing along most of the night!







The thing I like the best about the roller derby after party, next to the drinking, singing and dancing, is meeting all these rad roller derby ladies and gents! I have met so many awesome people from Stuttgart, Gent, Antwerp an Rotterdam. And that was just great! Not just talking on facebook or through email, but in real life is just great.

The days after are always kind of a downer, as you have to get back to reality (with a huge hangover of course..). You just wish it could be bout day everyday!
Luckily for me, I have practice tonight. So I'll get my shot of derby!!

- 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

One more day till my first WFTDA skills test...

The past week we have been practicing hard for our upcoming WFTDA test tomorrow.
I think I would put it lightly when I say we are all a bit nervous... It's kind of nice to see that everybody is nervous, not just the less confident skaters, but even those who have nothing to worry about. I guess we all just really want to pass, and start really practicing.
So last week we started practicing hits, and seeing how that was new to me, it was all very exciting. Well it still is!

On Sunday we had an extra training day, unfortunately none of our trainers could be there. Yeah, it's weird but they have private lives to take care of too.... :)
So with the girls that where there we just trained ourselves. And it was good, we were in the big hall, so we had enough space to practice whatever we wanted. We pretty much practiced most of the things people were still insecure about. So of course we also did hits, the shoulder checks to be specific, cause we have only done those a few times. And it was fun! It's so funny to see how some girls are still very careful and don't put to much force behind there hits. Also some of us still turn around and stop if the other one falls down, even saying sorry. Well it was only a week ago that I was saying sorry to Dirty Knickers when she fell after a hit. But I think I got used to it pretty fast, because it's part of the game and we don't mean to hurt the other person, there is simply nothing aggressive about it, at least not in a negative way. Me and Lola Rock 'n' Rolla are really a good match for practice, we hit each other with a nice amount of force while speeding down the track. And it's great to get a forceful hit and take it without falling.

Monday night practice was a little less awesome... After a bout 5 minutes in to the warm up, my ankles were acting up again, and also my legs were so cramped I could hardly move them anymore. And that really sucked! It discouraged me, especially right before the test... It really sucks to notice my body doesn't seem to be able to handle the trainings a day after each other.
The rest of the week I am not training anymore till the test, just want to make sure my body is rested before the test. Also I finally called a physical therapist for my ankles and hips (those are also hurting lately)... It frustrates me when my body is hurting, because I do my very best to get in the best shape I can be in. But I will get it looked at and work my ass off to make it better.

After I rested a tiny bit and got over my frustrations, I joined the rest in the training. We went through some of the basic skills again, and worked on hits. We learned how to do hip checks, and I can now say I like shoulder checks better! Hip checks are cool too, don't get me wrong. But I think they are harder or something, or least need more practice then the shoulder checks.

After practice we talked through the WFTDA skills test. How it will go down, and all that. It's kind of scary that there will be two people just watching and grading you on your performance.
So we are doing everything except for the endurance part of the test tomorrow, and we'll do the endurance on Saturday in the big hall. Cause unfortunately we will be in the small gym tomorrow.

So to end this, the night before the big test. I would like to tell all my league girls that read this, WE CAN DO THIS!!! Let's show our trainers tomorrow that we kick ass!!

And to everybody who has been through this before, I know how we girls in Amsterdam feel, please think of us tomorrow.


- Furrrocious

I like to kick some ASS!!!

So last night we practiced in a new space. It's so nice to finally be in a space big enough to get some speed without being affraid of constantly skating into people or more importantly...walls!!
It's a nice space, the floor is wood and kind of bouncy, which is weird, but it skates just fine.

As we have been doing for the past months, we kept on practicing for our WFTDA test next week (now only 6 days away...). We tried to go through as much of the test as possible, focusing on whips and hits for a while, cause still allot of us, are not yet experienced in it.

And just as I thought.... I AM BORN TO BE A BLOCKER!!! YEAH!! :)

So me and my awesome Derby Wife (want to know what a derby wife is click here) Lola Rock 'n' Rolla paired up to practice hits. And let me tell you, we will kick all the tinny ass girls of the track. We started out skating up and hitting the other while she was standing still. Just to get the hang of it. After a few rounds of that we where slowly skating, and before I knew it we were skating pretty hard and hitting each other even harder. And it was the best feeling ever! I love hitting on the track. In real life I have never seriously hit anybody, I don't like violence at all, and a specially not the anger and hate that comes with it. But hitting on the track is so much different, it's part of the game, and it is so much fun!!
My whips are improving too, giving all your momentum to someone else is really cool. When you see them speeding of after giving them your all in your whip, is just great.

And you know what the best thing was during practice? When we were working on hits and whips, it's so much fun that I paid no attention at all to my tired body. It just didn't even occur to me to sit down or whine about being tired. Cause I just wanted to keep on going! Guess that's one of the reasons I want to play so bad. Because I know I will keep on going, because there is no better feeling in the world than playing. Yeah I know, it's sounds like I am totally obsessed... and you know what, I AM!! :p
Roller derby has giving me strength, confidence, athletics, fun, skills and lots of new great friends!

So a couple of weeks ago a part of our League went to Berlin to watch Berlin vs Essen. One of my team mates, Vegan Vengeance was cool enough to not only film during this awesome road trip. But also edit everything into a little movie! It's really cool.
And you can watch it here.


Well, I have got to go, cause having friends over for a pancake dinner! :)
More later.


-Furrrocious