Fresh meat; moving forward and backwards!

Derby Love Comic


A little over a year ago I first got in contact with ADD and with training for Roller Derby.
I know I have mentioned this before, but for the sake of this blog entree I will do it again; I SUCKED!! :) I was not able to skate well, I was insecure on my skates and it took me a very long time to get better.
So I think I can say, I know what it is to be new at this sport.

At the end of last year we had an excited group of newbies that start our ADD fresh meat training course. Some of them all ready pretty confident on skates. Others not so much. But all of them, no matter what level of skills, were eager to learn! Which is, I think, the most important thing in roller derby. It's enthusiasm and the willingness to learn, to fall a thousand times and get back up and do it all again.

This group of newbies, or as we like to call it in derby-land 'fresh meat', has been just great!
They have been very dedicated and have been working hard.

Tonight I trained a big part of the training together with Michelle (and others), working on skating together and in packs and teaching them the basics of hip checks.
It's great for myself to see how far I have come this past year, from nothing to teaching others.
But it's even more amazing to see how fast these newbies learn! My gosh...some of them were barely able to stay upright on their skates, let alone in derby stance. And now they are in derby stance, jumping, doing crossovers, pack skating, (light) hitting, etc. It's just awesome so see their progress.

So yes, our fresh meat is moving forward!
And pretty darn fast too.
But today they moved backwards a bit too.....
Cause Michelle taught them all about skating backwards!! :)
(a skills I still need to master properly...)

Just wanted to share the progress of ADD's newest edition with the world or whatever.
I am just so proud of them and it's great being able to witness their progress!

- Furrrocious



*like the Derby Love is... comic? I know I do!! Check out the website: Derby Love Comic*

L.A. Derby Doll just kicked my ass....

After the amazing (but tiring) weekend of EROC II, me and Lola Rock 'n' Rolla arrived in Amsterdam at our training space right in time.

Cause tonight we had a visitor, and not just some visitor,


Tara Armov from the L.A. Derby Dolls!! Skating for 7 years, she has to be the most experienced Roller Derby player we have ever had at our ADD practices.
Lucky for us, Tara is awesome, and she was more then happy to crack the whip on us.....

Practicing skills and learning new tactic pack moves and drills was just awesome! There is no other word I can use to describe that tonights practice: AWESOME!!

At one of the drills you had to push each other while skating, it's a balance exercise.
I was lucky enough to push Tara around, cause it's not very likely that it will ever happen for real! :p




Also we did a teamwork and communication drill, where you form a wall with 3 girls and you have one pivot. The pivot is the only one with it's eyes open and has to communicate to the wall of blockers and tell them what to do, cause they have their eyes closed. Well you can imagine how much fun this is! But also a very good pack communication exercise.





We did so much more, unbelievable how much information and training one person can transfer in a couple of hours!
We feel very privileged to have had her with us, so Tara thanks again!!!

And yeah, we do hate you now, but in the best way humanly possible. :)

- Furrrocious