update that I wrote at work on Wednesday...
So I survived my first rollerderby practice. I didn't fall at all, I was kinda happy with myself with that one. I was skating fairly fast for awhile. I had to stop a bit towards the end because my back started to bother me. I went and got a ibprophen and got back on the rink. I finally decided that I had pushed myself enough and left the rink area and stretched out. The stretching felt so good! We practiced skating to start with. We practiced walking in our skates, stepping without letting the skates roll... first forward, then sideways, then what kinda looked like a ballerina stance but walking forward putting one foot in front of the other sideways. We did falling drills. We learned how to land on one knee while moving to stop and to fall on both knees while standing still. We are going to learn more falls tomorrow. We did an exercise on our toe stops, we leaned forward until we were balancing on the topstop and did 3 different squat levels. Polly Sonic (the girl teaching us) said that it will help with our balance and upper leg strength. We can practice the fall and toe stop balance at home and I full plan on it. I'm actually surprised my legs don't hurt all that much and actually feel really good. My upper legs and upper back ache a little bit but that is all. I felt that I did really well considering that it has been about 13 years since the last time I skated on rollerskates. I need to pick up a few last things before I have all of my equipment and gear but Justin said he could help me with that this week. I need to get a helmet, knee pads, elbow pads, toe stops and toe covers. I need different toe stops because mine are too small.
update from today:
I got a helmet and my friend Jen is lending me elbow pads until I can give her the money for them. I survived my second practice with only one fall. I fell while we were standing still... I was getting up from purposely falling on my knees and lost my balance and fell sideways. Oh well, almost didn't fall at all in my first week. There was a retired speed skater there... we were calling him Cool Skater Guy.
He took all the new girls and some of the others aside for half the practice to practice some skills. We learned how to stop with a lunge stop (dragging one foot sideways behind the front foot), skating backwards (I didn't get going that fast with that one), turning around (I did fairly well with that one), turning around then stopping quick on the toe stops (I did fairly well with that one too), he wanted us to run on our toe stops and then skate forward (I could only walk, can't run on them yet) and also crossovers... I couldn't do the crossovers all that well but one girl suggested doing them on the rug at home standing still to practice... I'm going to give it a shot. We did wheel barrel drills (girls pair off and one girl squats down and leans forward and steers and there is a second girl skating behind the first just pushing her along... then when the whistle is blown the girls switch positions) ... The last drill of the night was falling while sprinting... one whistle call meant fall on right knee, two whistle calls meant fall on left knee and three whistle calls meant fall on both knees.... we were to skate around the rink and do the falls... I had to stop after awhile because my back was screaming at me. We were supposed to try to only tap the ground when we did the single knee falls and get right back up... I couldn't do that... I'm going to try practicing later outside so I can be better at it on tuesday. So far so good... I'm really enjoying myself and seem to be doing fairly well. When I get some pictures I will put them up. If anyone is interested in checking out what the league that I'm on looks like check out their website: CTRollerGirls
So I survived my first rollerderby practice. I didn't fall at all, I was kinda happy with myself with that one. I was skating fairly fast for awhile. I had to stop a bit towards the end because my back started to bother me. I went and got a ibprophen and got back on the rink. I finally decided that I had pushed myself enough and left the rink area and stretched out. The stretching felt so good! We practiced skating to start with. We practiced walking in our skates, stepping without letting the skates roll... first forward, then sideways, then what kinda looked like a ballerina stance but walking forward putting one foot in front of the other sideways. We did falling drills. We learned how to land on one knee while moving to stop and to fall on both knees while standing still. We are going to learn more falls tomorrow. We did an exercise on our toe stops, we leaned forward until we were balancing on the topstop and did 3 different squat levels. Polly Sonic (the girl teaching us) said that it will help with our balance and upper leg strength. We can practice the fall and toe stop balance at home and I full plan on it. I'm actually surprised my legs don't hurt all that much and actually feel really good. My upper legs and upper back ache a little bit but that is all. I felt that I did really well considering that it has been about 13 years since the last time I skated on rollerskates. I need to pick up a few last things before I have all of my equipment and gear but Justin said he could help me with that this week. I need to get a helmet, knee pads, elbow pads, toe stops and toe covers. I need different toe stops because mine are too small.
update from today:
I got a helmet and my friend Jen is lending me elbow pads until I can give her the money for them. I survived my second practice with only one fall. I fell while we were standing still... I was getting up from purposely falling on my knees and lost my balance and fell sideways. Oh well, almost didn't fall at all in my first week. There was a retired speed skater there... we were calling him Cool Skater Guy.
He took all the new girls and some of the others aside for half the practice to practice some skills. We learned how to stop with a lunge stop (dragging one foot sideways behind the front foot), skating backwards (I didn't get going that fast with that one), turning around (I did fairly well with that one), turning around then stopping quick on the toe stops (I did fairly well with that one too), he wanted us to run on our toe stops and then skate forward (I could only walk, can't run on them yet) and also crossovers... I couldn't do the crossovers all that well but one girl suggested doing them on the rug at home standing still to practice... I'm going to give it a shot. We did wheel barrel drills (girls pair off and one girl squats down and leans forward and steers and there is a second girl skating behind the first just pushing her along... then when the whistle is blown the girls switch positions) ... The last drill of the night was falling while sprinting... one whistle call meant fall on right knee, two whistle calls meant fall on left knee and three whistle calls meant fall on both knees.... we were to skate around the rink and do the falls... I had to stop after awhile because my back was screaming at me. We were supposed to try to only tap the ground when we did the single knee falls and get right back up... I couldn't do that... I'm going to try practicing later outside so I can be better at it on tuesday. So far so good... I'm really enjoying myself and seem to be doing fairly well. When I get some pictures I will put them up. If anyone is interested in checking out what the league that I'm on looks like check out their website: CTRollerGirls