This past weekend absolutely kicked my ass. And I loved every minute of it! I attended the Certified Derby Training hosted by House of Quad and taught by some amazing, national level derby players. It was both an honor and a privilege to skate amongst 176 other dedicated, passionate derby lovers who were all there for the same reason...to have their ass handed to them while growing in their passion and knowledge for the fastest growing sport in the world. Pure awesomeness.
This camp was 2.5 days of skating, skating and more skating. The first night I fell on my left arm and felt (and heard) my shoulder pop out of socket and back in. That was not pleasant. I thought it was fine and continued to be hit repeatedly by my fellow skaters, when suddenly it began to ache to the point of nausea. Luckily, I'm a great visualizer so I took a break, took a breath, and told myself that I wasn't going to puke. It totally worked. And I almost pooped my pants instead. Not joking.
Although exhausted, battered and bruised, the last day was my favorite. We worked on some agility drills that gave me a few "light bulb" moments. I was able to try and accomplish a hockey stop without falling! I also tuned up my juking and running on toe stops skills which are both imperative in derby. I'm still a long ways from my vision of the type of skater I want to be, but this was an amazing, giant step in the right direction and even though I feel like I got hit by a Semi-truck, I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat.
Last night was our first Shifter team practice. Our new coach, Rhino, is a cut-the-crap, no-nonsense, if you're not moving you're wasting time kind of teacher...and I love it. He's loud, he's direct, and he's not there to blow smoke up our asses. I know, some narcissistic people really enjoy smoke enemas, but not this team. When Rhino says skate, we say "how fast?". When Rhino says hit, we hip-check the closest skater and when Rhino says listen, our mouths stop moving and we're all ears. No one is half-assing anything this year and I'm stoked to see how much we improve. Are you hungry? Well you should be because it's time to EAT SHIFTER!!!
