Assessments were on Sunday. . .

. . . and man did I suck!

But that's okay.  Honestly, I did not go into Day One Assessments thinking that I would pass.  I never even entertained the notion once.  I know I can't do plow stops to save my life.  I know that when I start getting unsteady or freak out about something, I stand up out of good derby position and end up smeared on the track (I saw the phrase "flails like crazy" scrawled on my results sheet and had to laugh).  Believe me, I know I've got a long way to go.  But no one ever said that becoming a roller girl was going to be easy.  It's a sport, after all.  These girls are athletes.  You can't just show up and be like, "WHAT.  I'M HERE NOW.  PASS ME SOME SKATES."

Amy Fister broke the news to me at the end of the grueling two hour test and I was touched by her kindness and tact, though I hope I made it clear to her that I hadn't expected anything else (and she did tell me that she liked my attitude).  Her advice and feedback was worth it all on its own.  When else can you get that much personal attention and solid, useful critique about your skating?  I'll be the first to admit that I am not a natural at sports of any kind.  Those kids who used to call me slow and clumsy during middle school gym were jerks, but it's not like they were wrong.  I never expected to just magically shed my childhood awkwardness the first time I got involved in a team sport.  And, hey, I'm a lot better than I was when I started in October.  So I'm not discouraged.

In fact, not only am I not discouraged, I'm inspired.  I went through assessments with five other girls, many of whom had assessed before and failed.  Tasty Murder even told me that she fractured her elbow the first time she assessed.  Think about how much dedication it takes to freakin' break a bone and still get back out there.  The first time I ever held onto Tasty's hips so she could pull me around the track (a strength drill we call "the chariot"), I was amazed by her strength.  When I told her so afterwards, she sighed in self-deprication and said, "I'm still not strong enough."  WHOA.  This girl means it!  SHE'S BROKEN BONES LEARNING THIS SPORT.  And you know what's even more amazing?  That's not unusual for derby girls.

So I'm not going to let myself be discouraged just because I didn't pass assessments at the first crack.  That wouldn't make any sense.  It might take me all year.  Maybe longer.  But I'm improving.

First Scrimmage

Woo!  Check it out! I finally got to go to my very first scrimmage, and it was awesome.  Scrimmage alternates with granny practice every other Monday, and I've never been able to go because of evening classes.  But a brand new semester means a brand new schedule, and I made sure my Mondays are free.

The league holds scrimmages to prepare skaters to bout, to train up the new grannies, and to make sure that everyone on the league is totally seeped in the rules of derby.  Everyone is expected to attend when they can, and if you're not there to play then you will most surely find yourself relegated one of many jobs to help the scrimmage run smoothly for everyone involved, from referee (this involves its own sort of special training) to scorekeeping to managing the penalty box.  Me?  I got a miniature dry-erase board and a crash course in derby referee hand signals.

Since this was my first scrimmage and, frankly, I'm a derby newbie in every sense of the term, I didn't know the rules well enough for most of the jobs available.  I was able to help move the team benches into place, and then I was given the task of standing near the far corner of the track and writing penalties on a white board and communicating them (with lots of arm-waving) to the folks in the center of the track keeping tabs on skater penalties.  Refs would fly by and shout things like, "WHITE 8008 ELBOW" and I would scrawl it on my board and start waving.  Sometimes, I'd just get a color (black or white, to designate the team being penalized), a skater number, and a hand signal.  And each hand signal has a letter code that I had to use on the board (which were all, thankfully, inscribed on a piece of paper taped to the back for quick reference).  The refs were all nice enough to tell me what the hand signals meant when I didn't know them, and I tried to make up for it by being quick.

The hardest part was to remember that my job was to watch the refs, not the game itself.  But I couldn't not watch!  Oh man, I can hardly believe how amazing these girls are.  I mean, I've been to bouts put on by other leagues, but I've never seen derby up close and certainly not played by girls that I skate with twice a week.  Leah and Sibel, two of our newest grannies, were particularly amazing, especially when they would play jammer.  We were in the same pack of newbies and it's amazing to see how much they've progressed in such a short period of time.  I know they're both really hard workers, but still.  That is impressive!  And let me tell you, this sport is intense.  I saw plenty of girls go flying and just hop back up and speed off like it was nothing.  There were a few plays that looked super tense, and I wondered if there would be bad feelings between skaters afterwards, but it was great to see everyone hugging and high-fiving at the end.  Nonetheless, these ladies are serious on the track, even between friends.

It left me wondering, "Jeez, am I ever going to be that fast?"  I can hardly even imagine getting out there and being as awesome as any one of them.  I've got so much to work on.  Day one assessments are coming up in just a couple of weeks and there's plenty on that check list that I'm not so great at.  We had an open skate before scrimmage and I spent the time working on my plow and just trying to control my speed on the track.  I do this thing where I start going faster than I'm comfortable with and then I stand up (and end up in a heap on my butt).  It's not good!  But I just try to remind myself that I've still come a long way.  I mean, I could barely skate at all when I started.  I didn't roller skate when I was little the way a lot of the other girls did.  So I'm just trying to stay positive, which thankfully is pretty easy with this league.

Next practice for me is on Thursday, and in the meantime I've got plenty of work to do for my committee.

Introductions

Hi!  I'm still figuring out how blogger works, so initially this could be ugly.  I've been wanting to chronicle my derby endeavors outside of my own paper journals and in greater detail than "Today my feet are sore and I've got a huge bruise on my butt," which is pretty much all I've written so far amidst other projects and the hectic day-to-day of life.  See, I'm a grad student.  I moved to Charlotte this past August to start an M.A. in religious studies, and in between reading for class, conducting research, going to conferences, taking care of a house, and remembering to feed my cat, I'm a busy girl.  Joining a roller derby league--and potentially over-committing myself and risking injury to boot--was never an advisable undertaking, especially for someone who had never skated before.  To date, however, this has been one of the best ill-advised decisions I've ever made.

In following posts, I'll tell you more about myself, write about our practices and bouts, do some derby-related philosophizing, and document my bruises in more detail than necessary.

It's a party.  And you're invited.