Each week one of our new skaters, Glen Coco, tells us what she got up to at our New Skater sessions that run every Monday night. Here’s what she got up to this week!
Another Monday came around pretty fast this week and I wasn’t super in the mood for skating after the long weekend (it’s bad I know). I dragged myself out of bed in the afternoon and made my way to the Thunderdome, falling asleep on the bus.
I always try to arrive a little bit early to get a little bit of extra practice, so by the time we do our warm up, I am usually already warmed up. This week Harlot Jo Ransom who plays for the Tender Hooligans (and is my mentor – RCRG have a mentoring system that pairs new and experience skaters) led us in our usually warming up routine, then we split into groups. This week the advanced and intermediate group joined together so we could take the whole track.
Harlot and Neutrino led our double-sized group. We did more work on laterals (which was much needed on my part), and because we had the whole track we got to skate all the way round the track like a massive snake.
Working with the intermediates was fun and a nice change (I even gave someone advice, which felt weird, I don’t think I’m qualified to give advice!). We did work on derby stops, which is something that the intermediates hadn’t practiced, so we split into those who could do them, and those that couldn’t. Those that could took half the track and practiced derby stops right at the edge of the track. I had a go, leaned, flailed my arms and fell over backwards (no bruises this week though- boo!).
After that we got into walls of 3, with a jammer trying to get past us. We had to stop them by being positional and shouting numbers for whatever lane they were in. We rarely get to do these types of drills on Monday so it’s always super fun. After this we got into a big pack and did some stuff together, like whips, falls and transitions.
A week on Sunday I have my minimum skills test, so there’s only one Monday training session left before the big day. Nervous!
Note to self: Stop eating McDonalds after training sessions and saying it doesn’t count.
Fancy giving roller derby a go yourself? Our New Skater nights are held every Monday at The Thunderdome, 7:30-9:30pm. Click here for more details.
