Silence of the Slams

So, tomorrow I am skating in this:

Our Death Stars are up against VRDL’s Gold Lions. To say I am pretty pumped is slightly under-exaggerating!

Firstly, I was voted in as our new travel team Alternate Captain! (self-high-five) which is such a huge HUGE honour to me. This meant that I had to step down as Alternate of the Pulp Vixens though, which was a bummer, but this opportunity was one I really really wanted to go for and I had support from my Vixens Captain (Anna Conned Her) to leave my name in for the vote and I got up! BOOM!

Secondly. We are playing a team from the VRDL. The VICTORIAN. ROLLER. DERBY. LEAGUE! Their All Star team is currently number 1 in Australia and their B team (the Queen Bee’s) are All Stars in training and regularly compete against regional and interstate teams (they have an upcoming bout against Perth Roller Derby West Coast Evils in a couple of weeks: FB event HERE) to great success.

We had been scrimmaging a few times at their Factory against their Gold Level skaters, so when the opportunity arose to organise a bout down at Rosebud we asked if they would field a new team of Gold Level skaters to play. There was no hesitation from them, and the Gold Lions were formed!

So, this team is coming from a well-oiled machine. A league that has the best skaters in the State to train them. A league that has a strong focus on athletic training of their skaters and expects a high level of dedication to the sport (something I truly admire). So I am expecting some pretty tough competition at tomorrow’s bout, and I don’t think I’ll be disappointed! It’s pretty god damn EXCITING!!!!

This current Death Star line up though, is Amazing. I think we’re getting stronger and stronger and working harder towards the same goal of being a true united force on the track. With our next wave of skaters coming up the ranks no one’s spot is truly safe on the travel team. You can see in skaters eyes how hungry they are to keep their spot on the team and work harder at maintaining their ranking. It’s really fucking inspiring.

So yeah, I’m pumped, so pumped right now. I’m going to high-five the shit out of this bout tomorrow. I am going to stay calm, I am going to be good support to my Captain (Suzz Spender) and help lead this awesome team! HIGH-FIVE TO THAT!!

NSR Easter Scrimmage Extravaganza!

On Easter Saturday my league (Northside Rollers) put on an Open Scrimmage Extravaganza!!

Our very own Bonnie Crash worked her magic with organising this event, opening the invite to the surrounding leagues to come and play!

We ended up having skaters join us from Ballarat Roller Derby League / Diamond Valley Roller Derby Club / East Vic Roller Derby / Geelong Roller Derby League / Latrobe City Roller Derby / Murray River Derby Dames / South Sea Roller Derby / Victorian Roller Derby League and Westside Derby Dollz.

We had about 70 skaters in total and a full contingent (and then some) of visiting Refs! It was an awesome sight to see as we all warmed up on the track.

Leading up to the day we were told which team we were on and to wear a black or white scrimmage top. The day was to run with the first hour being an Amber scrimmage – which meant skaters could positional block and use light surging ONLY – no hard hitting! The second hour was Green scrimmage which was full contact.

The 2 teams lining up.

I went in for both scrimmages. You would line up and the Jams would just rotate through the line. Pretty much everyone went in for Amber so the wait to get a turn to skate took a little longer than the Green hour.

Here are some action shots from the day:

It was so great to see some of the newer skaters get in there and have a go, plus some of the Vets helping them out and giving advice. Mingling in the line it was great to chat to other skaters from other leagues just to hear their game play and strategies.

Hanging out with Donna Slay in the Black line.

At the end of the day.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard that many whistles blow at the end of a jam as I did that day. We had so many refs involved with this scrimmage it was just fantastic! There were a couple of funny moments, especially when skaters who weren’t familiar with the venue (and the white track that is laid) kept cutting the track in a major way and we got a very vocal reminder from Ref Fan Boy of which line the track was.

Our wonderful ref pack!!

It was such an Awesome day all round. Just to skate with all different levels, chat to girls from other leagues and learn things from them too! There really was a whole lot of derby love floating around that day. Lots of smiles and laughs, I did not see any douche-bag behaviour whatsoever!

High five Northside for putting on an Awesome day out! Hope we get to do it again someday soon, it was a fantastic derby day!!

Stax, Bio and Me!

Afterwards some of us converged on the Raccoon Club (again, in 2 days!?) and enjoyed plenty of “Easter” alcohol, only to be witness to some AH-Mazing interpretive dancing, hip-checks in back alleys and some dance-offs in lounge rooms!

My wonderful Matt came and saved the day and picked me up sometime around 2am… pity I forgot I had the car keys and he had to come get me on the back of the motorbike!! The cold ride home certainly sobered me up a little… well… just a *little*…

PS: Thanks to Stax for letting me throw the camera at her when I was in with the Green scrimmage so she could take some photos for me!

it’s a derby kind of day

On Saturday we had Peggy Oh Kneel from Ballarat Roller Derby come guest train us. We started with an off-skate warm up of skipping and leg exercises then it was on skates for one of the hardest endurance sessions I’ve had in awhile.

There were pace lines drills and track sprints and timed pack skating and jammer starts and agility drills and lots and lots of skating hard and fast. I almost puked. Twice. Then we scrimmaged!! I was definitely feeling exhausted by the end of it all, and it was hard work trying to stay focussed and scrimmage.

It was hard work. For me. I pushed myself as much as I could and I felt it. I AM still feeling it! I know one of the ways I am going to get better and quicker is to train at that intensity, I will probably hate it, and whinge and moan, but it’s needed. I need it.

After training a bunch of us piled in to Bliss Star’s car and headed to the VRDL second double header for the season. My mind really wasn’t on reviewing the bout this time, I was kind of still reeling from training… so all you get this time round is some photos! Enjoy!

We only caught the tail end of the first bout (therefore not many pics) Final score the Toxic Avengers 184 VS the Rock Mobsters 115.

Kitty Decapitate played for the Toxic Avengers this time around.

An awesome Mobster wall holding back the Toxics jammer.

Second bout was the Dead Ringer Rosies VS the Dolls of Hazzard. Rosies came up roses (hurr hurr) defeating the Dolls 210 to 118.

Ref Wrath doing a lovely job of gear checking the Rosies

Roger Jamjet also doing a lovely gear checking job on the Dolls

Epic game face from Swish Cariboom

Styx and Skate Bush jamming it out.

I was watching the Rosies during a time-out and it was the best moment. Swish was so animated discussing plays so passionately with her team. It was awesome to watch!

Northside represent!

Saturday was a good derby day. Great (exhausting) training. Some good derby to watch at the VRDL bout(s), and great to watch it with some Northside girls! High five to that!!

…though I think this lady wasn’t so keen on watching the bout, she preferred to knit!?

a Kitty comes to train.

Tuesday night we had Kitty DeCapitate from VRDL come guest coach us. She was one of the trainers that took the bootcamp I attended back in January. Kitty has been skating derby for 5 years with both the London Rollergirls and currently the Victorian Roller Derby League (but she will be moving back to London sometime soon).

As she states on her blog (Yay Roller Derby!) “I guess as a coach and skater in both of these leagues, my unique experience (and everyone has one) seems to be about making people and leagues better”.

I think it’s highly beneficial to leagues being able to have the opportunity and resources to host such highly skilled and experienced trainers. They bring with them fresh and new ideas we may not have seen before. It lets us have access to new techniques that skaters at the top of their field are using and it’s just so great to have fresh faces sharing their derby love.

We started the session with an off-skates warm up. In 6 minutes of jogging, jumping and explosive footwork I was sweating buckets! – more so than if we were doing a 10 minute surging pace line to warm up (PS: I hate pace lines!).

We then went in to drills where Kitty broke down jammer strategies of juking and jumping around your blocker. Faking them out, then being able to carve around them quickly to get in front, or if you see a blocker lining you up for a hit, set your eyes on them and basically put on your brakes to juke/ jump out of their way.

We also practiced blocking drills with walls being set up with one skater swinging out to skate reverse direction to help support their wall, but ONLY when it was safe to do so. You don’t want to be leaving yourself wide open with all that legal blocking zone down your front if a jammer breaks through the wall, so you need to think quick to transition back to face forward to block with your butt and potential draw a back block.

Lastly we ran a reactive pack drill where the key was to be able to communicate fast with your blockers and react accordingly to wall up wherever the majority of your blockers were (front of pack? – make wall at the front or vice versa).

I love the below photo with Kitty instructing the next drill and Suzz Spender spotting the camera to give a cheeky smile! Ha!

Thanks Kitty for coming out to Northside and training both the freshie session and ours. It was great to have some things broken down and some technical insight in to drills.

a happy akka at the end of training

PS: High-five to Sunny Day for being our awesome photographer for the night!!

VRDL Season Opener

Saturday night the Victorian Roller Derby League (VRDL) hosted their Season Opener double-header at the Melbourne Showgrounds.

The league had a big mash up and redraft at the end of last year which saw the teams mixed up and the introduction of their fourth league team the brand new Rock Mobsters!

Being new to Melbourne I hadn’t seen all of the league skaters before (I got to watch the VRDL All Stars play Rat City at the end of last year though, which was EPIC to say the least) so I was definitely excited to see all the new rookies in their first bout and to watch the Vets bring it!

I’ve never reviewed a bout before and as I was too distracted by all awesome plays going on to give you a blow by blow account of the games, this is my short but sweet recap.

First bout was The Dead Ringer Rosies VS The Toxic Avengers. I was pleased to see Swish Cariboom and Kitty DeCapitate wearing the pink for the Rosies and Mad Mel Arena wearing the green and black for the Avengers. I got to meet these 3 awesome skaters when some friends and I attended a VRDL bootcamp back in January.

What I noticed in this first game was that it was indeed very technical and strategic in the way the Rosies defended themselves on the track. Their blockers seemed to work in unison bouncing all over the track to fill those spots to keep the Avenger jammer behind, then opening those channels for their own jammer to sneak through.

I do love a bit of jammer-on-jammer action and saw this quite a few times, specifically when Swish was up against Mad Mel on the line. Both teams also utilising the task of knocking the opposing jammer off the track then high-tailing it in the reverse direction to ensure she enters the track and starts from the back again.

It was a close game from the start with each team having the lead at some point (making it an exciting game to watch) but the Rosies ended up securing the win 168 V 145.

Dead Ringer Rosies gear check.

The Toxic Avengers taking a knee to force the jammer whistle.

Mad Mel Arena having a time-out boogie.

The second game saw the Dolls Au-Go-Go rebadged as The Dolls of Hazzard up against the new kids on the block The Rock Mobsters.

This game instantly felt like a much faster and harder hitting game. The Mobsters are taller and more solid blockers out of all 4 teams, and they bought all their A-game that night.

With an early couple of power jams for the Mobsters they had an impressive lead at half time of 131 V 41. Second half there seemed to be lots of majors dished out. G-Banger (for the Mobsters) notched up a few, with 2 instances of her re-entering the track to take one lap then be sent straight back to the box!

Dolls were working hard trying to keep a tight-pack, when the pack separated that’s when it seemed the point carnage was on for the Mobsters. At one point Alex in Chains took the lead jammer for the Dolls and the crowd exploded, her face said it all really! Pure joy!

Dolls were throwing all the could at the Mobsters. Last jam of the game saw Smashin’ Pop (Dolls) and Miss Chivas (Mobsters) on the line with Miss Chivas getting through the pack first then being sent to the box and Smashin’ Pop jamming the clock down to end with an awesome 20 point jam. Final score Mobsters win 166 V 111.

Ranga Fanga #H0 jamming for the Dolls

Axis of Evon jamming for the Mobsters

An ecstatic Alex in Chains

#100 Candy Rocks = Awesome!

Overall it was a great night of derby! Only bummer was the PA system, it was pretty bad, half the time I really had a hard time understanding what the commentators were saying… hopefully that’s something that might be worked out in the future.

But massive high-five VRDL! Awesome skaters, awesome bouting! LOVING it! If you had season tickets I would snap them up in a heart beat! One thing I am loving about Melbourne is that I’ll get to see more awesome bouting like that! High-five to that!!

PS: Matt’s favourite skater name for the night: Pony Slaystation #1UP – awesome name!!

*NB: All photos are by me. If you want to use any PLEASE credit me and link back to this site. Thanks.

VRDL Bootcamp Recap.

So last weekend I had a house full of Dames and we were all attending the Victorian Roller Derby League (VRDL) Master Class.

I wasn’t sure what we were in for. A few weeks before I got a call from Mustdash telling me about this bootcamp and that they were all coming over and staying with me! Her excitement and enthusiasm is highly contagious so I booked a spot without hesitation.

Day 1 though I could feel myself hesitating. I hadn’t trained full on for awhile now. I had been doing some outdoor skating but I knew my fitness level wasn’t up to scratch.

Once we got there though, my attitude change immediately. To be lead by such professional (and genuinely super nice) trainers, I felt at ease and ready to throw my entire self in to what I could.

Our first day we worked on positional blocking and speed control techniques, evasive jamming and on skates agility. We tackled juking, swooping, quick cuts and leaps. We learnt how to judge pack and in play distances and how to apply these as part of your teams strategy. Thrown in the middle of that was one of THE MOST intense plyo and strength sessions I have ever had the pleasure of pushing through. Insane! But it gave me a total ‘WOW’ moment.

Day 2 I wasn’t sure how my body was going to hold up. The morning session was all about partner blocking “AKA making your team mate look awesome makes YOU Aweome!” This is where we concentrated on walls, breaking walls and backwards blocking. I loved the backwards blocking, favourite drill of the weekend!

The next 2 sessions I used the opportunity to sit in on the optional seminars and was able to sit within the round with Axis of Evon to discuss how to be a sustainable DIY Athlete. She had some fantastic insight in to this from her own experiences and I now know how much I really need to focus on my off skate training if I ever want to achieve the level of fitness I desire.

Kitty DeCapitate hosted a discussion on coaching / rules and strategy (among other things). The main advice that held with me was her emphasis on goal setting, breaking it down from a broad goal in to ways you are actually going to achieve this. Also her great opinion about motivating yourself and others and to hear her true passion for the sport. She wrote a fantastic article on her blog Yay Roller Derby! which picks up on some points she spoke about in our discussion.

The last moment of the bootcamp was scrimmage. I already knew my body wasn’t coping that day, so I sat myself out rather then injure myself (or anyone else on the track). It was fantastic to watch. I was so impressed with all my friends that skated that day. Just to see how they’d improved over only 2 days was incredible! I couldn’t help scream out from the sidelines when one of them got lead jammer, or scream out ‘protect your point’!

Thanks to Eve Yllanside for the below photos… Check out her blog Diary of a Derby Wannabe for her recap of the weekend and the awesome video she put together!

A few of our lovely trainers

Team debrief before the next Jam

Mustdash lining up on the jammer line.

Some of the Broken Hill Derby Girls

If you ever get the chance to attend a VRDL bootcamp, absolutely snap up the opportunity. You’ll totally high-five me for it!

Swish Cariboom

Thanks VRDL for hosting such an amazing weekend. You really kick started my 2012 in to high gear and I’m really looking forward to my derby year ahead!

Bootcamp isn’t about Boots!

Over the weekend I opened my doors for an invasion of Dames from across the border. 6 girls from my old Adelaide team drove over for a 2 day bootcamp with Victorian Roller Derby League (VRDL) (plus 1 sneaky Vigi that we picked up from the airport). Epic would be an understatement! My body is still recovering! But it was an amazing, AH-MAZE-ING experience which was pretty awesome to attend with a tonne of girls from leagues all over in Australia.

I was constantly amazed and in awe of our All Star trainers (especially Kitty DeCapitate and Swish Cariboom *swoon*) and at the new things I was trying (and not epically failing at)!

I will expand a little with a further review later (when I steal some photo’s from a friend)! But in the meantime, watch this fantastic little clip Dirge from Western Australia Roller Derby (WARD) created! (Hi WARD!)

High Five to VRDL!