Saturday, February 12, 2011

Basic skillz assessment part one!

We started taking our basic skills assessments this week. It was intimidating, and exciting and scary and wonderful.
There are apparently 28 of us Toffuti Cuties in this session, and we all need to demonstrate safe skills to be able to scrimmage. We weren't able to complete the testing for anyone, and about half of us still have about half of the test to go.
I was in the group that mostly completed testing.
We started with 25/5 laps. I didn't get 25/5, I got 25/6. I shaved a full minute off of my last time, but I skated more aggressively than last time, weaving around the less stable ladies more. I always skate faster at the end of the evening, and I have been sick all week. No excuses, just a little info to put things in perspective.
Next my group did stops, T-stop, plow stop. I had never tried the plow stop before, and had no confidence in my ability to do them. I wasn't able to do them for the vets administering the test, because when I was getting the hang of it, two girls went down right in front of me and I had to dodge first then stop. I don't know if my vet was watching, but I DID do one as soon as I got past them. (Manna, are you reading this? Did you see?)
Then we moved off the track and let the next group do their testing, and we were working drills with some of the other vets. My knee was still bothering me and I wasn't really able to do a lot of the agility stuff. Toe stop walking and side stepping. I don't know if that was part of the testing or if we were just trying to keep warm while we waited for the next step of testing. I hope I will be given a chance to repeat that portion if it was part of it, because my husband and kids walked in right at the beginning of that part.
After that, we moved on to falls. One knee, two knee, 180's, and baseball slides. I hadn't done baseball slides either, because plow stops and falls were covered when I was out with my stupid knee. I feel like I did fairly well on falls, though I still need work on getting up. I'm still slow.
Then we got the whole group together and did whips and pushes. I gave some whips, received some whips, took a push, went out of bounds, but didn't fall, and just went right back in bounds without missing a beat. I love whips! I love watching the girl you've just whipped fly like the wind. I love the feeling of flying like the wind when you have just been whipped. Whips are cool. (side note, Bow ties are cool... mandatory Doctor Who joke, sorry, had to do it.)
Then we did a pace line, weaving and hitting each girl we passed. I took a few good hits, gave a few little baby hits. I need to work on using my awesome ass to hit with. I was given this gift, I need to learn how to use it. No more shoulders Indy!
All told, I knew going in that I wasn't likely to pass this go round, and we have a few more things to test, but I feel pretty good about what I have learned. I now know what I need to work on. I am SO proud of the other Toffutti Cuties. Some of those girls had never worn skates before this session started six weeks ago, and they were skating hard and getting up after falls. If you're not falling, you're not trying, and they work HARD. Love you ladies! (another side note, I fully plan to annihilate you Cherri, just as soon as we can both take it! So there! You started it!)
Let's see what next week brings.

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