See? This time I really AM going to start posting more...

Last night was Scrimmage night.
For the first time in a long time, I went in feeling good about my skills and abilities. We played "A-team vs the world," which means the girls who made the roster for the upcoming game with the Wasatch home team, The Hot Wheelers, against everyone else that came to practice. As I am not on that roster, I played with the black team=the World. We had some great vets from a couple of different leagues come play, which is always fun. I feel like we learn a lot from the vets that come out.
Somehow, despite the expectation of an ass kicking, we, the World won. Part of that is due to some amazing jamming by England's Glory, Bruiser Ego, and Drew Fairywhore. Most of it was due to the fact that we were working together, listening to the more experienced players on the team, and generally playing well. I got in a few decent hits, and some really good positional blocking.
After the game, one of the ladies, Margie Ram, gave me a big compliment saying that she had noticed me getting in there and laying out some good hits. I can't tell you how good that made me feel. I have spent the last three to four months mentally abusing myself, telling myself I will never be a good skater, I will always suck. At one point, I had even considered retiring from skating altogether, concentrating on officiating instead. I couldn't do that. Even if I suck, which I have decided I DON'T, I'd miss it too much. I needed that outside opinion. I needed to hear it from someone who doesn't have anything to gain from complimenting me. So, Margie, thank you.
I think that's all I have to say today, so, thanks to everyone who still bothers to read my little blog. <3

Indy? Who's Indy?

So I should probably get to posting a whole lot more often...

What is new, what is new....?
I worked and worked and worked and just couldn't break my mental block over turning around. I just couldn't put that skate behind me. I worked with friends. I begged help from refs. I watched everyone else in the league do it.
One day, we had a guest coach from Uinta Madness. He is a competitive speed skater as well as probably the strongest player on UMRD. He always works us really hard, and I always learn a lot. Unfortunately, this particular practice, he was working with us on plow stops. This is good, my stops in general suck. But for some reason, I was hurting pretty bad, my knee was really painful, so I decided not to push it and skated over to the baby pool to work on a few things myself. As I was totally alone, I decided that this would be an appropriate time to work on that mental block.
Don't know how, but somehow, I managed to make myself turn around. Yep. Me. Scardey cat Indy turned around. Was it a fluke? I should try that again. Whaddaya know? I did it again! Encouraged by my successes, I kept working on it. I can now consistently turn around and rarely fall down doing it.
YAY INDY!!! It's been a while since I had some progress in my skills, and suddenly I find myself improving again. It has been very good for me. I received several compliments at last week's scrimmage. I had been feeling very down about my abilities. I had actually considered retiring from derby skating altogether, and concentrating on officiating. I have renewed my love of the game, and resumed my incessant studying of the rules. Look out derby, Indy's back in full effect!