Continuing sciatic pain in my left leg woke me at 4.30 this morning. Painkillers and lying across the bed with my knees on the floor afforded me a few more hours of sleep.
By 7.30 I was awake again and sure that I wouldn’t be able to train today. I turned to Google for a solution. The NHS site suggested painkillers and exercise. Okay, so training would be a treatment then!
I set off for Whitcliffe early. The Banditas, who train before us, had Feral Fairy visiting to guest coach. I’d asked if I could go and watch. For those that don’t know, Feral plays for Team England and is one of the top 20 skaters in the UK.
Adam, one of our jammers, was there, and others from our team who referee for the Banditas. It turned out that Feral was doing group work and she said that if we wanted we could join in! What! A lightening quick change and we were there…
Feral’s session focussed on one-on-one blocking, working in pairs at first and adding complexities bit at a time. This progressed to putting these techniques into practice. Unfortunately Vikki fell early on in the session and landed very heavily on her coccyx. She was sent to hospital but is home now – wishing you a speedy recovery Vikki!
I guess the training session lasted about two hours. Anyway, it was time for the Banditas to scrimmage. As guests I suggested to Adam that we sit out, but we were invited to play! Hell Yeah! The scrimmage was great! I got to jam and managed to get lead jammer one time, though a “back block” put me in the box. Feral joined in – so technically I’ve played on track with a top 20 player!
Before I knew it the scrim was over. I’d been skating for three hours when all I’d been expecting to do was to watch. A massive thank you to the Banditas for being so welcoming!
The hour from 2pm is for new skaters to practice minimum skills. There were only a few of us there. I was going to practice some of my weaker skills. But hey, Jeanette ‘Sue Perman’ was helping a few of the Banditas work on skills. I joined in and worked with them. Stepping and cross-overs were the order of the day. That was the fourth hour.
Then it was time for the Skateful Dead practice. The focus today was agility and jammer skills. This included walking on toe stops – something I’m really bad at – indeed I fell straight away and landed on my wrist. My left wrist, as always :-/ But a few minutes of silent cursing and I was back with it. A whole series of drills, working in threes, then more and by the end we had one jammer trying to get through a wall of eight blockers!
During six hours of skating I’d eaten flapjack and drunk about 3 litres of water/isotonic mix. I had cramp in my feet and legs. I don’t think I could have skated any longer, but I felt awesome!
Well done Gillie for a brilliant session today – best so far!