Ballistic Whistle is a coach for the London Rollergirls and Team England (women’s roller derby). He also plays for the men’s England Team. So he is a top coach and player. Well, yesterday evening The Skateful Dead had a coaching session with him!
He started with a half hour chat explaining what he’d be covering and laying down a few rules. The key one was “don’t be a dick”!
We kitted up and hit the track. The hall floor at 3 Ways is quite slippery for skating, but after a little time you get used to it.
Ballistic had a very clear lesson plan and continually referred to it. All of the work was either as individuals or most often in pairs or small groups. As I must have mentioned in previous posts, I only started with this derby thing back in April. I’ve also had pretty much five months off skates due to injury. So I’m an absolute beginner to the sport. This style of learning is precisely what I need.
We covered plough stops (argh!) and then asymmetric plough stops, then in pairs the idea of overlapping plough stops. This reminded me of the stuff that Feral Fairy had The Banditas (and Adam and I) doing back in June, though her focus was on stopping an opposing blocker rather than forming a stronger wall.
Each skill was first defined (eg hockey stop) then practiced alone before being put into action in pair work. I’ve never had any explain how to do a hockey stop. The geek in me likes a detailed breakdown of weight distribution between feet, edges etc. (This is the kind of thing that Asha and Mark did when I did the ICP qualification all those years ago.)
The two hours track time flew by and we’ve come away with so many things to practice. Lots of the drills could be practised at informal meets, like the Wednesday skate at Futsal.
I got in, grabbed a shower, beans on toast then slept really well :-)