Another excellent training session this evening.

It started out with a massage! Cathy, who if I was listening, works with Phil, is learning to be a masseuse and needs to get in loads of practice. Hell yeah! So I started the session this evening with a back massage. She kept updating me on what the rest of the team were doing – “they’re starting to kit up”, “they’re out on the the track” and I was “it’s fine, carry on” :-)

Once that was done I kitted up and got warmed up. The focus of the evening was blocking, specifically chest blocks. Again it was a session that really suits me – small groups focusing on a single element. Straight away I donned the star and tried to get through a three wall. Jamming is so exhausting, but so much fun. I have always been nervous about jamming, but I’m starting to feel more confident now – with practice I suppose.

At some point we also did one on one chest blocking and I didn’t totally suck at it – which surprised me. We paired up and I chose Chris. (Unless you know Chris this means nothing. He’s big – probably two of me or something close to that. He also hits like a steam train.) So I started as the jammer, that way I’d be doing the hitting and it would be easy for both of us – I wouldn’t be getting hit and he probably wouldn’t notice me bouncing off him :-)

It turns out though, that my boney shoulders are just the ticket – yeah! It didn’t enable me to push him out (I think he was being rather charitable TBH) but I felt I had a useful super-power at my disposal.

Next was a bridging drill I think. Again I jammed. It was about pushing the bridge then dashing around the track. Really hard work! Finally we brought the skills together with a moving wall, bridging and assists.

All in all an exhausting session but very enjoyable. I certainly feel I am progressing and I know that the rest of the team is – some really good work this evening.

We have another session tomorrow evening. Can’t wait!

Sunday is training day and yesterday was no exception.

Chris led the warm up, as usual, followed by some contact practice. Everyone forms the pack then one player is called as the jammer. They need to try to get through the pack. Not easy. So then an assist is called, and another. This continues until the jammer gets through, at which point the pack is reset. Well, during this Tony fell and landed badly injuring his leg. He’s as tough and old boots (and as old ;-) but that was it, accident form and ice pack for him.

We also did 27 in 5. Well done on passing your mins Baker! This was good for us all, I questioned whether my leg would complain but it was fine. The track was busy, I was 20 feet short of 28 laps.
We then practiced the drills that Ballistic had shared with us last Thursday. Working in fours, a three wall and jammer, changing formations fluidly. Good stuff.

Finally it was time to scrimmage. I started on the “not red” team but then someone else got injured leaving the teams unbalanced. I swapped back to red. I think, in the end, ‘not reds’ scored way more points. I jammed a few times, three I think. I’m getting less nervous at doing so, I want my side to do well and with me as jammer that rarely happens. (Though thinking about it as I type this, practice is the place to make mistakes and improve.) Often I fail to get through the wall or cut track and spend time in the penalty box. This is never good as the team can’t possible score with their jammer in the box. Yesterday was slightly different though. I got lead jammer in one of the jammers, got pushed off the track on my scoring pass, but not before scoring 2 points. I was so pleased! Then to top that I jammed again and it turned into a power jam. Team ‘not red’ suffered some penalties leaving them with one blocker on track. Red team did a lovely job of keeping the track clear and I scored 15 points. Amazing!

With the bout against Nottingham just next week we have extra practice sessions this week, one tonight and one tomorrow. I’m not playing in the bout, but of course the team needs players to practice, so I’m hoping to make it to both of these sessions.

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 :-)

Yesterday’s training session was an extended one of two and a half hours.

Tony and I arrived early and first, checked which hall we were in and got ready. A few others started to arrived and then I who wondered in but Omer Gherd. (Omer, for those that don’t know, plays for Inhuman League but also for England!) Brian was back, a guy Baker who I’d not met before, and many of the regulars – a good turn out.

We started with some confusing games. A zombie/human one for which the rules seemed overly confusing. It consisted of skating randomly around the hall whilst trying to avoid being hit by others doing the same. No one hit me and I hit no one, so I didn’t get much out of that game.

This was followed by some one on one work, which was really good. Half of us were blockers, skating around the track at the inside edge. The other half were jammers trying to get past each in turn. It meant that each of us got to do both roles against a range of others. I tried to get past Omer – it was impossible as even if I got a foot out infront of him he steered me off the track. Some useful feedback though – I’m tall, and therefore very easy to see. Confusing in a way, I’m not built like a blocker and I’m too tall to be a jammer :-/

We then changed this up to jammer versus two blockers – more impossible, but good stuff. Good for the blockers to practice moving as a unit rather than leaving a gap between them.
We finished with a scrimmage – obviously. I was going to sit out (still nervious about injuring my back) but Chris had taken some hits during the session so he had taken his skates off and was helping to referee. This left an even number including me so I played.

It was a good scrim. No idea what the score was, but I jammed once – getting sent to the box twice for cutting track. Idiot!

I was very pleased to skate for the full session. Only minor injuries this week too; little finger on my left hand when I got pushed into the wall (the brick wall, not the line of blockers) and right calf from falling and twisting my leg.

Another excellent training session with The Dead yesterday.

We didn’t do indurance this week, instead practising skating clockwise. Then we moved on to positional blocking, working in pairs. I was working with Richard. It was the first time I’ve skated with him. The blocker had to control the speed and hold back the jammer. Very tempted, as the jammer, to skip around the blocker, but that wasn’t the point of the exercise.

Next (from memory) was a fun game which had one person start as one ‘team’ and everyone else as blockers, though not assisting each other. The single skater had to get through the pack and then select another skater and try to hold them back for 5 seconds. Once this was done successfully that skater became part of the team. The pair then selected another victim. So it continued until the situation was reversed, leaving all but one skater trying to block him.

Then my favourite bit – hitting practice. I was paired with Matt. We took it in turns to hit each other across the track and off. I felt that this was a really useful exercise for me. I’ve never been one for contact sports (why am I playing derby you might ask – I don’t know) so hitting/crashing/pushing other people is not something that I’m terribly good at. In this one on one situation I didn’t have to worry about game play/strategy or opposing players trying to hit me. Nice and simple. Really very tiring too, and I imagine my shoulders/arms will have some lovely bruises in the next few days.

Then another exercise that suited me very well. Again working in pairs we put down a diamond of cones around the other player. We then had to skate around/in and out of the cones/player whilst facing the player, who was stood in the middle of cones, all of the time. The aim is to have awareness of where the cones are and what your feet are doing without having to look down at them. This was like playing in the park! I just needed my blades – quads don’t pivot so well :-)

Next up? Queen of the track. I didn’t last long at this. Rob got a good hit on me straight away. I fell and jarred my back, so I called it a day then, better safe than sorry. After five minutes I felt fine and it didn’t give me any pain all evening. It feels normal today, so no further damage done :-)
We finished of with a scrim, five-a-side. I did jam timing again. Carly and Gillie reffed – which is quite a feat with a group of competitive blokes – thank you, and well done!

Yesterday, after a break of over three months, I returned to Skateful Dead practice.

I was quite apprehensive. The instruction from the physiotherapist, and the medical staff that I’ve seen has been to avoid “impact”. I have done so. I asked about skating, even in the park, and was told that if I fell then I might aggrevate the injury. I haven’t had skates on my feet for ages!

We have a bout at the end of November – I’m not playing; this time I’m the official photographer. We needed head shots of a few of our guest players, so I rocked up with my camera. I took my skate gear along too, just to have a bit of a roll around the hall.

Those that needed their photos taking couldn’t make it, so no photos. We were quite thin on numbers too. It felt so good to be be rolling again, and the “roll around the hall” quickly became “I’ll join in with the endurance exercise”. I agreed with Gillie that I’d stop if I felt I needed to. The endurance bit was great. I skipped the star jumps, I know that they still cause me some pain, but I kept going with everything else.

Then it was walling/bridging practice. Well, what could go wrong. I joined in with that. I took a few hits, and handed out a few too. The guys were great. Ash blocked me and took me off track, with force, but not going silly. During the exercise I only jammed once but I was knackered. It’s surprisingly demanding. Towards the end of that exercise I took two falls. I felt then that it would be wise to stop – two sessions in a row would be good ;-)

At the end of the session there was a scrimmage. I did jam timing, allowed loose with a whistle! One of the big improvements that I notice since I was last at practice is the lack of penalties. This is something that I consider very important – any fool can win by playing dirty and getting away with it.

Thanks for the welcome back! I’m proud to be one of The Skateful Dead :-)

This weekend Imogen (my daughter) and I were down in Birmingham for the Men’s European Roller Derby Championship. The Skateful Dead had been ranked 15th of the 16 teams playing.

We arrived late Friday evening and caught up with the rest of the team – all buzzing about the weekend. Saturday we had an early start; alarm set for 6am so that we could get to the stadium and prepare. Our first bout, of 30 minutes, was at 10.15. We’d be playing the Quad Guards, ranked 2nd of the 16 playing! At probably 9.30 we started kitting up. I was nervous, as I’m sure were the rest of the team. It was only when I asked what time we were on track that I was told I wouldn’t be playing in the first bout. Rather late to be told, but no harm done. The arrangement was a bout each for Tony and I, so I’d be playing later. Fair do.

I had my camera with me, so I got on with my other hobby. The team played well and managed 18 to 176 for Quad Guards. Our next bout was at 4.30, so that gave us all some time to chill out and watch others play.

Then, mid afternoon, the decision was made to play the same line-up in the second bout as was played for the first. The French were playing hard, there was perhaps a chance we could win and I was still carrying an injury. Of the 15 playing for the Dead (which included 4 guest skaters) I was the weakest player. I wasn’t best pleased, obviously, but I wanted the team to do well and didn’t dispute the decision. It was a hard bout which Kamiquadz took with 147 against 82.

The rest of the weekend was filled with watching awesome derby being played by awesome teams. I took lots of photos, 1,413 to be precise, which should be available on Flickr very soon. I’m dead chuffed that Andy “Slam C Nesbit” got recognition for his awesome blocking skills!

With the Euros behind us, I will be taking some time off skates until I’m 100 per cent injury free. It’s been six weeks now, a break is required!

Yesterday nearly all of the SimpleUsability team ran in the Leeds 10K.
We are a mixed group, from those who have run marathons and half-marathons to those who have never run a distance race and done no training.

I ran my first distance race last November, the Abbey Dash 10K in Leeds. I trained for it with Motiv8 and Chris there did a damn good job. I achieved a time of of 50m30s. Since then I have tried to keep up the running and improve my general fitness level. When we signed up for this one I wanted to better that time; the route is almost identical. However, carrying an injury I was just please to finish. My time of 1h12m19s isn’t too bad. Today my left leg feels tight, but that’s not a problem. The team all did well, Judith was the fastest and Mark )who had done no training) was only minutes behind me.

Of course, once you can run, you can also skate! So, with the run as a warm up for the day, I went to Skateful Dead training in the afternoon.

This was the last (normal) session before the European Championships next weekend! (I say normal as we are planning an extra session on Wednesday at Futsal in Cottingley – it’s the same type of floor as we’ll be playing on in Birmingham.)

It was back on skates, but aware that I needed to be a little careful. The team are great, they also took care not to hit too hard – at least before the scrimmage. The session started with a new endurance exercise, which lasted ten minutes. Then we recapped some of the blocking and jamming techniques that we have learnt over the past months.

The scrimmage was fun. It was the first time I’d worn my “bum savers” and I have to say they work really well. I got knocked over quite a few times, but they do a really good job of protecting my, very boney, hips. Special mention to Adam for knocking me off track when I was jamming then running back to test my “cutting track” knowledge. Lawrence for being a cheeky git and asking so politely to be allowed past – I let him through when I should have blocked him. Fool!

Really good session and today my leg is no worse than it was before yesterday :-)

It feels a little odd looking back at my post of 9 June. I had an awesome training session that day. Yet on the Monday following it I found that I’d seriously injured by leg. Since then I have been hobbling. Only today have I bothered to bring my netbook with me – sitting on a train causes a nagging pain right down the back of my leg.

The Injury

From extensive Googling I would describe my injury as grade 2 tearing of my hamstring and calf muscles in my left leg. Combined with this I have damaged my sciatic nerve, also in my left leg. The cause is, undoubtedly, roller derby, though I don’t know what specifically. I did fall small and have another of the team land on top of me, but I can’t imagine how that would injure muscles in the back of my leg.

As a result I have no power in that leg; I’m unable to stride. The outer three toes and that side of my left foot are numb. Sciatic pain, as I’m sure most readers will be aware, causes pain from the hip joint all the way down the leg.

I haven’t been absent from work as a result, though I’m glad I’ve not had to travel. For the first two weeks I wasn’t able to sit on the train as it was too painful. At work I sat half on the chair with my left leg hanging off the chair.

Lessons learned?

You will take longer to recover than you think

This is probably true at all ages, but the timescales for you youngsters will likely be shorter. During the first week after injury I thought I’d be good to go, though not 100% , by the following Sunday. After two weeks I sought medical help. Now, at almost five weeks, I still can’t walk properly. It will drive you insane. Stick with it.

Check/treat for injuries after contact sports

I wasn’t aware I was injured until the day after practice. In future I’ll consider having a cold bath after each practice session. If this helps to reduce injury time then it’s worth doing.

Use the Internet wisely

The frustration at not being able to do anything and the nagging pain resulted in my doing lots of “research”. From that I knew I’d end up having my leg amputated or worse. Much better to…

Seek medical attention

I have rarely/never found a visit to the doctor to be useful. In this instance though it would have resulted in my getting stronger medication sooner. Would that have speeded my recovery? I’d like to think so, and I now have medication to counter the adverse effects of the NSAIDs too. That said, after almost three weeks on the strong stuff I’m still not 100 percent. (See my first point)

Ibuprofen is an anti-inflammatory

I always thought Ibuprofen was a painkiller but apparently it’s more a “nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug” (NSAID). So in the first two weeks I would probably have been wise to take paracetamol as well.

Recovery

Every day I wake up and hope that I’m “better”. Well, I’m recovering, but I think it will be probably another month or two before I’m back to normal. In the mean time I’m part of the SimpleUsability team running/walking/hobbling in the Leeds 10k – help raise money for the Leeds Children’s Hospital by sponsoring us. Then next weekend I’m skating with The Skateful Dead in the Men’s European Roller Derby Championship down in Birmingham!

No rest for the wicked it seems :-)

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!