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.