Yesterday marked a week since I bust my lip at a Skateful Dead practice session. The injury is no longer apparent, though my lip is still a little numb. In ten years skating it’s the worst I’ve done, which isn’t too bad.
We got there early so had the opportunity to watch the Banditas practicing. It was odd to see Gillie skating rather than instructing. Rob and I had a relaxed chat before Sally suggested the should get our skates on :-)
A good warm up is essential and as usual the session started this way. Then we carried on with wall work; practising “three walls” initially. There are usually four blockers forming a wall but there will be situations where one is in the penalty box. It seems that we took a while to get back into the swing of things. We played various other scenarios finishing with three blockers, two acting as a wall with the third trying to take out the jammer.
The main failing was wall reformation. At times there were mixed messages on where the fall should reform and even if we should form a wall or just disrupt the opposing wall. I feel my performance was mixed. I stopped the jammer sometimes, let him through other times. More practice required!
The sessions fly by, so I don’t quite know when, but towards the end it was decided that we should scrimmage! My first!
There aren’t many of us, so we played with three blockers and a jammer each. We were short of referees too (Skating Officials in Derby parlence), so penalities in some cases were on an honesty basis :-) It was excellent. I got to jam, failing quite spectacularly with two penalties in my two minutes wearing the star! In the last jam, Rob, jamming, wiped me out when I tried to block him.
A really good practice session, lots to take in, and only minor injurys this time :-)