Week 14 review - achieving a goal: a motivation rush!

I have now experienced one of my long term goals to come true! It's been proved that you can achieve the title of Best Jammer after practicing roller derby really hard for a year. It's even more meaningful because it was after 8 scrimmages (of which 2 was played as a PRD team) and this 9th game was an actual BOUT! I was so happy I couldn't even realize it was true! Now I want to cry again!

If you're just starting up, you've never skated in you're life and know nothing of roller derby: you are yet to know what all you can suddenly achieve if you work hard, participate, concentrate, try harder, fall and get up, get lost and get found in the arms of your teammates. Don't be afraid to dream and aim real high!

I got some huge amount of self confidence from it and from all the words said to me after the bout. So much strength, thankfulness and it felt like a reward. Well it was a reward :D! I've worked my ass off and gone through pain in my buttocks, feet, right big toe, backache. The mental struggle was the hardest part which I couldn't have gone through without all the cheering I got from our coaches, my teammates, my loved ones and the book I read. I've worked out so that my feet have grown 0,5 size bigger and all my shoes from last summer are now too small for my feet. My underwear does not cover my buttocks anymore and finally there's no empty room in the back of my trousers. Yeah go fill those pair of jeans! I've also gotten a pair of nicely curved legs compared to my old overall round legs. Found out I have upper abs. I have balance which I've never had, I've been the type to fall from high, can't stand with one foot, no chance getting on a skateboard and stay up. Well I haven't fallen ONCE the whole winter. I can go longboarding (I WANT TO). Also I've never been this flexible. I can yoga. I can stretch my head to my knees. Things I have not been able to do before.

How does that make me feel? Like a winner! And how does winning myself make me feel? Like working harder! It pays off.

Week 14 went like this:

Monday
bodypump 60

Tuesday
PRD off skate 1 hour 30
PRD practice 60

Wednesday
PRD practice 2 hours

Thursday
Stretching 30

Friday
It's a bout time! Lihamukiloijat vs. P-Town Brawlers

Saturday
Day off

Sunday
PRD practice 2 hours

Best Blocker, Most Valuable Player, Best Jammer, c Marko Niemelä 

Thanks Marko Niemelä for the awesome pictures you took! They will take me to the exciting moments over and over again...!

It's a bout time!

I am prepared! And it feels good.
PRD is prepared! That feels even better.

I've got a couple of things in mind for the bout today! Those are

- remembering my theme for peacefulness and breathing

- trying a bit harder than I feel I can

- smaller call offs for efficiency

- concentration

- communication

When I come to the pack of opposing blockers I can see a meadow with a couple of cats jumping around in front of the pack. I desperately want to join that meadow.

I'm prepared with this image in mind

Week 13 review - body & mind

Last week has been all about building confidence. I've only read the two first sections of the book Mind Gym but the preparation started before I even opened the book. I liked to hear from Tigre Force that helping your jammer as a blocker also builds the jammers confidence by making the pass easier. It helped me realize I feel disappointed in myself if I don't make points. Setting different goals will help with that, it's not always about getting the points but eg.
- getting the lead (don't mind if the other jammer is right behind you)
- if you don't get a lead, you'd be able to catch the other jammer as fast as possible
- Calling the jam off at the right time, communicating with your bench

Or even lower goals (on which I've been concentrating on the last 3 scrimmages)
- staying low = staying upright and on the track
- taking hits = leaning towards the hit, or absorbing momentum from the hit
- not turning your back for the opposite blockers for a back block

If you've got some killer jammer goals for a starting jammer, please comment! The more experience I get and the more I improve the higher goals I can set in the future. Of course there's always the dream goal to keep me going, but goals per jam or a bout (BOUT MENTIONED, more about that later).

The strategy off skate was also otherwise really good. Tigre is such a wonderful person! For the first 5 minutes it was really hard not to giggle all the time from excitement. I'm such a child sometimes! She was great and it was nice to ask questions and talk about strategies and hear her advice. I think we're starting to be at the point where we can actually create our own strategies and game plans. Which is so neat! We just need to take the step and do it as a team. Of course we have basic strategies, but soon for more advanced ones. Can't wait, I love the strategic part of the game too!

Here's what I did last week:

Monday
Run 35
Mixed workout:
squats, chest press, abs, back
yoga and stretching 30

Tuesday
A guest coach! Tigre Force from HRD:
PRD strategy off skate 1 hour 30
PRD practice 60

Wednesday
PRD practice 2 hours

Thursday
Bodybalance 60
Run 35
Upper body gym 20
Core exercise 30

Friday
day off

Saturday
Scrimmage in Turku (YES! How lovely to go see those wonderful people again!)

Sunday
PRD practice 2 hours

AND here's the highlight of this week!!!!!!!!!

Week 13 - hello you!

I had a wonderful Easter holiday! Friends, chill out, sleeping, running, baking, cooking, workouts and... PLAYING! The whole four free days were exactly what I needed. We played together with Kotka Roller Derby (Eagle City Derby Roses) against Kallio Rolling Rainbow team C. They totally kicked our asses with some 100 points but it was educating and fun anyways! Time just flew by! We had a practice with KRR too before the game and it was just the perfect warm-up for the game.

I've noticed a little something in my own playing mood lately. The better our opponents are keeping me behind their wall while I'm jamming the worse I feel about myself. To be honest I feel like shit. Like a worthless jammer making no points at all. That's a dangerous feeling that can only bring you down more. Our coahing ref posted a blog post to our information group that helped me a lot and I printed it right away. Click here to read it too! I also ordered the book mentioned in the interview, Mind Gym. It only came in post this week and I haven't had time to start it but today I will.

The heading of the interview mentions mental toughness. Handling your feelings and mind might be familiar to people who have competed earlier, maybe played some sports with serious goals. As I've stated in here before I've got no experience in team sports and now I need to state I also lack experience in competing. Now that our team is actually able to play and compete it's a new aspect we need to handle. Suddenly I feel the pressure and don't know how to handle it. I like challenges, love to improve my skills and don't mind losing, but I wan't to have feeling of success. So I'll be digging into the book and will get some more tips how to manage my feelings.

Week 13 planned:

Monday
Run 35
Mixed workout:
squats, chest press, abs, back
yoga and stretching 30

Tuesday
PRD strategy off skate 1 hour 30
PRD practice 60

Wednesday
PRD practice 2 hours

Thursday
Bodybalance 60

Friday
day off

Saturday
Scrimmage in Turku (YES! How lovely to go see those wonderful people again!)

Sunday
PRD practice 2 hours


What have I been eating lately:

Favourite of them all!

Week 11 & 12 review

I've been busy enjoying the upcoming spring and Easter holidays and I'm planning to continue it till tomorrow! Here's a quick view what I've done the last two weeks with my training.

Week 11:

Monday
Yoga 60

Tuesday
X-fit 50
PRD practice 60 (I was a jammer ref trainee)

Wednesday
RVP 30
Yoga 30
Stretching 30
PRD practice 2 hours

Thursday
day off

Friday
Scrimmage / practice in Kotka 3 2 hours

Saturday
Yoga 30
Stretching 30

Sunday
Run 35 (5,4 km)
PRD OPEN SKATE!!!
Scrimmage 1 hour

Week 12:
Monday
Hurt my lower back on Sunday so I had a day off

Tuesday
A day off due to my ill lower back
Motivation discussion 60
NSO 60

Wednesday
Back to practice: PRD practice 2 hours

Thursday
Bodypump exp 30

Friday
Day off

Saturday
Practice and scrimmage with KRR in Pasila 4 hours

Sunday
Run 40

Bodypump 60

Someone should maybe do an inventory for sportswear

IT'S BEEN A YEAR!

"Damn it if I'm not a dangerous player in a year from starting!" - me 13th September 2012.


Shorty H was born a year ago when I attended PRDs practice only to try out what couple of my really close and dear friends were doing in the evenings. I remember how hard it was to try not to fall with the skates and my skating really sucked. I could do some ½ hour and my feet were killing me. I thought it to be a mission impossible to become even somewhat airy skater and sometimes I still feel it. After the first practice I loaned my friends skates during her long walk in Spain for a month and then decided to become one of those awesome girls attending the practice week after week with such enthusiasm that made me feel there was something about those people. It's only now I realize what that was: a team, my team. The best freaking girls Porvoo has to offer! Not only the skaters becoming players but our coaches and refs too.

Here's the first derby related picture of me in our Open Skate in April 2012.



Everything started rolling and we did some serious groundwork with basic skills. I had never skated in any way, I had no balance and all in all no idea how those quad skates worked or how my body was to work on them. At times I felt I wasn't going anywhere but I kept on showing up to the practices even if I sometimes felt I was left behind. I wasn't a fast learner - actually it took me a good while to learn even crossovers and you know why? Because of FEAR. Fear of falling, fear of failing, fear of anything I could think of. I got a little something attending an international boot camp in Helsinki after only 9 times on skates. The international coaches pushed me to cross those lines and it stuck with me. Of course it wasn't like an immediate turn to a a brave person givin' it all but it was a push towards it. The next big push came in September at the USA boot camp when I started this blog. I'm not that afraid to try new styles and tricks as I used to be.

Here's an example. Outdoor skating in May 2012 even if I didn't even know how to stop. That didn't stop us! :D



So as I said I should be a dangerous player after a year. I've got some serious work to do still but the results after one year of practicing are showing something. I've got balance. I can skate. I can learn more.
I CAN PLAY!

Loads of love to all of you who made me start this!

Week 11 workouts n' stuff

I feel like exercising my brain out! And at the same time I have a nasty flu. Great going?

PRD went to X-fit class on Tuesday and it was surely 50 minutes well spent. It was not full on exercise for the whole 50 minutes as we went the basis through well enough to get our performance right. But when the workout was on it was full on monkey business! It was competing against your own muscles and endurance, time and weights and the most powerful enemy: your will. It hurt in muscles I haven't been using in a long time or maybe never. Somehow I still felt quite powerful and the idea of making it to the goal kept me going. It was a full body workout in a small and active package! I definitely want to go again - and will go right next week.

The same night I forgot my mouthguard at home so there was no scrimmaging for me at the practice. Instead I got to be a jammer ref trainee with light tasks such as calling the lead, calling of the jam if the jammer called it of, only trying to look for penalties which was not at all that easy!.Actually already the whistle was a thing to learn. I tried to watch for penalties but many times the situation passed because I was uncertain of the call, really recognizing penalties is not easy. It was an eye opening chance for me as a jammer too: forearms, backblock, cutting: all that became clearer from the inner track point of view. Also I wasn't that serious ref, I smiled and enjoyed running along with my jammer, it was actually real fun to try it out! Thanks for the support, whistle and tips, Sid :).

Hey there was a pick-up scrimmage last Sunday in Helsinki! There was 50 or so players participating and it was an awful lot of fun. That though was the day when I caught the flu and became quite tired in the end of the game. There was some diamond moments in that scrimmage, to mention my favorites:
- Lining up as a jammer with Tsubutex and she hit me down right after the jam starting whistle! Somehow I saw it coming and it was so cool!
- A handshake between me and an opposing male jammer, initiated by him. That really got me confused.
- A booty sticking out from a wall when I was approaching the wall, I slowed down for it and hit the booty and made a hole for myself.
Thanks to everyone who participated, cheered and gave support for a jammer trying to figure how to do it!


Week 11 planned:

Monday
Yoga 60

Tuesday
X-fit 50
PRD practice 60 (I was a jammer ref trainee)

Wednesday
RVP 30
Yoga 30
Stretching 30
PRD practice 2 hours

Thursday
day off

Friday
Scrimmage / practice in Kotka 3 hours

Saturday
Yoga 30
Stretching 30

Sunday
PRD OPEN SKATE!!! DON'T MISS!

Scrimmage 1 hour